I went to a stores online seminar that they were having in Nashua, NH on July 8 in hopes to getting information on starting an Internet business with their help. I bought an Internet domain to open a business online. StoresOnline.com uses an extraordinarily high "front end" cost marketing effort e.G., hosting a hotel ballroom dinner at their introductory sales session. But the StoresOnline.com people described a number of state-of-the-art features that I had never seen in one affordable package, and they were very on top of answering all of the technical and business-related questions I asked, so I agreed to a 2-person partnership in a Storesonline.com contract.
Among my specific questions and their answers at the all day training, were these:
I asked a number of detailed questions about the "user friendliness" of their instructions and help system, and whether a non-expert could successfully build a storefront without professional coaching services, which they make available at additional cost.
To underscore their affirmative answers on this, they said that they had recently hired a team of elementary school teachers to take the training and to revise the StoresOnline.com new user instructions to be "user friendly, " and that this was now done. Although they also said that they made professional Website design and coaching services available at additional cost, they repeatedly insisted that non-expert lay people could do make their system work with materials and help services provided by the basic contract
I asked about whether they could host independent Website addresses as part of the costs we were being quoted. They quickly said that there would be no problem doing this. They would be able to point the address to their Website at an additional cost.
But noticing that they quickly slid over this question (in pronounced contrast to their usual detailed answers to other questions) when I got home, I read all the fine print and list of additional charges and discovered that there is a $150 one-time setup fee and a $25/month charge for hosting of websites other than e.G., www.storesonline.com/mystorename. This is only one of several examples I could cite of their using excessively deceptive sales tactics, which I cite here to underscore the context of the defective product claim I make next.
Promise: Quick coaching service on all aspects of setting up your StoresOnline.com operation.
Actual Reality: StoresOnline.com's free Merchant Support Live Chat service usually had a waiting time of five to fifteen or even twenty minutes between responses, which was unworkable because answers often didn't address at all directly what was asked.
Promise: Helpful coaching service on all aspects of setting up your StoresOnline.com operation.
Actual Reality: Both in the online Merchant Support Live Chat service and in the [email protected] email service, StoresOnline.com's never answered any emails or phone messages I left. Because i told them i was filing a complaint they put me on there spammers list.
Promise: A listing Website addresses for StoresOnline.com patrons who had successful stores online that we could peruse for ideas and to see how many successful stores were, in fact, out there.
Actual Reality: We never were given such a list, although we asked several times. We did receive a couple websites from carefully chosen ones.
I can only assume that this is but another aspect of StoresOnline.com's deceptive sales strategy since I was phoned soon after returning from the training seminar by a coaching company that is an affiliate of StoresOnline.com's, offering to provide coaching services at an additional cost, suggesting that even though I didn't yet think I needed them, I probably would later.
And then, later, sure enoughthe only way I know of to get a meaningful response to my question about something that should really very simple to answer, would be to hire one of their affiliated experts which they promised would not be necessary for anyone having a reasonable degree of computer savvy, which I most certainly do!
To repeat the summary I opened with, StoresOnline.com's product is deficient simply because they did not live up to the promises they made before we signed a contract with them regarding the quality of their product. Examples are provided herein.
Thank you! We appreciate all the help possible in getting our just refund in this matter.
Diane
nashua, New Hampshire
U.S.A.
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