Web Storefront Rip-off Alert

[Nora McDougall-Collins]

If you receive an invitation or see a notice to go to a several hour or one-day seminar on starting a web business, be very careful before you buy anything - no matter how persuasive they are. Do some homework on the company who is selling the services. Here is an example of why you should do your "due dilligence" before signing on the line!

As a web development instructor, I receive calls and students with questions about their web sites and "what went wrong." I have had 4 calls/students who have "just bought 3 - 6 online storefronts." The first two times someone said that to me, it just sounded odd. I've had hundreds of folks tell me they just started a web site, but never "online storefronts." Also, why would someone buy more than one? Just one is enough to keep most folks scrambling.

It turns out that all these folks went to a "seminar" to learn about having a web site. They bought a product, got stuck and got ahold of me. At the beginning of these conversations, I was hearing comments like, "We put our retirement savings into it ..." So, I would ask the seemingly obvious question, "What are you going to sell in your online storefront?" Two answered, "We don't need to have a product, we just need the storefront." The logic of that really stumped me.

Well, after the 4th one last week, I've finally just had it. A lady called me about her web site. She makes several products for pets and bought a package of 3 storefronts. First clue - what kind of a sales person would sell her 3 storefronts, when she needs one very small site - cost <$1000.00.

Then she told me that she doesn't have a computer and doesn't know how to use one. But they had told her she didn't need to have a computer or computer skills. Second clue - what kind of sales person would sell a web site to someone who can't answer an email?

She told them that she couldn't afford the product and didn't have any credit. They said they would carry the credit for her. I didn't ask the interest rate. Third clue - sounds a lot like a payday loan business to me.

A friend of hers had helped her put up the original web site using her new storefront license, but her friend had moved away. So, she told the company to "make her site unavailable to the public." She thought they would hold her web site until she was ready to put it back online. She paid $2500.00 for the three software licenses and $25.00 for monthly hosting, but they stopped the monthly charges when she told them to take it down.

Near as I can tell, here's what she got.

1) Access to templates to build three web sites (storefronts) for $2500.00 You can get this from Yahoo and many other reputable companies for about $12.00/mo.

This is different from the standard procedure of building a web site on your computer and moving a copy to a web host. You always have a copy of the web site on your own computer as backup. If the hosting company goes out of business, you just move a copy of your site to another host, and within a day, you are back in business!

2) Hosting for her web site for $25.00/mo. This type of hosting consists of entering your text and images in an online form which goes into a database. You really don't have the usual web page files. When someone asks for your page, the database pumps the information into a template and sends it. It's "just-in-time" production for the web. (The $12.00/mo mentioned above covers this part too!)

3) She received access to online chat help. She said that the help folks were very good. At least something was good.

4) When she told them to remove her site from the public view, they must have deleted the files from the database. There is no way for her to get the files. But, even if they had saved the files for her, they wouldn't be a "web site," they would be various graphic files and some text files. If you have an online template site (different from Dreamweaver or Jumla templates) there are no web pages for you to have. They are only temporary files available on request.

The company she used has a real product; so, chasing them down is a problem. What they do is prey on people's inexperience with web sites. May the folks who are conning these good people have to live on Wonderbread and water for several years.

I did some research on the company and here are a few of the links I found. The stories are heartwrenching:
http://www.santosj.name/general/storesonline-inc/
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/team4/1419114/detail.html
http://www.storesonline-reviews.com/
http://www.storesonline-reviews.com/storesonline-refund
http://www.storesonline-reviews.com/
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/stores_online.html
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/061/RipOff0061576.htm
http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/pressroom/2006_12/20061218.html
http://www.reviewopedia.com/storesonline.htm

May you make wise web decisions and encounter web developers with great integrity!
Nora