Stores Online Reviews

I called the number listed and it seems as if they're still scamming but on a different level. They claim to want to help you with your existing website. They are offering help with setting up coupons for customers, how to figure out your taxation for products and how to itemize/customize products among other services. Like one of the other reviews stated they were young and impressionable as were I and it cost me. I would advise anyone looking to do business with them to NOT do it!!! So if there's a class action I definitely want in. It's a shame how they play on people's vulnerabilities. I was a single mom back then trying to secure a future for my 3 children. I still have the packet along with email correspondence from the person that was supposed to help me. All I can say is never again.

That is not the case, I was never able to get the help and some of the advice given on the phone had nothing to do with reality and was not viable. I worked with this system for 2 years before I called it quits. I sold very little and was not able to even come close to recoup loss of initial investment and I at the time I stopped I had gained little insight as to how the system actually works due to the lack of help.

What I learned from bbb.org was they were banned in seven states and two whole countries for their business practices with an "F" rating on a scale of A+ to F. I printed all 26 pages of the report and took them with me. The second meeting was held at a casino in Laughlin, NV and drew well over 400 people. At the meeting I listened and remained quiet through things I knew were not as easy as they were portraying. Then I saw the outright lie and had to speak up. The speaker was demonstrating an online keyword search tool from a website that I knew had been bought by Yahoo and closed. When he typed in the address bar in the web browser he typed a path rather than a web address and popped up a picture of a page from the website.

The problem is that the picture was stored on the hard drive and he was not actually on the internet. He couldn't be because that site no longer existed. I stood up and asked him loudly why he had typed a path rather than a web address? I asked if he knew that that site no longer existed. He had to or he wouldn't have put the picture up. I asked if he could explain their "F" rating with the better business bureau and why they couldn't do business in Australia. At that point the guy seated in front of me turned around and told me to shut up. He wanted to learn this. I asked him if he really thought he was going to be able to learn in one afternoon what had taken me 10 years to learn.

Then a guy showed up behind me. He was even shorter than I am and very well dressed. He informed me that I was going to have to leave. He didn't impress me but the four guys behind him with no necks did. So I left. The four guys followed me. When I stopped at the elevator they told me I had to leave the building. I told them I didn't think so and produced a room key for that casino. They said that didn't matter and started pushing me towards the exit. At this point I started making such a commotion that the casino's security showed up. They said they were escorting me out. While they were talking to one guy I spoke to the guy with the supervisor badge and explained what had happened.

I showed him my room key which he verified. He explained to the private security that I was indeed a guest there and they would have to leave me alone. They were not happy. I went up to my room, grabbed a bunch of business cards and my laptop and then stood by the exit. When the flood of people came out of the hallway I had been forced to exit through I started offering my card and told them I would offer help if they needed it. Some people took the card. Some didn't. A few people stopped to ask if what I said was true. I opened the laptop and went to the page that had caused my early departure. There was the Yahoo banner saying the keyword search tool was no longer available and sorry for any inconvenience.

I gave away over 200 business cards that day. All total I talked on the phone or in person with about 75 of them. I didn't charge any of them a dime except for the three people that actually hired me to build a web site for them to make this work. I charged them half my going rate as they had already been taken to the cleaners once. Those people I taught many things. Like how to transfer their domain to a less expensive hosting provider and registrar. I told them how to research keywords, optimize titles and descriptions, and how to lace content with their keywords. As I have never used a drop shipper I was very little help with finding a good one. One of the women I was helping through this said that she had bought five sites at $5000.00 apiece. She felt incredibly ripped off. I don't blame her for feeling that way at all.

She also said that at least 300 of those people had made purchases that day. I felt badly for all of them except the guy that told me to shut up. I hope he lost a house out if it. I know a woman who did. I met her well after she had used their "service" and could do little to help her at that point. She just kept throwing more money at them trying to make it work which it never did. Eventually we did get a site up for her where she sold baby items that she crocheted. She didn't get rich off the site but did show a profit and made a little money. But nowhere near what she had lost. If anybody needs help with a site they have purchased from these scavengers I would be more than happy to help if I can. Whole sites will cost money but advice and knowledge are free.

I also feel like they should be made to pay everyone back that was falsely lead into buying into this scumbag company. My payments went into collection and so I therefore just finished paying this off so I could repair my credit. I had pack the items away and had started destroying some parts of it before I decided to check and see if there was any information out there about them. There should be a lawsuit against class action lawsuit brought against this company so that people can recoup their losses.

Anyone out there that is doing or a part of a lawsuit against this company, please keep me in the loop. I am so hoping they schedule another meeting in my area so I can go and warn others not to jump off that bridge with them because they'll be the only ones with a life vest on and anyone else will drown. Something really needs to happen because they are still out there doing the same thing, taking people's money and offering nothing in return.

Having already invested more than $6K for a service that was generating nothing to date, I was certainly reluctant to accept anything... just a little too cautious, and after speaking with the rep, a little suspicious. I enquired as to how he could help me, after which he proceeded with yet another sales pitch - with a hefty price tag of $7,000.00. No thank you! I hung up immediately, decided to cut my losses @ $6K... a costly lesson learned.

Be careful the initial presentation for any of you who have not yet seen it. They insist you purchase from them at the time of the presentation, and that any offer they presented would be void as soon as you walked out the door empty-handed. Word to the wise... keep your money, find a local mom and pop outfit for a lot less that can assist with SEO, and you'll be as successful, with money already in the bank - money that you would have otherwise spent for a sales pitch that doesn't deliver.

I was also told that their customer service was outsourced to call centers such as the Philippines, India, etc., where ENGLISH is not the native tongue. I spent 100's of hours with folks who not only did not understand nor speak English, they were poorly trained and half the time I ended up figuring out solutions myself. Truth be told with huge companies such as Home Shopping Network and QVC, whose model is to drop ship and they outsource every vendor, why in the world would anyone of us attempt to compete. There should be federal legislation to prevent fraudulent companies like this from operating. It is the similar sale pressure in the Timeshare industry. Walk out. Don't sign anything.

Within days I was contacted and offered help. After finding myself struggling with things like drop-shipping which they made sound super easy. It wasn't. I couldn't find one company who would offer that so I'd for sure have to purchase inventory. Okay, so I went to Ali Baba (or something like that), a company they referred me to. It was awful. The products were horrible and cheap. So, I went on my own hunt to find a wholesaler. After finding nothing but dead ends, I called SOL. I too got the one question per call response. After they answered one question, they'd rush you off the phone saying there were other people waiting.

Soon after, I got a call from SOL offering an in depth training on how to find products, market and sell. Well, my poor father had already invested 20k, what's another $1,000??? They called weekly at the same time and read out of their pamphlet (you could totally tell they were reading) on how to build my website. I was a good student and believe me with that much money on the line, I busted my hump trying to make this happen. After a few months of nothing, I began getting more phone calls offering more help for more money. Let me tell you to save your money.

Here's why: First, everything they tell you you can find on Google. No really, Google how to start up a website or market a website. Second, you pay THOUSANDS for these "websites" which YOU build using their templates. You still have to purchase a website address oh and did I mention once you activate your account, you have to pay monthly per website? It was $40 I believe. $40 each month per website you host with them. So what on Earth were those thousands of dollars per website paying for??? A template and a phone number that only answered one questioner a time???

Third - they butter you up with accepting credit cards - you don't need them to be able to accept credit cards. Lastly, there are plenty of other build-your-own websites that don't cost thousands. Or, pay a professional to set it up for you. You will still save money and your dignity! I'm filled with guilt that my dad felt he was doing me a favor by giving me that money. If you read this and still feel the urge to invest in SOL you are nuttier than I was. It will be the equivalent of setting your money on fire. You will never see it again and it pays for nothing. This company is a SCAM. Please, please don't do it. If you're flush with cash and just want to spend it, donate it to a charity but not to these people. RUN!!!

They provide the tools to be successful, if you are a person who demands success. If you are the type to become confused, angry due to your misunderstandings, and look to lay blame for your failures, then you will not benefit from the products this company offers. I'm not an employee, just a user, and I was regularly annoyed with the technical features that were unavailable to me as a business. The product is not perfect for all businesses, but it's darn close for 90% of them. You can really get something up and working in a very short time. I give them much props for attempting what they did, and it has always annoyed me to see the bad press they get from people that don't succeed.

I also felt highly pressured when dealing with **. She worked with me on setting up Google keywords, which was to help the site get high rankings. After dealing with her, I was realizing, I was not dealing with a good Company. The site never did get finished, because I was disgusted with the way this Company treated me as a client. Absolutely awful. Plus, they have a 24/7 online Chat. My experience with this, also, was shady. Sometimes no one would be there to chat, even at 1, 2, 3 in the morning. It was extremely difficult and when a Company has really no customer loyalty, or good customer service support, what is the point of being in business.

After reading other people's complaints, it is clear to me, more people are unaware of this and get put in a corner to purchase maybe even to a point of being Bullied, with forceful tactics, and prey on peoples for their own game of power into making money, without ethical practices. Perhaps taking this to one of the large Channel News stations for them to investigate is a good idea. I would love for my husband to get his money back.

PS -- Guru.com is a resource for anyone needing a website where web developers bid. I just found my guy to build my site for $600.00. Good Luck everyone. Stores Online needs to face it already! What comes around goes around.

I woke up this morning to see I have an invoice and I was going to send out my weekly newsletter through the dashboard but they've locked me out. NO OTHER COMPANY does that -- not your utilities, not your water, not your mortgage, not your leasing agent. ONLY StoresOnline locks you out the moment the money is due and THEN they send the invoice. NO forewarning, and NO grace period. And since they are hours behind me (I'm on the east coast they are in Arizona) it will be hours before I can talk to them.

I have complained about this for years but they don't change their policy and the cost of moving to a new site is prohibitive right now. There is NO company who locks its people out of their business as aggressively as this company. Can you imagine if you had a bricks and mortar store and you didn't pay the rent due Monday and on Tuesday morning you come to find your store is padlocked? That's what close to what this is.

I could go on about what crap the software is but that's not why I'm writing. The software is crap, by the way. You cannot access your dashboard on anything but a full computer because it is all in Flash.

How much of this is on SOL, and how much is on me? I got from Stores Online what they promised. A web store, I learned to build it, market it...blah blah blah. Unfortunately seem that this will all come to an end as SOL is going to HTML5, and now want to charge over $3K to convert my site. Not paying it. So I told their high pressure salesperson, I don't borrow money and I'm not paying. And If I have to go out of business after 7 years, I will. If they are going to upgrade their platform, fine. I just need to research my paperwork that says I'm obligated to pay for it.

At 66 yrs, I had a stroke in 2001, and after recovering enough to live alone, I had to move to a 400 sq. ft. shack that a relative had won at poker in NV, as I couldn't afford to live in CA on Soc. Sec. I've stayed with SOL since then as I kept trying new mktg. ways, but something was always wrong with the website and orders were not coming through. I am now 79 yrs. and am ready to start a class-action lawsuit, and for any others who would like to join me, check out Keep-Safe Lockbox Corp. on Facebook, or contact me in a private message on FB.

I had thrown $2,500 plus the few monthly payments I had made to them away. Today I looked up my credit score only to find that Stores Online had added $5,858 to my debt. This is an outrage! For months, I received calls from these people asking for as little as $2,500 and as much as $15,000. I wrote the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU IN 2007 and called Stores Online to protest their treatment of me. To this day they have done nothing to restore the $2500 they stole from me and have put and outrageous charge on my credit score. What should I do to get justice in this situation?

First, I spoke with Stephanie and she had told me that the items were not in stock and they did not expect them to be in stock until the 21st of October (just over a week before Halloween). I asked her if they would expedite the shipment (at their expense) because they had taken the money, and pushed the order out twice with no communication whatsoever. She said that she was sorry but there was nothing she could do. So, I asked to speak to her manager to see if there would be anything he or she could do. I waited on hold until Megan got on the line (with Stephanie as well). In speaking with Megan, I asked her how I was supposed to know that I would receive the costume before Halloween. She said that she could not guarantee that I would...this company supplies Halloween costumes...and they can't make sure that customers who order their costumes over a month in advance will get their costumes?

At this point I was more than mildly frustrated. So, to make a long story short...they are sorry. Regardless, the only option I have at this point (because now this costume is backordered everywhere) is to wait until the 21st and call to see if they got the costume in from their vendor. At that point, if they did get it, I have to hope that we are far enough at the top of the list that my son will be getting his shipped the next time it's in stock. Honestly, no communication whatsoever, whole purpose of the company is to get people Halloween costumes by Halloween and they can't??? Very frustrating and now I don't know what else I can do to get my son his costume in time. Not happy.

Yes, it costs a lot. Yes, for that kind of money I agree they should waive the $25/month. However, I can always get tech support 24/7. I do get to contact them personally or leave a message and they return my call. The website format is very user friendly IF you follow their directions step-by-step. Yes, it does take a long time to get your website optimized. You are looking at least 3 months to complete it working 6-8 hours a day. That being said you can get all your basic information up in a few days, but the real selling merchant portion populated with product will take at least that long.

I paid extra for my site's optimization, backlinks, header and logo and the process took about another 3 months in year 3. It did appear to bring in more customers. My website was no genius as I did it myself, though it had brought in consistent income for 6 years. The only problem now is that Google changed its analytics and I need a real web developer to fix all this issues to put it back on track and have me up on Google Page 1 again. I would recommend StoresonlinePro for a simple working platform and follow their advice with building 6 websites. If you need help, shop around. Web developers can help optimize your site or have Stores do it. The choice is yours. Don't forget, the website cost is a business write-off and a big one! Use it wisely. Good Luck!

However, the biggest financial hit was what happened a couple months down the road... My husband and I were unable to figure out how to set any of our new sites up. I studied and tried to figure things out, but it just seemed too overwhelming to do. And then we got a call one day from someone we thought was with Stores Online, but it turned out they were some sort of "partner company" (I don't truly know if they were affiliated at all with Stores Online... they came across as if they were on the phone, but it may just have been another company they sold our information too... from what I have heard, though, they probably had some sort of business deal going). They offered to coach us weekly with site set-up and they also told us that they would fly us out to Salt Lake City for a 2 day conference, where we would get all the help we needed to get our first site up and running by the end of our time there.

We wanted so badly not to have wasted that initial $6,000 that we were desperate to do whatever we had to to get some help with these sites so we could start making the money they said we could make with them... So we ended up putting another $15,000 on a credit card for the weekly coaching calls and weekend retreat to Salt Lake City. They did put us up at a nice hotel, but most of the things they talked about went way over my head and we never did get a site built for us that weekend...or ever, for that matter. Long story short, we wasted over $21,000 on sites that were too complicated for us to set up and and on training that never really helped us do much of anything.

Since then, I have gone through foreclosure and filed bankruptcy due to excessive credit card debt. Stores Online and its partner training company were definitely the start of that credit card debt which just kept snowballing. I heard there was a class action lawsuit brought against the company a few years ago, and I guess I might be too late to recoup any money from them now. But if anyone knows of any other lawsuits against the company, I would be interested in learning more. By the way, I have never written an unfavorable review about any type of purchase I have made or any company I have dealt with in the past. But reading these reviews definitely brought back memories, and I would warn people that if they are ever considering doing business with Stores Online, DO NOT DO IT!!

After the presentation, you'll be forced to talk to a closer who will try and scare you to sign up on the spot with the company. He or she will promise you that the company will build a couple websites for you and help you maintain them. Total cost? $6,000 plus interest when financed and monthly fees for website maintenance went to one of these seminars for stores online on April 6th 2011. They talk about how wonderful the business is, in the seminar and all about the website, marketing, how to get to google page 1 in 3 days. What they don't tell you is the marketing cost extra.

I found all of this out after the fact of going to the seminar, hosting is $29.95 a month in which I paid for almost 3 years. I recently cancelled my hosting cost and ask if I would have access to the back end of the website and I was told it would cost me $10.00 a month to have access to the website. I have no documentation stating the cost of the hosting costs, and why pay $10.00 a month for a website that I already spent $6,000.00 for? I do see from research I have done on this company there a lot of complaints on them. Also they have a new name Crexendo.

At the time I was a single mom looking for a way to supplement my income. My kids were creative and internet knowledgeable and I thought this would be a good way to involve them in business to earn money for college. That never happened. I was left with $5000.00 less to raise them - which I put on a credit card that led to a rapid decline in my credit rating that I had worked so hard to build and maintain for years.

I just happened upon these reviews and it brought back a lot of anger and frustration over SOL. I had forgotten about all the phone calls that I had at first politely listened to and then realized I was repeatedly being scammed for more money and stopped answering the phone. I hope to God that by my signing up for this review site I don't get more new scammer phone calls. In reading the other reviews I can see that most are well written by seemingly intelligent people that unfairly got ripped off just because they wanted to invest in a better life for themselves.

Why hasn't something been done about SOL? Do they have proof that anyone has actually profited from their sites? What can we do? Any way to start a class action suit? I could really use that money back. How can someone lie and just take people's money like that and not have a conscience????? It was a very expensive lesson.