I found this company by reading Small Business Opportunities magazine. When I went to their website, I found they had partners in business or dealership package whereby you pay them to have access to their advertised over 61,000 items that you can purchase at wholesale and resale for profit. The first website I went to was profitbig.com. The most attractive part about their company was the 90-day guarantee. If you open 5 auctions on eBay per their instructions and you do not sell at least 3 of the 5 items listed, you are eligible for a refund. I figured it would either work or I would get my money back. I purchased the Partner in Business dealership from them online using my Paypal account on Feb. 11th ($129.95 for the dealership and $18.00 for shipping and handling = $147.95).
Shortly after my payment, I received confirmation that my payment was accepted. I can provide that email. I then received a message indicating that their leasing department had received my first month's payment and that I needed to fill out a lease agreement where I would pay $17.95 a month. I sent them an email indicating that I did not sign up for lease payments for their dealership package, my payment was in full for the package. I was assured that the message was an automatic message and that my package would be received on the early part of the following week. The early part of the following week came and went, so on Feb. 25th, I sent an email requesting a tracking number or information on whether or not my dealership package had been shipped. I did not receive any feedback or a response.
On Mar 1st, I sent another email indicating that I was not happy with the fact that I still had not received my package. I also requested a refund at that time. The company sent a message explaining that they had given a reply for all of my correspondence, which was not true, and that my package needed to be assembled and then shipped. By Mar. 10th, I still had not received my dealership information from them so I filed a dispute using Paypal's dispute process. Through filing the dispute, the company then responded that they had a tracking number for me and my package was ready to pick up at the post office. I followed the tracking number to the USPS website and learned that the package was awaiting pick up in Layton, UT. Furthermore, the package had been shipped from MA on Mar. 6th (5 days after my third message to them and after I had received a response from them telling me that my package had to be assembled and then shipped).
In the above-mentioned Paypal confirmation showing that NWC had accepted my payment, it is clearly noted that my shipping address is in Taylor, TX. At this point, I am baffled as to how they would send anything to me in UT. I had lived there previously but not in at least 5 years. I explained that to the company and asked them again for a refund. The company replied on Mar. 11th that I was not eligible for a refund because of their 90-day guarantee policy of which more than 30 days had already elapsed. On Mar. 12th, NWC contacted me and gave me a new tracking number showing that my package was bound for my correct address. At that time, they wanted me to consider the matter closed and wanted me to close the Paypal dispute. The guide for disputes through Paypal instructs the buyer to be 100% sure they are satisfied before closing the dispute. Needless to say, I had no confidence in this company and wanted to wait until I received something.
According to Paypal, if you close the dispute, it cannot be reopened. On Mar. 15th, the package arrived and I was notified by my wife that it had been received. However, I commute one hour to work and one hour home each day and was not scheduled to arrive home until approximately 10PM CST (11PM ADT). While I was at work, I received a message from NWC at 11:02 AM ADT indicating that they were aware that my package was received and that if I did not close the dispute today (03/15/10), they would be suspending my account with them and it would not be able to be reinstated. I was well on my commute to work when their message was sent and did not have any thought of checking messages until I returned home that night to inspect the package. By the time I returned home, 12 hours from their first message that day, I found that they had suspended my account.
I wasn't aware I had an account because I had not received my dealership package until that day. After receiving their message, I responded telling them that I would have no other recourse but to escalate the dispute to a claim through Paypal because I was not going to end the dispute with them telling me that my account was closed before I ever had access to use it. They escalated the dispute to a claim through Paypal indicating that I received the package and that the dispute should be closed. They provided Paypal with the tracking number of the package and Paypal closed the dispute. When I tried to contact NWC to get information on their products because I still had to follow the 90-day process in order to get my refund, I was again informed that my account was closed.
So now, I have went through this entire mess, paid $147.95, I can't get a refund and all I have to show for it is a box with 2 catalogs, 2 homemade CDs and a file folder with NWC literature and instructions. All of which are useless because my account has been suspended. They received payment for access to their information and products, did not provide the necessary instructions or so-called dealership package until I fought it out of them and now are denying me access to the dealership. I am out not only my valuable time and effort but $147.95.
