Calling Video Professor a Scam 385
palmerj3 writes in to give some wider attention to a piece on Techcrunch today in which Michael Arrington reacts to Video Professor's desperate attempts to shut him up after he called Video Professor a scam in a piece syndicated by the Washington Post. As described by Arrington, the ways the company's site operates (differently depending on where a visitor comes from) are strongly reminiscent of the practices a Senate committee recently condemned. (Here is a detailed example of another, similar scam, from a not-naive victim. Video Professor's tactics sound even more deceptive.) Video Professor seems to react with belligerence, not to mention legal threats, towards any hint of criticism. Please share any direct experiences you have with this outfit.
first impressions (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:first impressions (Score:5, Insightful)
Who cares about the name, they sued their own customers to shut them up about being scammed. That's more than enough evidence of a scam.
His appeal (Score:2, Interesting)
His appeal is that he makes a complicated machine, a computer, seem easy to use and he'll make it easy for you. I actually have talked a couple of people who have done business with these folks (I'd elaborate but Slashdot has a problem with anonymous proxies - yeah, like posting as an AC cuts it). They are high school graduates at best, very intimidated by computers, and many times, they have to use a
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That isn't a BBB statement. It is the BBB accredited icon, and their disclaimer. It does look fishy putting the two so close together, and the BBB may require them to have it.
What I find disturbing is that they have an A rating with the BBB, but there are three other businesses incorporated with the Video Professor name that do not. Only the one based in Denver, and the one that the website claims to be, have been rated at all. Any business folks want to chime in with how hard it would be for a business to
the BBB is worthlless (Score:5, Informative)
you don't even have to reincorporate somewhere else to pull that scam off. The BBB makes money from businesses paying them for "accreditation" and they don't make money from consumers. Their bias is obvious.
Here in SoCal there is a construction fraud gang that seems to mostly be run by a Moroccan/Israeli family named Ben Shulsh. I tried to report their most recent front company (Erco Construction) to the BBB and they would even bother to even look at it. They publicly list the same front people, and they are at the same business address as their last front company (Highrise construction) and 2 miles from the front companies before that (BC Specialty Construction, Bashan and Allied). The BBB only changed the the rating on BC from A+ to F *after* they had robbed everybody, folded up shop and when into hiding for a few weeks. This despite complaints going back months.
I wouldn't put any stock in the BBB or its rating of anything. They are just there to collect the accreditation fees.
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There Free video / cd thing is a scam (Score:2)
not only is there a *Pay up to $9.95 USD for shipping & processing and they act like the old CD music clubs.
I ordered from them in 2005 (Score:5, Interesting)
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Congratulations! You're here. :).
At least you've learned how to use the internet, one way or another.
Who/What is Video Professor? (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, I know I could just google it but damnit slashdot, this sounds like a typical example of an editor knowing about a subject that a submission happens to be about yet most likely the average slashdot users doesn't have a clue as to what/who the fuck "Video professor" is.
/Mikael
Re:Who/What is Video Professor? (Score:5, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who/What is Video Professor? (Score:5, Informative)
I hope you are joking about this being a "scam". This is a tactic used by many many legitimate companies that offer "free" trials. Even Blizzard does it with World of Warcraft free trials..*
Sorry, any company that offers a "free trial" and then automatically bills you is running a scam. Yes, there are many otherwise legitimate companies that run this scam. Yes, the Blizzard "free trials" are a scam. This tactic is a scam, any company that uses it should be considered suspect.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who/What is Video Professor? (Score:5, Informative)
The last time I did a WoW free trial I didn't have to give them any payment information at all. The account just went dormant after two weeks and they told me I could buy the game online to re-activate it if I wanted. I didn't and they never billed me in any way.
Re:Who/What is Video Professor? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you, as a company, ends up having a lot of paying customers who thought they were getting a freebie, you're probably at least guilty of misleading advertising. If your business model is based upon tricking people who didn't read the fine print, I would consider it a scam. If you're selling a good product which actually gives value for the customer's money you don't need to use such tactics in the first place.
You and I would probably never fall for such tricks, that doesn't make it OK for a company to exploit those who will.
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You might want to consider what they are selling here. Marketers abuse the language horribly. If I have to pay money, even if it's for shipping, it's not "free". If it involves me handing over information, or wasting my time it's not "free" either, even if no money changes hands. If I have to call and cancel, that's a "further obligation" as far as I'm concerned. If I'm automatically signed up for something that I will be billed for, that's not a "trial".
What these companies need to do is advertise som
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TV? Isn't that this thing like the Internet, but one-way only and you have to watch in real time? And without Adblock?
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Exactly how Time Life operate. Nothing new, move along.
In the sense that it's a recurring negative-option offer where the first one is cheap? Bzzt, wrong.
The problem here is that this guy is quite deliberately hides what is being charged and the recurring nature of the promotion. Time Life are- I assume- being reasonably clear about what the deal is before you come to order, even if that's not the selling point. This guy isn't.
Some Slashdotters don't read the story properly? Nothing new, move along.
Re:Who/What is Video Professor? (Score:4, Funny)
Please share any direct experiences you have with this outfit.
Also implying that some of us here don't know how to use a computer; there's no other way we'd have any "experience" with that "outfit."
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well obviously you haven't watched tv in about 8 years
Seriously, I know I could just google it but damnit slashdot, this sounds like a typical example of an anonymous commenter knowing about a subject that a submission happens to be about yet most likely the average slashdot users doesn't have a clue as to what/who the fuck "tv" is.
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Oh the travesty if someone has to RTFA.
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The problem is, there are a ton of articles. The point of a summary is to provide enough information to help me decide if I want to bother RTFA. Having an interesting headline and a bad summary is just irritating. If the Slashdot editors want to make money selling ads, then they need to make the site useful and compelling. Irritating their readers is a bad business model.
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We could petition Slashdot to fix this. Anyone who hasn't clicked on the article will be taken there the first time they hit the "Submit" button to post a comment.
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Re:Who/What is Video Professor? (Score:4, Funny)
Bork, bork bork bork!
bork bork bork? Bork borkbork!
bork,
Bork
Video professor made things right for me (Score:5, Funny)
When I complained, they gave me a free credit report from their partners at freecreditreport.com. I don't know what this guy is complaining about.
Yup, He's a Crook (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, the idiot is known to do bad business. Sadly if we start shutting down corrupt businesses we will shut down the American economy. We might have to shut down most state governments as well.
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just Jersey
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Shit, I haven't received this month's shill check from the governor's office yet, never mind.
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I'm the lucky one. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm the lucky one. (Score:4, Insightful)
They gave me my money back AND let me keep the course. That really surprised me.
Given their high profile, displaying a desire to avoid criminal prosecution really shouldn't come as a surprise.
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They can happily refund the money of the x% who call in and make a fuss and it's no big loss to them. There's still a healthy percentage of people who won't notice the charge or who simply will take it as a life lesson and move on. They may well be acting within the limits of the law so as to avoid being shutdown (or they may not be -- I make no judgment on the matter as IANAL), but that doesn't make what they're doing right.
Re:I'm the lucky one. (Score:5, Informative)
You really missed the point on that. They are like Dell, in that they just keep the money for 30-60 days, since from what I can recall Dell convinced the hardware suppliers to paid monthly, or on even longer cycles (Not accusing Dell of wrongdoing here). You make your real money in a quasi-Ponzi scheme in which you make money in 3 ways:
1) You keep the money that people don't complain about (what you mention)
2) Interest on the money you are keeping. It's not unusual in telemarketing scams to have millions, to tens of millions of dollars at any one time in a bank account.
3) Flat out just playing risky by taking more and more money out though other service companies (more scams) till eventually:
a) FTC comes in and shuts you down.
b) You run out of money, burn your bridges, or can't keep coming up with new products and services that people have not caught on to yet.
By this time you have been smart enough to let other take the fall and liability and you move on to a new company, different name, different products, sometimes a different foreign call center group, and start the same fucking shit.
There is a saying, "The poor will always be with us". Well there should be another one, "The stupid/naive/foolish will continue to be take advantage of by the wolves".
Heh. Just barely. Laws vary from state to state. What they do is push it as far as they can till the Attorney General's office of a particular state threatens them enough and they will have the call centers stop calling the area codes for that state. Of course they won't take any more orders for that state either.
Once enough states have blocked that product, they move on to another product in the works and repeat. If the Attorney General does try to actually ban the company, they form new companies. It never affects the products since their entire infrastructure is divided among holding companies, operating companies, service companies, foreign call center companies, and the companies that own the products being sold or are responsible for the marketing. You will usually find Mr. Big owning part of them, directly or indirectly, safely from foreign companies located in nice warm places where the bars sell you drinks with funny names and hats.
Trust Me. They are all of full of shit and know fully what they are doing.
Posting Anonymously for safety.
While we're talking about scams (Score:2)
I'm actually in the middle of trying to figure out if an offer I recently received is genuine. I've not been asked to send out money, just use my brain and solve a problem involving lighting. Couple of guys from the UK and AUS found some postings of mine on a horticultural website, sent me an e-mail about a week ago, and now I've got all sorts of documents and photographs of the stuff they're wanting to do but need an acting lighting engineer for.
I've had e-mail, I've had phone conversations. I'm asking for
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No, YOU grow op!
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Seriously. And if you're friendly with any lawyers, maybe run it by them quickly. It could very easily be a situation where you're responsible for paying for their travel expenses or something. Or it could be totally legit. Seek professional contract advice.
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This should be fairly easy to figure down... Are they Google-able? They have a company?
The NDA part shouldn't be bothersome... it's par for the course; I make vendors sign 'em for certain server infrastructure additions or analysis (cf. anything that may possibly handle trade secrets, etc - even Microsoft signs one before doing their true-up audits). Besides, no NDA can prevent you from reporting illegal activity, so don't sweat it.
Otherwise, just get everything in writing (and notarized!) before agreeing t
Video Professor is a "X of the Month Club" (Score:5, Informative)
type business. Now Video Professor sells a series of Tutorial Movies on CDs that show how to use a Windows software product or Windows itself or some Web Site like eBay. Like the "X of the Month Club"s the first one is free for X days and if not sent back and order is canceled new Video CDs are sent and the person's credit card is charged.
Calling it a "scam" is very strong words, and they have sued people who say that. It is a business and the terms on the TV commercials are in small print, and the EULA the user clicks on explains it is a membership in a club to purchase Video CDs for various software products.
The Average Slashdot member doesn't need Video Professor because we usually just use search engines like Google to figure out how software or web sites work. These Video Professor CDs are marketed towards the luddites and people with little to no computer skills and open up a video in Microsoft Media Player. The type of people who don't bother to read the EULA or know that it is a membership or trial offer. So you could say that Video Professor preys on the unskilled and the weak, but legally they have a legal contract with them via the EULA they click agree on via their web site or via the Phone Orders. If it is a legal agreement and legitimate business it is not necessarily a scam, it might be unethical or immoral or appear to be wrong in some way but it is still legal. It is as legal as those "Book of the Month" or "CD of the Month" businesses.
You'll actually find the Internet full of such offers and such companies. But Video Professor airs TV commercials targeted at people who don't seem to understand how a computer works much less how a trial membership works.
I hereby challenge the free and open source community to make a serials of software tutorials for various Windows operating systems, Windows software, web sites, etc and provide those videos free via downloads or web site streaming to engage and or challenge the Video Professor company, and provide free alternatives that people on Slashdot and other technical web sites can refer to our friends and relatives who might get taken in via Video Professor, and instead we can redirect them to the FOSS web site of software tutorial videos or download them and burn our own FOSS Software Professor CD-R disks and give them to them for free.
Microsoft would sue. (Score:5, Funny)
I hereby challenge the free and open source community to make a serials of software tutorials for various Windows operating systems, Windows software, web sites, etc and provide those videos free via downloads or web site streaming to engage and or challenge the Video Professor company, and provide free alternatives that people on Slashdot and other technical web sites can refer to our friends and relatives who might get taken in via Video Professor, and instead we can redirect them to the FOSS web site of software tutorial videos or download them and burn our own FOSS Software Professor CD-R disks and give them to them for free.
The F/OSS community doing a Windows training video? Ahahah ....OK, wavy lines...wavy line....wavy line,,,,,
Start of video....
Enter guy with black hair, black goatee, horns, pitchfork, and dressed in red.
"Hi, I'm Satan and I'm here to teach you about my Operating System : Windows. Using this OS will automatically give your everlasting soul to me. Now to begin....."
Every other frame will be a quick frame that says:
F/OSS is the GOOD in the World. Linux is your salvation!
Please excuse the typos. For some reason my spell check on Firefox isn't working on this Fedora 12 box. ????
Re:Video Professor is a "X of the Month Club" (Score:5, Informative)
It is, but it doesn't have the balls to tell you up front that it is. That's hidden away on an easy to miss corner of only one part of their webpage (and on none of the subsequent pages you have to click through to complete the transaction). They're not even doing a boiler plate type EULA thing "click here if you agree that its ok if we charge you every blah blah". They just "assume" you read the entirety of their front page and if not, then tough. Well actually, they're probably assuming you didn't -- because if you did, there's no way you continued on with the transaction.
Where Video Professor really crosses the line is in the amount charged. Most of the "x of the month" club type businesses thrive on *apathy*. People know full well that they're going to be charged 10 dollars every month unless they cancel, and they fully intend to cancel, but they just never get around to it.
This, on the other hand, is set up to thrive on *ignorance*. More than likely, you aren't going to know a thing about that 290 dollar charge on your credit card until it hits you. And then, what can you do? Cancel? You've already bought them *all* in one charge.
A business model based on consumer apathy is slimy, but tolerable. People are getting screwed, but they know it and they accepted it. Ignorance, on the other hand, is just not "ok". Grandma isn't reading the fine print on this web page and there's just no way she knows she's going to get billed for 290 dollars until it happens and then its too late.
If your business model is based around the idea that "People can't know your business model, or they won't buy your product" -- then it's a scam. It might comply with the letter of the law, IANAL -- but by the strict dictionary definition it is deception and therefore it is a scam.
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I honestly think that there should exist FOSS alternatives to almost anything or everything in the computer world.
Video Professor deserves to have some FOSS competition and FOSS alternatives. It really isn't that hard to do just take a video camera and record someone using the software and then edit the video for highlights and using graphics to circle the controls, etc to make it easier to find. It isn't even limited to just Windows or Windows software, but Linux, Mac OSX, *BSD Unix, etc. It could start a
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Why in the hell would the FOSS community make helpful guides for using Windows?
You really did not think this through did you? Perhaps a set of videos familiarizing folks with gnome or kde, open office and gimp, but videos for non FOSS software I think not.
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The FOSS community could do Linux, Mac OSX, KDE, GNOME, OpenOffice.Org, etc as well. No limits.
I did think it through, it offers FOSS alternatives to Video Professor(TM) the same way OpenOffice.Org offers a FOSS alternative to MS-Office and Wordperfect Office, etc.
Many in the FOSS community use Windows anyway as FOSS developers who target Windows have to use Windows to test things out. Those who write content also cover Windows like Wikibooks and WikiHow and eHow seem to have Windows Software articles writt
THEY ARE NOT A SCAM! (Score:5, Funny)
Honest, I used video professor to learn to sell on Ebay and not I am making $10,000 a month and living the life I have always dreamed of. Thanks video professor!
Re:THEY ARE NOT A SCAM! (Score:4, Funny)
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I see from the above posts making fun of what I can assume is a V.P. advertisment, that you don't have Adblock plus for your TV yet.
Free Car Washes! (Score:3, Funny)
But I go anyway and "PAY" for my "Free" car wash. If only because I'll never got that close to actual boobs in my real life.
Hold on a second.... "Mom! Poop bucket!!"
Ok, I have to go. But, yeah total scam.
Incompetent or a Scam, your choice... (Score:5, Interesting)
She started trying to cancel it within two weeks.
It took over 3 months before they would actually cancel it, and that was like pulling teeth with tweezers.
She must have sent 20 emails and spent 40 hours on the phone trying to get them to cancel.
That is either Massive incompetence, or total scam.
I really don't care which, but I'd advise you to not use Video Professor.
Besides, their stuff is really basic. You'd be better off taking an introductory course at your local college, or just checking out stuff at your local library.
(Either of those options will be cheaper as well.)
It's almost a shame (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:It's almost a shame (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's almost a shame (Score:5, Insightful)
Because such "learn at home" videos are in fact very difficult to make: they have no feedback with the student, they're easily at far too sophisticated or far too untrained an audience, and because "teaching Photoshop" reequires a great deal of hands-on experience to learn how the workflow really works, and to recover from errors or inappropriate shortcuts. It's far easier to make a very lame and poorly produced document that does not actually teach, but relies on fraud to make its profit.
Such behavior is very common: do not rely on something sounding "perfictly viable" to assure that it has, in fact, any useful quality.
Don't worry (Score:3, Funny)
It IS a scam. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a TERRIBLE fucking scam.
It does detail in explicit detail everything they're doing. You have unlimited time to review the conditions. So scam? No not really. Deceptive marketing? Absolutely.
"Deals" like these have been the status quo for decades. Should they be illegal? Yes, but given current contract law, try and figure out a way to band them, win a nobel prize.
Consumers who ignore the find print deserve what they get, and get what they deserve.
I *AM* a video professor (Score:3, Funny)
Legal notice sent to Uncyclopedia (Score:5, Informative)
VP sues 100's in 2007 (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot posted this story in 2007 about Video Professor sueing to get critical reviews off the internet.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/24/1619240 [slashdot.org]
Yeah, that worked out well for them, didn't it?
And one more reason for temporary CC numbers (Score:3, Informative)
This is just another reason why I use temporary credit card numbers for online purchases. They're only good for a set period of time and you set the maximum chargeable amount.
The end result is that they never actually have your credit card number.
Of course a better solution is to read the fine print, both online and on your packing slip, so you know the deal. I too had one of those 'free offers' that was really a 'free trial'. Luckily I read my packing slip which had all the details on how to cancel it. Followed the instructions, no problem. But they were also pretty up-front about it.
Any company that buries a subscription or a situation where you have to pay for things you never thought you ordered is a scam. Period. End of story. They're counting on the fact that most people won't understand or read the agreement. Trying to squash negative commentary is just more proof that they know what they're doing is wrong.
Video Professor (Score:5, Informative)
I ordered a 'free' Video Professor Access learning set about 10 years ago. The set came with 3 discs in a single package. 2 of the discs were free, but in order to keep the 3rd, the last lessons, I would have had to pay the $29.95 for the set. In other words, if you want the free part, it's only the introductory and intermediate lessons. Additionally, each disc installed several programs I would have to characterize as spyware. Not just the first, but each disc. Before they would run any lessons. So, I sent the 'free' software back. And then I got to struggle with their hands in my pocket through 3 more 'free' (unordered) sets, each of which showed up on my credit card statement before the (unordered) sets arrived. Each subsequent time I called to protest I was told to keep the discs. Of course, they were worth more as infections than as product. I finally canceled the credit card to stem the pilfering. 'Scam' is kind.
Lie after lie after lie (Score:4, Informative)
I knew about the 10 day deadline to stop the extra charges and made it in time. I also called the customer service line to inform them that I had sent in the refusal notice. But they charged me anyway. So I called them to ask what was up and they said it would be taken care of in five days. So in seven days I called them again to ask where was my refund. Once again, they said it was a mix up or a clerical error and it would be processed in five days. This process repeated over and over. Each time they apologized and said it was a clerical error and would be taken care of within five days. But it never was. It was just one lie after another. It went on for months before I finally wrote to the Denver Better Business Bureau. Only then did they actually refund the money that they had no right to take from me in the first place. John Scherer (the video professor) is as dishonest as they come. They might not be breaking the law but if you have an ounce of sense in your head, you will never do business with this crook. (I called him much worse when I was fighting to get my money back.)
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Not that the actual Video Professor teaching tool is a scam.
About two-thirds of the way down in the article:
Another scam: Video Professor. Users are offered in game currency if they sign up to receive a free learning CD from Video Professor. The user is told they pay nothing except a $10 shipping charge. But the fine print, on a different page from checkout, tells them they are really getting a whole set of CDs and will be billed $189.95 unless they return them. Most users never return them because they don't know about the extra charge. Woot. Again, sites like Offerpal and SuperRewards flow these offers through to game developers. See here for more on the Video Professor scam.
So, Video Professor is a scam, but it's a minor point in the article.
Re:Bad Summary (Score:5, Informative)
It's not a minor point in the article, it's the entire article. This [techcrunch.com] is the article, the other link in the summary was just an aside...
The article really takes video professor apart. It's a total scam and there's no more doubt about it.
Re:Bad Summary,Christmas sale, free shipping (Score:5, Insightful)
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No its not a bad summary. The original article also mentions Video Professor as a scam below the FB/game currency scams.
You may not agree with it but TFA does call Video Professor a scam.
Not that the actual Video Professor teaching tool is a scam.
Their practices are a scam. I have no idea how useful the product is but as the problem seems to be with getting refunds
then I'd say its not worth the $190-290 you get billed for it if you cant navigate their deliberately confusing returns process.
What it really sounds like (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that gaming market is doing a great job of trying to implode on itself. Seriously, if the way it works is the games that participate in offerbot scams are the successful ones... Well then I don't see it having a long term future. After all, there are TONS of PC games that are not that way, be they web based Flash games or retail games or whatever. There are more games than you can play in a lifetime out there that aren't like this. If this is what the gaming scene on Facebook is, my guess is that it'll implode and disappear in a couple years.
Re:What it really sounds like (Score:5, Insightful)
Calling Farmville a game is like calling Mattel (Hot-Wheels) a car company. :)
Re:What it really sounds like (Score:4, Funny)
Correct, it's a retarded addiction.. Like paint huffing, gasoline sniffing, or self waterboarding.
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Perhaps you should RTEntireFA?
Re:Bad Summary (Score:4, Informative)
well according to this
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/28/video-professor-washington-post-scamville/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch) [techcrunch.com]
(link is in the summary)
Essentially it appears your getting a couple of free CD's and paying a few dollars for shipping. In reality you get sent a bunch of stuff and billed $289.95 (they have your credit card details from the 4 dollar shipping charge) In theory there is a get out clause return one of the lessons within 10 days then you don't get billed but apparently thats not so easy to do.
Is it a scam? Well if you didn't intend to purchase $289.95 worth of cd's I'd say yes, because there is some text on the front page which says they will bill you $289.95 and its also hidden away in a bunch of small print they say no.
The order summary only mentions $4.56 shipping charges for 3 cd's
They target the gullible, computer novices who don't realize they are giving away access to their credit card.
Probably the only defense against this kind of abuse are one time credit cards but even then your credit score could take a bashing.
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It may or may not be legal, but even if it is, it's still a scam. We all know a scam when we see it, and sometimes they happen to be legal.
Re:Bad Summary (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is this the guy (Score:5, Informative)
Yes it is, but there are other Video CDs sent to the person who tries the product including charges made to the credit card.
His business is like a "Book of the Month" or "CD of the Month" type club where the first one is free (for a limited time and if you don't send it back you get charged for it, hence the "try" part of "try my product") and if you don't like it you can call and cancel it and send the CD back to avoid being charged for it.
Re:Is this the guy (Score:5, Interesting)
In Canada this is called 'negative option billing'
It has been illegal here for 10+years.
No more CD of the month clubs
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Good law, but it hasn't caught on in the USA where Video Professor operates out of. My guess is he doesn't sell to Canada, then?
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I am one of those "olds" you speak of, and I seem to be able to spot these things a mile away. But then the older I get the more cynical I get. And if I want to learn about xyz, I go to the Borders web site and see what the local store has on xyz, or I just buy the Xyz Bible from Amazon. If I want a quick video on something, I go to YouTube. You really have to go out of your way to get scammed by these characters; though, obviously, they are still unethical. I suspect the dupes involved are the same folks w
Supposedly it's hard to cancel, refunds fail (Score:2, Informative)
According to many accounts posted on the web, it's difficult/impossible to cancel, and it takes months to receive your $80+ refund for a returned DVD.
Re:Is this the guy (Score:4, Informative)
Even the typical X of the month offer is much more clear about the terms and what it will cost. They typically tell you what you'll be charged up front and tell you what you'll need to do to avoid further charges. Those further charges are a little high, but not outrageously out of line with typical retail pricing. It's not the sort of offer I care to accept, but they at least tell you what you're getting in to.
With the Video Professor, I didn't know what the deal was at all until I read the various scam warnings. I had written it off as likely having some sort of catch, but I had no idea what.
I have seen a number of reports (some in this discussion) indicating that actually getting the CD returned and getting your refund is quite difficult as well.
Re:Is this the guy (Score:4, Funny)
"Hello, Video Professor? Hi yes, I'd like you to please send me the CD on how to setup and operate computer oriented scams please."
"What? You don't have that title? Could you please double-check? I'd swear I heard you has something like that... Yes, I'll hold thanks."
Re:W-T-F? (Score:5, Funny)
Watch that Anti-Religious Bigotry. Religious people have civil rights too, you know.
Yeah, mocking/criticizing a group of people is an attack on their civil rights. Jesus, it's not like the post was advocating denying Christians the right to marry or something.
Re:W-T-F? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is bigoted to point out that someone believes in imaginary creatures?
Would it be bigoted if I claimed people who believed in unicorns were foolish?
Since when does anyone have the right not to be offended?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Wow! First we had the Chewbacca Defense. Now we have the Chewbacca Apologetic!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Clearly I am the next Johnny Cochran. :)
I used to work for lawyers, until one of them bit me. Whomever is bitten by a lawyer eventually becomes one. All I need left to do is study in law school and then graduate and pass the bar exam. :)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Already answered [slashdot.org] the words of Jesus have done a lot to fight bigotry, and Jesus works through his followers to educate people.
Not every Christian is going to be a Fundamentalist Christian you know.
Some Civil Rights Activists are Christians, and thus Jesus works through them.
Barrack Obama is a Christian and is trying to reform civil rights and fight bigotry as Jesus did.
Re:W-T-F? (Score:5, Insightful)
A belief in fairy tales does not constitute a protected class. An African-American never chose to have black skin nor can they change that condition. A Christian can apply a modicum of critical thinking to remedy their condition.
In any other discussion, a willful disregard for scientific evidence will be appropriately mocked here on Slashdot. So why should believing that the earth is 6000 years old be any different? And why should believing anything from a book compiled for a purpose ~1700 years ago be any more reasonable that believing the myths of other primitive societies?
I've got nothing against people that believe there is a higher power, but you won't find a lot of Christians that believe just that without believing in all the provably false claims in the Bible. And even then, no one would give a rats ass about that belief too if Christians didn't have a nasty habit of trying to use those spurious beliefs to shape public policy and the annoying habit of trying to spread their critical thinking deficiency virus. I can't speak for the rest of the people who make clear their disdain for Christians, but for my part, they need only stop those two habits for me to stop caring about them entirely. They can go off into their own little corner and enjoy their wacky cult. But as long as people preach their bizarre beliefs and use them to justify insane public policy, it's the duty of every rational person to denounce them.
Re: (Score:2)
An African-American never chose to have black skin nor can they change that condition.
A subtle point here, as I have made this faux pas as well, the above statement can be read to say that they should want to change their skin pigmentation given the option.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
In any other discussion, a willful disregard for scientific evidence will be appropriately mocked here on Slashdot. So why should believing that the earth is 6000 years old be any different?
Thats a nice straw man you have there, did you make it yourself? I was under the impression that "age of the earth" had a NUMBER of different positions among christians, and that "young earth" was only one of them. But if it makes it easy for you to ridicule christians, by all means continue; it really helps your case to accuse others of being irrational in the same breath you commit logical fallacies.
And why should believing anything from a book compiled for a purpose ~1700 years ago be any more reasonable that believing the myths of other primitive societies?
And why should we believe modern neuroscience, i mean others have been wrong in that realm before right?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I've got nothing against people that believe there is a higher power, but you won't find a lot of Christians that believe just that without believing in all the provably false claims in the Bible?
More than half of all Christians are part of the Roman Catholic Church [wikipedia.org], which does not believe in creationism or any of the other 'provably false claims' you refer to. Books such as Genesis are seen as largely symbolic, and in my experience when the RCC does attempt to influence public policy, they do so using secular arguments, even if their motivation for doing so is founded in religious beliefs (e.g. the abortion controversy).
Disclaimer: I am a member of the RCC
Re:W-T-F? (Score:5, Insightful)
And you are a fucking moron...the Civil Rights act protects your from being discriminated against in finding shelter, a job, etc. It does NOT protect you or your religious beliefs from criticism by others. THAT right is protected in the US Constitution, under the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights in the "Free Speech" clause.
The UN's declaration of rights includes the rights of Free Speech and belief....this means you should be able to believe whatever you want without fear of oppression by your government, and I have the right to mock you for your beliefs...again without fear of oppression by my government.
You sound like the typical "poor Christians getting oppressed" whiner when the truth is you can't stand the idea that others also get to express their beliefs and opinions which include disdain for your beliefs. Go whine to the ACLJ and see how successful you are in a law suit. I'll talk to the ACLU to assist in defending my 1st Amendment rights against your claims.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)