Smart Living Company - 5 Reasons Not to Join
Smart Living Company, or previously known as Specialty Merchandise Corporation has amassed a widespread negative reputation throughout the internet since its inception in 1954. Thousands of users have complained about the practices of this company through varies outlets such as Scam.com, RipoffReport, and many others. If you were to read every single complaint lodged against this company, you would likely have to spend every single moment of your day going through them and it may still not be enough. Time is money and therefore in this article, we will consolidate the 5 most common complaints and summarize the main downfalls of the Smart Living Company in order to fully inform you of what you are getting yourself into. It is possible that the recent name change may be an attempt to disassociate from the past negative reviews, but make no mistake, Smart Living Company is the very same company as Specialty Merchandise Corporation.
#5 - There is too much competition to be successful.
Basically, the idea behind Smart Living Company is to choose a product that you want to sell from their selection of over 2,000 products and then price it at a higher cost than what you have purchased it for. They encourage you to sell it to your friends, at parties, or through websites like eBay or Amazon. Now, the problem is that they have been around since 1954 and they already have launched over 2.5 million home based businesses. That means that the traditional outlets that they have recommended you to go through already have their products being listed, so you will face tough competition from your peers. You will not have a steady source of income because the money that you make is commission based and if you cannot find a consistent outlet where you sell these products, then you are out of luck. This is not the biggest problem, many users have reported that many of the stuff that they offer can be found on Amazon usually at the same price. Sometimes, you may get charged fees for single purchases that will put you above the Amazon pricing so it may be more expensive than your purchasing cost at the Smart Living Company. Some users report having Smart Living Company products filling up their house that they cannot sell more than what they paid for them. The competition is tough especially when everyone is selling these Smart Living Company products. Profits are nil as well. The way that they train you is to sell through the certain venues and since they teach all their members to sell through these venues, you can fully expect it to be saturated and you have a hard time making more money than the equivalent amount of time spent working at a minimal wage job.
#4 - You will have to pay to join.
The problem with paying to join is that you have to already invest your hard earned dollars into the program before knowing whether or not it is a fit for you. The specific information regarding the program is not made public, so you will not know the details without paying a fee. The membership is offered in a gold and a silver plan. The gold plan is a one time payment of $299.95 whereas the silver plan is a initial payment of $24.95 and 11 monthly payments of $39.95, which works out to be $164.45 more than the gold plan. So without knowing whether or not this program is for you, you already have to shell out this much money to join. In addition, there are also additional fees, and services that they will try to upsell you on. There are also a lot of hidden costs involved. Users report that they require to purchase new catalogs ($45-50) annually, which is another added expense. Some users report that upon first joining there is only a limited selection of products joined and for additional causes (several users reported $5,100), you can have access to further products to sell on the product. The take home message is that do not except the monthly payments or the one time payments for a silver or gold plan to be the end of it. There will be additional changes for using their services and this cuts away at any profit you may have earned.
#3 - It is very difficult to get a refund. Many users reported unauthorized charges on their credit cards.
The Smart Living Company says that you can cancel your account for a refund within a 30 day period. However, they do not tell you that you cannot cancel your account at all after 30 days. Users have reported that they will still continue to bill you even if you tell them not to. So you will be stuck paying the entire amount monthly. If you cancel your credit card, they will send the collection agency over you. Their exact refund policy is as follows:
4. Cancellation. If you cancel your membership within 30 days of joining SMC, you may be eligible for a refund of your membership fees (excluding shipping and handling). Call toll free 1-877-523-9088 for eligibility and cancellation instructions.
The policy is unclear and you may not even get a refund at all. Users have reported that there is no cash refund that they issue. Instead, they refund the account in the merchandise credit to purchase more products from them. This credit is usually good for one year. So the bottom line is that you will not get your money back if you follow the 30 day period and qualify for a refund. They will force you to be further into their business by having you sell their products so you can use that money to get your money back. Further creating a dependence on them. Is this something that you want to be doing?
#2 - They will try to up sell additional services.
Disguised as coaches that will offer you valuable information on how to succeed, they will try to sell you additional services and profit off you. These are actually sales people that are pretending to be coaches. There will be a bunch of calls from marketers under the pretense of helping you succeed when in actual fact, they will try to sell you some service and make it sound good and give you false hope and then you are out thousands of dollars. There are plenty of reports of users trying to get their thousands of dollars that they have invested into the company back with no luck whatsoever. People have reported getting calls from a "business coach" after ordering the kit. Initially, the users have thought that they had good intentions and wanted them to be successful, but they are really shifty salesmans that try to sell you a bill of goods. Users have reported that the sales people that they employ are great at doing their job. They acknowledge that you want to make money badly and offer this miracle solution for $595. They offer to make a website for you for that amount. Then you have another coach that says that this website will not sell and you will have to upgrade it for an additional $5000. The bottom line is that they try to squeeze money from you everywhere when you do not have the money to begin with. Users report that they do not care about your success at all and many users suspect that they get commission for every sale that they make to you. Because of their shady refund practices, you will likely lose a lot of money if you choose to embark on this adventure.
#1 - It's just not worth it.
This is not as simple as it sounds. They make it seem like it's very easy and everyone including their grandmother can do it. The point is that what you become is a travelling salesperson. You live off the commissions that you earn from your sales and you have to pay lots of fees to the Smart Living Company which will eat away at your hard earned money. They tell you to advertise on Ebay or Amazon, but it is already saturated. They tell you to start your own website in which you have to pay for it, but how will you get traffic to your website? That's the difficult part. Getting traffic to your website takes a lot of money and further investment. This is not the approach to go if you want to make a supplemental income. Even if you have a lot of friends that you can sell your products to, that's only a limited number of people you can sell to. And think about your reputation and the strain that it causes to your friendships when you get desperate. Essentially you are profiting off your friends. If you decide to invest into this business, it will take a long time to gain a profit as you have to learn the business and this may very well put you in debt. Millions of people are trying to sell the same product online or in real life and you will have to figure out how to out compete them. There is no guarantee salary at all.
Instead, what I recommend is Project Payday.
Project Payday is an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau with an A rating, which is very rare for business opportunities. Project Payday is a very unique and effective method of making money online, in fact it is so effective, that they have a $100 guarantee that you will make money. To test how effective this system is, there is a test study of 14 students with no prior experience at making money from home whatsoever. This group on average made $200 to $2500 in 30 days. 13 out of the 14 participants made money. Only one person didn't because he did not truly participate n the system, but he was offered the $100 guarantee. I cannot reveal their exact system, but I don't need to. It's completely free to join currently.
To sign up, you just need to enter your first and last name, an email address and a password for your account. To learn the details and see Project Payday's official website, please visit here: Project Payday Official Site.
#5 - There is too much competition to be successful.
Basically, the idea behind Smart Living Company is to choose a product that you want to sell from their selection of over 2,000 products and then price it at a higher cost than what you have purchased it for. They encourage you to sell it to your friends, at parties, or through websites like eBay or Amazon. Now, the problem is that they have been around since 1954 and they already have launched over 2.5 million home based businesses. That means that the traditional outlets that they have recommended you to go through already have their products being listed, so you will face tough competition from your peers. You will not have a steady source of income because the money that you make is commission based and if you cannot find a consistent outlet where you sell these products, then you are out of luck. This is not the biggest problem, many users have reported that many of the stuff that they offer can be found on Amazon usually at the same price. Sometimes, you may get charged fees for single purchases that will put you above the Amazon pricing so it may be more expensive than your purchasing cost at the Smart Living Company. Some users report having Smart Living Company products filling up their house that they cannot sell more than what they paid for them. The competition is tough especially when everyone is selling these Smart Living Company products. Profits are nil as well. The way that they train you is to sell through the certain venues and since they teach all their members to sell through these venues, you can fully expect it to be saturated and you have a hard time making more money than the equivalent amount of time spent working at a minimal wage job.
#4 - You will have to pay to join.
The problem with paying to join is that you have to already invest your hard earned dollars into the program before knowing whether or not it is a fit for you. The specific information regarding the program is not made public, so you will not know the details without paying a fee. The membership is offered in a gold and a silver plan. The gold plan is a one time payment of $299.95 whereas the silver plan is a initial payment of $24.95 and 11 monthly payments of $39.95, which works out to be $164.45 more than the gold plan. So without knowing whether or not this program is for you, you already have to shell out this much money to join. In addition, there are also additional fees, and services that they will try to upsell you on. There are also a lot of hidden costs involved. Users report that they require to purchase new catalogs ($45-50) annually, which is another added expense. Some users report that upon first joining there is only a limited selection of products joined and for additional causes (several users reported $5,100), you can have access to further products to sell on the product. The take home message is that do not except the monthly payments or the one time payments for a silver or gold plan to be the end of it. There will be additional changes for using their services and this cuts away at any profit you may have earned.
#3 - It is very difficult to get a refund. Many users reported unauthorized charges on their credit cards.
The Smart Living Company says that you can cancel your account for a refund within a 30 day period. However, they do not tell you that you cannot cancel your account at all after 30 days. Users have reported that they will still continue to bill you even if you tell them not to. So you will be stuck paying the entire amount monthly. If you cancel your credit card, they will send the collection agency over you. Their exact refund policy is as follows:
4. Cancellation. If you cancel your membership within 30 days of joining SMC, you may be eligible for a refund of your membership fees (excluding shipping and handling). Call toll free 1-877-523-9088 for eligibility and cancellation instructions.
The policy is unclear and you may not even get a refund at all. Users have reported that there is no cash refund that they issue. Instead, they refund the account in the merchandise credit to purchase more products from them. This credit is usually good for one year. So the bottom line is that you will not get your money back if you follow the 30 day period and qualify for a refund. They will force you to be further into their business by having you sell their products so you can use that money to get your money back. Further creating a dependence on them. Is this something that you want to be doing?
#2 - They will try to up sell additional services.
Disguised as coaches that will offer you valuable information on how to succeed, they will try to sell you additional services and profit off you. These are actually sales people that are pretending to be coaches. There will be a bunch of calls from marketers under the pretense of helping you succeed when in actual fact, they will try to sell you some service and make it sound good and give you false hope and then you are out thousands of dollars. There are plenty of reports of users trying to get their thousands of dollars that they have invested into the company back with no luck whatsoever. People have reported getting calls from a "business coach" after ordering the kit. Initially, the users have thought that they had good intentions and wanted them to be successful, but they are really shifty salesmans that try to sell you a bill of goods. Users have reported that the sales people that they employ are great at doing their job. They acknowledge that you want to make money badly and offer this miracle solution for $595. They offer to make a website for you for that amount. Then you have another coach that says that this website will not sell and you will have to upgrade it for an additional $5000. The bottom line is that they try to squeeze money from you everywhere when you do not have the money to begin with. Users report that they do not care about your success at all and many users suspect that they get commission for every sale that they make to you. Because of their shady refund practices, you will likely lose a lot of money if you choose to embark on this adventure.
#1 - It's just not worth it.
This is not as simple as it sounds. They make it seem like it's very easy and everyone including their grandmother can do it. The point is that what you become is a travelling salesperson. You live off the commissions that you earn from your sales and you have to pay lots of fees to the Smart Living Company which will eat away at your hard earned money. They tell you to advertise on Ebay or Amazon, but it is already saturated. They tell you to start your own website in which you have to pay for it, but how will you get traffic to your website? That's the difficult part. Getting traffic to your website takes a lot of money and further investment. This is not the approach to go if you want to make a supplemental income. Even if you have a lot of friends that you can sell your products to, that's only a limited number of people you can sell to. And think about your reputation and the strain that it causes to your friendships when you get desperate. Essentially you are profiting off your friends. If you decide to invest into this business, it will take a long time to gain a profit as you have to learn the business and this may very well put you in debt. Millions of people are trying to sell the same product online or in real life and you will have to figure out how to out compete them. There is no guarantee salary at all.
Instead, what I recommend is Project Payday.
Project Payday is an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau with an A rating, which is very rare for business opportunities. Project Payday is a very unique and effective method of making money online, in fact it is so effective, that they have a $100 guarantee that you will make money. To test how effective this system is, there is a test study of 14 students with no prior experience at making money from home whatsoever. This group on average made $200 to $2500 in 30 days. 13 out of the 14 participants made money. Only one person didn't because he did not truly participate n the system, but he was offered the $100 guarantee. I cannot reveal their exact system, but I don't need to. It's completely free to join currently.
To sign up, you just need to enter your first and last name, an email address and a password for your account. To learn the details and see Project Payday's official website, please visit here: Project Payday Official Site.
Here's how the Project Payday user panel looks like once you have created an account
