In Dec. I signed up with Startup Essentials. I was skeptical at first but the sales people are persistant and their managers get on the phone and basically tell you there is nothing to loose and they make you think they are funding your startup costs.
Then they tell you they give you a laptop for free! Ya right! At the end once they have you they tell you that you will pay $129.55 plus tax per month for the money they fronted you and ask that you sign to pay this amount. Their claims are that they give you a free laptop, website, and all the training/info to start a successful web-based business. What you don't realize is that after you hang up with them you have just signed a non-cancelable lease for the next 48 months. If you were to pay this lease you would pay $6000 for a crapy $500 laptop.
This is how they set you up. You go through their course called the journey. Then you register with Colony One webhosting for free. Now they no longer use colony one, they have their own called startup storefront which is supposed to be free to. They told me I would have free webhosting for a year and now Colony One is demanding $20.00 a month or they will shut down my website. If this whole thing cost me $20 a month, no problem.
Once your website is set up (which depending on what you are selling takes loads of time, and you have to find your own products.) then you have to sign up with US Merchant Systems to get a merchant account. That would be fine except the woman I talked to said it would cost me $40.00. She also said she was in a generous mood and since I was her first customer of the day she would give me a free terminal in which I could sell on ebay for $500.00.2 weeks later US Merchant Systems took $100.00 out of my account. I called and spoke to their manager, he stated that they did not encourage their sales people to make offers of free terminals to sell on ebay. Terminals are for people with actual stores. He told me he would have this resolved and contact me again in 1 hour. He never called back. When I went to get the mail today I had yet another non canellable contract with A-1 Leasing for a credit card machine I do not have nor need.
Also, Startup Essentials now has a new Search Engine Optimization company (SEO) called Optigroove. They say you get a huge discount to get your website listed on the search engines so people can find you.
I have just got everything I need today to fight this and hopefully I won't have to use an attorney! I am ready to fight, they have completely pissed me off!
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