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Back in September of 2011 I was on the internet and came across a little blurb about a local mom that makes several thousand dollars a month working from home. I had seen it before, only this time it was a little different. It had the word scam in it, so I decided to click on it to see what the scam was. When I clicked on it, a web page came up saying you could make extra money working from home and all the computer knowledge you need is the ability to check emails. I can do that, so I decided to check it out and it made the claim that they could teach you how to post links to websites for about $15 per link. Also, you could call a phone number they supplied for a ’free’ consultation with a business advisor. All this thing cost was $99 with a money back guarantee. You just had to give it a serious effort for 20 days. That sounded fair enough. So I decided to try it because all I had to loose was $99. Besides, it had a money back guarantee.
The next day after work, I got on the website to check out what this thing was all about. I hadn’t been looking at it for more than 10 minutes when I got a call from the so called “business advisor” that I was supposed to call. I didn’t even have a chance to look at the $99 deal when this guy interrupted me. They have to call you pretty quick or you’ll find out that the $99 thing you bought was just an eBay selling course that you had to do on your own. It had nothing to do with posting links to websites at all. It caught me off guard when he called, but he sounded nice enough, so I went ahead and talked to him. He started talking to me about money and goals and those types of things. For instance, wouldn’t I like to pay my house off in 5 years. According to him, that should be one of my goals. He was just working me so I would think the program they were selling could accomplish those goals. He was supposed to weed out the people that wouldn’t fit with the program because, supposedly, they only had two or three spots available in my area. When he finally finished his ’interview’ and figured that I would be a good fit, he said his manager would call and give me the details of how I would be able to fulfill those lofty goals.
After talking to the manager for quite a while and being led to believe he could be trusted, I told him my credit history and even the available balances on my credit cards. That might have been partly to see if I had enough personal credit to get a business up and running, but probably the main reason was to see if I could pay for the program he was selling. He went over some other stuff and then told me what this deal cost. Option A cost $9540 and included 14 weeks of 30 minute ‘coaching’ calls from your very own personal instructor plus total search engine optimization and unlimited reactive coaching. Option B cost $8440 and included 12 weeks of coaching calls plus ½ search engine optimization and unlimited reactive coaching. Third was Option C. It cost $6540 and with it came only 10 weeks of coaching calls plus unlimited reactive coaching. And somewhere in all this I found out that this deal was Power Seller College’s course on e-commerce/selling on eBay. You also have access to Power Seller College’s website with all three options. You don’t pay Power Seller College for their course. You pay a company called VIP Team. That is who the so called business advisors work for. I have learned that Power Seller College only gets 10% of whatever VIP Team sells their course for. I paid VIP Team $8440 and out of that PSC only got $847. So, VIP Team got to keep almost $7600 from this transaction just for selling the course. I don’t know what anyone else thinks, but to me, that’s just wrong. Apparently, they think they are administrators for some real college and claim the money they keep is tuition. They also say the ‘coaching’ calls are charged at $300 per 30 minute call. There is NO justification for that charge, especially for what a ’student’ gets out of it. At least not for this ’student’. And if you have to contact your coach for the reactive coaching, there’s no telling what they charge for that. This e-commerce course was not worth the price I paid for it.
I feel like I’ve been violated and taken advantage of by these people. If you make the mistake of signing up for this overpriced e-commerce course, they give you three days to look at it and if you don’t think you can do it or don’t want to do it, you can cancel. After that three days, they claim they don’t give refunds for any reason and all sales are final. So if you don’t cancel within three business days of signing up, you will think you’re stuck with this outrageously expensive thing and your only options are to do the course and hope you make your money back that way, or just loose your money.
After I looked at the course, I didn’t think it was something I could do or would even want to do, so I tried to cancel my enrollment within the three day limit. I signed up on a Friday and sent my cancellation request Sunday by email. Just to make sure they got it, I sent another email Monday when I got home from work. Shortly after I sent that email, I got a call from the ’manager’ that talked me into this deal. He wasn’t about to loose the sale I made him work so hard for. He talked to me for about an hour trying to convince me that this course really worked and it could help me meet my financial goals and gain confidence among other things. He also told me that I wouldn’t have to make my credit card payments out of my own pocket because my new company would be able to make them. That was not true. Unfortunately for me, I believed that and let him talk me into continuing on with this foolishness. Con me once, shame on you. Con me twice, shame on me. I was in the program for six months and never made any money using Power Seller College’s tools and resources. I was conned into signing up for this overpriced e-commerce course in the first place, then I was conned AND lied to so I would remain signed up. This was nothing more than a bait and switch scam to lure gullible people into giving them a big chunk of money. I have to wonder why a legitimate company like Power Seller College that claims such success from its students would have to rely on companies that use such deceptive business practices to get new students.
Maybe Power Seller College does have some success stories with students that really want to sell on eBay and have some kind of online retail store. And maybe these people actually thought $6500 to $9500 was a good investment. If you’re someone who thinks they might want to have an e-business and start by selling on eBay and you have $6500 to $9500 to blow on a ‘college’ course, maybe Power Seller College is for you. But if you’re like me and had never bought or sold anything on eBay before, save your money and find some other way to make extra cash. eBay is way overrated. But, if you made the same mistake I did and signed up for this Power Seller College course, being over charged by VIP Team or possibly another ‘shady’ company, then you look at it only to find out there is way too much involved and you don’t think you can do it, or don’t want to do it, and try to cancel, DON’T LET THEM TALK YOU BACK INTO IT. They will surely call and try to convince you they are your friend and they’re only trying to help you, but they aren’t your friend and who they are trying to help is themselves to your money. PLEASE DON’T LET THEM DO IT! YOU WILL REGRET IT!
I wonder why a guy who thinks he's going to be an eBay power seller is wasting his time looking at a complaint about a company called vip team unless he's trying to help these people in some way. Could it be that he works for vip team or one of the other shady operations that sell this e-commerce course? That's a pretty safe bet. Also, if making that 'manager' work for almost an hour and a half the first night until the guy finally wore me down and then having to 'persuade' me for almost an hour to continue on with that foolishness after I tried to cancel, is being "easily persuaded", then I'm guilty on that count. I just wish I would have thought about finding a product that's in high demand so I could have been making that so called "power seller money" like this guy plans to do. Only problem is, there are a couple of minor details he left out about that plan. First, you have to find a supplier that will sell you that high demand item at a price that you can make a profit on it when you factor in the shipping charges, eBay charges, and paypal charges. Then, you post your item with dozens of other hopeful power sellers and hope you can at least be competitive. Piece of cake, huh? One more thing. This guy might want to learn to spell before he calls someone else stupid. Waoh? What? Some kind of pig latin, I guess. No brainer!
I put complaints on this website and on Scambook.com back in August last year to make sure people were warned about these people and their rip-off. Apparently, my complaints were hurting Power Seller College's business so they had their lawyers call and threaten me with a lawsuit if I didn't have them taken off. They said my complaints rose to the level of libel. Everything I put in them was true as far as I knew, but I took them off. They were going to give me a refund of $847 if I signed a release that I wouldn't post any negative thing about them again. It looked to me like they were trying to protect VIP Team with that agreement so I told them I wasn't going to sign it.
I've been trying since last April to get a refund out of these people but have got nothing but the run-around. I contacted the Federal Trade Commission and my state Attorney General about these people and their business practices. After that, VIP Team called and offered a refund. They put in their letter back to the AG that they were willing to give me a refund of 50% of my 'tuition' even though I had used over 80% of the 'course'. I told VIP Team if they couldn't give me a refund of $6500 I didn't want to hear back from them. I'd rather go ahead and pay the full $8400 and be able to keep other people from getting sucked into their scam than get a refund of $4200 and let them keep getting away with this garbage.
I don't know if it's possible to get a full refund if it's past the three day grace period. The FTC didn't suggest anything and the AG for my state sent them a letter and that got them to offer a refund of $4200. I don't know how sincere that offer really was, because I didn't want to settle for that. They ripped me out of $8400 and I got nothing in return for that money but a strong dislike for the state of Utah. They let that kind of activity go on. I even contacted the BBB of Utah about VIP and Power seller College and VIP Team offered me a whopping $750 refund, which the BBB of Utah said was a fair offer. Lot of help they were. I would suggest you go ahead and contact the FTC and your Attorney General in your state and put complaints on sites like this and Scambook.com. At least you can get the word out about these scoundrels. Good luck trying to get your money back. If you do let me know how you did it.
I'm so sorry for your plight. The reason I posted this complaint was to try and keep others from the same predicament we're in. The only problem is, they need to check all the complaint sites BEFORE making the mistake of signing up for this expensive pile of nothing. I'm convinced that if I would have seen a complaint like mine before I signed up, I wouldn't have let that guy talk me into it. I'm sure he would have had a line of bull to cover any complaint that I saw, but I think I would have seen through it. At least I hope I would have! Every month when I get my credit card statement with that charge for the PSC course, I get very down on myself. How could I let a guy like that get me to fork over $8400 to him? Talk about feeling like a sucker! I can relate so well to how you feel about not telling anyone you forked over that much money to a scam. It's very embarrassing, to say the least. I hope and pray you get your money back. Bless you and hang in there!
I really hate the fact that these people are still pulling the same con they used to suck me in with but I'm glad you didn't fall for their bull. You were very wise to cancel your card so they couldn't get your money and then make you deal with the credit card company when you contest the charge. Those people are something else. You ask why they have an A+ rating with the BBB. That's because Power Seller College/Centre doesn't actually sell anything. They have these telemarketing companies sell it for them and that keeps them squeaky clean. I tried to post a complaint about PSC on the BBB of Utah but they refused to post it because PSC didn't get paid directly from the scam victim. The money is funneled through those telemarketers. If my complaint here and all these eye opening comments can keep at least a few people from losing thousands of dollars getting scammed by these scoundrels, then I will have accomplished my mission. I'm afraid, though, that PSC will just change their name and continue on with their telemarketers ripping people off. I know that eventually they'll get what's coming to them. But I feel sorry for the people yet to come that will fall for their con.
If my complaint has kept just a few people from making the same regrettable mistake I made, then I'm satisfied with the sacrifice I made by not accepting VIP Teams offer of half my money back. I'm sure that's why they charge so much for this lousy program. So that when you go through the course only to find out how pitiful it is and want your money back, they only have to give half of it back, because half is better than none, right? Then, they make you sign a release saying you will never mention whatever telemarketing company sold you this garbage or Power Seller College/Power Seller Centre ever again. Very tidy little scam, isn't it? And they make off with, as in my case $4200, for absolutely nothing in return.I just hope and pray that my complaint has cost them a lot more than the $8400 they scammed out of me. As for singlittlehummingbird, DON'T let them talk you into continuing with this pitiful excuse of an e-commerce course. If the people you bought it from are anything like VIP Team, they'll wear you down if you let them, by making you think you're making a big mistake if you cancel. I'm telling you for sure, you'll be making a HUGE mistake if you don't cancel.
I'm sorry to see that these sleezeballs are still scamming people out of their hard earned money. I believe what goes around comes around, so even if these ### get away with this now, they'll get theirs eventually. Contact the FTC, your state's Attorney General and the Utah Attorney General's office. Maybe they can help. Good luck!
I signed up with power sellers college back in 2012, and it was supposed to be a lifetime support...Well, they set me up with a full website selling hippie clothes and it was just starting to produce profit and I was very happy with the results, until one day I went to log in and I couldn't, it was gone, 100 percent totally gone, it come up "error 404", someone had stolen my entire $10, 000 websîte, and they didn't have any feedback for me, now going on almost ten years, I want my money back or I'm gonna call the attorney general's and post them as scammers all over the web..
You can sign me up for a class action law suit against Power Sellers Center/College to get my money back as well. They played me using the same scam tactics as many of the other people described in this article, and I was deceptively taken in by their tactics. Not only is PSC deceptive, they are out right liars, thieves and criminals, in my opinion, and they should be stopped from scamming others. What can be done about these crooks?
I have been scammed too by Power seller center and I lost more than 13.000$ now I'm desperate and I don't know what should I do next. If any of you can help me whit some info how can I recover my money please let me know.
Did any of you guys managed to get the money back?
These scoundrels just scammed my 81-year-old widowed mother out of more than $13, 000. I'm beside myself.
I too have been taken for a great deal of money, not just from the 'business coaching services' but from the financial services, web hosting and drop shipping companies as well. They are all in it together so to me one is just as guilty as the other. I am going after ALL of them and filing complaints with numerous agencies(FTC, BBB UTAH, UTAH Div of Consumer Protection as well as my state Div of Consumer Protection). The more I think about it the angrier I get and I will NOT allow myself to be taken advantage of like this. I am also filing disputes through all of my credit card companies. I will keep you posted.
Back in the summer of 2013 I got sucked in to this rotten scam to the tune of $8650. I am 75 and by now should have known better but I let myself get talked into the Power Sellers rip-off. After about three months I realized that what I had purchased was going no where and hired a lawyer. As of this date I am no closer to getting my money back and have had to start paying off this ridiculous amount of money to protect my credit rating. I am not rich so I have to just pay the credit card minimum amount. It makes me sick to think that by the time it is paid off I will have paid almost double this amount. If I went into a store and stole something, I would go to jail and yet these thieving SOB's can do the same thing and get away with it laughing all the way to the bank. I am not going to roll over and accept this. If anyone has found a way to get their money back, they would be doing us all a wonderful service by providing that information here or in a private email. What I need is a name and address so I can have my attorney take it from there.
rlhamann@gmail.com
Reading all these comments makes me feel so upset with these scam artists. I can't believe it is legal for them to steal our hard earned savings to pay for a bullsh** scam. My condolences go out to everyone who is a victim of these crimes. It's time that the people stand up for what is right. I think creating a website for scam complaints would be perfect for everyone who needs to be aware! I too have fallen for their false program advertisements. I have 2 more business days to cancel this program and will make sure I get my point across! Thank you so much for caring for others who are in this predicament.
Wow... I'm glad I went on here to hear what you and others had to say. I read and article that led me to Home Income. It cost me just under a $100.00. It gave me a number to call before I get started. I called it several times before I got an answer. It went to a very unprofessional voice mail. Anyway I finally did talk to someone from power seller centre but that is not the original name I was given. He asked all kinds of financial questions, and said I would be a good candidate for this program that is only offered to a select few. That evening I was sitting and thinking of the new business and realized that home income had my credit card # and power seller centre knew how much could be put on my card. So I phoned my credit card company and they informed me as of that point nothing had been charged on my card. So I cancelled the card. I was relieved. I then spoke again to somene from PSC and he was really convincing but I explained that I cancelled my card so I wouldn't be able to make a decision on this at the point. He accused me of hiding the information from the first contact about cancelling my card. I told him I wasn't hiding anything I wanted to hear what he had to say. I'm disappointed that they are not who they say they are. Would love to start this business. Any advice from anyone on how to get started? Thanks so much for warning us keeping others from getting ripped off. I believe in Karma. you have done a good thing so it will come back to you. One question how come they have a A+ rating on bbb?
JEFF NIELSON
971EAST MARION VILLAGE ROAD
SANDY UTAH 94094
Nicholas Johnson
6450 S. Heughs Canyon Drive
SLC UT 84121
OTHER ADDRESS
1195 BREWSTER STREET
LAS VEGAS NV, 89135
[protected]
The company is a total scam from the beginning just google Nicholas Johnson Utah or Jeff Nielson Utah. They have had 6-7 different company names all doing the exact same thing SCAMMING PEOPLE WITH COACHING! These 2 owners have been convicted of several felonies, they are actual criminals! look at the photos of mugshots below and write your Attorney Generals office and file a complaint about these guys and the scams they are doing, other wise it will never end. Below is there personal info you can include in the complaint so you can get a refund.
Nicholas Johnson Jeff Nielson
6450 S. Heughs Canyon Drive 971 East Marion Village
SLC UT 84121 Sandy Utah 84094
OTHER ADDRESS
1195 BREWSTER STREET
LAS VEGAS NV, 89135
[protected]
P.S. I did not purchase my Power Seller College course thru VIP TEAM. I am not naming the company at this time, as I am awaiting their response to my request for a refund. I will be back to this site if I am not satisfied with their response, and I will name the company at that time. I will, also, go to as many social networking sites as I can, and I will simply relate what I experienced. I cannot be held liable for any lawsuits from the company as a result, because I will only relate, truthfully, my experience with them.
I was talked out of $15, 700. Yes, you read that right. A good chunk of my life savings. (I can just hear the choked laughter from many of you thinking, "What a stupid sucker!") I am nearing the end of my working years, and was looking for something to help supplement my retirement. I was told this course would "generate an income in 7-15 days", and I'd be making $2, 000 in 6 mths., etc., etc. It has been 5 mths., and I have finished the course, and put in more hrs. a week than was even remotely suggested...all to no avail. I just sent a certified letter to the company than initially sold me the course, asking for a refund. I expect a phone call to encourage me to 'stay the course', and when I decline, I expect them to deny a refund. I don't know where I will go from there, but I have to fight for my money...some way, some how. None of my family nor friends are aware of how stupid I have been. I am totally ashamed and embarrassed at my naïveté!
17/08/2013 - George Gertzen
Peter, Count me in for a class action LS. Lets get it done!
I am a Canadian redneck. I was scammed this time - I put a prior
scammer out of action. (I'm not a lawyer - I used other means)
If you want to contact me Peter, email - gg24@live.ca
God bless
All of us need to suck out all the money these ### took from us. We ought to file a law suit ( like those made to workers comp., someone has to have insured them for liable and therefore against their actions, which we all know were libelous. (So, anyone a Lawyer who'd make a fortune by representing us a class .
It's about time we have a way of getting scam artists off the internet. If you'll teach me how we will save so many from the scamming words and videos of actors portraying internet millionaires. The FCC needs to see what they claim is legal and how it's developed into an international scam using the lax rules they've developed.
TY.
Peter Buchmann
Well guys, I just wanted to let you know that I signed up with Home Income for the $97 info course and as I did, I was subjected to 2 additional ads wanting money from me, I did not take advantage of them, thank goddness. When i went to sign into the Home Income website it would not take my take my password, so I had to call and they reset it. When I was on the phone with them I asked about all the ads and emails I was recieving and they said they work with 3rd party companies and that I had no obligation to sign up with any of them, so on I went about my business and started looking at the courses, I looked at all the steps and what each one was about. Then I got the phone call from Power Sellers College and the whole sell, about they only select a small group and I fit what they were looking for...sucker I think. Anyway I was very sceptical about the whole thing, yes it made sense what they were saying about how everything worked but I was not sure about them personally. At the end of our 2hr conversation they wanted me to sign up right then and there, I said that would be wrong of me to not do my due diligence about them. I explained that if I was going to apply to a college for education I was going to investigate all my options and make sure I selected a college that would be a good fit for me and my goals. Well these guys don't work that way, they do not give you time to check things out so I said I would not be interested. So he wanted the sale so he gave me 1 hour to do my due diligence. I had told a friend that I had signed up with Home Income and got the whole your crazy it's a scam and told them about the phone call scheduled for Saturday at 11:30 and said it could be interesting, so during the call I was texting my friend the info they were telling me and they were checking the web for information on them for me, and boy is there a lot of bad stuff out there about them. They have taken advantage of a lot of people. The one thing that made me very leary about the whole thing was from the begining when I signed up, I did not recieve a confirmation email with my user name and password (first flag). When I called Home Income because my login failed and the lady said they work with 3rd party companies and that I had no obligation to sign up with any of them (second flag). When I was first contacted by Power Seller College I asked who they were and they would not say, I asked them if they were Home Income and they only said we are their sister company and that my scheduled call on Saturday would give me all the info I needed (third flag). So 1 hour passed and the info I learned about Power Seller College was not good, I wasn't sure if they would call me back but they did, they wanted the sale. I started reading the complaints posted by people and they said that it was companies misrepresnting them...blah, blah, blah. They had a story for everything and was really adament about their A+ rating with the better business bureau...I wounder how they have a clean record with the BBB and no complaints if they have scammed so many people? Anyway I accidently hung up on him and he never called me back...don't worry I was not going to sign up with them. They are really good at selling and telling people what they want to hear and they make it make sense so I can totally see how people get caught up in it. So if you get the call remember questions, questions, questions and do your due diligence, a reputalble company will not hide who they are and they will let you call them in your own time.
I hate to admit that I had a very similar, very bad experience with Power Sellers College. I completely agree that the same things were told to me and the pressure was really aggressive and that the presentation was very deceptive and really an invasion one's privacy when the inquire about available credit and so on. It was way too stressful and they beat me down. What I hated most was that it had to do with eBay and I was totally uninterested, not to mention shocked, and called back to say this is not what I wanted and never had calls returned either. I have found so many other more useful and valuable programs that do not cost nearly as much and I am ashamed that I was so easily taken in by their pitch. I was stupid and in a bad mental state and it was the most expensive bad lesson that still nags me after all these months. The only comfort here is that I found out I am not the only one with this complaint.
Who do you have to contact to force them to give full refund of moneys paid to them?
What did your Attorney General or Federal Trade Commission advise you to do?