7 ms·

Not that scammy? Nowhere on the site are any of the extra charges declared. If someone bills your credit card without expressly telling you that they're going t

Not that scammy? Nowhere on the site are any of the extra charges declared. If someone bills your credit card without expressly telling you that they're going to then it's a scam. Are you seriously trying to tell us that tricking unwary customers is not scammy?

systemtrigger 17y ago
> Nowhere on the site are any of the extra charges declared. Be careful of what you are claiming. The http://videoprofessor.com http://videoprofessor.com homepage says "After your 10-day free trial, if you decide to keep the complete set, we'll conveniently bill your credit card just $289.95."
- aarongough 17y ago
  Thanks for catching that. I looked but couldn't find that notice (I'll admit I didn't look super hard...) I think that if you're going to charge a customer X number of dollars, you really need to make sure they understand that. It's obviously a bad business practice, but I think that regulators should take the extra step and make hiding charges in fine print illegal...
chrischen 17y ago
It does notice users on the site. And people can return the products afterwards. On their BBB profile it says most of their issues are resolved. Why is everyone taking Arrington's word for it. It doesn't even seem like he did any research besides a quick glance at their site. For all you know video professor makes it's money by tricking people to try, only to have people realize it was worth the 300 dollars. I don't deny any tricking on their website, but they do have a return and refund policy that seems satisfiable. It just doesn't add up. How can they sustain their business if people can refund.
- systemtrigger 17y ago
  The trouble with the Video Professor website is once you drill past the homepage you don't see anything about the $289.95. Consider someone who arrives via deep link. To that person it appears as if all they are risking is $9.95 - even through checkout. They might click User Agreement during checkout but the only charge that reveals is...$9.95. If the visitor clicks into How it Works they will see the wrong price: $189.95. (Check for yourself: https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shoppingCart.howItWorks https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shopping...). Only the skeptical and curious who arrive via deep link can know what happens after the 10 day trial, and even they will be overcharged by $100. We can debate whether the product line is worth $289.95 but that is irrelevant to this issue of checkout fraud.
  - chrischen 17y ago
    No it is accurate. You are only paying for the shipping and handling. That's why it's the only thing being shown on that page. How many people would get hooked onto their wonderful product if they thought it costs 300 to begin with. That's why they get the trial, then decide they like their tutorials, and then possibly be willing to buy it at that price. But unfortunately no one has cared whether or not the video tutorials are actually good. If they are good, then it is not a scam.
    - systemtrigger 17y ago
      > You are only paying for the shipping and handling. Yes but during checkout what they don't tell you is the default is to charge you $290 more and this expensive line item isn't opt-in, it's opt-out.
      - chrischen 17y ago
        So are magazines. If you don't opt out they keep sending you stuff and bill you. But that initial charge is for purchasing the trial. If you don't cancel, you get billed. Not satisfied, you get a refund. This is pretty common, and not all are necessarily scams.
- BRadmin 17y ago
  Is their return policy really 10 days? For this not to be a scam people need to explicitly know that if they don't return it within that timeframe, they'll be charged $300. Most people surely aren't aware of this, find out once they open up their credit card bill at the end of the month, and are told that their 10-day return period has expired. That's a scam.
  - psyklic 17y ago
    In their USER AGREEMENT (available from the Home page), they only mention there is a "purchase fee" but do not tell you what it is. Once you start to order, they only mention the fee under the TESTIMONIALS section (and also do not tell you what it is). In fact, the only place I see a fee stated explicitly is in the HOW IT WORKS link, but this is not even available until you are entering your credit card information ... and the hyperlinks pointing to it do not mention a purchase fee!
    - chrischen 17y ago
      It says $289.95 on the left side of the home page. You have 10 days to tell them (call) that you want to return it. You have 30 days to send it.
chrischen 17y ago
https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shoppingCart.landingPage&campaignname=LC_roiCourseInfo&pathelementid=124&pathid=8&pagenum=2&subsectionid=0&courseid=45&mov=0&CFID=11537948&CFTOKEN=f36056b8f52fb3bf-3CD2B976-BCD9-B808-B1E9E95D7BCEFB60&jsessionid=f030d4a50a326b0a064c2b77783757b78e77 https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shopping... The sample videos show comprehensive tutorials. I think they deserve a more comprehensive look before jumping to a quick conclusion. You and I may be computer literate, so to us it may seem like worthless crap to us, but the videos aren't too shabby quality. It's probably why it's drawing so many scam criticisms because to us it doesn't seem worth $300.
- BRadmin 17y ago
  Are you kidding? The problem: they don't openly disclose that it costs $300 - their customers value the cost at free or ~$5 for S&H, while the charged cost is buried in fine-print on another page. If it was explicitly offered at $300 and people still bought it nobody would be calling it a scam even if it was viewed as "worthless crap to us."
  - chrischen 17y ago
    They only get charged after the trial. I thought it was quite clearly stated that it's a trial! Their pricing is quite odd, because if you click on the offer details, it says it's a a $20 something monthly charge after the trial. I'm only saying this merits a little more investigation than just a quick glance by Arrington and everyone else being yes-men. I hate scammers, but it's not a fine line between scamming, and sly marketing.
    - wtallis 17y ago
      Nowhere that I can see do they sell a ~$300 product. They sell "trials" and subscriptions, and hide the full price in fine print. A legit business would at least show a real price tag for the real product. (For example, ads for products with a rebate usually show the after-rebate price in a large font, but the before-rebate price is always adjacent to it, not in a sidebar or at the bottom of the page, and never on a separate page.)

systemtrigger 17y ago

> Nowhere on the site are any of the extra charges declared. Be careful of what you are claiming. The http://videoprofessor.com http://videoprofessor.com homepage says "After your 10-day free trial, if you decide to keep the complete set, we'll conveniently bill your credit card just $289.95."

aarongough 17y ago
Thanks for catching that. I looked but couldn't find that notice (I'll admit I didn't look super hard...) I think that if you're going to charge a customer X number of dollars, you really need to make sure they understand that. It's obviously a bad business practice, but I think that regulators should take the extra step and make hiding charges in fine print illegal...

chrischen 17y ago

It does notice users on the site. And people can return the products afterwards. On their BBB profile it says most of their issues are resolved. Why is everyone taking Arrington's word for it. It doesn't even seem like he did any research besides a quick glance at their site. For all you know video professor makes it's money by tricking people to try, only to have people realize it was worth the 300 dollars. I don't deny any tricking on their website, but they do have a return and refund policy that seems satisfiable. It just doesn't add up. How can they sustain their business if people can refund.

systemtrigger 17y ago
The trouble with the Video Professor website is once you drill past the homepage you don't see anything about the $289.95. Consider someone who arrives via deep link. To that person it appears as if all they are risking is $9.95 - even through checkout. They might click User Agreement during checkout but the only charge that reveals is...$9.95. If the visitor clicks into How it Works they will see the wrong price: $189.95. (Check for yourself: https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shoppingCart.howItWorks https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shopping...). Only the skeptical and curious who arrive via deep link can know what happens after the 10 day trial, and even they will be overcharged by $100. We can debate whether the product line is worth $289.95 but that is irrelevant to this issue of checkout fraud.
- chrischen 17y ago
  No it is accurate. You are only paying for the shipping and handling. That's why it's the only thing being shown on that page. How many people would get hooked onto their wonderful product if they thought it costs 300 to begin with. That's why they get the trial, then decide they like their tutorials, and then possibly be willing to buy it at that price. But unfortunately no one has cared whether or not the video tutorials are actually good. If they are good, then it is not a scam.
  - systemtrigger 17y ago
    > You are only paying for the shipping and handling. Yes but during checkout what they don't tell you is the default is to charge you $290 more and this expensive line item isn't opt-in, it's opt-out.
    - chrischen 17y ago
      So are magazines. If you don't opt out they keep sending you stuff and bill you. But that initial charge is for purchasing the trial. If you don't cancel, you get billed. Not satisfied, you get a refund. This is pretty common, and not all are necessarily scams.
BRadmin 17y ago
Is their return policy really 10 days? For this not to be a scam people need to explicitly know that if they don't return it within that timeframe, they'll be charged $300. Most people surely aren't aware of this, find out once they open up their credit card bill at the end of the month, and are told that their 10-day return period has expired. That's a scam.
- psyklic 17y ago
  In their USER AGREEMENT (available from the Home page), they only mention there is a "purchase fee" but do not tell you what it is. Once you start to order, they only mention the fee under the TESTIMONIALS section (and also do not tell you what it is). In fact, the only place I see a fee stated explicitly is in the HOW IT WORKS link, but this is not even available until you are entering your credit card information ... and the hyperlinks pointing to it do not mention a purchase fee!
  - chrischen 17y ago
    It says $289.95 on the left side of the home page. You have 10 days to tell them (call) that you want to return it. You have 30 days to send it.

chrischen 17y ago

https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shoppingCart.landingPage&campaignname=LC_roiCourseInfo&pathelementid=124&pathid=8&pagenum=2&subsectionid=0&courseid=45&mov=0&CFID=11537948&CFTOKEN=f36056b8f52fb3bf-3CD2B976-BCD9-B808-B1E9E95D7BCEFB60&jsessionid=f030d4a50a326b0a064c2b77783757b78e77 https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shopping... The sample videos show comprehensive tutorials. I think they deserve a more comprehensive look before jumping to a quick conclusion. You and I may be computer literate, so to us it may seem like worthless crap to us, but the videos aren't too shabby quality. It's probably why it's drawing so many scam criticisms because to us it doesn't seem worth $300.

BRadmin 17y ago
Are you kidding? The problem: they don't openly disclose that it costs $300 - their customers value the cost at free or ~$5 for S&H, while the charged cost is buried in fine-print on another page. If it was explicitly offered at $300 and people still bought it nobody would be calling it a scam even if it was viewed as "worthless crap to us."
- chrischen 17y ago
  They only get charged after the trial. I thought it was quite clearly stated that it's a trial! Their pricing is quite odd, because if you click on the offer details, it says it's a a $20 something monthly charge after the trial. I'm only saying this merits a little more investigation than just a quick glance by Arrington and everyone else being yes-men. I hate scammers, but it's not a fine line between scamming, and sly marketing.
  - wtallis 17y ago
    Nowhere that I can see do they sell a ~$300 product. They sell "trials" and subscriptions, and hide the full price in fine print. A legit business would at least show a real price tag for the real product. (For example, ads for products with a rebate usually show the after-rebate price in a large font, but the before-rebate price is always adjacent to it, not in a sidebar or at the bottom of the page, and never on a separate page.)