Inventory Source Inventory Source is a complete scammer and a rip off Internet

If there were any complaints at all, someone whould have registered them with the Better Business Bureau. Nothing there. Anyone can moan and complain, so it's total hearsay and personal opinion. But if someone reports it to the BBB and they investigate (for you for free) and nothing gets stated, then doesn't it sound fishy that there's no complains there and yet complains here? Personally, (any they'll probably take this off or not post it at all) I think this site is just trying to sell some other service. I hate that.

I have been doing a lot of research and investigation over the past year or two on e-commerce websites. I started with an interest in learning how e commerce sites were developed. I then got the idea that I would like to try online selling. After developing a ‘Weebly’ drag and drop style web site and sourcing some products I realized that the concept was more easily contemplated than accomplished. I purchased a membership at the top ‘drop ship and wholesale provider database’ on the net and began my drop ship queries. So on I went with inquiries and account set ups. After finding a few good companies to sell with I moved on to step two, product upload. This is where the reality of online store management set in.  I began uploading and describing each product one by one. After a week I quit. My supplier had 15,000 plus products and it was just not realistic. In my frustration I sent an e mail stating that I appreciated the opportunity to represent their products but I just did not have the time for data entry of this scale. Soon after I received an e mail by a representative who told me that they are affiliated with a service that can help me upload my products and manage my inventory. I was not advertised to or harangued, just told about a company who could help me out. I made a phone call to Inventory Source; I got the voice message, left my number and received a call back from one of the owners. On a side note, I can say I am happy they still handle calls in house and give you their personal attention rather than outsource to a company. I was told about the product feeds and monthly price for their service (not a fee to do business with them). This is where I believe the misunderstanding has developed about what Inventory Source does. I told them I wanted automation and mentioned that I was not very handy at web development. They told me that they offered a website package with a Zen cart template for about the same price, and it may be a good option since I am not much of a developer. I have now had a nice site with full integration and stock updates daily for the past 6 months. I can also use the web development team at my leisure by sending a simple e mail. Almost all my requests for help with my site are completed without any questions. They will even add complicated zen cart add on’s for a fee unheard of in the web design business. I have full control over who I want as my supplier and what I want to charge. The only thing I am responsible for is marketing my site and managing my payments. No one but a rip off artist will show you a hand full of cash and say, “sign here and you’ll be able to sit home and quit your day job”. Inventory source has gone above and beyond anything I ever expected of them and I am a very demanding individual. I did not want to chime in here but I wanted to set the record straight. I will be the first guy to tell you that someone is out to rip you off; but I will also speak up when I feel there is unwarranted or overly critical claims made against someone or someone’s business.  This is not a company that is out to prey on hapless victims or naïve beginners. They never promised me anything except that my site will be fully automated, and I can e mail support at any time. They have a group of suppliers that they automate, and I am sure if you have your own site with a supplier who is willing to work with them, they will automate them too. I want to sum this up by saying that no one will hand you a push button site, and send you on the road to riches, and any of these other scam sites out there that promise that are liars. If that’s what is desired you would have a better chance digging for gold. Selling anything is hard work and takes a diligence and drive that not everyone possesses, especially on the internet. But if you want to have the opportunity to have a nice store, with numerous inventory options to choose from, and updated stock and new products every single day for far less than the average cell phone bill; I would say Inventory Source is a great place to start. They have been nothing but fair to me.

I indicated on April 5th on this website that Inventorysource.com was a scam.  I have subsequently come to find out that not only are they an honest company but they go out of their way to make a customer happy.
I truly regret filing the original report.  I was very hasty in my judgement and give them a AAAA+ rating.
My apologies to the principles and employees of inventroysource.com.

I am sorry for your confusion.  If you read the posts above you from us it should be clear how we work.  Also, we talk about it on all content pages on our external site, on our internal site, and all over our support blog. http://www.wholesale-dropship-source.com/

It should be clear on the first page of the blog as well, but we have multiple posts about how to find a supplier, how to get setup with a supplier or what they need for their application, as well as a section for people new to IS. 

However, the main site makes what we do very clear as well, even the main page graphics about finding the suppliers or the pages on product sourcing.  Also, when you log into your free account, we have a large "Step 1- Find Suppliers" in bold which goes directly to the directory of all of the suppliers in the network.  Along with this directory is the supplier details summary on each supplier which includes their contact details, policies, and their reseller application form.

Also, when you first register at IS...before you can even log in we send you a summary guide of our services where we mention how we help you find suppliers that your work with directly and how we help manage the data.  It is almost exhaustive how much we cover what we do and how we work and that one of the biggest values of your free account at IS is that you can find real suppliers that you go to directly, apply for, and can order from while we are here to support your product data management needs.

To be clear there is NOTHING on our site that says we "represent" the suppliers or that you can order products from us.  Actually, it is quite the opposite.  We tell you how you can avoid all of the scams out there or even middlemen programs like Doba or Shopster and work with the real suppliers directly.  All of this is also being provided to our members with their free account access.  I am not sure why you would say with all of the things we are providing you for free and all of the ways we try to make things clear that we are "crooks" but it is more than insulting and frustrating.

Again, one of the BIGGEST values of using IS is that we in no way pretend to be the supplier.  We tell you the only way you the only way you can do well with ecommerce is to start right and that means finding a real and trusted supplier source for your products.

We are the largest dropship data solution provider.  We have integrations with a large network of suppliers.  You can go to many of the suppliers integrated in our network and see our name and logo directly on their main page or posted in their members area.  Just this week we have one of our suppliers who is promoting our hosted site options and automation services at a major industry trade show.  I have had a call today from the CEO of one of our outdoor suppliers complementing IS on all of the ways we have helped grow their member network and support their resellers.  Last week, I met with one of the marketing heads of one of our international distributors who told us how much better the IS resellers are with getting setup more quickly and are selling the majority of their products compared to other resellers in their network.  I have the owner of another distributor that was trying to get a few of our employees to fly out to CA to do some employee training and help with some training videos for their reseller members. 

We also have a few suppliers where we have completed the integration with their feed and fully support their reseller members, but they prefer not to have a direct or open relationship.

We have direct and fully supported relationships with some of the largest distributors in North America.  Also, many of these suppliers have multiple people working for them. Some of multiple offices and may even add new employees from time to time.  With some of these suppliers our team might work directly with the CEO, CTO, or a VP on the eCommerce Department or some other specialized person. Many of which have written direct testimonials on our site.  We are happy to have a call with as many people as needed at a supplier, but again, some companies may have several hundred or several thousand employees depending on their size.  Also, even if we had the option to train every single employee at the firm about the value of our integration to them and to the resellers, it is possible that the day you call you might get an employee who is new and has not yet been informed of the integration.

Again, the point is we do 100% exactly what we say.  We have also done this for over 10 years.  We never say we "represent" our supplier partners.  We have very, very, very close relationships with the vast number of the integrated suppliers.  Many of these suppliers when you go to their site or create an account or call in will directly tell you to use our service.  We also have some suppliers that prefer a more hands off approach.  We respect that.  They provide the feed and they do not formally promote or recommend our service.  We still are able to capture that data every day and provide it in any format you need based on your account settings.

If you are confused about ANYTHING or unhappy in any way, just open a support ticket so we know who you are and we can cancel and refund your account in full.  If you would like to schedule a call instead of an email, just let us know the number we can reach you on and the time so we can book a specific call with you during office hours.

Regarding your comments about "calls go to voice mail".   We are not a massive phone farm.  Most of the people you talk to at IS are specialized on the development work, design work, file and feed programming and more.  You get to talk with someone that can help you with your issue and not just a sales rep.  Calls go direct to a live team member during business hours.  However, if our team is currently supporting members we have 2 options.  We can leave you on hold or you just leave a VM and your number so we can call you back.  You can also schedule a call.  We have calls that are 2mins or 60mins so we cannot estimate the hold time, because we support our members on multiple issues.  We find it annoying to wait on hold, so we dont allow this option.  We feel the best approach if we are helping other users is for you to call once, leave your number, we call them back in order.  We don't have an option for you to hit the 0 key for an "operator" because an operator cannot address any questions on your account.  They can just tell you that everyone is currently helping other members, which we feel is made clear with the VM message. 

Regarding, "The company has no contact address information on their website and there is no way of locating them."  We have our phone number and email on our site and signatures.  We place the address in the terms section of the site.  We also provide location details on our about us section.  Our office address is not posted on our main page, because we do not have people mailing us anything since our services are digital.  We try to save the content on our site for explaining the value we bring and the services we provide, but some of that seems lost when you reviewed the content and for that I am sorry.

I am a little surprised by your post, especially because some of it was already addressed in the comments on this exact site by ourselves and other members posting here.  Also, after the exhaustive level of detail we cover on our primary site, on our support and training site, on our internal site and guides, and graphics, as well as on the details we send you before you can access your account...I am a little shocked that a call to a rep who simply might not be familiar yet with our services has caused you to call us a "scam"....especially because we devote significant portions of the content on our site to helping our members avoid the very thing you are accusing us of being.

If you have ANY questions, please, provide us your name and contact details for a call.  You can ask for Andrew if you like and I will call you directly myself, but anyone on the team can help provide you more details on how we work.  We are also happy to cancel your subscriptions and refund your card on file.  We have been in business for over 10 years helping thousands of resellers, we know that we might find one or two from time to time that do not see the value, and we are always happy to address that or simply help close your account.  We want our members to be happy with the solutions we provide.  We know the value we bring, and we are happy to explain that to our members as well at any time.

They say they represent wholesalers and for a subscriber fee they give you access to their inventories and let you drop ship from the wholesalers.  It is bogus.  I subscribed to one of the wholesalers and it turns out they do not drop ship and they never heard of inventorysource,com. They are crooks!

This is not a legitimate claim. I always found that the support staff answered my emails and bent over backwards to keep me as a customer, even prorating my bill and giving me free service. They do exactly what they say - provide data feeds.

We exchanged both detail emails and calls with Jillybeans on this report about IFS first thing Monday when it was reported and had a call as well that afternoon to help better understand his issue and provide more background.  We have a lot of very experienced resellers using our service, but we also have many people new to ecommerce and online selling.  If you are new to ecommerce and have questions either before or after you create your free account, please, as noted above ask us.  There is nothing we havent seen in the 10 years we have been doing this so just let us have a chance to help get you the information you need.

The client who wrote the report has since apologized to us for his confusion about the product source and on who was selling the items or their shipping options, but I wanted to add some additional details regarding his comments just to help others as well who might have similar questions.

1- We are not the supplier.  We have integrations with over 75 different programs.  We add new ones every month.  We provide our members, even with the free account access the ability to browse the catalogs, sample prices, contact details and more from each supplier so you can begin
your research. We do not charge for lists or access or any other service other then when we provide the inventory management solution for the product source you select for your sales.  We become your plug-in IT supply change management provider between the supplier you want and your online sales. If you would like to see more suppliers or a supplier you currently use, or have feed back regarding policy changes or product issues at your current supplier, just let us know and we can help.

2- "Jillybeans" was listing items on an Amazon marketplace.  We provided him the details for the product count, but it seems like he was confused or did not fully understand the Amazon process.  To list on this marketplace you MUST have the ASIN or the UPC.  Some suppliers provide these codes for all items, some do this for some items, and others simply do not provide them.  If you have questions on which suppliers do or do not or if you want to know if your selected product
source would be a good option for this marketplace just ask us even before you get started with them.  We can help.  The supplier has a large number of products as noted.  However, for many of the collectible items or auto-graph items for example there is NO upc.  Part of the service he added was for us to take the products from the supplier and load and update them for him on Amazon. When a product does not have a UPC it will error and not load, so one of the filters we apply is to
remove items where there is no UPC.  This is a valid add and improves your Amazon loading times. There is no point having items that will error-out in your product feeds so we were removing items that were out of stock, inactive, or simply those items where no ASIN or UPC was provided by his selected supplier.

3- The supplier he selected in no way is a scam.  The supplier is a true wholesale distributor as are the other 75+ programs we current provide for you the reseller to select from.  The client was somewhat confused between us and the supplier thinking he would order the products from
us, but we provided additional details to help clarify as with all of our services you have your account at the supplier, in this case IFS, directly for your sales.

4- The product source selected has both a wholesale dropship segment as well as a direct retail which seems to be at the point of Jillybeans issue.  Most suppliers have no direct sales to the public.  Some do typically under another division.  This is one of the questions you should first ask before selecting a supplier to understand if they are competing somewhat with their members or not on online sales.  Some still sell directly to the retail segment as well as dropship which is
fine, but you just want to make sure as the reseller applicant that your supplier is listing with a retail margin well above the wholesale cost offered through their program.  If they were selling at cost you would want to avoid this supplier and when this has happened in the past where
a supplier changed their focus we have typically removed them from the network.

5- Besides understanding their selling options, you also want to make sure that your account is completely verified as a wholesale reseller.  We have seen some users who create wholesale accounts, but get their account approved under the "Retail" side of the supplier and not fully
logged in an approved on the wholesale side. So, when you start looking at your costs they would show the normal retail price and not the discount for wholesale dropship sellers.  This is not the issue with Jillybeans, but it is worth noting.

In short, we have a support number and support desk to call for ANY questions.  Ask us questions directly before, during, or after you get started with a supplier.  It is the only way we can help provide more  details or explain more information on what you are seeing when getting
started with the supplier.  We do not integrate with any scam services or problem suppliers.  Some product sources are better then others, even for the ones we have integrated with but with every supplier we have some resellers using them and prefer that catalog or pricing options so
it is best to just take some time and let us help find you the product source that is right for your business.  We can help you change at any time even if you got started with a different product source.

Jillybeans was confused with a few things he was noting on his account, there was no scam or errors with his product count, custom file provided, or the daily updates.  The supplier he selected, unlike most of the suppliers, did appear to be selling some of their catalog under another retail name, but they also list this retail program on the site as well.  As a reseller just check with the supplier first to confirm the price levels in your account to make sure you are getting the lower
prices and talk with the supplier about their retail vs dropship programs.  No reseller should feel like they are competing with their own product source for sales on different marketplaces so let them
better explain their approach or find out which if any marketplaces they sell on to see if this is an approach you want to match or avoid.

Just let us know your issues or concerns when trying to find the supplier by contacting our support directly on our site Mon-Fri or if you find new issues, again, just let us know how we can help.

I started spending money and time a few months ago with ISource. I first brought the products to Amazon, thru a file upload. Their catalog will tell you they have 35,000 plus prouducts, but when I got the file it had 18,000. Made a call, they blame it on the wholesale company. So paying full load for half the products.But the story is just beginning.

Thru research, and calling the wholesaler, I found out that the company that they are selling for is Sports Nation. So Sports Nation give them permission to sell their products, then when you take your products to market, you then compete with Sports Nation, the very company that sold you the product. And do you think the average guy can compete. Sports Nation charges $5.95 on Amazon for S&H, when you buy from Sports Nation thru ISource, they charge you $9 to $11 for S&H.

Sports nation will also charge you a handling fee anywhere from $2 - $4, per item, but you wont know what the fee is until after you buy. So on a $20 item you already in the hole anywhere from $5 to $9.

I also believe if you go on Ebay and reserch lorrinashotdeals, they put out a nice story, But I have just spent the last 6 hours inspecting her prices and comparing them to the wholesale catalog that ISource puts out, and came away believing they are a offshoot of Sports Nation.

For this Ebayer to be selling at the price's they sell at, according to the prices on ISource, They would be losing money on almost every sale.

The interesting thing with Lorrinashotdeals is, they hide it very well, that's why it has taken me 6 hours tonight to come away with my conclusion.

So ISource sells you on the deal that you are getting products wholesale, which I'm am sure you are. What they DONT TELL YOU, is you are competing in the market against the VERY SAME PEOPLE YOU BOUGHT THE PRODUCTS FROM.

Now ISource wil come on here and probably tell you that they have no control over that, Which is fine.

But I think they should tell you all these things up front.

So Im sure hundred and probably thousands of people have bought into their sale, and didn't make any money, never really knowing why, and just went away. I will be calling up Monday for a full refund of the money I spent.

And if any Company manager wants to speak with me and dispute what I just wrote, please leave your name here, and I will call you, and come back to this board with the results.

The "S" word is used when a company does not do what they promise or pretend to be something they are not.  Clearly these are not issues with Inventory Source.  We have been in the business of helping our members since 2002 actually AVOID problem programs and protect our members against these issues while servicing as the "IT Department" for their business.  We provide free access to wholesale programs that are real and users can work with directly.  If a user wants to add a data service so the supplier updates on their website automatically or has the data
provided in any feed format that they want, then we are a perfect fit for those needs.  We even help improve or resolve many issues common in the supplier product feeds or help work with the suppliers on behalf of the reseller to make sure their feeds continue to improve so the most
accurate information is always provided. 

All of our services are month to month with no account setup fees and are priced around a dollar or so a day....so it would not make much sense for us to do anything other then what we state we do clearly on our site.  Plus, we think that is just the write way to do business and think that is the least a customer should expect from a business.  Last, many of the suppliers that we work with continue to recommend us to their resellers who need technical support and help.  With 10 years in
the business and over 60,000 members it should be expected that at some point a person would make a false claim like this report or one of our competitors would think this is a good way to try to drum up business for themselves....but that does not make it right.

To cover a few "points" made.  We use phone and email to work with our customers.  We do not offer in office appointments.  We treat all customers the same, and since we have customers across North America and some in the UK and Europe phone and email (like most online service
providers) is how we communicate with our customers.  We post them on many of our landing pages.  We also post them in large font right at the top right of the account once you are signed into the free account.  We provide the email address and phone numbers to use.  We are located in
Jacksonville, FL which we also post on our site.  We do not need anyone to mail us anything and we do not meet with clients in person, so not posting our physical address on our website does not make a company the "S" word.  It just makes us an internet service provider that deals with
clients in multiple locations and not just one.

You can call us.  Yes it is possible to have a call go to voice mail, but most calls are returned within 20mins.  We sometimes might be helping a client with many questions or providing free training for how to improve their sales.  Since we can not estimate how long a hold time might be, we think it is better to just leave a message if needed then have you hold.  Email is a quicker response often, but we understand that some people prefer the phone which is why both are offered even for
our free accounts.  It seems the person who wrote this either has an issue resolving their issue via email or has an issue leaving a voicemail.  I would assume if we allowed them to remain on hold, they would have had an issue with that as well.

"They have false advertisement on their site. "
This is not what I would call "being specific", but there is nothing that is stated on our site that is false.  There is no reason to make any false claims, because there are so many value-adding things that we do.  Plus, we all take pride in the fact that in an industry that has so many company's that make false claims or promises we are one that has always added value to our members, even with the details and level of access provided to the wholesale supplier programs with the free account.  People do not even need to pay us for any service to still find trusted sources or solutions for their online business.

"They will rip you off, take your money and not provide you with the services they promised."
That is false of course.  In fact, we either would not bill you or would simply refund your service if you had a cart that we were not able to integrate with.  If we cannot provide you with the data service that you need, it wouldnt make much sense to charge for a service that was not
provided.

"There is no way of getting through to a live operator. "
This is false.  You can phone or email.  We also have a very simple form that a user can fill in to schedule a specific time for a call back if they prefer.  We are 8-5pm EST Mon-Friday.

We could say plenty of things about why this claim is false.  I am sure we could pay a fee to have it removed, but we are quite proud of the issues we have helped our members avoid through the years and proud of the number of members we have helped.  If you have ANY questions about
ANY Service we provide, just create your free account to view more or simply contact us to let us know how we can help or let us learn more about what issues with your online business you are trying to resolve and we will let you know how we can solve it or provide you with a
recommended program that might be a better fit for your needs....that has always been our approach and one we have followed for close to 10 years now.

And, to Nancy24...thank you so much for your comments.  It is so easy for people to simply post false claims online about a company that has tried to help our members avoid companies that make false promises.   It is nice to know that our members that have an understanding of our services and an experience with our firm also read these posts and comment.

Again, if you as a reader have ANY questions about the services we provide, please just ask us.

Inventory Source is a great company. I use their services and the company is great. They helped me get my online business up and running in no time. The Inventory Source team were very professional, politeand helpful. The company is legitimate and they offer excellent customer service. I will recommend them to anyone anytime. The company is a very well known company in the dropship business andtheir services are genuine.Their support team is prompt and respond to my needs in a timely fashion. You can check their website for yourself for more information about their services. When you sign up, you will gain access to the companies support contact information. Please know that it is totall free to sign up to gain access to their contact information.I will recommend their services because they are legitimate.