International Shopping Network has contacted my company several times indicating they want to sell my product on TV. They claim to produce 30 second infomercials for the product. They also claim to purchase the inventory and that they do not require money up front.
I am automatically suspicious of these companies, as I get many of them calling wanting money up front. So, I research them heavily. I returned each of the phone calls and e-mails I received from ISN. However, only one person from there returned my call.
The first thing that made me suspicious is that the phone number they provide does not have a company name on it. You can't even find it on a reverse lookup on anywho.com. When you call, there is just a general message area, not a phone tree. If this company were doing what it says it does, there would be enough employees to require a phone tree.
Also, there is very little on the web about this company (except other consumer complaintss). There is a "press release" issued by the company explaining how the company is not a rip-off. This makes the company even more suspect.
When I did speak with Marty Cole at ISN, I asked specific questions about the company. Marty was extremely vague and very defensive when I questioned the company's validity. I asked him to e-mail me information on the company (any reputable company should not be offended by this request and should have plenty of marketing materials, plus be able to point me to the BBB reports on them and any other business reports available).
Marty promised he would send information, but never did. His whole point to me was that I shouldn't be suspicious since they aren't asking for money up front. However, this company would require me to send my product to them on credit. That is the same as money since I doubt I would have ever gotten paid for the product.
Also, when I went to review their website at www.internationalshoppingnetwork.com tonight to write this report, the site was down and "under construction." I don't know of any reputable company that would allow an "under construction" sign on their site. Even if they are re-doing their site, they'd leave up the old one until the new one was ready to go live.
So, moral here is - do your research on companies like these. If your gut tells you they are a scam, they most likely are. I know International Shopping Network (which supposedly sells its products on spectacularvalues.com) is a scam. There were just too many red flags and I refused to do business with them as a result.
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