I have contacted hundreds of other Colony 1 web sites involved with this USA Card Services, with every single one of them responding back in a negative way. I am receiving more and more responses every day. I have yet to read anything positive. Not even one success story! I will be sending out even more contact messages as I get time.
What I found by looking at everyone elses web site is interesting and enlightening. (There's a simple way to do that). I received about 40 "undeliverable mail" messages, because the address was no longer valid. Probably out of business? I also found only a handful, maybe a dozen, web sites that were functional enough so that you could actually order something. Most were just empty shells, not developed past a Home page. I found evidence of web sites and companies founded before the year 2005 in only three instances, the implication being that the vast majority of them are abandoned before much time passes. I encountered many web sites that had apologies on the home page saying that they were out of business or that the web site was permanently down.
An unhappy web site owner contacted me several months ago and conveyed an interesting problem that they had just encountered. They had there web site up and running, but were severely disappointed in the sales volume. And then suddenly someone placed a huge order for a couple of thousand dollars. They were delighted! But they were shocked to find out that the Credit Card Company would not process the customers' Credit Card. It seems that the contract the Credit Card processing company has with USA Card Services only allows for a limited amount to be processed in any one day. It was a ridiculously low amount, too ~ $400 a day, I believe? Anyway, these people found out that they had to pay more money every month to have the daily transaction limit raised. This is just one example of how this whole deal works... One unpleasant and costly surprise after another.
To continue, I got involved last April and encountered a lot of frustration with just about every aspect of this entire enterprise. I found the customer service process with both USA Card Services and with Colony 1 to be less than adequate. Hold times on the phone became longer and longer as time passed. Some days it was impossible to get to talk to someone at all. Patience and attitudes became less and less cooperative with them both, there being a distinct difference between the way it was at first, when it was all smiles and great service.
I believe Colony 1 is a bad deal as a web site host. Colony 1 has only a cheap, generic format to offer. Having worked with other web sites, I know what is possible and how you can make a web site look. But due to the limitations and inadequacies of the Colony 1 format, it's impossible to make your web site look professional.instead, it just looks generic, like a kids' web site. I spent many, many hours on the phone with Colony 1 trying to figure out a way to get around these issues and to achieve a better web site and a look that would set my web site apart and not look so plain. Even with paying Colony One to have modifications to the format done, at $30.00 a pop, the results never were satisfactory to me.
And then there's the Drop Shipper idea. Using a Drop Shipper sounds like such a great deal at first. But for me, it has turned out to be a total joke and huge headache. I tried to deal with about a dozen different Drop Shippers, for several different categories of product, and found that none of them were really set up to transfer their pictures and product descriptions to your own web site. It was possible, but it was a complicated process and really time consuming. Most weren't particularly interested in helping you at all. I found it much easier to just rob other web sites for their information and pictures, which didn't really set very well with me. But the biggest problem of all turned out to be that after many, many hours of research, I found that I could not find a product to sell at a much of a profit. Take a look for yourself sometime at the prices your competition is trying to sell their products at on their web sites. I found that every category of product that I was interested in was already being sold cheaper than what I could buy from the Drop Shipper for! Due to this realization, I completely changed my web site three times, from Sporting Goods, to just knives and then to soap. Each time I changed my web site it meant starting over, totally wiping out weeks of hard work sitting in front of my computer. What is the point in doing all the work on the web site if you can't make enough of a profit to make it all worth it? My decision to try selling soap was based on the premise that maybe I could make money on something I made myself, and avoiding the Drop Shipper route. Since I already make all natural, organic soap in my garage as a part time job for a local company, this seemed to make sense.
In the end, what happened to me is that in the process of sitting in front of the computer for hours and hours, week after week, I aggravated a problem I have in my neck and can no longer continue with this enterprise, or any other that entails so much sitting. I risk a herniated disk in my neck by doing so, if it not already too late. The entire situation has become a nightmare for me, with this 4-year non-cancelable lease on the credit card equipment. I have talked repeatedly with Tim Carr, Jim Brutsche and some others that were so eager to sell me on what a great "opportunity" this was, and now find them all to be completely unsympathetic to my situation and unwilling to help at all. All I am told is that it's a non-cancelable lease. End of story.
I was informed that the lease is transferable to any other qualified person, which is indeed in the contract. Only, after my own experiences and now knowing what the real deal is, I cannot in good conscience lead someone else down this path. I did however, much to my own amazement, actually find someone that really wanted to look into this deal regardless. He was qualified and could meet all the criteria laid forth by USA Card Services. But what happened when he called USA Card Services and approached them about assuming my lease, he was told that assuming my lease was like buying a used car and he would receive second rate customer services. Basically, they talked him out of assuming my lease and into a brand new 4 year lease. (He has since backed out completely, after I asked him what he was going to do if he ever wanted to sell his lease? Would they do the same thing to him?) I called both Tim Carr and Jim Brutsche about this, and found out that indeed, not all the services they provide to a new guy would be available to someone assuming an already existing lease.in view of this, who is ever going to want to assume a lease? Furthermore, it was conveyed to me by Jim Brutsche, in so many words, that the salesman at USA Card Services only makes money by signing up new people. They are not interested in someone that wants to assume someone elses' lease. The bottom line here is that the only escape avenue available to anyone in the contract is to sell the lease to some other "sucker" ~ only USA Card Services will not cooperate and indeed, will even cut your throat. The clause in the contract for assuming the lease is therefore meaningless. And now, with knowing what I do, I cannot in good conscience lead anyone else down that path and suggest they assume anyone's lease through Ladco Leasing.
I am now at the point where I have contacted an attorney. I find USA Card Services to be rather fraudulent. They definitely do not negotiate in good faith. The point in my posting this and e-mailing everyone through their web sites is to gain ammunition to pursue the only other contractual avenue available, arbitration. I also believe that if enough people get together, all with serious complaints, perhaps a class action law case can be brought before the arbitration board. A large group of determined people can accomplish what we as individuals cannot.
USA Card Services has a hell of a racket going on here, and with the failure rate being as high as I think it is with this enterprise, it shouldn't be that hard to show that this is a pretty slimy deal. How can any company withstand an assualt from hundreds of pissed-off people all out to get them? With enough people coming forward with complaints, I believe they can at least be forced to alter the contract to let people out more easily. I also intend to write a letter to the BBB, the California Board of Consumer Affairs The consumer Protection Agency, the State District Attorney and anyone else I can think of that might take an interest in this.
If you want to help go after these people, then you should start doing the same.
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