10/06/09. Merchandies Review and Other News

BEWARE! THIS PROGRAM HAS STOPPED PAYING! PLEASE DON’T INVEST!

Hi guys! Today I want to take a proper look at a program that I have been mentioning briefly almost everyday now on my blog for the last number of days now, but unfortunately for a variety of reasons I haven’t really been able to get around to reviewing it. It’s called Merchandies and truth be told, they haven’t really gotten off to the best of starts. But don’t let that put you off too much. I admit I had second thoughts myself here but I decided they were worth taking a chance on and they didn’t let me down. I was pleased enough how that worked out because my first impression of this one was really good. So imagine my disappointment when I had to move it to “waiting” status after less than a week.

Now I really don’t like starting a review of a site that I otherwise quite like on what may be perceived as a negative note. But on the other hand I can’t deny that Merchandies has had some downtime issues this week and it has affected their payment schedule. I’ve already reported about it elsewhere on my blog anyway but I feel you deserve a brief recap just to keep things balanced and everything out in the open. Shortly after launching Merchandies experienced some serious script issues followed by server issues which meant some of its very earliest members (and that includes me and at least one other reader of MNO who contacted me) not having their accounts credited correctly.

I was concerned as you may well understand, but full credit to the admin of Merchandies on this one. In what could well have proved to be a make or break situation for the program he really came through for everybody and where many may have simply given up, he really has set a good example here. I mean when the program was still at the stage when the easiest thing to do would actually have been to scam and run away with whatever money had been deposited, maybe to start up again later with a new name, he didn’t. So at the very least he’s proven to me that he’s determined to make a go of Merchandies as it is and I commend him for that. So in return the very least he deserves is a fair hearing. I have another opinion about Merchandies which I also think is fair, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

I’ll get straight to the plans first though. There are four of them in total but I feel three of them may be a bit much for most readers here. They are all short term, running for just five days each and not returning your principal. Plan A starts with a minimum investment of $20 and is open to deposits right up to $4000. In return you are offered 22.2% interest per day. This will be paid daily for 5 days giving you back a total of 111% of your principal. Your choice of payment processors is not too bad here with LibertyReserve, StrictPay, and PerfectMoney being accepted. And that’s really kind of standard issue for HYIPs of this type and its what you should expect. It gets a bit better though with the admin promising to add AlertPay once they are verified. You can keep an eye on my blog for updates on that happening if you prefer to wait for that before joining.

For your information the other three plans, labeled B, C, and D offer daily interest rates of 23, 24, and 26% respectively and are available to anyone who wishes to spend from $4001 to $500,000. Its your choice of course but if you find that interesting the go to the Merchandies site yourself for more information.

The security of Merchandies looks pretty good on paper so I have to admit to being a bit mystified as to the exact nature of their recent script and server issues. But whatever the reason those issues don’t necessarily indicate any security flaws. I’m willing to put it down to just some technical bugs that need to be ironed out whenever any new program starts and forget about the whole thing for now, as it didn’t have any lasting affect on the program and the payouts have all been completed. Merchandies is hosted on a dedicated server so that much is fine, and the script is custom made but not quite unique. I’ve seen this one before. I’ll tell you where in a moment but first I’ll tell you that customer support from Merchandies comes via an e-mail address and via a live chat function. That’s always welcome although I haven’t actually needed to make use of it myself yet. There is a telephone number offered with a New York area code but not surprisingly when I called it earlier it came up as invalid. Feel free to call it yourselves and if you have more luck than me and receive an answer please let me know. There is also a postal address from New York but due to the questionable legal status of HYIPs in the USA I tend to doubt its authenticity. Again any readers living in the Big Apple with nothing better to do some afternoon can always take a walk by and see. Feel free to contradict me here. Anyway there’s also quite a lengthy FAQ section with most of what you need to know so problems due to any kind of a lack of explanation will be kept to a minimum. And it’s a good professional design throughout.

The most notable feature though that I have been leading up to is Merchandies‘ similarities to an old program called FXOIC. I might be asking a bit much of you here and even the long term readers are going to have to stretch their memories for this one. But I’m sure many of you will know the one I mean. It was late last year sometime. It ran for about three months and for a five day program to achieve that, well that can be called an unqualified success in HYIP terms.

Not let me be quite clear that I am not telling anybody there is any connection between FXOIC and Merchandies. I am merely telling you that the script and the plans are damn near identical. You can draw your own conclusions without any help from me, but I for one would not consider it to be entirely a bad thing. In fact if I was sure it was the same admin I’d even be quite pleased. They had as good a track record as any short term program so fingers crossed this one might be as good. If it is I’ll be impressed. As always though kindly consider the risks when deciding on your principal and join early to maximize your profit.

Other news for today.

Let’s start with something new from SilverLodge today. Apparently they published a long letter on their site trying to address members’ concerns which I also raised in my last article about them. I would take it with a pinch of salt as none of what they say has been proved yet. MasterCards have not been received (I have a couple of complaints about that with nobody reporting that they actually got it), silver shop is not open (again only promises) and I guess everything will be clear when I actually verify their address in London and see what I can find there. Please don’t miss this on my blog next week as I also intend to verify the addresses of two other companies: Verifield and NorthBizz. So far SilverLodge and its admins (read my interview with Louise here) were able to prove only the fact that they have been paying to investors for 9 months. However, that doesn’t prove that they are a real investment company investing in silver. If there is any substantiated proof provided by them then I will believe what they are saying. Until then I would still suggest to treat SilverLodge as a regular HYIP with all its advantages and disadvantages, but really as a very decent HYIP that does merit your close attention:
“Dear Members, it has been 9 months since Louise and I began this journey online, back than we introduced a small program called Silverinvest.net, the site achieved popularity in no time, maybe because of our fast payments, or great support, but surely also because of understanding how to invest and make our members some money. After 3 months we got hacked, at a point we was saying this is getting bad, money was paid to members who should not receive big amounts, but they did, surely no one refunded this money, but we kept it going. We opened a new domain name and got us the neversay script, at the same time we also switched to HushHosting and I want to say big thanks to Miguel who helped us transfer member by member to the new database. We did not give up and proofed the investment world the first time that when you have real funds invested, you cannot fail a site. We also started to gain even more popularity with our campaigns. What was always “a sign” that we are “on the end of the road”, but again we proofed this was not the case, we were getting stronger and better. Louise and I was just doing our job, based on the fact and economy and prices on the silver market, and again proofed we are, or better, we will be the best in this industry. We introduced the MasterCard, what is shipped to 40% of our clients some have not received it yet, since our card provider having some difficulties, again people were saying its the end of the road, but then I do have a card from StrictPay. What is not working for a few months, what is a good sign that proof, they are great?! We have now fixed the issue with the card provider and start shipping the next bench of cards to the missing people (please no email about it), we send them to you as fast as we can.
Now after 9 months I believe we proofed that we were facing problems, but we really faced them and fixed them, payments are as usual on time and without delays. If there was or would be delays, we always fixed/fix them as soon we can and continue to do so. We also introduced Plaxo and Twitter, where I get many emails where people say I do not want to download anything, and yes we do not ask you to do so, twitter is free and is a website, you can read our news there without downloading anything or even need to sign up, it’s just a link with our news!
We also said month ago we try to make weekends off, and as you might realize we did pay weekends, what we will now again announce we TRY to make weekends off, so if we do one day or even a complete weekend, we announced it, and I hope this will not gain panic again and hundreds of emails. We try to do this coming weekend.
Our programmer is also almost done with the silver shop, where you can buy silver from us, and I hope you all take this opportunity and do so. Silver is and was always one of the safest investments in the world. It was used to pay and once the world decided to introduce paper as currency things went wrong, as you can see in the markets around the world.
So coming to the main point, people always ask me, how can you offer this amounts, and will you do this for a long time, or how long do you plan to do this?
Here is the POINT what maybe explain lot of these questions. When you invest in Stocks, you got a paper. What can be worthless over night, and you can lose all, but if you invest in silver, you can’t lose over night all, because silver is always something we have in our hands, so even in bad times, we will be able to pay you. Maybe we need to change the plans, but this is what we do for 9 months now, and I strongly believe we do it a great and successful way.
So if you’re looking for a great investment opportunity, what is making you the money you deserve by taking your difficult earned money in internet investments, you found the place, it’s SilverLodge, it was for the last 9 month, and I am sure we have some monthly newsletters to come, what proofs again, if you dedicated to what you are doing, if you love the job you are doing, and you trust in your instincts you can do something different, something great, and it could be SilverLodge in your, our and your families case.
Have a great time, and let’s make some money.”

It seems some people don’t bother checking the news posted on programs’ websites. It was clearly stated on GeniusFunds website that they had a national holiday in Cyprus on Monday so the accounts would not be credited for the day. Still many members expressed their concerns on public forums regarding that matter. I don’t want to blame anybody but please read all the news on GeniusFunds carefully before posting that nonsense. By now, everybody’s accounts have been credited properly and everybody got paid. If you want to know more about GeniusFunds that currently occupies the #3 position on my personal favorites list you should read the review of the program published here. Today they announced the long-awaited replacement plan for the currently defunct GeniusCD plan. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the details of the new plan called Genius HYDA yet but I guess they are working on it and will present it as soon as possible. Here is the update regarding the new plan in GeniusFunds:
“We are proud to introduce a new product replacing the Genius CD. Genius HYDA or High-Yield Deposit Account is a deposit account without a term. You may deposit funds into your HYDA account and earn one of the highest yields possible without committing yourself to a long investment maturity term.”

The admin of YesICanSurf Sarah brought quite an interesting offer today which is strictly time-limited. Those of you thinking about upgrading in YesICanSurf by at least $10 can receive 3 free adpacks (worth $6) into the program. I remind you that YesICanSurf is a low ROA autosurf giving you the opportunity to earn 1.7% for 120 days. If you want to read more about the program please refer to my review published here. And this is the latest email I got from YesICanSurf with the rules of that promo offer:
“We have exciting Wednesday news for you: All members who purchase 5 adpacks (that’s just $10, folks !) in the next 24 hours, will receive 3 adpacks FREE as a bonus! This offer ends at 7:30 PM SERVER TIME Thursday, so don’t miss out!! Here’s a great chance for you to buy 13 adpacks for only $10, and increase your daily earnings substantially….WOW! Bonus adpacks will be added manually, so please allow us a little time to do this.
TIP: What if you can only afford $2…..What’s the best way to grow your nest egg? Try adding $2 more every second or third day. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your earnings increase !
Have a wonderful day, Sarah“.

I received another payment from ElegantMoney today (reviewed here). This time I was paid from the 140% after 14 days plan and reinvested some money into 200% after 1 month. Although in my opinion the least risky plan on offer in ElegantMoney is 115% after 7 days. There are 5 payment processors accepted by ElegantMoney and so far the program has been doing well with all payments processed in time. Anyway, as with many other programs always try to follow the golden rule and only invest what you can afford to lose.

It seems another program Ivy-Castle (reviewed here) finally acknowledged that EvoWallet had some problems and is possibly closed now. The admin of Ivy-Castle promised that they will have an additional plan if EvoWallet is gone (I’m sure they are by the way):
“EvoWallet has been out of services for several days already. We are trying our best to contact it hoping for resuming services as soon as possible. If EVO still cannot resume services within 5-7 days, we will have alternative plan.”

I have joined a new program called ExcellentProfit last night. It’s quite a decent program with a licensed script from MonetarySoft and hosted on a dedicated server with protection provided by DdoSWiz. ExcellentProfit offers two low-ROI plans with daily and weekly payments and principal returned on expiry. The daily plan pays you 1.5% for 60 business days (90% total profit) and the weekly plan – 8% for 12 weeks (96% total profit). The gap between the two plans is not so serious and the risk in the weekly plan is higher so I would suggest to deposit into the daily plan in you wish to join ExcellentProfit. There are only LibertyReserve and PerfectMoney accepted by the program and there is no indication on their website that that might change. ExcellentProfit claims to make money on both Sports arbitrage and Forex but so far no evidence was presented so I would suggest to take that with a grain of salt for now. I’m going to review ExcellentProfit on my blog in a couple of days so stay tuned for that!

And the last thing I would like to report for today are the payments that I received over the last 24 hours. So I got paid from the following programs: SigmaTral, SilverLodge, NorthBizz, GeniusFunds, TheDollarDiggers, NovalexFinance, MajorBarter, ForexExperts, OilInsider, GoldNuggetInvest, VentureFundsGroup, Treckswana, ElegantMoney, InvestiMates, AsianInvestGroup, EnscoOffshore, PanaMoney, OrybFunds, CoolReturn, Ivy-Castle, GlobalTraderGroup, StableInterest and StoreContract (the first payment received). See you on my blog tomorrow with more news and another review!