Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I WAS SCAMED BY INTO STORES.  I AM A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER THAT DOES BUSINESS BY SELLING CATALOG PRODUCTS.  I RECEIVED A EMAIL SOME TIME AGO FORM "INTO STORES" THAT CLAIMED THAT THEY COULD POST ALL MY PRODUCTS ON THIER SITE AND THAT I WOULD HEAR FROM ALL KINDS OF BUYERS AND INCREASE MY SALES.  ALL THIS COULD BE DONE FOR JUST $175.00 ONE TIME SET UP FEE AND A MONTHLY CHARGE OF JUST $29.00 PER MONTH FOR THE WEB SITE.  I JOINED AND WAS TAKEN.  THE SITE EXSISTS HOWEVER THE PEOPLE DO NOT.  ALL YOU GET WHEN YOU CALL ANY OF THIER PHONE NUMBERS ARE VOICE MAILS, NO OPERATOR, NO ASSISTANTS NOTHING.  THERE ARE NO BUYERS AND YOU WILL NOT GET ANY SALES OR LEADS.  THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY MONTH AFTER MONTH HOWEVER.  STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.  IF YOU HAVE BEEN SCAMED BY THEM, REPORT THEM TO ANY ONE YOU CAN.  KIRK BURLESON, RIDGECREST, CA.

Hi,

Yeah buziness is right why dont you try ebay. they wont ask anything from you.

and people there will bid for your product so you have a big chance to earn more.

ouch. I'm sorry that happened to you. Next time I would investigate further the company before paying the money which I'm sure you will do.

I think the biggest scam is StoresOnline where they over promise people who sign up letting them think that they are striking the gold mine when traffic is the most important thing and they don't provide that. They're more like ScamsOnline.

I received an unsolicited email from IntoStores.com:

I sent you an email in March about selling your cards through our stores. We work with thousands of buyers from greeting card stores, gift shops, independent retailers and large chains around the country.  I still think your cards would be a great fit. If you're interested in selling your products to more stores visit us at http://www.intostores.com/sellers.php  

Sincerely,

Kevin Sanderson
VP Merchandising
866-788-5799 (ext 3)
IntoStores.com

I did a little search on the web and their address came up under WiseRep and RepBeyond. Thanks to the info I found on this site I saved my money.  Thanks for the advice.  Stay away from this company.

Doug

It is bad that this has happened to you. It is always good to contact and verify the genuineness of these stores - whether they are real or scams. There is an article in Bloomberg Businessweek online, with the headline, 'Determining Where To Sell Online' originally published on Nov 7, 2008. It might be good to read it.

I received Into Stores email yesterday and when I started, investigate the business this page was the first come up. I am glad that it did, or I may have fallen for the scam..  

This has to rate as one of the most obvious scams of all time.  I mean, they ask you for money (a LOT of money) upfront to sell your stuff.  How could that possibly not be a scam?

If you don't want to get done over, use eBay or Amazon or set up your own site to sell from.

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There are so many scams like that out there.

As a small business person myself, my rule of thumb is:

Never pay for advertisement service that calls me or emails me before I contact them first.

There is probably some collateral damage of good advertisement out there that I'm missing out on, but it is a good fail-safe way to avoid scams and unproductive advertisement schemes.

Google works great for me and they never tried to call me to sell me their services. I imagine E-Bay never calls or emails people to offer them their services either.  That's because they don't have to, because their advertisement works.