Build A Blog Store (B.A.B.S) vs WPBlogamtic? Any Thoughts Please?

Skigod30,
thanks for your reply and input. I have spokent to another member who had afew sites and they are not functioning, videos not showing, ebay and other listings not showing.. I have not had a reply to my urgent questions for 3 days form bobby.. or anyone.. so..refund ? you bet ya.

This is an interesting Thread!

I don't believe I am involved, as though I have a B.A.N.S. program, I realise that it's something different (I only looked in here because I misread the title!!).

I can see the points that both Melody and Illumina8 are making here, and though I would certainly take off to 15000 feet myself if I'd spent this sort of loot on something that SEEMED both dodgy and worthless this IS meant to be a section of the Forum for reviews - hence both good and bad will be expected - so anyone using this section might expect comments that don't agree with their perspective.

As an observer only (in this case) I just ask for calm and a short reflection before replies are made that are not easily retracted and which might be quite upsetting for users just here to make sensible comments about their own experiences, expecting them to be read in that light.

(As a trained killer though, I have to add - "Exterminate-Exterminate!")

Yours
John O'York .......... Why are we all here? - Because we're not all there!

Totally agree with you, CB!

It's just always good to remember that there are two sides of every story!

Melody

LOL - yes, I agree. All I was trying to do was share info, and offer to help anyone that needed it, but I got hit over the head for my efforts.

But I will say that if I was trying to get a refund and the software did not work and I couldn't get a response - I would certainly be taking me up on the offer - and only one person has contacted me outside of this thread.

Melody

Hey everybody, here's some actual facts, just in case this helps your decisions. These are the facts, not conjecture or 3rd party hearsay (those follow later.)

- BuildABlogStore was developed by Peter Bresko. Throughout the BuildABlogStore website & documentation, he uses the name Steve Porter. But there is no Steve Porter, that's just a pseudonym for Peter Bresko of Butler, New Jersey. This has been verified.

- Wade Wells, the owner of phpBay, did indeed accuse Bresko of stealing part or all of the phpBay code for BABS, and filed a lawsuit, but dropped it after he saw how much of his money & life were being taken over by pursuing Bresko.

- Umberto Tassoni of Melbourne, AU, bought Bresko's earlier program, BloggingMaster, and complained it didn't work right, he couldn't get good support from Bresko, and then couldn't get a refund of the $4700 he said he invested. He became a venomous flamer of Bresko and BABS, right here on this forum, and was banned under many Warrior forum accounts he created with false names. Bresko claimed that the real reason Tassoni was so angry was because he asked for the rights to the actual BloggingMaster code, and Bresko wouldn't give it to him.

Opinion Break: If Tassoni is indeed the man behind WPBlogmatic, it would certainly fit that he pirated some/all of BABS. He wanted the code, and he made no secret of wanting to take Bresko down.

OK now back to verified facts :

- BABS is actually a good autoblogging program that has made good money for people who put up sites with it...when everything works smoothly. But there have been many glitches and customers who couldn't get it to load/post right. Bresko's support (acting as Steve Porter) has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. Many customers have reported him spending hours on the phone with them working through hosting/posting problems, while many others have said they could never get the guy to reply to a single support ticket. So the best description of his support would have to be "inconsistent."

- If WPBlogmatic is actually a copy of BABS and it loads & posts properly, and if support responds quickly, it should be a very profitable program.

But...and this is back to opinion here - if Tassoni is really the man behind WPBM, would you really want to buy his program and get in the middle of this bad-blood dogfight between a man who's trying to steal from Bresko and a man who can't put his true name on his product because of his terrible reputation? Especially when there are many other ways to make good money in IM...from honest, calm program providers?

- One more fact: When it comes to his affiliates, Bresko is an out-and-out thief. Affiliates who made a lot of money selling Bresko's products have never been paid their commissions...he simply walked off with them, thinking it would be too hard to track him or sue him. This has happened repeatedly...not opinion, verified fact.

So consider all this and see if you want to deal with these programs and the characters behind them.

Hey Melody.

Yes I was personally involved, in that I was one of Peter Bresko's BABS affiliates and ran a WSO for BABS v.6 (he's up to v.7 now)

I am one of the affiliates who made thousands of dollars for Peter, was owed thousands in commissions and, as mentioned above, was stiffed by Bresko for no reason other than he wants to keep all the money for himself, and feels certain he can get away with it.

I know some of the other BABS affiliates, we talk regularly, and he has stiffed them too, even ones who stayed very cordial with him (unlike me.) I realized he was stealing early on, accused him of it, and he summarily broke off all communications permanently...he didn't like being "found out." He used my "bad attitude" as his excuse for not paying me thousands, but other affiliates have stayed even-tempered with him, and he hasn't payed them either, so...I don't like to bash anyone on the WF, particularly one who has a decent product that really makes money, but that's just pure thievery.

It was in the process of hunting down Steve Porter (Peter Bresko) to get paid, my attorney and I researched him, and together uncovered all the facts I listed above. They're all legally verified.

Once again, it's sad that IM is littered with people like this. He's got a good product that can make him tons of money...why he has to resort fake names and welching on his salespeople is beyond understanding.

Big shock, but I requested a refund on Friday and have not gotten a response. Earlier that day, I put in a support request that was addressed within 2 hours of my post. Not looking good!

Very strange somebody is so hot to trot to get a refund and now has not responded in several days after you reached out to the WPB folks on her behalf, and sent her PM's, and also several responses to this thread????

And only a few posts for that person as well? Very odd, but who knows.

Momsbiz -
Melody is helping you and taking time from her business to do so, so at least a response would be appreciated if you were serious about pursuing a refund.

PM sent to Melody!

You need to call PayPal and explain to a human what has happened they will know about the bad history and refund you but you have to call them..

good luck

If a software is sold for that much and buyers are not too happy with purchase, i think its a shame.

I have bought a program for $2000 in the past which turn out to be crap. On the contrary I have purchased a product of $9 which gave me all the training I have been struggling with for over two years.

I really don't understand this as I continue to get responses to any emails I send to support, and have gotten several updates since it was launched.

Baffling......don't know why there seems to be such different experiences with this group!

Melody

I would resend your emails to tech support. I spoke with one of their programmers at WPB today, and he informed me that their mail server was "mail bombed" with like 20 million emails several days ago. (side thought, wonder who would do that or have that done?)

Anyway, to fix the server, hosting company purged all emails (both spam ones and real ones from folks like us) that were in the mail system. Take it for what it's worth, but until this, they've always responded to emails, so it makes sense something like this did actually occur.

Try resending and best of luck to you in 2011.

CB

Hi

Apparently BABS won his case against WPB and WBP cannot be sold or distributed as of Mar 10, 2011 according to this court order:

http://wpblogmaticscam.com/wp-conten...inal_order.pdf

I don't know what the jurisdiction of a state court is as far as enforcing international sales, but I'll bet that WPB can just ignore the order from Australia.

The GPL issue is interesting and I wonder if WPB can use that as a defense, arguing that BABS has no more right to code based on WP GPL code that requires WP to run.

WP has gone after a number of high profile companies that sell WP based products, threatening to sue if they don't change their business model. DIY Thesis is the most well-known.

The idea of the WP GPL is you can make any theme or product, but must give the code away for free. Then monetize your efforts in other ways such as a paid support model. So free to download, but $79.95 for support docs and access to a support forum, for example.

As far as I know, WP has never tested their GPL in court.

Mahlon

I was mostly wondering if you had any problems with the actual product and how it worked for you.

I've done my research and have heard good and bad about Peter Bresko/Steve Porter.

I've also heard good and bad about Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Sprint, Verizon and dozens of other people and companies.

I don't have any problem with someone using a pseudonym to sell something -- that's been going on for a long time. Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens was doing it over a hundred years ago.