American pretender inflames e-commerce locals

By CHRIS BARTON IT editor

E-commerce developer e-Media says an American rival is claiming e-Media's work as its own during a seminar sales pitch in Auckland.

"They are most definitely passing off. It's blatantly fraudulent and we're taking legal advice," said e-Media director Carl McNeil.

The Utah-based StoresOnline has been running free seminars at Auckland's Sheraton hotel for the last week, promoting its web-shop building and hosting services.

People are asked to pay $99 to register for a day-long internet workshop to be held on June 18 and 19, where they will be offered a hosted cyber store to sell their wares over the internet for $2400 a year.

Alex Cowdell and Susie Anderson, who attended a seminar, said they were impressed with the sales pitch by presenter Leland McKay.

But on checking some of the website examples used in the presentation they found that several sites did not appear to be StoresOnline sites. One, Beer in Mind, is hosted by Dunedin-based e-Media.

Shane Walls-Harris of Webtech International, a reseller of e-Media's web storefront, attended a seminar on Tuesday to verify what StoresOnline was saying.

He said the presenter used Beer In Mind as an example of a New Zealand site that was not doing well until it was taken over by StoresOnline, and attracted big orders.

Site owner Martin McDowell said he had no dealings with StoresOnline and Beer in Mind continued to be hosted by e-Media.

Walls-Harris has complained to the Commerce Commission alleging passing off and a breach of the Fair Trading Act. In his complaint, he said StoresOnline claimed its system and expertise "will drive traffic to your site and therefore sales which equals lots of money".

Fine print on their registration form states: "We cannot guarantee the success of any business you might put on the internet".

Walls-Harris said: "It's a very hard road out there as it is without having rogues like this making inferences of success using someone else's work and suggesting they can do the same for the seminar attendees."

Walls-Harris estimates that from six seminars, the company has collected $20,000 to $30,000 in registration fees. Should half of those attending buy the product, StoresOnline stands to collect about $200,000.

McNeil said calls and email to StoresOnline had gone unanswered. StoresOnline did not return Business Herald phone calls.

Cowdell and Anderson also did some background checks on the company which threw up further concerns including a news story ThePittsburghChannel.com alleging StoresOnline has an unsatisfactory record with the Utah Better Business Bureau concerning its selling practices, contractual disputes and refund issues.

The web research also brings up a Dateline NBC investigation MSNBC.com in January when the company was known as Galaxy Mall.

In the article customers discuss how they felt cheated and wished they had known you can go online or to bookstore to learn about creating an marketing a web site.

Beer in Mind

StoresOnline