Ok … I don’t know about you but I hate being ripped off!
I have been online for a long time now … and the other day I really did a foolish thing!
I let my guard down … I let myself get ripped off by an online company pretending to tell me that they could help me make more money than I was making at the moment.
I must admit that today I really feel ashamed…. for one that has been online for as long as I have to let myself get ripped off as I did, is not very smart!
I work from home and I know that when someone calls you with a deal that you cannot let go of because it is the deal of the century … you should say no and hang up!
But when vulnerability sets in, one has to be very careful.
We all feel vulnerable once in a while. On that day I was in that state. I had been thinking for a while that it would be nice to get my online business in high gear and then this call came.
They started by asking me if I knew of a company called Amazon. That they were associated with Amazon and that they were able to build me a professional Amazon affiliate website that would be very appealing to Google’s search engine. Those people would love to shop off my site. They really did a good job selling their product. I, being at that point of vulnerability, wanting to see my online business flourish fell for their sales pitch.
They gave me the price that they were going to charge me, then I started to say that it was going to cost me 30% more because I was a Canadian. I was able to negotiate with them on the price …. Right there was a clue that I should have caught on. They wanted $399us but got them down to $299us which still came to $398cad. So I agreed to pay them the amount of $299us to get them to build the site. First question I should have asked: “If you build that site for me, will I have access to the site to be able to do changes to the site if I see fit?”, I did not. Second question: “Will I be able to change the products on the site if I want to?”, I did not. Regardless I paid them to build the site because I was working a lot and didn’t really have the time to build that kind of site.
So the site was built and was put online, and it took about a week to be up and operational. Had to call them regularly to get it going. I have to admit that to get a site of that nature is a short time but I was in a hurry to see it up and running. The only problem was that I never noticed before it was too late, is that the site had been built for someone else because the registration or copyright of the site is from 2 years ago. That right there should have turned a light on.
Not too long after the site was finally online I get a call from their marketing department. They told me that they could give me marketing training, submit my site to several social media platforms, create banner ads, and eventually create TV ads and videos and blah blah blah. The price for all of this was the asking price of $1000us. Again I was able to negotiate the price down. I was not in the greatest financial situation and my point was to lower the price so that when the return on investment was to start coming in, I would pay the balance. Well, needless to say, I paid $800us for the education that never came.
After many emails and many phone calls, calling every week, sending weekly email for a month, trying to get to talk to someone, I finally got to talk to someone. I complained that I had paid an amount to get marketing help, education, and/or training. The person told me that after hanging up with them that I would be receiving a phone call from someone that was going to be able to help me.
The phone call came a day or so after, this time from a different company. When I first started to talk with them I was convinced that they were from the same company. As the conversation went on I realized that they were a completely different company from the opposite side of the country. The first company was from Arizona, the other company was from Florida. From what I could understand they (the second company) didn’t seem to have a clue of what I was talking about when I mentioned the other company (the company from Arizona). Another obvious clue that didn’t set in right away on my part.
Again being vulnerable and wanting to see my online company flourish I started to listen to their spiel on how they could do this and they could do that to help me get a much better online presence. Then came the price ….. Wow …. It was $8740us, which would consist of building this wonderful professional website for part of the money and the rest was to go on marketing. Of course, I did not have that kind of money to spend on such a venture. They proceeded to say that they had a loan system available, that if I qualified all I had to do was pay a certain percentage and that they would loan me the rest. Not thinking of what I was doing all of a sudden I found myself agreeing to their terms.
A sense of panic all of a sudden started to settle in. I was spending money that I didn’t have, I had already paid money to another company for products or services that I was not getting, and all of this was just too overwhelming.
I did have a certain period of time before everything was going to be considered a concrete deal. I am part a community that is just the greatest. I started asking questions about these 2 companies and of course, no one had ever heard of them. But asking around and going through the motion off thinking of the complete picture of what was happening I decided to cancel with the second company. The first company already had my money and I was stuck with my loss of $1099us. I do have a website online from the first company for whatever that is worth. I can promote it until they decide to take it down.
If you have ever thought off the possibility of starting an online business and would like to know what you are doing and not get ripped off, you should check out Wealthy Affiliate they are by far one of the best online community. They are there to help you.
With their program they do have complete courses, videos, webinars, everything to help you succeed with your online venture. The people in that community really care to see you grow in your online quest, they care, and they will help with any questions that you might have. And best of all you can start for free to see if they are the right fit for your situation.
They are by far the best online community that I have found to help you grow.
Thank you for reading my blog post.
Have a fantastic day …. 🙂 … Michel
