Before I tell this story, I need to tell you that what you are about to read DOES NOT HAVE ANY TIES TO EBAY AT ALL, Ebay has no knowledge and makes no claims about this company nor are they tied in to this company in any way shape or form. (as far as I know)
This is a story about my experience with a AUCTION SUCCESS TEAM (www.ast1.net) that I bought into back in May. This company is based out of Utah which is princibly run by Anne (sales), Burt (coach), Ken (was a coach), these are the people I have dealt with, I was told by Burt that the company was sold recently and that Lee Kilpatrick no longer has interest in this scam, I am not 100% sure about this, this is what I was told.
These are people who want to take your hard earned money. If you are looking for a web based business and come across sites that offer promises of internet fortunes through online auctions BUYER BEWARE! Here are the details of my journey.
A year ago my wife and I attended a conference that spoke of making big bucks online with your own personalized web store, they spoke of how easy it would be to set up and how you would receive lifetime coaching and if you follow their simple guides and their advise you would realize huge profits in just a few months, you could do all this and only put in about three hours a day!
A few days earlier I was online researching money making opportunities, I came upon a site that offered the exact same thing I saw at the conference, the only difference was cost, the online offer was $1000 cheaper. I requested more info from the online company and with hope on my face waited for a reply. A few days later my phone rang, It was a woman, her name was Anne. Her sales pitch was that I could have my own website, customize it any way I desired, give it a domain name of my choice, stock it with products from dropshippers, list it with numerous search engines, self promote it with any means I wish, best of all, not only could I sell directly from my site, I would be linked directly to Ebay auctions with software they supplied, I would also have complete control and all the tools needed to administer and customize my site!
How nice does that sound? The cost was a mere $2000 along with a monthly fee of $99 (I recently found out that the charges differed per person). I talked it over with my wife and family, I did very extensive research on the company, I found no bad issues at all. I called Anne back a few days later, asked a whole bunch of questions, and signed up. I was in heaven.
Shortly after signing up I received an email welcoming me into my new team, I was also given instruction on how and what to do to start up my new business. I than started working on my site, I did a great job! I created my own logos, stocked my site with all kinds of great product, registered it with all the search engines that are available. I was ready to go.
In the process of setting up my account I did get some coaching here and there, it was pretty easy for me to figure out how to do things because I have quite a bit of experience with computers and software operation. All I had to do now was wait, and wait I did. I did get 1 order within the first month, It was from Burt, one of the 2 coaches the company provided, he made the purchase just to make sure I built my site right. I did.
As time passed, things were not looking to good, I wasn't getting any sales. I would check my site visiter count and I had many visiters, just no sales. I would write to the coach I was in contact with, I wouldn't get a reply. The company did have an online coaching session program, I would show up there, my greeting from the coasc was this: "Hi Bill, did you get the emails I sent you?" I told him no, I did not. He would then tell me he couldn't send to my email account due to problems with his server. I gave him another acct.
I still didn't receive his emails. This same problem continues to this day. Once and a while I would get an email, it was short and explained how the company is messing up. I started attending the coaching sessions just to meet the other people who signed on as I did. What I found out was that nobody was doing well, nobody! I managed to get their contact info and heard the same story that I am telling you. They would get visitors, but no sales.
My theory is that this company is using our sites to generate income for their company (AUCTION SUCCESS TEAM)! All of the hard work and effort was making them money, not us! One of the things I was told in the beginning is that once my site was up, I would get top rank with the search engines, they would help me and the others achieve that.
When I asked the coach in a live session, here is what he showed us. He would ask our site names, he would then type those names into the search engine, it would come up. Of course it would come up that way, you are directing the search right to it! It didn't work using product keywords, you need to achieve that in other ways, even I know that.
I still have the website and some recorded proof to back up my story. I do not have proof other than other users like me that have had numerous site visiters with no sales. I have no proof that they have used my site or others like mine to make money from the products we are trying to sell, all I can say is that I have had over 50'000 unique site visiters to this day 6/1/07 with only 1 sale.
My site is still active but still have no sales, I did remove all products except one, this product cannot be sold by anyone but me due to it's type.
I would like to be contacted by anyone else that has been scammed by these people, I would definatly like to be contacted by a lawyer. Another name that is connected but I am not sure if they are the scammers is Prosper, inc. I think this is where Auction Success Team purchases their websites that they resell for profit. The reason I believe Prosper is connected is because of this: When I was loading products onto my site via the software V-Motion which is supplied by Auction Success Team the Prosper website would pop up.
The moral of this story is: BUYER BEWARE, DREAMS PROMISED BY OTHERS CAN ONLY MEAN PROFITS FOR THEM, NOT YOU. Please read this and judge for yourself, don't be scammed like myself and so many others. If it sounds too good, it probably isn't. Thanks all, have a great day!
If you would like to contact me
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