I sent for free information about a company called SMC. The envelope arrived today.

The color brochure. Open it up and what do you see? A picture of a family, mom, dad and the three kids. Under the picture it says “We have logged as much as $250,000 in annual sales!”*. Turn the page and there's a picture of a woman with the caption “I've never done anything like this before, but I didn't have to worry about it because all the tools were given to me by SMC.”* A picture of another woman below the first one has the caption “I just take my catalogs into work and set them down and the people go crazy over them. They love my items and my prices!”* The fine print that the asterisk (*) refers to is “*The success of these SMC members is exceptional, and is not intended as a guarantee, warranty, or prediction of your success.”.

On the page with the picture of the nice family it says, in red letters “Get your own website free!+”. At the bottom of this page it says “Start making money online! Sign up today and get your free+ Big Value website!”. Free is not only capitalized it's in red print. The fine print for the Big Value free website says “Monthly hosting fees apply.”. If you have to pay for it how can it be free?

They have two pages of color pictures of a few of their products telling you how much money you can make on each. Two person hammock you make $46.65. Civil War Chess Set you make $46.65. Hanging Pot Holder you make $40.00.

The back cover of the brochure has their guarantee. “We're so sure you can make money with SMC products and programs, we guarantee your satisfaction:'. Their guarantee “If, for any reason, you are not fully satisfied with the SMC program, call toll-free 1-877-523-9088 for instructions on hot to return and insure your Membership Kit. Return your Membership Kit within 30 days of joining SMC and you'll receive a full refund of any membership monies you have paid(excluding shipping and handling), and you will owe us nothing.” Red flag number 1. 30 days of joining, NOT 30 days after receiving your kit. Red flag number 2. You will owe us nothing. There's nothing in the brochure about having to pay for a membership. There's nothing in the brochure about how much your free website is going to cost you. This information is on the enrollment form.

Now for the enrollment form. They have two memberships available, the gold and the silver. For the gold membership you have to send them $414.95 ($399.95 plus $15 s/h). With the following description -Save over $64.00 on your membership! -Free website* -Free merchandise+. With the silver membership it will cost you $39.95 ($24.95 + $15 s/h) first payment; eleven additional payments of $39.95, charged the same day of each month thereafter, total $479.40. With the silver membership you get -Easy monthly payments! -Free website*. Half way down the page is where they ask you for your credit card and banking information. Down at the bottom of the page, just above the fine print is where they ask for your signature and for it to be dated. Below the signature it says “By joining I agree to abide by the SMC Standard Membership Rules posted at Join SMC, a copy of which is included in my Membership Kit. My membership includes updated catalogues, pricelists and more, mailed twice a year, for an annual fee of $44.95 charged automatically to my account on the 19th day of your anniversary month or the next business day thereafter. Please note: You must be 18 years of age or older to join.” If your membership starts the date you sign this form, as it implies, you don't have 30 days to check out their programs because it has to be mailed to them, processed by them, then mailed back to you. You probably end up with about 2 weeks to 15 days to decide if it's for you.

Right below that is where they finally tell you how much your free website is going to cost you. “A monthly hosting fee of $29.95 will be automatically charged to my account on the second business day of each month, unless I cancel by calling eMerchantClub LLC at 1-877-384-4691.”.

Your free website is going to cost you $359.40!! Hardly free. When you add that to the membership fees it will cost you between $774.35 and $838.35 to work for them for 1 year.

Now for the 4 page computer printed newsletter type brochure. Right on the first page, under the heading What does more money mean to you?, it says “Best of all, it can mean the great feeling that you're no longer working to make someone else rich.” They've even underlined it to draw your attention to it. My interpretation of this statement is that they are saying they aren't really making any money from your hard work.

Another claim on page 2 under the heading Just the facts… , the first bullet says “Specialty Merchandise Corporation (SMC) has put people into successful businesses of their own for more than 60 years.” Why not take a page from McDonald's, "over one billion served", and say they've put more than X number of people into successful businesses of their own? Makes me wonder if the three exceptional members in the brochure are the only ones being successful.

Still on page 2 under “Why should SMC help me? What's in it for them?” , hey it's even indented in bold type and with computer generated hand writing in the margin with an arrow pointing to it, “SMC makes money when you order merchandise.”. Didn't they just say you were no longer working to make someone else rich?

On page 4, at the bottom of the page in computer generated handwriting it says P.S.-Are you interested in having a website of your own, where you can get orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Ask about how you can get a free website set-up when you join. Call 1-888-372-2710 today! Nothing is marked * in this statement. There are no * in this entire printout. Yet, at the bottom of page 2 it says * SMC E-Commerce website available at an additional cost through eMerchantClub. And, at the bottom of page 4 *A monthly hosting fee may apply. MAY APPLY. In the other information that they sent, it says it definitely costs $29.95 per month. So where do they get may apply from? Is it there to mislead you? It's a misleading sentence. Do they not have proof readers? It can't be passed off as a typo. How did they stay in business for over 60 years?

Obviously they make money off of the products you sell for them. If their products are so good and sell as easily as claimed then why do you have to pay them a membership fee? Are a few catalogs and booklets really worth the price they are charging for your membership? Have you ever had to pay a company for the privilege of making them money?

Another red flag. This company also advertises on T.V. You have to sign and agree to their rules which will be included in your membership kit. If you want to view these rules before you sign, which is a really smart thing to do, you need access to the internet. What if you don't have internet access? Are you supposed to agree to something on a legally binding contract that you don't know anything about? It would seem so.

Another red flag. In fine print below the descriptions of their membership plans it says “North Carolina and South Dakota residents are not eligible for the standard membership offers shown here. Residents of these states, please call 1-888-291-6711 to find out how you can join. Why is this? Are the consumer protection laws in these states a lot stronger than in other states? Even though I live in Canada and they mailed me this information, there's no place on the sign up contract for Canadian information. I'm sure the laws between out two countries are different, yet there is no clause in this contract for Canadian residents.

Another red flag. All three of the happy members that they showed in the color brochure came with the fine print “The success of these SMC members is exceptional, and is not intended as a guarantee, warranty, or prediction of your success.” Why did they only show exceptional members? Why not show some average members? Maybe because the vast majority of those who are would consider signing up would fall into the average category, and the average members' income and success is not as good? Maybe after you pay for all you freeBIES and the privilege of working for them there's not a whole lot left that you could call income. It would be like the government advertising a ten million dollar lottery by telling you that if you bought a ticket you would win the grand prize, and not informing you of the odds or percentages that you would win.

I've never had to BUY a job before. I don't intend starting with this one. After reading the fine print in the information they sent me, the claims made, the costs of membership, and, especially the information NOT contained in the package I believe this company makes its money from memberships as opposed to the products it sells.