Honestly, it doesn't seem that scammy. I always thought it was quite obvious it's a trial offer. I guess it depends on whether or not those CDs are good to justify the price.
Are you seriously trying to tell us that tricking unwary customers is not scammy?
Be careful of what you are claiming. The 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."
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...
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.
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."
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.
Type in your email and a password. While you'll see the monthly price clearly listed, you'll also see Free Trial Offer Details in really tiny text on the left. If you click on it, it tells you how you will be charged unless you cancel. Those sly bastards
This is a similar model to the video professor. On the video professor page it does tell you, after you click to get the free trial, that you can avoid a full charge by canceling. It also says this on their home page. In fact, it's on the right side of the page on every page of the order process up until the credit card entry (which is where I stopped).
Any decently intelligent individual would know there will be some charge at the end of the trial. It is quite clearly stated as a trial. And because it is a trial, it doesn't matter what the full price is, just as long as you know you can cancel. Which you can, by the way.
So sure, it's very likely that a legitimate business would not be so tricky. So the odds are, maybe they do have bad intentions.
I don't have enough evidence, and Arrington didn't seem to have tried to procure much either.
So there is doubt.
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.
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=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.
I don't think there is checkout fraud. You checkout and you are provided enough information to know that you are purchasing a trial, you will be charged some fee (what it is is hard to determine) if you don't cancel. I think that information is provided clearly.
However if they turn out not to honor cancellation requests, that's a whole other story.
I'm still seeing $189.95. Screencap: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1704650/prof.png
Let's poll. If you're reading this, visit https://www.videoprofessor.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shopping... then report the price you see listed on that page over here: http://moderator.appspot.com/#15/e=10e098&t=10e099.
They must be updating their site today or something, but that doesn't explain why we see different prices.
Quite a price range they have!
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.
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.
I want to convince people here that if Mr. Arrington, a person who obviously hates scammers, visits a website and prematurely concludes that it's a scam is not necessarily correct.
I hate scammers, and I'm pretty sure most people here have strong feelings about scammers too, because they are the anti-thesis of the hard worker.
But I want people who have decided, to undecided. Because I find it quite surprising how you all can so easily conclude and accuse them of being a scam from the paltry information provided in the article.
They're sly, but what profit-seeking corporation isn't sly. Are they in the gray area? I'm certainly not saying they are not a scam.
It may feel like a scam, but that does not necessarily mean it is one.
Now, to answer your question: I've subscribed to magazine subscription trials. They work like this. It is a fact. They also sell subscriptions, as you have shown.
That's a scam.
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!