Specialty Merchandise Corporation has been around for years.
SMC basically allows you to sell their products. You buy them low and try to sell them high. Specialty Merchandise Corporation has run ads in the back of small business magazines for years. They’ve also run quite a few infomercials. Part of the genius of SMC was who they chose to be their spokesman for the company. They chose Tom Bosley, the dad from the old sit com Happy Days. Tom is the perfect spokesman because he just looks like someone you can trust. After all, this guy played a strict dad on T.V. so it just makes sense that America trusts this guy. Choosing Tom Bosley was a very smart move.
SMC mostly specializes in giftware, jewelery, collectables and other general merchandise. They offer a lot of cute things for women to use and display around the house.
But there are several reasons why this type of home business is not the easiest to make a living with. The number one thing that bothers me about this type of business is the amount of competition. The second problem I have with this type of business is the lack of mark-up or low margins. It seems to me like you’d literally need to be the size of Wal-Mart to actually get wealthy using the SMC system.
SMC has recruited thousands of SMC vendors over the years and now there’s copy-cat type companies that do drop shipping that you’ll also have to compete with.
The self-replicating websites that SMC gives you are nice and easy, but the problem is from my experience, search engines don’t like replicated websites and usually don’t give them much page ranking if any. Search engines seem to strongly dislike duplicate websites. If you built your own SMC website from scratch, you’d probably do a lot better. But most big companies don’t like vendors building custom websites from scratch. Maybe SMC is different. I’ll have to ask them about it.
I think Specialty Merchandise Corporation is a very strong company that will be around for many years to come, but I still don’t think it’s an easy way to make money. if you email my autoresponder here it will send you an email about our top pick of all the business opportunities we’ve reviewed over the years (and no, it’s not mentioned anywhere on this site). It only sends one email response, so you won’t get spams or other emails from it. I’ve never heard complaints about the SMC product quality, but after so many years I haven’t heard a single person who made money selling them either.
There’s so much competition after years of informericals. To succeeed, your chances are better with a product that has no competitors, rather than marketing sofas or picture frames when thousands of others are selling the exact same goods. Shoot an email to our autoresponder above if you want to find a great example of this.
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About: : Jason Isaacson is an award winning author of books and courses on Internet marketing, including Millions At The Kitchen Table |
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Don’t waste your time, I have actually taken time before committing to this company to research it – what I found is that the business coach who was so willing to answer my questions the first time we spoke, has ignored me ever since, not returning phone calls or emails sans the first email I sent. When I called questioning the $1453.20 bill I received in the mail, since I only tried the 30 day free trial, the customer service rep told me it was merely a way to keep track of me and that I didn’t need to do anything with it. I was then charged $39.95 the next day or so. When I called questioning this, I was told it would be sent to another department where they would review the tape to see if I requested a refund, even though I did not use the words cancel, it was clear that I was questioning the bill and SMC doesn’t think I am worth $39.95 and will not refund it. The customer service rep whom I spoke to, had no skill, and basically lied to me several times through out the call – not trained in any manner but to say no – when I asked her to transfer me to a supervisor she told me she didn’t have one…. DON”T WASTE YOUR TIME
I got the kit on Feb.17,2010,refused it the same morning it was sent back to SMC still waiting for my refund of 214.95.I’ve been out of work for 7 weeks now and such a large corp.such as SMC they tell that have’nt received the package as of yet,I know in my heath that are lying.Who goes into this are asses just I was,I was a pure sucker looking to get rich quick sceem accualty this a real SCAM.An american based company screwing people over to back a buck,they should be turned into the United States Attorney General for scams and fraud. They add to there informercials that they are runing a scam form of bussiness and the the american people will beF–K over if they venture into there company.”DONT|”T WASTE YOUR TIME”
Hello,
I was considering this company for a try, but after some research and this post just top it off, this is just like any other “make yourself rich for nothing” scheme company, please don’t let this kind of businesses steal anymore of our money, STAY AWAY FROM THEM ALL!!!! doba.com is another one, salehoo, and a whole bunch I have tried but can not recollect at this moment..
please before you venture into these scams, research the company name in Google as “company name complaints” without the quotes and there you will get if it is a good thing or a scam, I have not been able to find a non scam in over 10 years, if you do, please let me know, Many Thanks!!!
ps, you can find the reaL COMPANY NAME BY READING THE AGREEMENTS YOU HAVE TO AGREED BEFORE GIVING UP YOUR HARD EARN CASH!!
I signed up with SMC in 1998 for the lifetime membership and when I didn’t buy the spring and fall brochures, SMC cut me off and didn’t even bother to tell me. I found out when I tried logging into their website to get to my account and couldn’t login. The nerve of them. They never mentioned that you must get the brochures when they are available in order to keep your membership going. I thought paying the $299 was all you had to pay. They are liars and scammers. Tom Bosley can’t be trusted. He’s just an actor. He gets paid to fool people. Don’t trust SMC.
I’ve been researching SMC to find out if it is a company I can do business with. I’ve been in business for a few years in another industry. I am looking at SMC as second income stream.
After reading some comments on this site I will be doing a lot more research before I decide.
But… there are some comments that don’t make much sense. It seems like some people don’t have any business experience. One guy orders a package and refuses it before he can even get started? Then calls the company a scam? There may be some legit customer service grips here but some of you seem like your not very business savvy to begin with. Some people shouldn’t be in any business let alone SMC.
why in the world can’t this guy be stopped after 60 years of getting 300.00 dollars a pop well add it up i think there is probably some law he is breaking if someone could steer me in the right direction i would be willing to bring criminal charges.
I talked to them today and after much presssure (good sales techniques) I agreed to try the silve (starter), then after giving all info, I was pressured inot the Gold (again good sales tecniques) and I did it. Then another rep got on and tried to talk me inot the Platinum! After listenin to her, what I understood from the first rep was not true. You do not get a $300 coupon but a $100. It is a $300 retail value. I was told that after the $300, my pmt would only be the $15 shipping. Turns out it is a $215 investment. I tyold her I am cancelling now. 20 minutes later, they called back and this time pressure and another high powered rep tries to force it. i had to tell him I was going to hang up when I count to 3, he did not listen, so I counted and hung up. it sound like a big scam where the company makes money from startups and selling you catalogs.
This has been around for at least 60 years. I tried it in the early sixties waaaaay before we had PCs or lap-tops. It didn’t cost much then since minimum wage was only $1.00 per hour. They sent me a few merchandise samples (which were pure junk) to try to sell door-to-door. It has been so long ago that I don’t even recall how much I sent them but it was only a few bucks. After seeing the crap they expected me to sell, I gave it all to neighborhood children, bowed out and never heard from them again. I had no idea they were still around until I saw this ad online. My advice – RUN, run fast away from this junk peddler and don’t look back.
I have used SMC for many years and purchased the products and took the to swap meets and made about 400 dollars a weekend for many years. The products are decent if you can figure out what people will buy. Many do not wish to hang out and sell stuff like this and SMC offers many ways for you to make money. I let my memebership laps and they are willing to let you restart for the purchase of the next years books. I must say my only complaint has been that like the person who posted earlier I signed up for a lifetime membership and it stinks to have to keep on paying. Oh well if its worth it to you then do it. It has made me a good bit of extra change here and there but I am not getting rich off of it anytime soon.
I myself do not believe this to be a scam, but it is not a get rich over night deal. you have to work with it and make it work for you. yes the stuff you get is kinda junk, however there are some good things there. but then when you look at any nick-knack shop most the stuff is junk. I tried it a few years ago, my problem was that I did not have the resources to get out and do what was needed to make the money and the sales now i have the means to get out and get the stuff sold I just don’t have the means to get the stuff to sell now, funny how life works. You need to spend money to make money, and this is no different. But please do yourself a favor and research the company and ALL the ways you can do it not just one. don’t just read the Scam reports, if this company has been in business for over 60 years and still have not had charges filed on them then something has to be legit somewhere…
I purchased an SMC membership three years ago, the payment plan worked well. I chose the bare minimum, no website etc.. For the 39.95 a year renewal, I can order that many products for my own use or gifts to make that up. If I had more time to invest, I could make more money, just be careful which products you order, some I’ve been very pleased with, some not so much. Having worked in retail, the same can be said for them. I’ve sold several products on e-bay with no complaints. You get what you put into it. Shipping costs are high but I can’t really blame SMC for that.
Hello
I need to know a little bit extra about SMC.
Hope to here from you soon
Regards
SAYEED
Hello
I learnt about SMC from search engine of Customerservicejobs.com
Since I may get some extra money by utilising time why not try it.Thats what motivated me
If I get more information about smc and its procedures it would be easier me in near future to follow up
Thanks
With best Regards
SAYEED
If enough people would report them to the BBB and be consistent, then maybe. There is power in numbers and if everyone gathered their complaints and filtered them through the proper channels then something could be done
I signed up with SMC in 2000 for the lifetime membership and when I didn’t buy the spring and fall brochures, SMC cut me off and didn’t even bother to tell me. I myself do not believe this to be a scam, but it is not a get rich over night deal. you have to work with it and make it work for you. yes the stuff you get is kinda junk, however there are some good things there. I was considering this company for a try, but after some research and this post just top it off, this is just like any other “make yourself rich for nothing” scheme company, please don’t let this kind of businesses steal anymore of our money.
I have been trying to cancel my membership for weeks and I still keep getting billed. I have already sent back the package. I have called 3 times to cancel and thought it was concelled. What is going on. I cannot reach a live person.
I started with SMC back in the 80′s and never had a problem. I sold directly to customers, from catalogs and at fairs and festivals. I made decent money and my family had fun together. I never saw an ad where they claimed you could get rich quick!