*******beware - semsim ripoff!!!**********

Petej

Guys, I just want to bring your attention to a dodgy website that is selling CCNA tutorials. One of the products sold on this site is a CISCO Switch Simulator. I downloaded the free version and then paid $29.99 to unlock the full version. After receiving an email to say that my payment had been received I tried to unlock the product only to find that it didn't work. I emailed SEMSIM asking for help, but unfortunately did not receive a reply. As there was no telephone number on the SEMSIM website, I tried googling the company to see if I could find a contact number. I found a number for an address in Oklahoma and made a long distance call (I live in Liverpool, England) to ask for help. The conversation went something like:

Ring Ring

Lady answers:

Lady: 'Hello'
Me: 'Hello, am I through to SEMSIM?'
Lady: (Pause) 'er what?'
Me: 'Im sorry, I may have the wrong number. Is this SEMSIM?'
Lady: (not very bright) 'er.....yes, this is SEMSIM'
Me: 'Great! I wonder if you could help me, I bought the.....(interupted)
Male Voice: 'Hello'
Me: 'Hello, I am through to SEMSIM, right?'
Male Voice: 'Er.....yeah....'
Me: 'I have just paid $29.99 for your Cisco Switch Simulator, but I am unable to activate it with the code I have been given. Can you help me?'
Male Voice: (Pause) 'No, I can't help you' (Hangs up)

Now, I am quite angry, but being so far away it is not as if I can go and knock on this guys door and demand my money back. So, I send another email and wait for a response. Four days pass by and still no reply to my email. By this time I had reported this to my bank and they refunded me the $29.99. I also reported it to every online Fraudulent activity website I could find in the UK and US in the hope that something could be done to stop other people being ripped off. Now, I know $29.99 is not a great deal of money, but nevertheless it is still theft of money I have worked hard to earn.

So, if anybody is googling Cisco tutorials, please, please do not be tempted to buy anything from SemSim CCNA Exam: Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Free Study & Router Simulator - 640-802, ICND1, ICND2, CCENT. If you take a look at the website, you will see that they have a special $10 discount that runs out at midnight tonight. Well, that special $10 discount message is on there every day. Some of the books and training materials on the market are expensive enough without some lowlife stealing money off people. It seems as though I am not the only person this has happened to either. There are more horror stories about this man and his company on the internet.

Finally, if Arun from SEMSIM is reading this then do the right thing and refund my money. It doesn't belong to you!!

Ok, I'm off to post this on every networking forum I can find. You have been warned friends! If anybody knows of anywhere else I can report this to, please let me know.

Cheers!

Pete

PS I should add that I have had two automated responses from SEMSIM that gave a standard troubleshooting reply. Both these responses were a waste of time and not a direct response to my initial plea for help and then my refund request.

bbarrick

semisim.com WHOIS domain registration information from Network Solutions

Registered to a fellow from California. If you want to PM me the number you called I might be able to get more information since I live here.

NetworkVeteran

I emailed SEMSIM asking for help, but unfortunately did not receive a reply.

Lady: 'Hello'
Me: 'Hello, am I through to SEMSIM?'
Lady: (Pause) 'er what?'
Me: 'Im sorry, I may have the wrong number. Is this SEMSIM?'
Lady: (not very bright) 'er.....yes, this is SEMSIM'
Me: 'Great! I wonder if you could help me, I bought the.....(interupted)
Male Voice: 'Hello'
Me: 'Hello, I am through to SEMSIM, right?'
Male Voice: 'Er.....yeah....'
Me: 'I have just paid $29.99 for your Cisco Switch Simulator, but I am unable to activate it with the code I have been given. Can you help me?'
Male Voice: (Pause) 'No, I can't help you' (Hangs up)

How long did you wait? A turn-around of one business day is typical for most organizations, meaning an e-mail on Friday would be returned Monday. The phone call sounds bizarre, even for someone not expecting to take customer support calls. "Sorry to hear that. I can't do anything about that now, but if you leave your name I'll ask customer support to look into this on Monday." Perhaps if you woke them in the wee hours of the night (EST/CST/PST), such a response is more understandable.

Petej

Hi Guys, thanks for your replies. I gave SEMSIM plenty of time to respond. It has been over two weeks now and all I have had is two standard replies that must be sent to everybody who has problems with the Simulator. The call I made to them was early evening UK time, so it was a reasonable time for the company to be open. I get the impression that this was once a legitimate company, but maybe things have gone wrong for them...I really don't know. What I do know is if they are unable to provide a working simulator then they need to remove the product from their website. Also, if they are unable to reply to emails then they really shouldn't be in business.

BBarrick, I will PM you the contact details have. Thanks again guys! All the best! Pete

craigaaron

I am from the uk too, just wanted to say pete, I hope it all works out for you with it since most cisco things i find are on american websites also

shellee1983

You do realize that you can dispute this with your card holder and report them to the BBB. You will get the money back.

Petej

Thanks Craig and Shellee, I did get my money back from the bank, but I just wanted to highlight this so it doesn't happen to anybody else. Cheers! Pete

Souljacker

Just as a precaution - did you run virus and malware scans on your pc? If it was a scam, you might be infected.

Petej

Thanks Souljacker, I did, and thankfully, it seems fine. Shame I couldn't run one on my wallet, which is now $30 lighter. Cheers! Pete

jsb515

bbarrick wrote: »

semisim.com WHOIS domain registration information from Network Solutions

Registered to a fellow from California. If you want to PM me the number you called I might be able to get more information since I live here.

You did a WHOIS on the wrong DNS. Its not semisim.com but SEMsim.com

semsim.com WHOIS domain registration information from Network Solutions

jsb515

also if your needing to do some labs to study, then just use GNS3 or build up a lab piece by piece over time. I use my lab that I bought in my office at work all the time. Also I recommend Free CCNA Workbook

Souljacker

Wow, that is an epic website. Thanks for sharing it!

jsb515

Souljacker wrote: »

Wow, that is an epic website. Thanks for sharing it!

also read over this h ttp://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/28660-ccna-ccent-home-lab-ideas.html#post683358

copy and paste and remove the space between the h ttp not sure why the auto link thing was breaking it.

bbarrick

jsb515 wrote: »

You did a WHOIS on the wrong DNS. Its not semisim.com but SEMsim.com

semsim.com WHOIS domain registration information from Network Solutions

Thanks for catching that.

CCXXGuy

I agree with you, Pete! Thanks for sharing your experience.

horusthesun

Thanks for the heads up ,I hope some how you can get you money back

• X 3

NetworkVeteran

horusthesun wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up ,I hope some how you can get you money back

• X 3

It's as simple as calling Visa, and he already did so.

PeteJ wrote:

I did get my money back from the bank

SephStorm

thanks for the warning.