As an ex-employee of SMC I sorry to say how bad I feel for the people I have ripped off through SMC's deceptive bait and switch web site business program. Everyone should know that from the moment they contact SMC everything the representative says is scripted. Their legal department has vetted every word to ensure that you are told only what is necessary to make the statements legitimate.
But, as legitimate as it may sound the deceptive practice of bait and switch is the #1 component of their sales pitch. Every call, no make whom you speak to is a sales pitch, whether its the coach, customer service or GCS support, everyone is made to sell you something. Every single person in the company is there to sell you something. Unfortunately, those grand ideas about making a fortune are mostly pie in the sky.
When you unknowingly set an appointment to speak to your business coach you are in fact setting yourself up for a scripted sales presentation with the sole intent in selling you a web site for thousands of dollars which is absolutely useless. From the first "hello" to the close everything is scripted. When a member joins SMC in nearly every case they are given a free Big Value web site. This is just the lead in to sell you a larger package and take up to $10,000 from you.
The Gift Card Redemption web site program is a total scam. There is no real web site. Everyone is a given a fake site, a mirror of the original site misrepresented by registering a URL/domain name. Of course everyone thinks that if there's a domain name, a.com then everyone on the internet can find their site and purchase from it. Far from the truth, because in order for anyone to purchase from the site on their first visit they MUST use one of SMC's gift cards. Approximately 10% of all gift cards get redeemed, an appauling number compared to 100,000's each month that SMC dishes out.
Here's the bate: The script leads the unknowing member along to the path to "I recommend you upgrade to the VIP program because this is what my most successful members have done". The Big Value web site you have been given only has 150 products and all of those products are less than $19.95, but you are still paying $29.95 a month for the hosting fee, which is no more than another monthly rip off. There's not much of a way to make business from from the Big Value site.
Here's the switch: The pitch then tell you that for $5,095 you can get all 3,000 products on the site, 1335 $10 gift cards, catalogs, 18 pieces of merchandise, a VIP coach and $2.50 off the shipping charge. What they cleverly disguise is that they take your $5,000 then give you Account Credits of $4,445 which of course is really your money being back to you. You can't cash the credits in because that would hurt their bottom line. So they have taken $5,000 from you and put $4,445 into an account for 12 months. Its a "use it or lose it" scenario. If no one goes to your web site, and so few people do because you CANNOT register the site on the search engines, all of your efforts are word of mouth, face to face sales and this only last for a very short time before you run out of contacts. If you don't buy the cheap merchandise then you have nothing.
You are told that you can sell on ebay (swamped by SMC members - rarely make any money. All they can do is give away a gift card and hope that the purchaser will go to their web site).
Now here's the upsell: Two weeks after you have purchase this garbage web site, EMC Emerchant Club calls you. These are the people who build the crap web site. They then will sell you again another web site. This program is actually a proper web site but one that now will cost you up to another $4,000 or more and you still have no idea how to drive traffic to the site, do you? Of course search engine optimization will cost you dearly from EMC or the search engines or outside companies.
So in conclusion, you bought a membership to sell product and get a web site to start a business. You spend up to $5,000 in a scam program and in most cases you make no money. Do not purchase a gift card redemption web site from smc. You can make money from this program selling products, if you have a store, do the flea markets, anything else other than SMC's cash cow Gift Card Redemption Web site. Stay as far away from it as you can. You will lose a lot of money otherwise, believe me, I know from first hand complaints of my members calling me.
I was told to pass them off to member services where they would wait on line for up to an hours - purpose, then to be given the runaround.
I am sorry for all of you members who have had the misfortune to have been my members. I was trained to sell and take your money unscrupulously and without conscience. It was a way to earn a living. I am sorry. Please don't let anyone make the same mistake.
Opsitsme
Studio City, California
U.S.A.
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