HELP! am i being scamed?

Im new to the site so please bear with me. My husband attended a seminar the other day and at the end purchased AUCTION TEACHER. It is supposed to be the whole e commerce kit all rolled into one package and by that I mean web design, hosting, domain, software, wizard tools, etc etc. I imediatley looked up the company and have seen that there has been many complaints and by doing some research it seems I could do all this at a lower cost and some things they say are included in the cost are not like a merchant account, credit card and check payment software, and a few other things. I have no clue as to what I need to start my own buisness or if this is a scam. As I began to do the research It seems like it would be alot of fun and seems I may be able to do it myself with a little help. Can any one get me started in the right direction and have any advice about this company?:confused:

I don't know anything about the company you refer to but there are several free shopping cart systems like OsCommerce, Zen cart and Cube Cart version 3 that have flat learning curves and helpful support forums. Hosting and merchant accounts are not free with the exception of Pay Pal and Google. As far as cost is concerned I would think you could get started for well under $100.00 and most of that would be your hosting costs and domain. Most hosts today have installation scripts that install these carts and set them up for you including database with just a few mouse clicks. Customizing them to your taste is where the real work comes in.

In general, I would say that these all-in-one e-commerce packages are usually only worth it if you are unwilling or unable to do any of the work yourself. However if you are willing and able, you'll generally get a better result, and get it cheaper. Those types of things, all they really offer you is convenience, nothing more.

I actually attended a seminar from one such company, I can't even recall the name, but the sites were all cookie-cutter variety. You couldn't tell one from another, and they weren't particularly nice looking or well-designed sites.

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In general, I would say that these all-in-one e-commerce packages are usually only worth it if you are unwilling or unable to do any of the work yourself.

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And then you should ask yourself if it's really a good idea to get self-employed... especially when you need to keep costs down and can't afford a professional Internet consultant that assists you with website design, marketing, software development and maintenance (consider that the "open source" software is free, but not the knowledge to manage it the long run...).

A bit of background knowledge is essential.

I don't know about this specific package you bought, but as it looks you paid for it and although it offers an allround solution, you don't know where to start, do you ? So my best advise is: If possible, ask for a refund and get your money back.

If you want to start with your own business, you should first make a business plan (in short: required budget, milestones to complete, estimated income, ...).

It does not need to be a professional one, but in this way you get a good overview (it sounds much easier speaking about an own business idea than writing it down).

Also it may be a basis for a discussion with your bank accountant, bookkeeper or just a fellow friend that knows your business or is self-employed and willing to assist you during your first steps.

If I'm not mistaken, Auction Teacher is associated with, or is the latest incarnation of, a company that used to go by the name UNIM, LLC. There are indeed many, many complaints against this company. At least two of them them are mine. The "package" they are selling is a web builder (severely antiquated by today's web standards), with e-mail accounts (also antiquated), a payment gateway (which connects directly to the host server via url redirect ... not really a good thing for various reasons), etc.

We have personal experience with UNIM and their tech support is now handled by people with @auctionteacher e-mail addresses.
If the "package" they're trying to sell you is anythjing like the one we bought nearly five years ago, it has built-in payment processor and several built-in choices for merchant account, but you must pay the merchant account fees yourself, after selecting one of those built-in. (So far, the merchant account we chose is the only thing we HAVE NOT had complaints with.)

The "package" is not all bad. It works. However ...


My advice: You can do better with companies with far fewer complaints. You can do better by taking a class in web design, or forking over the money for outside web design. If you are AT ALL interested in learning web design, HTML, CSS, and all the other things to make your web sites sing ... stay away from UNIM/Auction Teacher.

If you need/want more specific info or have more specific questions, PM me.

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You can do better by taking a class in web design, or forking over the money for outside web design.

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I would definitively go with the last choice... consider that you have to spend your time mainly to build your new business, not to learn a programming language or how to design websites.

And I doubt that visiting a single course entitles you to be a HTML expert. Well, at least you could go on with some ready-to-use layout templates that simply needs getting filled with custom data. However be prepared that it isn't as easy as it sounds to design a quality website.