Stores Online (Part 2) (November 09 2007)
As a follow up to my first Stores Online entry, I received a phone call from a Stores Online representative saying that they had another offer for me since I past up the first one.
But first, something which I did miss on my first post was the free meal. I sat through the free training session wondering when they would be bringing in the free lunch! It wasn't till the end that I realized the free lunch would be the last thing they do. Okay, sure I thought. As long as I didn't have to sign anything. And then, right before the free lunch they announce that before they give out the free lunch, they are going to start the sign up process.
At this point in time, the Stores Online staff members walked around enticing people to signup. They went to each individual sitting down before issuing them their lunch and questioned them about what they thought of the seminar and if we had any questions. In the end, I didn't perform so smoothly with my story. I goofed and told him I was self-employed and was involved in a lot of risky transactions. I informed him I was involved with trading stocks, and was a gambling man on the local horse races. At this point in time he proceeded to tell me that I was in a risky business and that Stores Online would be the perfect match. He encouraged me to signup and pay the sign up fee, at which pointed I informed him I had no money and my girlfriend was coming to pick me up and I'd pay him then. He then proceeded to ask tons of questions about myself, and I am sure he realized that I was not into stocks as much as I had told him and I wasn't much of a gambler.
None the less, the questioning was over and out comes the free lunch.
A couple weeks later, they sent me to their second offer website at http://www.storesonlinesecondoffer.com/.
On this website they report, "NOTE: This special reduced price is available for a limited time only." and "This offer is for a limited time, Call Today!".
A quick search on the Internet Archive.org (a official library, according to the state of California) shows that this limited time offer has been around since June 2, 2007. A rather long time for a limited time offer. Not to mention, that June 2nd was the first time they Archive.org archived the site. So there is a possibility this offer was around a lot longer.
The cost for people within the United States is $3199 but for Canadians there is an additional $200 fee (Canadian Dollar has been worth more then the US dollar for how long?).
The original charge was suppose to be $5300. With this limited time offer, they desperately dropped it to $3199 which is a drop of $2101.
While writing this entry, I also found out that Stores Online is a owned by a publicly traded company called iMergent, Inc.
iMergent, Inc recently reported that in its last quarter it had lost $800,000. Shares dropped immediately 22% to $17.26.
A look at this article reports that:
The company said the number of people enrolled in the training workshops where it sells software had declined.
I wonder if this includes the free seminar that I had attended, where they stated numerous times that they are not going to try and sell anything!
On top of this, the report concludes:
Imergent can't conduct business in California and North Carolina because of injunctions issued in response to state allegations the company failed to make proper disclosures, Chief Executive Officer Donald Danks said in a conference call with analysts Tuesday.
Interesting? Well, a bit. But then you read that this company has had issues with its financial statements for a long time. This is apparent when reading the
MarketWatch.com Analyst Estimates.
Now, the bad news.
On October 19, 2007, the Federal Court of Australia New South Wales District Registry ruled on a request for an injunction by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The court declined to enter an injunction that would bar iMergent from conducting business in Australia.
This company has obviously caught the attention of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which "Promotes competition and fair trade in the market place to benefit consumers, business and the community".
