I too have been a victim of these "make millions on the internet" seminars. I received a postcard in the mail inviting me and one guest to a powerful "networking" seminar where I would learn to make millions on the internet. Being an entrepreneur, this extremely interested me as I was looking to broaden my scope by using the WWW.
My mother and I attended this seminar on March 20 at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. My first warning should have been that there were nothing but african-americans in the room which should have shown me that we were this company's target market. The presenters were very aggressive and sold the dream very well.
We were subjected to two hours of success stories, promises of the home with the white picket fence and intense marketing training which should have ensured our success. The presenters were very good. They even boasted of designing the Blue Man Group website. The third hour was spent filling out contract after contract for everything from website packages to travel discount clubs to over-priced merchant accounts to wholesale warehouse clubs to business networking tools and more, all of which we would have the full resale rights for. They accepted credit cards and even post-dated checks for payment.
The next day, I attended a second training seminar where more website and hosting packages were available at an even more discounted price that we could then resale to potential clients for a profit. The trainers claimed that we would be able to resell the websites at any price we chose up to $3000. It seemed so real.
Unfortunately, we had problems almost immediately. We were never able to gain access to the uSight warehouse and every time I called customer service, it was always the run around. The only help I received was in the initial technical support of setting up the first website but then we never gained access to the five additional websites we had purchased and they froze access to the original site due to some payment issue with the additional sites.
We tried to call uSight who then redirected our call to Home Inc. Who never answered their phone. We also began to have problems with the merchant account from ePenzio and calls to them were only returned up to the point where the account was established and began automatic withdrawals from my mother's checking account. Every month for the past two years, they have faithfully pulled out $89.95 per month from my mother's checking account and last year new additional payments of $10 and $28 started coming out for a Bridgeview Bank settlement and merchant account non-usage fees. We don't even know what the Bridgeview Bank settlement is or what it has to do with this.
I just decided to run a search on this company because my mother is bankrupt from all the charges for accounts and websites we don't use or even have access to use and I found the rest of these reports. I wish I would have looked into this much sooner and perhaps they wouldn't have gotten so much from us.
My mother is stopping payment at her bank first thing in the morning and I will be calling my Pre-Paid Legal attorney. Thank goodness Pre-Paid Legal is one company I got into that actually works for me and other people I actually KNOW personally. My mother and I want in on any class-action suits that may be filed against this company. Stay away from these seminars and these companies!!!
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