Online purchasing

[The Rooster]

I'm looking for some lures of hard to get colors and I found a lot of them on a website that mostly sells guns and accessories. I've found what seams like 4 different websites, but they all look the same with a different heading at the top only, and they all have the same merchandise. I think it's actually the same site with 4 different internet addresses to get you there being the only difference, and depending on which one you find it under, you see that banner the whole time you are there.

I click on "contact" and I can get a company name, an address, phone number, business hours and all, and each site has the same contact information as well. It just seams that the same site can be found at several different web addresses and with several different headers at the top of the page. The phone number is a 1-800 number. I can also send them an email and sign up for email newsletters too. I plan to contact them to see what's up but otherwise, should I be skeptical of them?? On the surface it seems legitimate. I'd hate to get burned though. I'm wondering if they just purchased several domain names and use them all. I just don't know. :-/

[Glenn]

Call them and find out.  If they're a "big" company, they may not even be aware of it.

[bigfruits]

alot of companies do that, actually. there is a reputable company i used to deal with for marine/reef supplies that had a site with the exact same setup, different name, higher prices.

if you mention the company, maybe someone from BR can tell you about their experience with them.

[J Francho]

Try http://www.resellerratings.com/

[Captain Obvious]

As part owner of an internet marketing company I can say that its not uncommon and it is often done to help a company show up for several different searches. It is easy to clone a site in place it at several different urls then tweak the SEO. If they are all showing the same contact information I wouldn't be to afraid.

Capt.O

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Does the number have 518 in it??

I looked into  a site with this number and got

this page ---not good

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-438261.html

They do have many sites with the same number

[Glenn]

As part owner of an internet marketing company I can say that its not uncommon and it is often done to help a company show up for several different searches. It is easy to clone a site in place it at several different urls then tweak the SEO. If they are all showing the same contact information I wouldn't be to afraid.

Capt.O

That's an old school tactic that doesn't work now, due to Google's duplicate content penalty; and especially so with the recent Panda update.

[The Rooster]

I don't know what's actually going on but I found the same site again under at least a dozen different links.  Called the number though and it's legit so I'm ordering.

[Dan:]

It would be easier to help if there was a link provided

[The Rooster]

As part owner of an internet marketing company I can say that its not uncommon and it is often done to help a company show up for several different searches. It is easy to clone a site in place it at several different urls then tweak the SEO. If they are all showing the same contact information I wouldn't be to afraid.

Capt.O

That's an old school tactic that doesn't work now, due to Google's duplicate content penalty; and especially so with the recent Panda update.

Does this fall into that category??

www.midwesthuntersoutlet.com

www.thegunsource.com

www.glockworld.com

www.sniperworld.com

www.22-lr.com

www.coyotehuntingstore.com

www.topglock.com

www.concealgun.com

www.ar15pro.com

www.badassguns.com

www.smithwessonhandguns.com

All of these are the same company. The banner is different under each link but the products and contact information are the same. I'm guessing they run some type of outdoors sporting goods company but are primarily focusing on the firearms. I just want the baits though. They don't have any links on the sites to lead directly to them as far as I can see but if you search for them there then you find them. I found them the first time by doing a google search for a specific color. Afterwards I just did a search on the site itself for just "rooster tail" and found 20 pages of colors and sizes for sale. The word must be typed as two separate words and in the singular form to get 20 pages shown. Typing as one word gets 2 pages only, and plural forms of it such as "roostertails" finds nothing at all. They do sell the baits though, even though they are gun fanatics it seems.  I called the company and it sounded legitimate over the phone, as much as a company can anyway.

[Uncle Leo]

Mixed reviews.

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Midwest_Hunter_s_Outlet_TGSCOM_Inc

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Yep those are it.

In my link a number of people got charges on their card months after their initial order. Things started getting shipped to them they didnt order all charged to them. That right there turned me away.

[Stasher1]

I've never heard of most of those sites, but Topglock.com has a less than stellar reputation on the larger Glock owners' forums.

[The Rooster]

Wow, it sounds like if I order from them then it's going to be a mistake.  Most of those reviews say the same thing, extremely long waiting times to get products, very poor customer service, 15% restocking fees for cancelling orders that haven't even been processed.  That's crazy.