Pennsylvania
From StoresOnlineExposed
Office of the Attorney General
Tom Corbett 1600 Strawberry Square Harrisburg, PA 17120 Phone: (717) 787-3391 http://www.attorneygeneral.gov
Some Comments from Dissatisfied Pennsylvania StoresOnline Customers
- Reading: I tried my hardest to get a site up and running with stores online. I finally got it published and I am paying fees for having a merchant account and advertising and getting no results. I really was led to believe that it would be alot easier then this. Anyone that offers help needs more money. I exhausted all my extra cash by buying 6 store fronts and only have one live. They are smoothe talkers. Talked us out of almost 5, 000 dollars and then still need to keep spending. [more]
- Philadelphia: We attended the StoresOnline seminar and were promised the world. We were also talked into very expensive weekly telephone tutoring sessions that were supposed to teach us everything we needed to know to run a successful business. I had experimented with e-commerce websites in the past with little or no success primarily because we were not capable of obtaining products at a true wholesale/competitive price. The tutoring sessions were supposed to help us in every way, including to locate true wholesalers. [more]
- lancaster: STORES ONLINE GAVE US A BIG LINE OF CRAP . SAYING THAT WE WOULD BE SUCCESSFUL , WITH THE HELP TO BUILD WEBSITES . THEY EVEN SAID THEY WOULD HELP US TO PICK A PRODUCT THAT WOULD MAKE US LOTS OF MONEY. WE SPEND OVER 10, 000 DOLLARS AND NEVER SAW A CENT. WE INVESTED IN PROGRAM THAT THEY SAID WOULD HELP US TO GET CUSTOMER TO OUR SITE. WRONG..... WE NEVER GOT ONE CENT FROM THIS WEBSITE. WE HAD TWO WEB SITES SET UP . THEY SET UP MOST OF THE SITE. BUT , THEN WE HAD TO PAY MONEY TO MARKET THE SITE . [more]
- Harrisburg: I purchased 6 website over 2 years ago and am not happy. I have struggled to pay for these websites. I have 1 live website and I am actually paying more than I am making. The only thing I can say is that it is a tax writeoff. I paid a total of $6467.76 with the $800 down payment and $1069.76 in finance charges. I purchased this package on 8/1/05 and have just now paid it off. [more]
- Allentown: I was straight up lied to about at least 3 things. I verbally and via chat asked for a refund at least three times. I was also told that certain things were included with my package and then was told that it costs extra. The help I received was often very poor, many times horrible, and only once in a blue moon acceptable. They also gave out my information to other parties without my permission. I was told that 80% of purchasers still have their sites live after 2 years bu the salesman I worked with. [more]
- Philadelphia: The work that is done on line has to be done from our end and not theirs. They bounce their emails and will not answer the inquiries. They spend hours on line with no correction of problems. The items they give is overpriced and the software doesn't work the way it is supposed to. The same type of software and service can be had other places on line for 1/10 the cost and it will work better. There is a processor already in the system and we still have pay for another processor. [more]
- PIttsburgh: In the beginning of our seminar I thought StoresOnline was very professional; the speaker amazing. Then the pressure to sign up came and it was unbelievely strong. My husbsnd and I own a business and we thought we could boost our revenue with a website but could not get access to the "resources" to see if there was a demand out there until we bought. (By the way, there was no demand. If we had known that, we would have walked out and not bought a thing from StoresOnline. [more]
- Pittsburgh: I went to the seminar in Pittsburgh and purchased 6 stores. The seminar lead you to believe that getting your stores off the ground and making money would be easy. They even had a film clip of a woman that could barely speak english telling us how she started her store and was making money. I am making money but had to put in lots of time to make them work. Many people don't have the time it takes or the self motivation to continue with this process. [more]
- Reading: We are very dissatified with StoresOnLine in which they wanted us to be able to tell them how successful we were going to be.
We got involved in the business to make money and retire within a few years because of health issues that both me and my wife have.
We went to seminars in late March and I got one website up and published by May 1, 2007 with a lot of hours involved, especially trying to find a drop shipper. When I called Storesonline for advice I never spoke to the same person twice. [more] - Reading: We are very dissatified with StoresOnLine in which they wanted us to be able to tell them how successful we were going to be.
We got involved in the business to make money and retire within a few years because of health issues that both me and my wife have.
We went to seminars in late March and I got one website up and published by May 1, 2007 with a lot of hours involved, especially trying to find a drop shipper. When I called Storesonline for advice I never spoke to the same person twice. [more] - Bensalem: My site has been up 3 months and I have had no sales yet. They have called me on 2/3 occassions to offer me a mentoring program, which I thought was a great idea, but only if I paid them $10, 000. I said that I want to get my money's worth, first, for the $6, 000 I've already spent. The guy my wife and I spoke with became nasty and indignant when we turned him down. If i knew then what i know now I would not have gotten invloved with Storesonline. [more]
- Harrisburg: We were excited after the seminar to build our website. We started right away, getting text and photos ready for our service site. When we had it all pulled together we sent it all into stores online to put together which was supposed to be free. They called an said they could not start on oour site until we paid the site building fees and the monthly fee of $24.95 to get started live. [more]
- Harrisburg: We were excited after the seminar to build our website. We started right away, getting text and photos ready for our service site. When we had it all pulled together we sent it all into stores online to put together which was supposed to be free. They called an said they could not start on oour site until we paid the site building fees and the monthly fee of $24.95 to get started live. [more]
- Danville: It's difficult on where to begin. It didn't take long for us to realize that buying 6 sites was a ridiculous number to complete/maintain/publish even within a year (They give you one year of hosting included). At the time, my partner and I were beginning our marketing consulting business. We knew only a little of web design/ecommerce. Our expertise being in small business marketing - graphic design and advertisement placement. [more]
- Philadelphia: I feel very dissatisfied with my purchase. I believe I totally over paid for my six websites. They employ high presure tactics to get you to buy six websites; as opposed to starting off with one site and learning/growing from there. They make it seem like running an internet business is much easier than it really is. They also allude that they will provide more than enough support to market your website & products. What they then do is try to sell you even more products/programs to market your site. [more]
- King of Prussia: I received an invitation through the mail to attend a seminar about building an on-line business. The seminar was to be hosted by a company called StoresOnLine. My husband and I attended the seminar on March 17, 2007. This seminar gave statistics about on-line sales from 1999 to 2004 and the continuing trend upwards. At the end of this seminar, the audience was invited to attend a second seminar that was scheduled for March 21, 2007. It cost $20.00 to attend that second seminar. [more]
- Reading: Stores On Line painted a picture at the seminar that is FAR different from raw reality!! I purchased 6 websites at the seminar to the tune of over $6000. After hours and hours of work, I have only one website on line that even after, hours and hours of frustration and advertisiing and thousands more dollars in advertising, has not made a dime, regardless of the many "tricks of the trade" they vowed to teach!! They plain and simple - do NOT work!! [more]
- Lancaster: A very slick presentation fooled may people, including me. I could accept some exageration, and best case senario stories but, the presenters out and out lied. We were told "get links to your site from about 100 other sites , select keywords and you will be in the top 3 on search engines for your keyword in 3 months - LIE! Even top 3 search for keywords does not gaurentee a huge amount of traffic. [more]
- Stroudsburg: Our questions are never answered to our satisfaction. When told a problem has been resolved, it keeps returning and we're never told how to fix the problem ourselves. They are quick to extract our money from our checking account, but are never there to help us out.
Although we do not consider ourselves predjudice, it would be nice to speak with someone (via telephone or chat), that actually speaks and understands ENGLISH.
We've been in business 4 months, and have spent over $10, 000. [more] - King of Prussia: I can't believe I fell for the sales pitch. No one needs a 'license' to have an online store ! Yahoo has a small business web hosting offer that is waiving the $50 set-up fee. They offer education and support and have a 30 day satisfcation guarantee. The SOL pitch was that this is easy and takes very little time and requires no computer knowledge. My partner and I specifically said we don't have a lot of time and our 'consultant' told us this could be done in about an hour a day. [more]
- Willow Valley: We have been lied to, given incomplete information, had changes made to our website by StoresOnline representatives without our permission, and were required to request information that should have been given upfront. We attended the StoresOnline Workshop in Willow Valley on March 10, 2007, followed by the Boot Camp Seminar in Harrisburg on April 5, 2007. We purchased six websites from StoresOnline and were anxious to get our business started. [more]
- King of Prussia: I wanted to add to my Testimonial:
As others have duly noted that I failed to mention:
The so-called Help Desk is as worthless as tits on a boar. On damn near every occasion I was on their Live Chat, I would ask a question and get an answer that was completely irrelevant. On top of that, I would have to ask the same question over and over and over again.
In my experience, they lack comprehension skills and simple comprehension of the English Language. [more] - Montgomeryville: First, SOL totally represented that setting up the websites to look great and work properly was without question. That is totally not true. My husband and I went to the seminar with my mom and dad. I had to retire after a severe illness and was looking for something that I could do at home that would replace a very good income. My dad had just endured a stroke that left him without full use of his left arm and hand. [more]
