| OVERLOOKED DISCREPANCIES | MORE RESOURCES | TOP 10 | HONEST ANALYSIS |
OVERLOOKED DISCREPANCIES
My online store used to be inventoried from a service called Shopster.com.
I would like to explain to you how this company treated their own customers.
In short, they tricked us. They admitted to the BBB of Calgary that they had "overlooked
some discrepancies" that were conveniently left off of their contract with
me
(and everyone else who has signed up with Shopster). What they had left off
of the contract was that Shopster will be keeping a nice chunk of OUR profit for THEMSELVES.
Convenient of them to forget to mention this, isn't it?
I had to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of Calgary just to get Shopster to live up to the terms of their very own contract with me and to also get them to send me my rightfully earned profits. After I filed my complaint with the BBB, I got my refund check.
Unfortunately, after I filed the BBB complaint, Shopster unilaterally decided I had broken the terms of their Agreement and stopped providing me services. I asked Shopster.com in four separate emails to clearly identify exactly what part I broke and they have yet to get back to me. This is as of MARCH 1st, 2010. I went over the Agreement and I know full well that I did not break a single word of it.
SHOPSTER "SUCCESS" STORY??
The person Shopster hyped on their front page as "the Shopster success story" brags about how much he sold, $200,000 IN SALES in one month!! Sounds too good to be true, right? No one could ever get him to explain to other Shopster users how much PROFIT he made on that $200,000 in sales. Despite being pressed on the support boards, he never said that he made even a penny in PROFIT despite those simply magnificent sales numbers!
Shopster was pressed by me and by other members to release supporting details of the claims they made in their story, but Shopster refused and insisted that we just had to believe it was all true, but there was no proof of sales and there will never be any proof. The deceit was obvious to me.
WELL, HOW MUCH PROFIT DID HE MAKE?
As I said, the story NEVER mentions profit, the person NEVER mentioned
profit, Shopster REFUSED to mention profit. What does that tell you?
What would you rather hear about, the sales that make Shopster money or profit
that would make YOU money?
My personal belief is that he made NO PROFIT at all and that he probably lost money on that $200,000 in sales. Many other Shopster users felt the exact same way I did after the smoke and mirrors show we all got when we asked for any shred of proof.
It should also be noted that this person has shut down their Shopster store!
As it turned out, whenever I pressed Shopster for proof of any of their claims in their advertising materials or other marketing materials, I never got it. Not once, not ever. They just expect you to believe what they claim is true, no matter how ridiculous the claim. My suggestion to you is to question them often and I guarantee that you will be met with the same stone wall and deaf ears that I got.
Here are some other links that explain what other Shopster users have gone through:
http://shopsterisdeceptive.blogspot.com/
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/246/RipOff0246214.htm
http://shopstersucks.blogspot.com/
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8461205297330519946&postID=8973782341929508978&page=1
http://journeytocreatewealth.com/2008/04/17/muse-idea-using-shopster/
http://www.auctionsoftwarereview.com/software/shopster.asp
http://www.revenews.com/heatherpaulson/my-thumbs-up-dh-shopstercom/
If you use(d) the Shopster service and Shopster
refuses to give you your money back, please contact
the BBB of Calgary:
http://www.betterbusinessbureau.ca
and you WILL get it back! Inform the BBB in your complaint that the Shopster agreement stated
that they would not take out any fees and that Shopster did take out 3.5% in
fees. I did this and the next month I had my apology
and check from Shopster. After I started to explain to
other Shopster clients what Shopster was doing, Shopster terminated my account!
(How dare I inform others
they were being tricked and fooled!)
AN HONEST ANALYSIS OF A SHOPSTER
RETAILER TRANSACTION
Below is an example of what you can expect when you work with Shopster.
Let's say you're going to try and sell a Nintendo Wii video game....
|
Item |
A Nintendo Wii Zelda Video Game |
|
$389.49 |
|
|
$404.66 |
THIS is what actually becomes the "wholesale price" when a client tries to
sell it. It is also the actual price Shopster should be marketing clearly
as the “wholesale price” because this is the absolute minimum price any
Shopster client can sell this unit at. In their Agreements and marketing
material a
person is led to believe it’s the above price of $389.49. After you
sign up, that price disappears. |
|
|
|
|
$408.90 |
Let's say this is what you sell the game for |
|
|
|
|
3.5% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
SUMMARY |
|
Unlimited |
This is what Shopster tells you beforehand what your “potential
profit” for this item is, a ridiculous claim that the BBB told them to stop
using, but they still do. |
|
$19.41 |
This is what Shopster marketed as my profit before I signed up ($408.90-$389.49) |
|
$4.09 |
This is what I would actually get paid selling at $408.90 (($408.9-$404.66) - 3.5%) |
|
ripped off |
This is how you'll be feeling after realizing Shopster wasn't exactly honest with their contract. That person was me. Don't let it be you! |
Shopster is not selling you anything at a TRUE wholesale price because it would be ILLEGAL to do so unless you held the proper wholesaling credentials.
Shopster is not a drop-shipper either. They have admitted that they don't own any items and they do not ship any items. Shopster always kept the supplies hidden from the clients. I never knew who I was actually "getting stuff" from, but I know it wasn't Shopster, and I suspect it was inventorysource.com.
If any of you Shopster.com employs are reading this and care to refute a single word of it, I'm all ears. (After two years there has not been a single email from Shopster refuting any of my review.)
If you've also been burnt by Shopster and want to add a link to your site or share your thoughts, I'm all ears, too.
Questions, comments, reactions?
I'm all ears!
(Thanks for the compliments!)
Thank you for your time, I hope I have shed some light on an otherwise purposefully darkened issue.
TOP 10
And now I present to you, the Top 10 reasons why Shopster.com sucks
| 10 | That wholesale price they market to you is a price YOU CANNOT OBTAIN, EVER! Once you try to sell it in your store, Shopster will add (3.9% with me) to the "wholesale" price. |
| 9 | Shopster keeps 3.5% of all of your profit in addition to the profit they already make on all of your sales! |
| 8 | Shopster is basically reselling drop-shipping services, most of which can be found for MUCH LESS at inventorysource.com |
| 7 | Shopster's supplier's inventory numbers are extremely unreliable. |
| 6 | Despite Shopster insisting it is legal, it is 100% against E-Bay's rules to auction items from Shopster. Why? Because..... |
| 5 | there are no guarantees that the item will be available to you when the auction ends. Guess who is left having to pay ALL of the auction fees and suffers with the negative feedback? YOU! |
| 4 | Shopster.com uses completely bogus marketing terms like "unlimited profits". Shopster was asked by the BBB of Calgary to stop using the term "unlimited profits" and they are still using this term trying to get you to believe someone will grossly overpay for a product in the year 2010. |
| 3 | Shopster.com adjusts shipping costs even though they do not do any shipping at all. |
| 2 | It's impossible to obtain a good SEO ranking with Shopster because the pages are ultimately branded with an "affiliate" tag and forced to the bottom of search results. |
| 1 | That coffee pot that they want you to buy from them for $40 and sell for $80...well, you can buy it for $22 at Amazon and save yourself the $18. |