Bizbox VIP And TopRankPros Are A Scam? Yes They Are In My Opinion.
Here is the video presentation and claims they make on their site.
Top Rank Pros/Bizbox has been in business since 2011.
After this review, they have hidden their pricing and have adjusted how they handle hosting and their FAQ.
Their office is a virtual office in Silicon Valley.
955 Benecia Ave, Sunnyvale California 94085
http://theofficeofsiliconvalley.com/contact/
Here are a few of their web addresses:
http://www.toprankpros.com/
http://buybizbox.com/
http://thebizinabox.com/
BizBox clearly communicates that they do not hire people to sell their products, but they are running fake hiring/job offers under different names.
Here is how these job offers have worked in the past.
1. There is a 1 1/2 hour webinar which is entered into by posting on job search websites (e.g. Craigslist)
http://www.laborforcenow.com/
http://toprankpros.com/career.php
http://therockstarjob.com/
2. 95% of the webinar aims to get the participants to sign up for programs that cost $199-997 up front and $99-299 a month.
Here are the programs they would sell to sales people and “Entrepreneurs”.
Silver Edition
$199.99 to start and 30 days later $99.99/Monthly
Gold Edition For Sales Pros
$299.99 to start and 30 days later $99.99/Monthly
VIP Edition For Entrepreneurs
$399.99 to start and 30 days later $99.99/Monthly
Enterprise For Big Players
$997 to start and 30 days later $299/Monthly
– Source 2013 http://buybizbox.com/
Recently they changed the pricing and switched to selling the VIP and Enterprise packages only.
3. If they are unable to sell you a distributorship, they will collect your resume and pass it on to one of the people that did purchase the distributorship. They tell you that they will provide regular sales resumes for your distributorship. They come from these webinars.
Here is a link to one of their old presentations on their Bizbox site which clearly links them with Top Rank Pros. You will love the Tony with a baseball bat example that is given at the end of the presentation. It gives it that something special.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130405140118/http://bizboxvip.com
They use fake mobile examples to promote their work.
http://bizboxvip.com/ourmobilesites.php
http://themoth.org/ Added Mobile Site After My Review
http://www.the-sitting-room.com/ Does Not Look The Same As Their Example
Click Here To See The Sitting Room On A Mobile Device
http://www.smartcool.net/ Does Not Look The Same As Their Example
Click Here To See Smart Cool On A Mobile Device
http://www.smr-construction.com/ Does Not Look The Same As Their Example
Click Here To See SMR Construction On A Mobile Device
http://vac-it-all.com/ No Mobile Site
Click Here To See Vac It All On A Mobile Device
– Tested On Android Browser and Android Firefox Browser
Here is my first conversation I had with their chat help. They verify that the mobile sites listed on their website are their work.
Bizbox: I will be happy to assist you with any questions that you might have.
James: Check on pricing
Bizbox: Sure James. What’s the best number to reach you? I’ll go over it with you real quick.
James: I just want to check on one quick thing. What is the cost of hosting the website you create.
Bizbox: Are you referring to the website you would receive from us? Or the websites your customers would receive from you?
James: The website I would receive.
Bizbox: Hosting providers are very inexpensive…usually a few dollars per month. We suggest hosting providers in the first few training videos.
You’ll want to sign up and watch those videos asap, then pick your hosting provider.
James: Do I use different providers for the websites I sell?
Bizbox: No. Your clients will have a hosting provider, this something they will handle.
You won’t have to worry about that.
Does that make sense?
James: Yes. Thank you for your assistance.
Bizbox: Of course. It only takes about 5-6 minutes to get signed up…. I assume you’re ready to get going.
James: One last thing. I wanted to check an example of your work. Do you have a URL I can see?
Bizbox: Yes. Hold on one sec
James: Thanks
Bizbox: Take a look at this: inceptionwebdesign.com
James: Are the sites listed here examples of your work as well http://bizboxvip.com/ourmobilesites.php
Bizbox: Yes, absolutely.
James: Perfect thank you very much.
Bizbox: No, problem. What’s the best number to give you a call real quick and we’ll get you signed up.
James: I have to do a little more research. Have a great day.
Bizbox wholesale pricing is not competitive with other companies retail pricing.
They claim their primary mobile websites can be sold for $1000.
BizBox charges you wholesale $200 per mobile website with a $15 a month maintenance fee.
Adding mobile capabilities to your website is automatic for over 18.9 percent of the web which is running WordPress.
You are competing against companies that offer custom mobile websites for $9.99 per month like Duba.
Comparable venders cost far less and offer far more than BizBox http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/convert-websites-for-mobile-devices-part-2/
Here is the most recent pricing for joining this business opportunity.
VIP $599.99 to start and 30 days later $125.00/Monthly
Enterprise $997.99 to start and 30 days later $299.00/Monthly
Zero Hidden Fees!
If you want a domain and email for your website you will need to pay extra fees for your own hosting.
Q: Do you set us up for our domain name and web host and is that included in the price?
A: You are responsible for the purchase of your own domain name we do not furnish this. We also highly suggest members purchase their own hosting as it gives them the ability to have unlimited emails. We offer setup instructions to help with this these are extremely low costs.
Q: What about hosting? Will you host my site?
A: Yes indeed we will host your website, however we do not provide email with our hosting. You are free to purchase hosting from any outside company and we will cooperate in helping to set it up. However most opt to purchase their own hosting.
– Source http://bizboxvip.com/faq.php
For the price you pay they put you in potential legal danger unless you contact a lawyer and verify that the information they provide you is correct for the area you are located in. They make this clear in their EARNINGS & INCOME DISCLAIMERS.
USE CAUTION AND SEEK THE ADVICE OR QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS. CHECK WITH YOUR ACOUNTANT, LAWYER OR PROFESSIONAL ADVISOR, BEFORE ACTING ON THIS OR ANY INFORMATION.
http://bizboxvip.com/earnings-transcribed.php
Refund Policy
They offer a mixed message about refunds. On their FAQ page (They have password protected this now.) they say “Because we invest time in developing your custom website and you get to keep your website, there are no refunds.” On their Terms page they say something different.
If you are dissatisfied at any time during the first 24 hours after purchasing BizBox, delete all digital video, audio, and text files you obtained from us. You will be entitled to a refund of 50% of the set-up fee. Please send an email to support@bizboxvip.com to request your refund. You will receive 50% of the set – up fee. That’s a firm promise and commitment. There will be no refunds after 3 days from the date of purchase. There are no refunds on the monthly subscriptions.
http://bizboxvip.com/terms.php
Conclusion
In my opinion Bizbox is a scam organization that is trying to get you to signup and pay $599.99 – $997.99. They will keep 50% on day 1 and after three days they will keep all the money. If you do stay longer they will keep any monthly fees you pay. In your very first conversation with them they are going to try and pressure you into signing-up without doing your research. You are paying them for the training and tools to sell their products. You should never pay to be a sales person for any company. No matter how much they want to call you an “Entrepreneur”. Watch the following video from the FTC and see how much you find in common with Bizbox and the examples they present.
Enter your email address and join 24,000 people who get the latest Scam Busting info!
Almost got snagged on this..Glad I took the time to read the reviews. Guess it’s back to work tomorrow.
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Its a scam! I was a partner with Rocket Driver for a while, longer than I should have been. I bought into the whole idea, used their business model to try and build my own business. Their method of sales involves cold calling, you know, because that works so well in 2017. They act like they have their own technology and their own platform, and lie to their partners about it constantly. They build their sites on Duda.co – I started building my own sites and designing / developing my client’s websites on duda once I discovered this, and no longer pay Rocket Driver $500 – $1000 per site to develop the websites. I can do it cheaper for the client than if I had them develop it, make more money and have more control over the process. They say they take care of everything, all the development, but I still had to produce images, the images had to be formatted correctly, produce content, provide instructions for layouts, with all that work, it was easier to just do it myself anyway.
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I just want to say thank you. I read some of the top 5 comments and the commentors point out the same red flags I was looking at. Thanks again for your awesome post : ) You saved me!
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Red Flag #1 – Most of their presentation shows red Ferrari’s and promises you BIG Money, “set your own hours”,
“work from anywhere”, “you sell, we do all the work”!! Sounds too good to be true right!?!
Red Flag #2 – They say they would “never ask you to pay for a job as a sales person”, but they have no problem asking you to pay BIG Money to be a “Partner”. And of course, they present it to you so you’d have to be an idiot to want to just be a sales rep as opposed to being an “entrepreneur”.
Red Flag # 3 – They present to you that the best way to make serious money is to have 5 or more sales reps working for (under) you. This will bring you “override commissions” (a multi level marketing term for commissions earned from the people you bring into the organization that work under you.)
So let’s review….. Big money, work from home or anywhere, set your own hours.
You have to pay a hefty up-front fee, then a monthly fee.
And to be successful, you should have a down-line of sales reps under you.
If it walks like an MLM, and talks like an MLM, IT’S an MLM!!!
Signs of a Multi Level Marketing scheme;
1) Pay an up-front fee to advance up the chain right out of the gate. (Become a Distributor!!!)
2) Buy products monthly. Or, in this case just pay them monthly, no real products needed.
3) Have a down-line to be successful. All this really does is sucker more people into their scam!!
Analysis: Save your money, save yourself a lot of time and frustration. Don’t get involved in this!!
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I wish I would have read this earlier. I bought into them about 2-3 years ago, I was so excited but I could not keep up with the $100/month fee, and they were not answering my questions sufficiently, so I bailed- minus the 500+ dollars I had already spent. Keep up the good investigative work Ethan. We win some & lose some then press forward. Good luck to everyone out there looking for the right opportunities!
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I might also add that I agree it is not the best business opportunity out there for the mobile technology market, based on the quality of the sites, the price of hosting, what you receive for what you pay. The owners are great at sales, I think if they had products and services that were high quality & properly priced they would have better quality success & more of it. I think its on the border of a Scam/Low Quality & High Cost business opportunity.
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Hi Henry, I just listened to their pitch and they quoted me that my cost on a website (for my customers) would be $50 each plus $15/month or $250 each and I create and keep any monthly fee to the customers myself. Does that sound the same as what you were doing? If so, why weren’t you able to sell at least one site a month to cover the cost? Just asking, because it does seem pretty easy when you listen to their pitch.
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Labor force now has been contacting me via email to try and get me to work for them. They won’t give details about their company. Are they legit? They say they have never changed their name and have been in business for 5 years. They also claim that the articles saying they are a scam are only created to drive personal profits for the writers of the article (such as this one) to further promote wealthy affiliate and such… Is that true?
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They are not legit in my opinion. My article was created to help you avoid being scammed. You can use the information or not it is up to you. I do not promote any individual business opportunity.
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Thank you !
I listened to part of their presentation while I was reading your site.
You save over a hour of my time in a 1.5 hr presentation with ED Kelly!
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You are very welcome.
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If its such a scam how is it that 2 and a half years later they are still in business and have not been shut down? Just saying.
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My original review was of BizboxVIP. Their website is no longer active.
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OK..thanks for the info Ed…you know..I’m not quite sure if the word scam exactly applies to these guys as much as the concept of just a lousy company and ill planned and stupid business model. And of course there’s a difference. I’m not suggesting that ANYONE should consider this company at all, but the word scam implies intentional illegal activity which I’m not sure I see them committing.
I mean they are providing the services they promote to their “partners”, the problem is is that their services are shoddy and low end and meet the minimum of standards…just enough to get by.
I appreciate your reviews and read them often and appreciate your research very much-just thought I’d chime in……
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Wow! I was bought hook line and sinker but decided to do some research before purchasing. Thank you!
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You are very welcome.
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Thx for waking us up. Preying upon desperate people is the worst of the worst!
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Rocket Driver is a Scam… Period.
It is a front to get your upfront & monthly fee.
Their business depends on new ‘entrepreneurs’ to join.
The website design market is so saturated it is very hard to get new clients.
Check your local ads for webdesigners providing services. There are hundreds of them.
Many will do them for next to nothing, and that’s not counting the one’s in India.
So many tools are available online now as well, even for free, for the average person to design their own website.
Rocket Driver promises that you will be able to charge customers thousands of dollars for something the average person can do themselves.
Rocket Driver’s business model is to get new ‘partners’ to pay monthly fees, & have them run ragged for basically nothing. Then insist the ‘partners’ try different strategies to create clients. The market is saturated, and the salespeople they offer you have resumes with content like; “ I remove pizza from the oven to ensure freshness”.
The salespeople offered do not have any technical experience or sales capability.
The only responded to ads claiming you will make $2000 to $10,000 a week on craigslist.
If you are looking for a job & need money, PLEASE don’t get yourself discouraged getting sucked into this scam.
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Hi Peter, How long were you a rep for the company and what was your experience with trying to get clients?
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As I was listening to Ed Kelly’s “Live” presentation something sounded fishy about the sound – almost as though audio was snipped and edited together. I have a Chrome browser extension that let’s me download certain videos from web sites that host them. So about 4 minutes into the “live presentation” I clicked the extension button and sure enough, the 41 min. MP4 video downloaded to my computer to allow me offline listening enjoyment for years to come! I just thought that if they’re going to be this deceptive from my very first interaction with them, (implying it’s a live presentation) it’s just a sure sign of other dishonest things to come. I’m so glad I found your site, Ethan. I was kind of looking forward to this opportunity in the hours leading up to the presentation. Now I’m glad I didn’t waste my time or money.
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I was just about to watch their webinar. Since I had about 45 minutes before it started, I decided to do a little research. I tried looking for reviews for Laborforce Now! I couldn’t really find any information at all. This was the first red flag that went up. The only company I could find with this name was a moving company in Camarillo, CA. I am thankful that my search led me to this site before I wasted an hour and a half watching their webinar.
THANK YOU
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You are very welcome.
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I am known globally for testing mobile apps and mobile websites. I was looking for a part time job and found this listing. I listened to the webinar because it intrigued me. I knew right away there was a problem because there is no way to come up with “custom websites” in 24 hrs. Oh but later in the webinar Ed Kelly says it takes /Rocket Driver a few days to develop a website. And it doesn’t matter the platform? Uh yes it does! There’s a reason why there are mobile websites and desktop versions of websites. You don’t want your website to look like it can’t fill out a desktop screen if you have space. It didn’t take me long to figure out this was a scam but I decided to look further just to see what others were saying. I felt it was important to respond to this review. Buyer beware! Learn from software testers, post on twitter with hashtagging keywords. There ware loads of us on Twitter who will help!
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So this is a scam my gut was right but my heart wanted it to be wrong. I have been in sales for many years and didn’t buy in to that it would be easy. I read their disclaimer and got nervous I was about to do it. Then I saw that they take no responsibility if the website you sell does not work they don’t stand behind it is what i read, and legally I would be liable to the companies I was selling to. So It would be my butt on the line not theirs if the job was not done right. You can’t give your customer that guarantee of good work. But there sales pitch is very good I almost bought it. I am glad I also decided to do some research because it seemed to good to be true. Its so scary just trying to find a legit business opportunity to earn a living.
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I along with many others with years of sales experience as top producers as Kimberly and reading this ad OMG, doesn’t it sound like what we’ve all been waiting for, right? A glorified ad if I have ever seen one! I actually came across this ad about 7 months ago and yes you could be an account executive and pay nothing. Not a chance and if that’s what you want they will drop you and go on to the ones that will come up with their hard earned dough and they weren’t getting mine. Hard indeed it is to find legit business opportunity on line and now I ALWAYS check with Ethan Vanderbuilt to see what he has to say. Only wish I had known about him sooner. Thank you Ethan!
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I looked at the laborforcenow.com website that Rocket Driver uses to handle hiring of their sales reps and they claim to have done business with several well known companies they list on their home page. Funny thing is when you click on Contact link or jobs link it takes you to Rocket Driver webinar sign up page. I called the number at top left of their site and there is a recording that says you have reached laborforcenow and to press 1 if you are responding about the job or 2 if you are interested in their services. If you press 1 it says to go to their site and send in resume or if you sent resume they will contact you but they are not taking messages due to the large amount of responses. When you press 2 it says all reps are busy and to leave a message. I left a message and will update this thread if I get a call back.
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Thank you for doing that.
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I am listiing to it now, they have a pro team!!! they are backed by google… I thought about it, thank you for this, And they say we never will ask a sales person for money, but to be your own boss, then this is a cheap investment for you to be your own boss, we will give you sales people, that is what they are trying to sell you on, not to be a sales rep
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LOL…..They are “NOT” backed by Google!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks Ethan i was listening to ED as I read point for point on this post. You rock I am laughing. Great scam!
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You are very welcome.
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