My Shoppingbank

[MistyRose]

I discovered an email from them at the beginning of the month. I rang them out of curiousity and continually got, I am on the phone at present.

When I did get thru, I got the same, I've got rid of a retailer for bad customer service and we like you as you offer something really unique that we dont have on our site. I make and sell handmade jewellery.

I agreed to the 'appt' and then done the research to find all this and that there is other jewellery businesses who do the same as me on their site.

I am now not interested and stick to the formulas that i know work and dont cost an arm and a leg. Thank you for all the advice, J x

 

[FLAUK]

Got cold called by shoppingbank yesterday.

Sales guy was talking at 70 miles an hour about GMTV and the Independent newspaper, how lucky I was to be selected but could I meet the demand of all the sales I would get etc etc.

Asked him to call back today and will give him the URL to this thread

 

[More4mums]

Glad to see this thread is useful to others - I still haven't come across anyone who paid the upfront fee and has made a real profit on sales.

 

[sdchown]

Glad to see this thread is useful to others - I still haven't come across anyone who paid the upfront fee and has made a real profit on sales.

I've just had them phone me again for the 2nd or possibly 3rd time in the last year. Each time they pitch afresh. This time they opened with the fact that they're affiliated with "The Independant"

I dug a bit deeper and they said they were the same people as myshoppingbank at which point I spelled out the good reasons why I'd not list with them.

At that point the gentleman told me I was entitled to my opinions and our conversation went no further.

They rang from 01925 713800. Always Google telesales people is my philosophy.

- Stephen

 

[berrywoods]

had it today, women saying about some other ITV program, not GMTV, ive had a call from them before so i said ive had a simular call and am not interested. She told me i was mistaken and they had not called, but said they previously ran a website for GMTV, did make me question why they had "Previously" and didnt now... did a search on here for them and found this, thought id send her a nice copy of the link to make sure she got the message.

 

[sysops]

thought id send her a nice copy of the link to make sure she got the message.

And what makes you think their £6 an hour telesales lady gives a crap?

 

[deadgoodundies]

but said they previously ran a website for GMTV, did make me question why they had "Previously" and didnt now... did a search on here for them and found this, thought id send her a nice copy of the link to make sure she got the message.

Prob because it's not GMTV any more it's Daybreak

 

[SEO Lady]

Right, first of all I have just scrolled through 5 pages of this thread I am surprised I haven't already posted.

I came across these from a cold call 12 months ago for the online greetings card and gift store I was responsible for the marketing and SEO. I wasn't convinced but my client was SOLD and shelled out £700. In 3 months (over Xmas period as well) sold one product for £14.99. ONE. When I called to speak to the minions to ask advice, it was always an answer message, I could email 3-4-10 days in a row and not get a response. I felt like they my client's cash was taken and that's that.

Anyway I sent a really snotty email to the department to have Lesley the account manager call up (the lady as previously mentioned) and she extended the contract for 3 months FOC and did try to help a bit with product placement. However, all the big boys and high street names were always being promoted on Page 1 and little shops like ours were buried in the pages below.

Fast forward 9 months - I changed clients and lo & behold, they use eDirectory. Different industry - home / bedroom furnishings, average spend just over £100 not £2.99 greetings cards.

The client proved profits after 12 months, not an incredible amount, but still demonstrated a profit, and decided to 'upgrade' to a microsite at a further £500/year on top of the renewal cost. At every step of the way there was the 'upselling' opportunities, 'extra promotions' etc etc but I stood my ground.

To date: yes, we are proving profits, but not as much as Adwords or Organic traffic, the fact remains, yes this has been profitable for my 2nd client, but personally I think this is purely down to industry and not the marketing skills or 'microsite' or any promotions via eDirectory. Also this bedroom furnishings client has exceptionally keen prices on home brand products, which could help within the search facility for browsing customers.

 

Has anyone dealt with this company?

Not really sure what they are trying to get me to sign up for very vague?

They remind me of another company edirectory or something - had a high sign up fee if I remember??

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T TOUCH THEM! They almost conned me if I hadn't called many other companies first to check them out - all with terrible stories! All had lost a lot of money and received no orders. Empty promises and hard sell - Avoid at all cost!!

 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T TOUCH THEM! They almost conned me if I hadn't called many other companies first to check them out - all with terrible stories! All had lost a lot of money and received no orders. Empty promises and hard sell - Avoid at all cost!! They so nearly got £1000 pound out of me and I wouldnt have seen a penny back!

Also nearly got into the same situation with a company called Medic Care who claim they work through the NHS offering companies with discounts and are apparently just as deceitful! Another narrow escape after reading about this firm on forums!

 

[Anne-Marie Nixey]

I just want to say thank you for posting information on this company. I was getting calls from them and not sure how legitimate they were...looks too good to be true etc.

Great advise and honest experiences here, thanks for that. Will stay well clear.

 

So pleased I've helped you avoid the expense! There were so many companies I spoke to who hadn't undertaken any research and had lost a lot of money.

In theory it's a great idea and it may work for some companies but I think its predominately the larger ones. I think smaller companies with smaller budgets get a bit lost in it all, and its a lot to pay out and see no return. Especially since they promise you the earth!

They had me on the phone for two hours under the premise that we'd get around 30 orders a day - that would have increased my turnover tenfold and changed my life!! I wish!! They just can't make those kind of promises, how many orders you'll get is pure speculation. No one can say that! Its all forecasting! Anyway glad you had a lucky escape. The search for great ways to promote and market our businesses continues! Oh and if you get anyone on from Medicare in connection with NHS staff discounts - same thing!! Avoid!

 

I avoided an awful experience with them! They could have put me out of business!
All of the businesses I contacted had experienced terrible situations. One guy said they promised him the world telling him they'd put him on lots of big sites such as GMTV, one of the national newspapers and loads more. He paid them £1200 up front plus 12 monthly contract fees!

They had all the affiliations and connections so they sound so legit and they are very pushy and convincing it's easy to be taken in! This guy was so disappointed when after three weeks he hadn't had one sale so he called the sales person several times, to no avail and was eventually told him to stop calling her and send her emails instead which she would 'endeavor' to reply to within 5 days!!

It's a complete shambles and I think it only really has any results for the larger companies who can afford to pay invest more in schemes like this. Otherwise I think smaller companies just get lost in the system. They are many more schemes like them so you just have to be aware and check all of these companies out!

Thank goodness for forums like this one so we can all get some good honest and unbiased advice. I never do anything now without some good hard research!! It's just not worth the risk and if it sounds too good to be true - it probably is!!

 

[henriettaj]

Just to let you guys know that ShoppingBank has rebranded again - this time it calls itself Fruugo. This was a Finnish company which has "merged" with Directory Technologies, the masterminds behind myfaveshop, edirectory and shoppingbank.

If you have ever had dealings with them before, expect a call from a "Fruugo" sales rep any day now.

Can't post a link as am a newbie, but if you Google the terms Fruugo, edirectory, shoppingbank you should find a wordpress post from yesterday. Alternatively look on the snorestore Twitter feed for a direct link.

 

[henriettaj]

Just to let you guys know that ShoppingBank has rebranded again - this time it calls itself Fruugo. This was a Finnish company which has "merged" with Directory Technologies, the masterminds behind myfaveshop, edirectory and shoppingbank.

If you have ever had dealings with them before, expect a call from a "Fruugo" sales rep any day now.

Can't post a link as am a newbie, but if you Google the terms Fruugo, edirectory, shoppingbank you should find a wordpress post from yesterday. Alternatively look on the snorestore Twitter feed for a direct link.

 

[SamStones]

Thanks for the update. I'll be sure to watch out for these scammers! Actually looking forward to their call...

 

[henriettaj]

Sorry for the double post :redface:

Here's a cobbled link anyway:

snorestore dot wordpress dot com

 

[deadgoodundies]

yup we've already had the call a few days ago

 

[takibalnt]

I fall into their good promising speech like many others. They asked £1000 for 12 month. At least they offered me to pay monthly instead of together at the begining. Is anyone has experience to cancel the contract before the 12 months and not to pay for them? Is any one knows they can take legal action if I decid to cancel the direct debit before the 12 month has finished?

 

Really sorry to hear that. Think you need to seek legal action or you can kiss goodbye to £12k.

 

[TotallySport]

Really sorry to hear that. Think you need to seek legal action or you can kiss goodbye to £12k.

its £1000 for 12 months not £1000 per month for 12 months.

 

sorry! in too much of a hurry this morning.

 

[TotallySport]

I fall into their good promising speech like many others. They asked £1000 for 12 month. At least they offered me to pay monthly instead of together at the begining. Is anyone has experience to cancel the contract before the 12 months and not to pay for them? Is any one knows they can take legal action if I decid to cancel the direct debit before the 12 month has finished?

Its upto you, they will threaten legal actions, weither they will take you to court is only a risk you can decide if its worth taking. I am sure you will be able to get statements from people backing up the miss selling, but is the time and money you spend defending yourself worth the hassle, and the possible lose in court.

 

[Deleted member 77892]

We are coming to the end of our 12 months with ShoppingBank. I have been less than impressed with everything that they have done.

We received on average 1-2 sales a month totalling £5-10 and have only lost money from working with them. They made us pay the extortionate set up costs when I ended up doing all the work to build the product feed with no help form them other than to tell me it was wrong everytime I gave it to them. This delayed us getting started for months.

A good company would have taken what was given and made it work to save the client, who are paying them, time and hassle.

The customer care side that they offer to businesses is nothing like what they promise on the phone and neither is the level of exposure. We were promised that their products were put into google shopping, kelkoo, shopping.com etc. I have never in this 12months seen any of them in any of these places.

Avoid this company like the plague.

 

[SEO Lady]

This company is in the middle of winding up, Fruugo is the new directory they are trying to sell all customers across, approached on a 3 month free trial - which is not a free trial, it's basically a percentage of every sale, but free to list items.

This is 10% of the sale, plus 3% payment processing charge - payments will no longer go direct to you, Fruugo take all payment and pay out on a monthly agreement and charge you for this process.

You can, however, barter them down to a total 10% which is 7% sale fee and 3% payment processing charge.

Fruugo is aimed at the european market, or UK sellers who post to Europe / Worldwide, apparantly you will get much less sales if you only ship to mainland UK.

 

[Mustaka]

This company is in the middle of winding up, Fruugo is the new directory they are trying to sell all customers across, approached on a 3 month free trial - which is not a free trial, it's basically a percentage of every sale, but free to list items.

This is 10% of the sale, plus 3% payment processing charge - payments will no longer go direct to you, Fruugo take all payment and pay out on a monthly agreement and charge you for this process.

You can, however, barter them down to a total 10% which is 7% sale fee and 3% payment processing charge.

Fruugo is aimed at the european market, or UK sellers who post to Europe / Worldwide, apparantly you will get much less sales if you only ship to mainland UK.

They cant sell something that does not belong to them or hold merchants money. It is called account aggregation and will be soundly stomped on if their acquiring bank or the card schemes get wind of it.

 

[SEO Lady]

Just recently, to add to Fruugo's well-known board members Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila and founder and chairman of F-Secure Risto Siilasmaa, Kim Ignatius has joined the company's board (the news in Finnish). Ignatius is Director of Finance and Administration in the Finnish international Sanoma media group (Sanoma has been very active in the past years buying internet and media startups so we will see if the corporation plays any role with Fruugo.), while he served before as Finance Director of TeliaSonera, the biggest mobile carrier in the Nordics. In the same General meeting the board also allowed usage of stock options. (see here for original article)

****

August 26, 2010

Fruugo Moves On - Merges With UK Based DTL
One of the most debated startups, and companies in Finland, Fruugo, has reached a significant milestone. It has purchased Directory Technologies Limited (DTL) with its own shares and will also issue longterm financing through a share issue to fuel further growth in its ambitious quest. The new company will continue to operate under the name Fruugo and will also be registered to Finland. I sat down with Juha Usva (Fruugo CEO), Risto Siilasmaa (largest shareholder in Fruugo) and Dominic Allonby (CEO of DTL) to talk about the deal.
Risto Siilasmaa gave me a brief mention of the developments in the recent months, leading up to the merger. He said that they did not agree on the deal over night as talks had been continuing on an on and off basis for a period of months with DTL about various issues, including the merger. In the recent weeks, mutual interests finally met over the issue and they decided to go ahead with the deal.

DTL has been a partner of Fruugo in the UK, and the talks naturally followed into areas of mutual interest until the issue of a possible merger was touched upon. Juha Usva, who's job Siilasmaa praised as "doing the best possible work required in the situations he faced with", will leave the new company. Dominic Allonby will take over the CEO role as of today.

DTL operates ShoppingBank, one of the largest multivendor online stores in the UK. In 2009, they shipped 9.9 million euros worth of goods and combined over the years, they have shipped goods to over 1.1 million addresses. DTL has some 800 vendors under their umbrella and make available a portfolio of million products. Fruugo's 100 vendors with about 100 000 products will now join this group. The new Fruugo, will continue to do business in its existing markets in the UK, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Article 2 link here

 

[neil_GZ]

Hi,

Is anyone currently working with Fruugo and are you getting results. They told me they get 10k visits a day which doesn's sound a lot for a site of that ambition

 

[TotallySport]

Hi,

Is anyone currently working with Fruugo and are you getting results. They told me they get 10k visits a day which doesn's sound a lot for a site of that ambition

have you actually read this thread? no one here would be daft enough to, or at least I hope not

 

[roggy]

Hi, I just stumbled across this thread. I have an on line shop and have just signed up for Fruugo. I didn't know about the negative image of the company they merged with so I'm glad I found this. So far though they have been very good to work with, though we only got the feed live a few days ago and no sales yet!

I see it as low risk as unlike Amazon and E bay there is no fee and I only pay a commission on sales. I am a merchant on Amazon too and the model is the same just cheaper with Fruugo. I think the site user experience could be a lot better and I am cautious about how many sales they may generate. However, as I said it seemed worth a try as I could not see the risk.

It sounds like myshoppingbank.com wasn't great as they were getting you to pay cash up front to be listed. Could any of you let me know if you think there are still risks with this model?

thanks a lot

 

[sysops]

You are a Fruugo representative, and I claim my £5.

Sad, pathetic attempt at reputation management.

 

[roggy]

Funny, but I am definitely not. My business is cachettedotcom we sell homeware and food, check it out. I am genuinely interested in understanding the risks of working with Fruugo. I can see how the shopbank site was not great. It is possible that Fruugo may run a bad business and not generate any sales but I can't see what I lose giving it a go.

 

[sysops]

Funny, but I am definitely not. My business is cachettedotcom we sell homeware and food, check it out. I am genuinely interested in understanding the risks of working with Fruugo. I can see how the shopbank site was not great. It is possible that Fruugo may run a bad business and not generate any sales but I can't see what I lose giving it a go.

What have you got to lose? Any time and money you put into this, that's all.

Fruugo has almost no web presence, just like MyShoppingBank before it, and all the other sites run by that company. You will gain nothing by being listed on the site.

 

[roggy]

ok, thanks. I won't be putting any more time in unless I get any sales. I hope that they get their acts together.