I was approached by this company, Business Group USA by phone one evening in SEPTEMBER probably through an inquiry I may have made, since I have been actively looking for some type of home business that would eventually lead to a comfortable income that would allow me to retire, and supplement what little social security I would be entitled to.
The 'spiel' actually sounded like a 'feasible' business, and one that had 'multiple' streams of income, that could generate the income I was looking for, so I decided to try it a a lower level of involvement to begin with: i.E. My 'involvement' was to advertise the site and bring 'leads' in and their's was to 'sell' the product to the lead, thereby generating commissions for me, and advertising dollars for them. But wanting to try a "go slow" approach, I initially committed to only the business opportunity site and the rep I was speaking with signed me up and told me that I would be paying $9.95 a month for the site. The $9.95 per month was for the maintenance of the site, and also my back office, which was to allow me to keep track of what my 'advertising dollars' were doing. Sounds good, right??? The rep explained that I would have a 'coach' and that they (the company) would be completely accessible to me and that they would be helping me 'build' my business.
Next, I was turned over to my 'advertising coach' who congratulated me on making a great decision to join this company, and proceded to explain that the level I had chosen, the $1,000.00 Advertising package, would be for a 4 month ad campaign. I finally gave him my credit card information, he sent me the receipts and I WAS IN BUSINESS! However, I quickly found this NOT to be the case.
After completing the first ad campaign and not receiving any commission, I inquired and was contacted by a different advertising coach who told me that because I had only selected the one site, it would take me a LOT longer to see a commission and that the best way to go would be to invest in the three different sites and commit to another 4 months of advertising for each so it would at least start 'paying' for itself sooner, and eventually alow me to pay off my credit card (which was how I paid for my business), and start building an income, thereby allowing me to 'buy' more advertising, etc... Again, it really did all sound very feasible.
As time went on with the second campaign it became apparent that things were not exactly what was expected. Over 1000 people vistited the websites and according to the reports, not a single sale was generated. NOW I had questions, like - where was I being advertised (no sense in advertising for mortgages in Teen Magazine, right?), how did I know that this was only directed to my sites, where could I go to see the advertising, were they spamming customers, why weren't these hits turning into sales, etc...
I filled out the web-based trouble ticket reporting system and was contacted by Mr Jim Ford, who spoke to me very condescendingly. I asked Mr. Ford why his 'sales team' had such a disastrous closure rate, not even 1%, and he babbled around trying to find an answer and told me that I needed to "stay focused on the positive". His recommendation - he was willing to offer me more advertising. WHAT??? I replied that if I just paid almost $6,000.00 to them for advertising, I should not have to do free advertising, and besides, I wanted to see what my 'paid' professional advertising was doing!!! The way the website is set up, you don't even know who the people visiting the site are, or more importantly, IF they are even valid leads, since there is NO information given. You are completely at the company's mercy and totally in the dark as to exactly how well your ad's are pulling, leaving you only 'vague' numbers, signifying so called 'hits to you sites.
At any rate, the business site says YOU DO THE ADVERTISING, WE DO THE SELLING!!! I've watched my site month after month (commissions are paid on the 15th of the month) and have been in the business since the end of September yet have not received ONE COMMISSION!!! Despite over a thousand visitors, an ad package with BGU and a Google AdWords campaign??? This Is Nearly Impossible.
I know it takes time to build a business. I also know that if someone is properly advertising on the world wide web, we should be getting a LOT more 'hits' and definitely some sales, especially with the types of 'businesses' we are advertising. It really is sad that I allowed myself to be snookered like this. When the company first called me I looked all over the web to find out how legitimate they were and could find nothing. I had just taken a Web Business college-level course and knew that people were making alot of money through affiliate marketing. That being said, I should've tripled my investment and just went directly with LinkShare.
I am sorry to say that I HAVE BEEN SCAMMED!!! The circumstances noted above are almost identical to Penny from Illinois (see previous report). And check out Scam.com. Three people from different parts of the country having the same experience is, hmmm, statistically interesting. I wonder if Sheriff Joe knows this is happening in his county.
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