WARNING: Hidden Catch In “Money Back Guarantee”
Those of our readers who live in the UK, will I’m sure be familiar with a company called Streetwise Publications. And they are very well-known for selling various kinds of business opportunities and other business related publications.
Like anyone else, we at Internetmarketing247.com are always on the lookout for new and exciting business opportunities and something caught our eye called ETrends. The sales letter looked particularly attractive and appeared to be very well written. The idea of being able to place a program on autopilot and let it point out to you various moneymaking situations, seemed very appealing.
So we thought we would give it a try and we set the system up in our computer and buried ourselves in the manual. However, it all seemed rather overcomplicated, so we sought some support help from the program developers. In case you don’t know, this system works inside Betfair and endeavours to point out to you when a particular win situation comes up.
The only problem with this is that you have to run the software for the entire afternoon and sit in front of the computer to wait until it gives you the appropriate bets on which to place your money. Not quite what we had expected! Nevertheless, undeterred we tried to contact support and asked them to spend an hour or so with us taking us through a live situation on the computer. Rather concerningly, after one hour, the program support had still not found a suitable race on which to place a bet. So that was one hour wasted of our precious time.
Support promised to call us again but never did. We thought that enough was enough and confident that we were still in the 30 day money back guarantee period, we phoned Streetwise Publications and cancelled the account. We tried to contact the bank and to cancel the standing order, but unfortunately that had gone through for the next month. We requested Streetwise Publications to issue a refund for the first month and a rebate for the second month, considering that they had received this money long after we had cancelled our account with them.
Incredibly, Streetwise Publications refused to honour any kind of refund and on top of this, it took them three or four weeks to actually rebate the overpayment that we had made. Not only this, but we had to call the company several times to get them to send a cheque for this overpayment.
To our amazement and shock, Streetwise Publications also announced that this product, eTrends, was not covered by any kind of guarantee! Can you imagine this? No company in the world that I am aware of, offers any kind of product without a guarantee or refund in the case of dissatisfaction. Readers, I would ask you to make up your own mind what these commitments mean in their sales letter:
Now I realise your’re still probably sceptical… That’s why I’d like to give you the opportunity to “suck it and see” over the next 30 days. I hope that shows you how confident I am that ETrends works and can change your life.
by taking me up on my unique trial offer…. Test the bank-boosting power of eTrends YOURSELF over the next 30 days
So AFTER you’ve tried out the software and the system for a month – and you want to continue with it, then you simply pay the next months licence fee.
So with a full 30 day test run option, what are you waiting for?
To me all of this looks remarkably like a 30 day money back guarantee. But I contacted Streetwise Publications, and they denied it entirely and claimed that you had 30 days to try out the program and then could renew if you wanted. Now this sounds like gobbledygook to me.
What’s the point in emphasising about 30 days? What does “suck it and see” really mean? After all, they also claim that having an opportunity to suck it and see will show us how confident they are that eTrends works and can change your life.
And what exactly do they mean by a “full 30 day test run option? This to me sounds like a 30 day money back guarantee, but this does not appear to be the case.
I received a response from Streetwise Publications, which claimed as follows:
“Unfortunately it didn’t offer a 30 day free trial, it was just a 30 day trial period.”
How ludicrous is that? When they first offered this opportunity, it went at the ridiculously high price of nearly 2000 pounds. It is obvious that few people bought at that price, or indeed they encountered many refunds from people who could not see the alleged value of this program. Since that time, they reduced the fee to £97 a month and this was quoted in the brochure.
So what I don’t understand is if there is a monthly fee, which you can cancel any time, what is the point of offering a 30 day trial period? Surely this is what you get any way, if you pay on a monthly basis?
It’s no wonder I was very angry, because I had understood their wording to mean a 30 day trial with a money back guarantee, as opposed to a 30 day trial period, which means nothing at all if you are paying on a monthly basis and can cancel at any time.
I found much of their brochure to be grossly misleading. So in my view, buyers beware and in particular beware of hidden 30 day trial periods, which appear to be 30 day free trials, but are not. It’s the fastest way to lose £97.
Loading ...
Its just not fare for the streetwise publications how can they refuse to refund as they have to keep up their promise.Any ways your website has provided great information.
After reading the article, I feel that I really need more info. Could you suggest some resources please?
I have dealt with Streetwise over many years and have found them to be terribly fair and straight up. I agree it should have clearly been stated. Maybe you should have taken it up with John Harrison.
I used eTrends for aobut 3 months but it took up too much time. I found out how the prompt signal initiated, and rather than wait for a clear signal which could take a long time, I actually entered and exited when I saw an opportunity myself, but you have to be very quick, and don’t be greedy! I guess my internet connection wasn’t quick enough. I only managed to come out evens, so I gave up. Really really exciting to play though!
Not very social as you have to spend hours in solitary while playing.
i found e trends all crap and nobody gives you a call, no support when you call them or text them a bunch of money takers….
on the other hand streetwise i have always found them to be great.
Hi
I too was “suckered” in by the Streetwise claims for E-trends. Becuase I am at the exteme end of copper wire spplied broadband the 1 or so “meg” I generally get is far too slow to run E-trends effectively. Although I pointed this out to them (Streetwise) they refused me a refund. I contacted Trade Descrlptions (a useless organisation if ever there was one!!) and they said that it was my fault for not having enough broadband speed” Doh!
Hi,
I just want to add that I have had an identical experience with Streetwise. This time it was with a product called the Market Raider Plus system. Same price £97 a month. I cancelled within 30 days by which time the 2nd £97 had gone out of my account. Don’t buy this product because the “£250 a press button” that the sales letter claims the system provides is grossly inaccurate!I lost loads.
I have had a credit note issued from Streetwise for £97 but frankly, I don’t really want to do business with them ever again. This 30 day trial period amounts to nothing more than sharp practice.
We are looking for a partner of a online dating site. We can help you set up your own dating site at no cost and offer all back-end for free. We will also pay you $45 for each paid member in June and July or $2 for each free member. Contact me at josh47liu@gmail.com for more details. And My AIM is josh27liu , yahoo ID is josh27liu MSN is josh27liu@hotmail.com
Streetwise – The Ian Williams Magic Button MarketRaider PlusProgramme
The impressive promotion of this system by Streetwise and the name of Ian Williams was enough for me to believe this system worked. How wrong I was. My experience with this system over 10 trading days was 7 of the 10 days were losing days.(I was limited on time to trial the system because the system trial started from when the money was taken from my bank, I didn’t receive the system until a week later). The system gave me advised entry and exit signals over the 10 days for 87 trades, 63 of these were losing trades and produced a loss of £53. I did contact Ian Williams who offered no explanation to why the system was consistently providing losing trade signals. Within 3 days of using the system and trading on the advised signals I had already lost £119. Mr Williams advice was to be patient?!
The deal is that you consistently pay £97 a month plus to have use of the system. So its in Streetwise and Ian Williams interest to be patient isn’t it at £97 per month. I’m already £97 plus my losses out of pocket. Streetwise offered no return of my £97 and said that software wasn’t covered under the Sale of Goods Act and they would defend very strongly any claims?!
Now, I’m a fair man that expect other people to be fair that have taken my money under false pretences. You make your own judgement whether Streetwise and Ian Williams are honest people.
Their latest mailshot offers the “Ratchet System” for £127, knocked down from £497, but now with NO money back guarantee. Why? Because on the first mailing “we unearthed so many people with a “can’t do” or … “can’t be bothered to do” mentality! They had more “moaners and groaners as a pecentage of sales than ever before”.
So these customers who took up an offer on Streetwise’s terms are being slagged off for actually using the money back guarantee. Now they want people to fork out £127 with no guarantee whatsoever and without any hint at all of what the system is. I did a bit of internet research and found out that it is about betting on horse-racing. No wonder so many people returned it. You are either interested in horse racing or you are absolutely not; there is no grey area. The test of a good “bus opps” seller is whether they tell you what the business is in general terms. What they are selling is expertise in that business. “Send us £127 and we’ll tell you what the business is” should ring alarm bells.
The other thing to be aware of is that when you order a product if you sign up to their magazine it is renewed automatically by Direct Debit without any renewal notice. I call this “inertia marketing”. The magazine costs £119 a year.