The Starscapes® Company
A closer look into the ordering process and customer service of Starscapes®

click here to get hundreds off of the starscapes starbiz retail package!

Starbiz Review

Who is Starscapes®?

Why the High Cost?

My Own Experience

My Bonus Offer

Still Have Questions?

Get it on SALE Now!

Who is Starscapes® International?

Starscapes® is a division of Voyager Industries who is owned by the founder, Joseph Petrashek. I don't know too much history on him other than the fact that he used to be a magician, a master of illusions if you will. Today he is still recreating illusions in the form of starscapes murals.

What I want to share with you here are my personal experiences with the ordering & shipping process, customer service, and their post purchase support. This way, you will know what to expect if you decide this is the right home business for you.

Ordering & Shipping the Starscapes® F/X Starbiz Package

It can get pretty chaotic trying to navigate the Official Starscapes® Website. It almost seem like the site itself is an illusion because many visitors have said to me, "I swear I was just at this one page and now I'm back here again!"

Not to worry because I've made it easier to actually FIND the starbiz purchase page by linking to it directly here for you.

Starscapes® accepts lots of payment forms: credit cards, paypal, and check or money order. Your order can be processed online but for those paying by personal check will need to call after the online order is sent to verify check info I believe. They also offer a finance option which is what I chose at the time because I didn't have all the money so I saved up enough for the downpayment and made 12 equal payments til it was all paid off.

Insider Tip: If you finance your starbiz, try to pay it off within 3 months to avoid having to pay the full retail price! I believe it's their "90 days same as cash" sort of deal so as long as you pay the entire balance in full within 3 months, you'll still lock in the sale price!

when you place your order, via their secure online ordering page, Starscapes® will ship out your Starbiz Package next day by DHL! Even when I financed the program, I received my big box within 3 business days.

I was so excited to get the package delivered to my house, I remember having trouble falling asleep during those nights while my starbiz was in transit! I can still recall my excitement when my big (and I really do mean BIG) box arrived, you'll see what I mean when you get yours in the mail. Maybe you'll take pictures of your box too to commemorate the occasion, I have the pictures of my starbiz on one of my harddrives, I take pictures of practically everything! After all, it's not everyday you're changing your life by starting a new business!

All in all, ordering and delivery was a pretty painless process.

Starscapes® Customer Service

During pre-sale, I had correspondence with Joe Petrashek, the owner/creator of Starscapes® via email and on the telephone. I had entered their banner design contest to win some new laser violet paint and all 5 of my entries are used by them to this day for promotional purposes. Even though I wasn't a SAI at that time, I designed the banners to get one step closer to fulfilling my dream of painting stars!

Joe had called me about my banners and we talked about the Starscapes® opportunity. If you ever get a chance to speak with Joe on the phone, you'll quickly find that he knows his sales! I realized he was there to sell his Starbiz, however, he did answer some questions I had and also gave me encouragement to pursue this business. He was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about Starscapes® and that made me feel even more inspired to get into the star painting business.

It was interesting how accessible by phone he can be at times where most other businesses, the owner can't be reach to answer questions. Once you're a licensed SAI, Joe does provide his personal office line to call when you need to speak directly to him.

Starscapes® Post Purchase Support

Inner Circle Access

After my purchase, I was given access to the chat group which is a private yahoo group. As of this writing, there are currently over 3900 posts from members and Joe on tons of tips, tricks, techniques, marketing ideas, question & answers and more! It took me 3 days (I'm not sure I slept at all during that first week because I was sooo excited) of steady reading to go through all the posts and gain lots of terrific know-how's from fellow artists!

It was a "gold mine" of information with other SAIs talking about their techniques, what worked for them, what didn't, what they found to be even better. It was and still is a great way to stay motivated and to seek help if needed. Even though I had gained a lot of knowledge from the inner circle group posts, I'm hardwired to perfect things. I spent a considerable amount of time perfecting the painting techniques and altered them to better efficiency for myself. I think I've tried practically all the different ways to paint stars and invented a handful of new techniques myself along the way. When others started calling and emailing me along with many instant messenges on a daily basis, that's when I decided to put together a mentoring package. Seeing that I was repeating my tips over and over to each person that asked, it was just easier and more efficient to provide the information within a private mentoring membership program. I'll write more about my mentoring in the bonus offer later.

Minor Payment Hiccups

Since I was financing my starbiz, every month my monthly payment was taken out of the credit card they had on file. Out of the 12 payments, 3 times I had issues where their payment systems messed up.

The first payment came out the same month I had ordered which was only suppose to start until the following month (probably had a problem with setup because financing was a new option) but a quick phone call got that straightened out and my money was refunded right away. The other two times, they had a glitch in the system and my payment was not taken out at all. Again, a couple of phone calls did the trick and got my account squared away with, of course, no late fees since it was their error.

Insider Tip: I find that CALLING them is the fastest way to resolving any of your problems or have any of your questions answered. They seem to get flooded with too much email and often, the email responses are not very timely. If you have an urgent matter, just give customer service a call!

Ordering Additional Starscapes® Paint & Supplies

Ordering additional supplies have always gone smoothly! Since I am licensed, I get paint credits each month to use. There are pros and cons with being licensed. To me, becoming licensed by Starscapes® was the route I wanted to take and here's why. For $19.95 a month in licensing fees, I can use the Starscapes® name in my own advertising, be known and associated with the Starscapes® brand, and I get $20.00 worth of paint credits to use.

Now, if you are going to be serious about this business, you'll eventually need paint supplies. Somewhere in their catacomb of a website, there probably is some mention of the licensing option and how that affects your paint supply purchases. I'll tell you this upfront so you're not surprised by it later on.

Insider Tip: When you get your starbiz package, there are licensing paperwork for you to submit, your choice. However, if you go the route of not being licensed, you lose out on being able to purchase Starscapes® super 10 creation paints. This is what I use in all my murals and it really is the best! Again, I'm hardwired to perfection so I've tested out a lot of paints from a variety of other sources just to prove to myself that what I'm using IS really the best there is....AND IT IS!

So when I need more paint or at the end of the year, I'll call into customer service and place an order with my paint credits I've accumulated throughout the year. As of 2008, you can now order paint with your paint credits online in the private SAI store, this makes ordering supplies even easier! You'll get your paint and other supplies fairly fast delivered via USPS Priority Mail. Some of the bigger items will still be shipped by DHL. And you'll need to pay for the shipping cost of those items.

Hidden Fees they don't tell you about upfront

I don't like surprises when it comes to fees so I just thought I would mention that to you so you can make the most informed decision in regards to getting into this business. A few years back, the licensing structure had changed. Starscapes® now offer two different licensing packages:

Silver Licensing Package that gives you paint credits and allows you to use the Starscapes® trademark! You also get your own Starscapes® webpage and contact with customer service and with Joe for one-on-one personal motivational sessions. Priced at $19.95 a month.

Then there is the Gold Licensing Package that includes all of the Silver benefits AND a whole lot more including the inner circle access and galactification newsletter...plus you get twice as much paint credits each month! Priced at $39.95 a month.

Of course, you always have the option of not going the licensing route with your business so you won't have any additional fees. It's really a personal choice on what you plan on doing with your business.

I really haven't needed much more support from them since my financing has been paid off and they never make a mistake with my licensing fee coming out of my credit card each month, which is on the 18th, I believe. Everyone eventually gets synchronized to the 18th day of the month for licensing.

If I have questions I can ask at the yahoo group or call up Joe, but mostly I just run my business the way I want, I'm the boss!

Talks with Starscapes® Owner, Joe Petrashek

June 2008 marked my 5th year as a Starscapes® Artist-Illusionist! In that time, I've had numerous email correspondences with Joe along with several phone conversations. I can't say that our business relationship have been the best but as far as the painting side of things, I don't have too much to complain about. Starscapes have their own set of rules as far as artist conduct and what the licensing entails. I know what I was getting into when I read and signed the contracts so there's really nothing too major that I'm opposed to.

The major clash I've had with Joe Petrashek has come about with regards to the affiliate referral program which is a separate thing from the painting business. We've had some serious disagreements with the changes within that program and how certain things were mishandled. But again, that has nothing to do with the mural painting business aspect of Starscapes®. I only mention it here briefly to show you that my views on this company isn't all one sided and a bed of roses, you want honesty right? There are definitely thorns on the affiliate side of things and being that I'm in pretty deep on both sides, it's hard for me to separate my feelings. In the end, I have to be somewhat detached and not allow my mediocre feelings from the affiliate side to taint or influence my satisfied feelings with the painting side.

I will say this, there's been a few occasions where I've called up customer service to order more paint and surprisingly found Joe Petrashek on the other end of the phone call. He usually asks me how I am doing with the Starscapes® business and offer up some tips on getting more customers, especially for the upcoming season. During those impromptu one-on-ones, we invariably talked about pricing, sales strategies, and marketing.

Other than that, the only thing left we've had discussions about was with issues of Copyright Infringement pertaining to the thief of my website from unscrupulous folks. Laziness and taking short cuts is not the way to go if you're looking to really make money for the long haul. There's been a number of websites I'd found or was brought to my attention of plain word for word content copying. Sometimes they would even steal the photos of my own artwork to claim as theirs. It's unreal. When the issues involve also the Starscapes® website, Joe gets his lawyers to take action.

Overall Summary of My Dealings with Starscapes® International

So that's my experience with the company itself, not all good but what was done in error with my financing payments were remedied quickly and to my satisfaction.

Overall, the star painting aspect has been and continues to be a good experience for me. I would recommend Starscapes® to anyone who is looking for a fun and unique way to make money and have a home business you can feel good about and be proud of.

If you're looking to sign up for their affiliate program to refer others to the business, knowing what I know, I would not recommend it at all.

Next Topic: Why does the Starscapes® F/X Starbiz Package
cost so much? My Theory on their Pricing

starbiz review who is starscapes? why the high cost? my own experience my bonus offer email me get it on sale now! blog