YourOwnStore.co.uk
Complaint 147229 Details

In September of last year (2011) I purchased an online franchise website from a company called YOS (YourOwnStore.co.uk), a company that is a part of a bigger online company named bright light media.co.uk. There sales pitch was unbelievable, high profits and a part-time one hour a night work plan that I couldn’t resist, and I bought straight into the plan they were offering. They offered fantastic gains in profits, and the biggest sales point was a money back guarantee offered to anyone who reached the company’s goal but was not making money within one year of purchase.

I live and work in Japan and I purchased my site through their online purchase page.

Next, I dived straight into the training material the company offered. After a while I started to feel that the one hour a night part-time approach was unrealistic and that the whole process of building up my site was indeed a full time job.

Another point I noticed is that other owners of other sites purchased from the same company were concerned that a misleading of profit gains was sold on the company’s behalf. The websites work as an affiliate website that we as the sites owners advertise for other company’s and get a commission from said retail companies if we refer anyone to them. What was advertised when I purchased the site was different to what was being told to other owners, and if anyone tried to ask this question to YOS in the owners forum their message was deleted without any explanation by the YOS company.

As time went on I couldn’t work on my site and unfortunately I had to let my site slip into limbo.

In time I found out that the company was secretly offering a resellers list. I say secretly as this was not advertised as a service and only a select group of special owners knew this.

I say special owners because there was a huge concern within the owners group that a select group of owners where allowed to test new software and where given extra help with the websites that was not offered to all owners. I must say that this may only be a rumour and I have no evidence that this is real.

When I inquired about the resellers list I was quickly replied to in a forwarded email that my site would be included on the resellers list. I was happy, but no information or detail on what will happen was ever given to me. I tried emailing the recipient in the forwarded email requesting what will happen next but only got half-assed replies. Such as, “we are dealing with it and we will get back to you.”

Over time I sent a number of emails and never got any reply, and in the end I wrote a complaint email. I can only send emails as I am based in Japan.

I got a prompt reply stating that the company was not ignoring me and that they were trying to sell my site. But, know where in the email did they say what they were doing in terms of selling my site and what was happening.

Another point is that in the email they said that my site was on an old design template and that it was unattractive to possible buyers. They asked if they could redesign it and I said yes, and they replied saying that they will email me when everything has been finished. No email has been recieved.

I have sent numerous emails and had no replies and just the other day I received an email saying that all email communication will stop and only over the phone communication will be accepted.

I really feel like that they are trying to push me away. I know they won’t sell my site, and I am getting tired of keep asking what they are doing in terms of selling.

I have had no reply or any sort of communication in the last two months. But, when I sent an email the other day complaining about their customer service skills and that I will reprot them to “watchdog” I got a rude prompt reply saying that if I use the words “watchdog” in future they will take it in terms of backmailing and will have legal action taken against me!

This company is a SCAM!