StoresOnline
Complaint 133818 Details

My husband and I purchased an ecommerce site in the early part of 2011 with the utmost confidence that StoresOnline was a reputable business. We had problems with customer support and overall business practices since the first day.

Four corporate members received letters concerning the problems below:
1. Upon receiving (via mail) and reviewing contents of the binder, my husband and I started noticing something odd about the instructional DVDs. They were out-of-date by three years. Considering the amount of money invested in this venture, I believe that the least StoresOnline (SO) could have done was to provide up-to-date information and a more comprehensive “kit”. I know as well as anyone in the IT field that technology is constantly changing. This, of course, includes design and maintenance of ecommerce sites.

2. We were told that a programmer would initially set up “our” website. To our shock the “programmer” was not a programmer at all. Instead, he was a “drag-and-drop” technician. This is extremely misleading. In fact, I consider this to be a lie. By the way, “our” website had to be completely redone by me because it did not come close to meeting our standards.

3. I checked some of the coding on the backend of “our” web site and found numerous errors. When I spoke with Customer Support Reps about this, I was told that the pages are properly coded and within W3C standards. When I stated examples of what needed to be fixed, Customer Support Reps still insisted that there were no errors and a programmer would not take a look at the code and fix all errors. When I requested access to backend of “our” website so that I could fix the errors, once again, the answer was no. Being a web designer, I know the importance of code compliance and it importance to proper indexing. “Our” web pages were not consistent with the latest W3C compliant HTML.

4. SO’s Reverse Search Engine tool did not provide a KEI number, something that we have learned is crucial to getting the best key words and key phrases. Considering the price we paid for an SO ecommerce site, we should have had this information contained within the Reverse Search Engine tool instead of having to go between the RSE tool window and a Google search window.

5. At the workshop hundreds of people were told that these ecommerce sites would be ours AND that if we choose not to use SO’s web hosting service and use another hosting service, it would be alright. As a matter of fact, various SO Customer Support Reps stated the very same thing! So, imagine an unpleasant surprise when we temporarily cancelled SO’s web hosting service! Not only could we not use another web hosting service, but, we no longer had access to “our” website in order to revise, add to, or subtract from the web contents. Once again, we were lied to.

6. I recently found out through Utah BBB that this company paid for those testimonials given at the workshops. If their product and services are such a good investment, why would they be compelled to do such a thing? Therefore, the testimonials were illegitimate. Once again, we were lied to.

StoresOnline owners and stockholders count on employees to use high-pressure sales tactics to get individuals to sign away thousands of dollars, perhaps, even their life savings. We, like so many other people at the workshop, were not given the opportunity to read the contract and the rest of the material prior to deciding to go into further debt. Had my husband and I been given the opportunity to read the contract and think about what we were presented with, my husband and I definitely would not have made such a foolish decision!

According to Utah BBB, 646 complaints have been filed against Stores Online; there are government action(s) against StoresOnline, and StoresOnline has failed to resolve underlying cause(s) of a pattern of complaints. This means one thing. Stores Online is not an honest business.

Further, the Utah BBB website states that “complaints filed with the BBB alleges that high pressure sales tactics were used during seminars to entice consumers to purchase programs to help set up their own online business along with help of creating and running several websites. Some consumers found that once purchased, services promised were not fulfilled and items they were told were included in the package were only available for an additional fee or through another company”.

“StoresOnline has sold services and e-commerce sites on a non-refundable basis because they defined their product as a "business-to-business" service. However, many states have re-defined the area of law that distinguishes consumer transactions, from business to business transactions”.

According to BBB of Utah, StoresOnline is rated "F". Here is the url: http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/web-design/storesonline-in-orem-ut-2000585

We requested a full refund of all the money spent as a direct result of purchasing StoresOnline “product and services” and were told that they will not refund our money.