The Truth about WMI Wholesale Inc

I found the Wholesale Merchandise Inc on the Home Business magazine in a supermarket last year. They advertised “wholesale name brand electronics.” Since it was on Magazine, I thought it will be a good source for electronic wholesale supplier. I bought the magazine and checked their website. It charged a member fee of $199.95 plus package shipping fee of $12. Before I signed up, I searched the Internet to see what people have to say about this company. Most reviews and comments were positive (now I realized that they were posted by the company’s marketing team. They used different IDs and commented on every forum with questions about their company.) However, there were still complaints about their high prices. They complained that their products are general can be found anywhere over the Internet and stores like Wal-Mart at a lower price. One person wrote: “www.wwmerch.com is a clone site, their price is too high, and they build webstore for you at a high price and does not provide any support...” I checked out this website; it looked similar to the website wmiwholesale.com on the magazine I bought. I continued to search for information about this company and found another similar website worldwidemerchandise.com. I also found that these websites have different domain suffix: .net, .org that for promoting this company. I was confused, which website was the real one? Which was the clone site? I emailed them and got their answer: they all belong to the same company, there is no clone site. I don’t know why they built so many websites. I don’t care, and I don’t care about general merchandise, either. I only care about they sell wholesale electronics and want to make money off the electronics on Amazon. I compared the price of their sample product- a 52 inch HD TV to Amazon’s; its cost is lower than the same model that list on Amazon. It looked profitable, and they claimed that when orders reach to $1000, they will refund the $199.95 fee; I decided give it a try. Several days after I signed up, I received a heavy package contained catalogs and other stuff. Among them, I only interest in the two electronic catalogs.

Wholesale Products or Merchandises for Selling at Swap Meet and Fleet Market

The rest was just like some people said. I looked throughout the catalogs tried to find that sample HD TV, but no such item and all the HD TV cost higher than Amazon. Those samples were all fake! I also compered cameras, mp3, and laptops to Amazon’s and other online stores’, and I got really mad about the facts: this company is not a distributor or a wholesale company! Their website just a directory that only has 3 different retail stores; I won’t say they are wholesale suppliers because their so called merchandise cost for members are actually retail price of Amazon and other online stores. They showed the retail price on their catalogs for reference just to cheat members. They want members to feel that they can make money from the big price difference between cost and fake retail price. In fact, all their merchandises cost higher than any online store, and this cost need to add 15% of each order’s total coast as shipping fee!. For example, If you order a camera that cost $200 dollars, you have to pay shipping fee $200 times 15% =$30 dollars and it only needs $5 dollars to ship. Eventually, you have to pay $230 buy a camera from them, how do you resell it if people can buy same camera at same price $200 for free shipping from Amazon? I think it’s ridiculous because it should charge shipping fee based on the weight not 15% of the cost. because their price is so high, when you buy a camera at $230, after you add online store listing fee, close transaction fee, and small profit, your price will much higher than Amazon.

 According to their website’s FAQ, if members want to get money back, they have to reach $1000 of purchases. They lied! In fact, they have two FAQs, one to the public which visitors can read on their website without signing up, “Refund back to you when you reach $1000 purchases.” The other FAQ on the member area says, “You will receive a credit of your membership fee towards future purchases.” (I thought I can get my money back when reach $1000 not get money back from selling more high cost products.) The truth is: it’s hard to get money back regardless of refund or credit if you only want to sell their merchandises online. Due to their high prices, you cannot compete with other sellers. The WMI website also says that they only sell to their members; yes, the three websites list above only sell to their members, but they have different domain websites that sell same merchandise to the public. I found a wholesale electronic website very familiar. I login my wmiwholesale account and found the product lists, the quantity in stock, the products that have sold out, and shipping fee setup are all the same.
Only minor difference in prices. In addition, the business location address is exactly the same. The products sell on public website are cheaper than the same products sell on member website. At the time, I thought they were not the same owner until I listed a watch I want to drop ship sold out.

Since I don’t want to hold products, I need to check the availability of products I want to do drop ship frequently, so I can keep listing the item or removed it from Amazon or other online store. I found it was strange that the watch sold out on both the public website and the member site at the same time. Not just this watch, other items are same thing. Both website had the same items and same numbers in stock. If I didn’t do research, I would never know they do sell to the public. I am sure they sell directly on Amazon at the same price they sell to the members, too; not just electronics also general merchandise. Members will not sell at lower price than which they bought at high price from Wholesale Merchandise, Inc, right? Why would they want to lose money? WMI’s merchandise is just a directory that only contains 3 suppliers. It is for retail not for wholesale. Real wholesale companies do not charge membership fee only wholesale directory charge membership fee, and almost all the U.S wholesale companies require resell license. WMI says that they charge membership fee because people don’t purchase from them if they receive their catalogs for free. The truth is once people find out the prices are so high, they will certainly not purchase from them. This is why they have to charge membership fee and force members to purchase $1000 products. If you don’t, you lose your membership fee.

 Anyway, here was my bad experience with this company. Since I had wasted $211.95, I want my money back either by credit or refund. The only way I can reach $1000 purchase quickly was to sell high value products, such as laptops or cameras. Based on their cost, if I sell 5 cameras, I could reach to $1000, and then sell one more camera with my $1000 credit, I can get my money back from sold their products. I selected one model of camera with multiple colors and list on Amazon. Once people buy from me, I will order from them and let them drop ship for me. Because of the high price, my listings were list last unit cheaper cameras on the top sold out. I often checked their cost list online; removed the listing of particular color camera that has been sold out. Over half year later, someone ordered from me. I saw this camera still list on the online cost list (a pdf file), so I ordered this camera with online form. Several hours later I got an email said that manually order form is only order for paper catalogs, if I want to order products, I need to order from the 3 catalog links on the order area. The problem was that the “kick-off electronics catalog” did not have links on order area. They never list it online from the time I received the package. The package included two mail order forms as same as the online order form, so I though these products need to be ordered with order form. I emailed them asked how to order the camera not list on the order area and only on the paper catalog. The person replied, “If the products not display on the order area, they don’t have them. The order form only order for paper catalogs.” (They sometimes update new catalogs, members have to buy them.) You don’t have these name brand electronics? Are you kidding? Why are you selling electronic catalog that electronics are none existent? Are you selling magazine or selling products?

 From this experience, I realized that they don’t have to make money by selling products to members because they use different domain websites sell to the public. They actually make money rely on by charging membership fee, loaning money to get interests, building webstore for members, and selling catalogs. Wholesale Merchandise offers loan $5000 and build WebStore. To build a WebStore, you need to pay one-time setup fee $495; monthly web hosting fee $39.95; domain fee $24.95; load more than 45 products cost extra $169; setup merchant account for accepting credit card $195. What a joke!

Wholesale Products or Merchandises for Selling at Swap Meet and Fleet Market

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