Video Professor is a SCAM

[Little Texan]

You know those Video Professor commercials you see on tv with the bald headed prick saying "Try my product"? Well, on the commercial this crooked cocksucker says that the CD's are FREE, all that you pay is shipping and handling. Anyway, my mother was going to start selling stuff on ebay, so I got the "bright" idea to give this Video Professor a shot and order these "free" learning CD's for her so that she could learn ebay. I placed an order for the ebay lessons on the Video Professor website, and after ordering it said that my credit card would be charged only the $6.95 for the shipping. Fine. Or so I thought. Next thing I know my credit card account has a charge for the shipping and like 3 or 4 other bullshit charges on it, including a $189.95 charge for these "free" CD's! Well, I called Chase to straighten this shit out and dispute the bullshit charges on my card. They gave me some instructions on what to do, then I called Video Professor and got some information from them in order to carry out Chase's instruction. The customer service rep told me this was a 10 day trial offer, which says absolutely NOTHING about on the commercials, and that in order to get free CD's, you have to send one of them back within the 10 day period, also not mentioned in the commercials. She then told me that since I didn't know that this was a trial, they could refund me $75 and I could keep the CD's. Not good enough. I wanted 100% of my money refunded since I had been deceived by these criminals, so I told her I wanted the RMA #'s and I wanted to send everything back. Unbeknownst to me, they had also sent me another package, which I didn't order, and she happened to mention that to me as well. She told me this ebay advanced set was included with the first set of CD's, and I wouldn't be charged for them. Well, a couple of weeks go by and I have procrastinated about sending this stuff back...received a shipping label from VP to send the stuff back, and a form to fill out from Chase demanding proof and additional info and this, that, and the other. Anyway, I finally got around to mailing all this shit off, and I logged into my Chase account to make a payment and to my surprise these fucking bastards charged my account AGAIN with another $189.95 charge for the ebay advanced CD's. I got on the phone with Chase again and told them about this bullshit, and got sent another one of those forms to fill out, which I did and sent back. During all this, I've been worried that these charges wouldn't be taken off and I'd be stuck with them, an expensive lesson I thought. Today I got my credit card statement in the mail and was dreading looking at it. I opened it up, and to my surprise the charges had been taken off! Halleluyah! Best news I've had in a while...made my month!

Yes, I know, I'm a stupid, gullible fool for falling for this shit, but I just wanted to share this with everybody so that nobody else would fall for this and have to go through the hell I've gone through the past couple of months to get this shit taken off my credit card. Let the ridicule begin.

[fryingdutchman]

Thanks for the heads up...and sorry to hear of your difficulty.

Hopefully most of us are discerning enough consumers to avoid products that are advertised at 2 in the afternoon in between "McHale's Navy" reruns on the superstation...

:lmao:

[Ally_Kat]

Oh man, that sucks.

I remember a guy on the bus loudly talking to some old lady going on and on about how awesome those CDs were and how he learned bunches from them.

[ZahZoo]

Next time you watch those commercials or any of those quick sell things... pay attention to the fine print that flashes on the screen for a few seconds. That's how they can do this legally... even though unless you recorded the commercial and freeze frame it you wouldn't be able to read it live...

Anytime you decide to make a purchase for some sort of "cheap deal". Always read the fine print and terms and conditions. Everything VP does is legal and spelled out in the T&C's.

Better yet... before you purchase. Do a quick google search on the product with the word scam added on. You'll find a lot of info that will probably help you decide not to waste your money.

[bueno bob]

Wow...

Glad to have read this - I was actually considering ordering some more advanced computer courses through them.

GLAD I read this first!

[Little Texan]

Next time you watch those commercials or any of those quick sell things... pay attention to the fine print that flashes on the screen for a few seconds. That's how they can do this legally... even though unless you recorded the commercial and freeze frame it you wouldn't be able to read it live...

Anytime you decide to make a purchase for some sort of "cheap deal". Always read the fine print and terms and conditions. Everything VP does is legal and spelled out in the T&C's.

Better yet... before you purchase. Do a quick google search on the product with the word scam added on. You'll find a lot of info that will probably help you decide not to waste your money.

I did look at the fine print closely on the ads, and it mentions nothing about being a trial offer or charging you $189.95 after the ten day period is up. It does say it on their website in fine print, but while it may all be legal wouldn't you agree that it is highly deceptive on their part to keep mentioning "free CD's" and "just pay $6.95 shipping and handling" on their commercials when it is in fact only a trial offer? These are deceptive business practices if I've ever seen them! And I did google VP, but only after the fact, and I felt like a total idiot because I didn't do the research before I ordered. Live and learn, I guess. I hate companies like this, and something needs to be done about Video Professor, the fucking thieving bastards!

[Little Texan]

Wow...

Glad to have read this - I was actually considering ordering some more advanced computer courses through them.

GLAD I read this first!

Glad I could help spare someone else the hell I just went through!

[standin]

I did look at the fine print closely on the ads, and it mentions nothing about being a trial offer or charging you $189.95 after the ten day period is up. It does say it on their website in fine print, but while it may all be legal wouldn't you agree that it is highly deceptive on their part to keep mentioning "free CD's" and "just pay $6.95 shipping and handling" on their commercials when it is in fact only a trial offer? These are deceptive business practices if I've ever seen them! And I did google VP, but only after the fact, and I felt like a total idiot because I didn't do the research before I ordered. Live and learn, I guess. I hate companies like this, and something needs to be done about Video Professor, the fucking thieving bastards!

Please make and file a report, so you can help more people.

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/


Before You Submit a Complaint
The Federal Trade Commission, the nation's consumer protection agency, collects complaints about companies, business practices, identity theft, and episodes of violence in the media.

Why: Your complaints can help us detect patterns of wrong-doing, and lead to investigations and prosecutions. The FTC enters all complaints it receives into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database that is used by thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide. The FTC does not resolve individual consumer complaints.

[ELVIS]

I'm sure you can learn something from "Try My Product" if you are totally computer illiterate...

But the $189.95 (if true) is a crime...


:elvis:

[Hardrock69]

Sorry you had to go through all that. They have had a reputation for years of pulling shit like that.

FUCK THOSE RIPOFF COCKSUCKERS!!!!
:mad:

[SparkieD]

Man, I thought that "Try my product" guy was probably a crook, but fuck! $189??????? That dickhead needs a beatdown.

[ZahZoo]

I did look at the fine print closely on the ads, and it mentions nothing about being a trial offer or charging you $189.95 after the ten day period is up. It does say it on their website in fine print, but while it may all be legal wouldn't you agree that it is highly deceptive on their part to keep mentioning "free CD's" and "just pay $6.95 shipping and handling" on their commercials when it is in fact only a trial offer? These are deceptive business practices if I've ever seen them! And I did google VP, but only after the fact, and I felt like a total idiot because I didn't do the research before I ordered. Live and learn, I guess. I hate companies like this, and something needs to be done about Video Professor, the fucking thieving bastards!

Yes, I do agree it's a highly deceptive practice that's unfortunately legal.

It's also a very old practice that's been around for decades... remember the Columbia Music Club crap. Get 10 CD's for a $1.00 offers. You then agree to buy 3 more at regular club prices... then they send you a CD of the month that you can review or return. If you don't return in 10 days you're automatically billed. Same bullshit.

Problem today is once these jackasses have a credit card number or checking account number they can legally charge your account for their crap. If you can avoid paying for something without a credit card or personal check, then you can protect yourself if you can get them to accept a money order, cash or paypal.

Old saying applies... if an offer seems too good to be true. If usually is...

[free2free2]

I went on the video professor website a few years back after checking out the commercials. I wanted to get the Excel CD. The webpage listed a low price and had an order button right below it. I clicked on the order button and proceeded to buy the CD, or so I thought. Later, I got a huge bill. When I complained, the customer service rep berated me for not reading before I ordered. They were so rude.

Apparently, if I had scrolled down PAST the order button, I would have seen the actual cost of the CD. I have never seen any website like that ever since. It was set up deliberately to deceive.

These people are shameful.
Look at the kind of stuff they try to pull:
The Death Of InfomercialScams.com | Techdirt (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090713/0227035527.shtml)

And if a video professor rep reads this, no, I'm not a competitor. I'm an angry customer.

[Kristy]

Man, I thought that "Try my product" guy was probably a crook, but fuck! $189??????? That dickhead needs a beatdown.

Always go with your gut instinct when it comes to people so eagerly willing to help you for free.

http://crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/videoprofpic.jpg

Golly! Founder and CEO! Yeah, he found some suckers all right.

Chances are this douche found a bunch of disillusioned Micro$oft techs paid them chump change, hired a low-budget video crew and ad-libbed everything else.

If you look around in your area, there are short-term night classes that teach this sort of stuff for reasonable prices. My company paid for my learning of Excel 2007 which was 2 nights for @$60 at the high school with ashtrays down the road (i.e., ye ol' local community college).

[Nickdfresh]

Who Sucks? - Video Professor, Inc. Sucks (http://www.hoosucks.com/who_sucks/companies/video_professor_sucks.htm)

What is fascinating is how this seems to be little more than legalized identity theft and a scam on the elderly...

[Kristy]

What is fascinating is how this seems to be little more than legalized identity theft and a scam on the elderly...


All about the devil you don't know?

[Nitro Express]

I remember those commercials. The prick sells information you can get for free. Ebay themselves have information on how to best use their site to sell stuff. It's in their interest to do so.

[Little Texan]

Now even a columnist from the Washington Post says Video Professor is a scam.

Link (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/28/video-professor-washington-post-scamville/)

Video Professor Tries To Bully Washington Post, Fails


by Michael Arrington on November 28, 2009

Video Professor continues to be angry that I called them a scam in my original Scamville post. They’ve gotten nowhere reaching out to me directly (more on that below), so now they’ve tried complaining to the Washington Post, which has syndicated our content since 2008. The Washington Post stood firm beside us today and kept our original post as written. Good for them.

Essentially Video Professor is arguing that they didn’t have the chance to respond to our post before we published, and that in general we aren’t behaving very journalistically.

One of my favorite habits of journalists is that they refuse to state an opinion. Instead, they find a source to say whatever it is they want said and then quote them. And when I say “favorite,” what I really mean is that I hate it.

The story the journalist writes has the look of objectivity but really it’s just the same as if the journalist wrote what she or he meant, directly, in the first place. A gold star journalist will then find a “balancing” quote from someone else, often the person or entity being attacked. “When did you stop beating your wife,” etc.

I prefer to just skip all that nonsense and get right to the meat of a matter. And most of my favorite bloggers do the same. None of us have the audacity to think that we are your only news source. You can find other opinions elsewhere, and judge them on their merits, too.

The Video Professor Scam

Video Professor was a side note in our original Scamville post, just one of a bunch of scams that were making their way into social games on Facebook and MySpace. But now we’re focused on them like a laser.

Video Professor is unlike mobile scams which look to get a relatively small $10 – $20/month subscription on your mobile bill and hope you never notice. They go for the big kill: $190 – $290 charged to your credit card on time.

I haven’t found the Video Professor scam on Facebook social games since the Scamville posts, but the site is still live, and there are still lot of links from Google and Facebook (they still advertise directly on Facebook).

What you see when you first hit the site depends on how you got there – directly or via an advertising partner. The least scammy version is what you see if you go to videoprofessor.com directly. On the home page in very small font is a statement that you are going to be charged $290 if you engage in a transaction with them. But that’s the only on-screen disclosure you’ll see. Click on a product and go to the next page and you are told you get lots of stuff for free, all you have to do is pay up to a $10 shipping charge. You choose your product and you’re on to the checkout page. Nothing is stated about the $290 charge. After that you are on the final checkout page, showing a total price of $4.56. There’s no fine print, just two links on the page to pages with hugely long agreements with text hidden in the middle of it all that you are actually being sent tons of products and you’ll be charged $290 for them all if you don’t cancel in ten days.

Needless to say, people who get this stuff either don’t read fine print and are charged, or try to return it. There are hundreds of user complaints about refunds not being paid. 271 complaints to be exact, on RipoffReport alone.

I’ve put the purchase flow at the bottom of this post. Remember that this is the least scammy version I’ve found (here’s how they lured people in from Facebook a couple of weeks ago). For users who hit the site via Facebook, Google or other advertisments, it’s even scammier.

Is This A Scam?

You’re damn right it’s a scam. Users are obviously being tricked into buying something they don’t understand and wouldn’t want even if they did understand the details. The company says they comply with federal and state laws. But they continually refine the landing and checkout pages to comply with the bare minimum of legal requirements while maximizing ROI. Jump to 3:15 of this video for a description of how services like these trick users into buying useless products.

Here’s an easy way to determine if something is a scam – would users pay for it if they knew exactly what they were buying? In Video Professor’s case, the answer is no, and the company has to resort to tricking the user into paying nearly $300 for a bunch of CDs. Our governments should be protecting us from this nonsense, but they can’t or won’t. I’ll be damned if I’ll stop writing about it, though.

Here’s what people have to say about video professor. See this article and comments, as well as Amazon and epinions reviews.

And to the people behind these companies – how do you sleep at night knowing that you are nothing but a deadweight loss to society, taking money from people who aren’t Internet savvy enough to know they’re being scammed? When you’re 80 and look back at what you’ve done with your life, is this really what you want to have spent your time doing?

History Of Threats

I’m not surprised that Video Professor is going to so much effort to shut me up – this is how they do business. Video Professor has gone after people who’ve criticized the company. Some of the links in this article pointing to other criticisms are now dead links – victims of litigation?

When Video Professor sent me an email after my post arguing that they weren’t a scam, I replied “It’s a huge fucking scam. And you know it.” Which pretty much summed up my position on the matter. Here’s the letter they sent to the Washington Post. Note that they argue that they simply want to tell their side. I argue that their website tells their side of the story:

Dear [removed],

[removed] referred me to you, after we inquired about this story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110100018.html

In the story, Mr. Arrington accused us of being a “Scam.” Mr. Arrington never contacted us in advance of making this charge for an opportunity to present our side of the story.

Assertion with attribution.

We contacted Mr. Arrington, and essentially answered the questions he didn’t ask of us prior to writing the story, and it appearing in the online edition of the Washington Post.

His response to me was as follows:

“It’s a huge f*cking scam. And you know it.” ( I replaced the “u” with the asterisk in case your filters prevent this sort of language from reaching your inbox)

Two question sir:

1. Is it now the policy of the Washington Post, either in print or online editions to make such assertions, without first contacting someone prior to accusing them of being a Scam?

2. Is it now the policy of the Washington Post, either in print or online editions to have their writers respond to inquiries with the “F” bomb?

For the record, and the point we tried to make with Mr. Arrington, we are not a scam. We are members of the BBB with whom we maintain an “A” rating. The BBB reviews all of our marketing materials on a regular basis. We also are in full compliance with all rules and regulations of the FTC.

All we ever asked was a chance to offer our side. Mr Arrington would then have been free to “call it as he saw it.”

But we were essentially told to “F-Off”

I’d appreciate your thoughts sir and also your time and attention.

Yours truly,
Brian D. Olson

Brian Olson
Vice-President of Public Affairs
Video Professor, Inc
303-232-1244 Ext 380

The Washington Post’s response? In a nutshell, “you’ll have to discuss directly with the editors at TechCrunch.”

[Top Jimmy]

I hope you copied the cd's for yourself,
then ran a magnet (or brillo pad) over the originals before you returned them.

Criminals.

This reminds me of being on aol.com back in the day...
don't get me started on those asswipes...

[twonabomber]

I hope you copied the cd's for yourself,
then ran a magnet (or brillo pad) over the originals before you returned them.


uh...magnets don't work on optical media...

[chefcraig]

uh...magnets don't work on optical media...

Yep, but I saw an episode of Myth Busters where they put some DVDs in a microwave (as part of a segment on CDs shattering in high speed hard drives), and they got really messed up. :biggrin:

[Nickdfresh]

I don't say this about many people, but I hope the Video Professor dies of ass-cancer...

[Hardrock69]

I hope he gets run over by a gasoline tanker truck, and lives just long enough to be roasted alive when it blows up.

That fucking bastard is a fucking crook!

[GAR]

Don't trust a balding, old fucker like Bob Scherer who has teh Yacht-Tan.

[LoungeMachine]

Don't trust a balding, old fucker like Bob Scherer who has teh Yacht-Tan.

No, instead trust a modrooom key-giving, Google/Wiki copy and paste thief like yourself, right?

I'd trust Video Professor before I'd trust you, Clay.

:gulp:

[Little Texan]

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n298/denco428/satanicprofessor.jpg

[GAR]

Hahahahaha~!!!

XLNT

[Sarge]

I got ripped off by buying some Claude Johnson guitar DVD's once.
Anything that offers a product for really cheap or free.. I always look at the fine print. Usually it states they wil charge you another fee in a month. This is the business model of many companies. Freecreditreport.com comes to mind. You get a free credit report, and if you don't cancel your services within that month, you get charged to your credit card every single month.
This Video Professor targets old people, who aren't in the position to rock the boat and light his ass up.

Breasts,
Sarge

[GAR]

Another one that rips the elderly is lifelock.

Somehow my dad got that as a monthly debit, when I went up there to sort thru his personal bullshit, I called em up and threatened them and they said they would refund it.

No refund ever showed. Fuck Lifelock credit watch, they are crooked.

[standin]

Here ya go Lil'Tex, Not that this will make your case different, but it is a novel approach that worked toward on-line scams that are unethical but border line lawful. Now if only western Union would step it up a bit and we could get some real low-life fraudsters...

You can make a difference.
Report frauds or suspected frauds. Even the smallest cases can show the trends and help put a stop to scum fraudsters.
One of the bigger scams in history gathered $0.009 and less off books and that is pretty small amounts. But in large quantity really adds up. :cowboy:

Visa cuts off 100 merchants for scamming consumers
Visa cuts off payments to about 100 merchants after consumer complaints about billing scams

By Eileen Aj Connelly,
AP Personal Finance Writer ,
On Thursday December 17, 2009, 8:00 am EST
Visa cuts off 100 merchants for scamming consumers - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Visa-cuts-off-100-merchants-apf-3097011265.html?x=0&.v=1)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Visa Inc. has cut off 100 scammers who use bogus marketing techniques to dupe consumers in the past six months.

Among the most common hustles: billing the credit cards of customers who thought they were getting free trial products like dietary supplements or teeth whiteners $79.95 per month or more, and then making them jump through hurdles to get the charges to stop.

"We've been monitoring this situation from this past summer in particular," said William M. Sheedy, a Visa group president. The number of complaints from cardholders who disputed ongoing charges they never agreed to shot up, although the merchants and the products they sold often varied.

While there are always a handful of complaints about merchants, most are resolved quickly. But in the case of the ongoing charges, it was clear the problem was widespread. "Consumers are being fleeced," Sheedy said.

Visa told The Associated Press that about 100 merchants had their payment processing terminated because of chronic complaints since early summer. The scam is so common, the San Francisco payment processor is teaming up with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau to alert consumers.

Most of the time, the swindlers use Internet ads to lure their customers. The ads often feature unauthorized photos of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Rachel Ray, implying endorsements for supplements like acai berries or teeth whiteners.

Newer variations take advantage of the recession with work-at-home scams, or con people into seeking information about applying for government grants linked to economic stimulus programs.

Winfrey and her frequent guest Dr. Mehmet Oz filed several lawsuits this year trying to stop companies from implying they endorsed products made with acai berries.

"The fraud artists look for the fraud du jour and they will play that up magnificently," said Lois Greisman, an associate director of the FTC.

Other common features on the deceptive ads are fake testimonials and credit for the discovery of breakthrough products to a "local mom," said Stephen Salter, vice president of BBB Online. When someone clicks on the ad, their computer's location triggers a program that sets the origin of the "local" mom near that user.

Here's how it works: consumers click on an ad for a free trial offer of supplements or a free "information kit" that will explain how to apply for government grants or use the Internet to make big money effortlessly from home. They think they're entering a credit card number to pay for shipping and handling. But in a few clicks, they've unwittingly authorized ongoing charges that can rack up fast. When consumers see their statements and try to question the charges, they are often unable to track anyone down to make them stop. Often, clicking through can result in more than one monthly charge on a card.

"The game here is to get people hooked, keep them on the hook for monthly charges as long as you can, and only stop making those charges when you're forced to," said Stephen Salter, vice president of BBB Online. BBB has received thousands of complaints about the problem, with multiple companies to blame. "The product is irrelevant to getting the charges on the card."

The trick is a marketing technique called "negative option," where customers must say they don't want to join a so-called club or receive additional materials in the future. The details of the ongoing charges are often in small print or can only be found by following a hyperlink. There's frequently a series of pre-checked boxes that most consumers zoom past as they order. Skipping those boxes is key, because leaving them checked ostensibly giving the companies permission to keep charging the card.

"I can't count the number of sites online that are engaged in this type of advertising, and even if I could count them today, that number could easily change tomorrow," said Greisman of the FTC. The Internet-has given "new life and new breath" to this type of scam, which the agency has also seen in the past with direct mail, telemarketing and even television ads.

It's impossible to track how many people have been caught up in the scams or how many companies are involved.

Negative option marketing is not illegal. It's the hidden manner some companies use to get people to agree to the charges that is the problem. "Those cost disclosures have to be upfront and prominent," Greisman said.

Before making a purchase, consumers should check the company out with on the BBB Web site,
United States and Canada BBB Consumer and Business Reviews, Reports, Ratings, Complaints and Accredited Business Listings (http://www.bbb.org) to see if it has racked up complaints.
Consumers who've been caught up in the scams should file complaints with the FTC online at Federal Trade Commission (http://www.ftc.gov) or by phone at 1-877-FTC-HELP.
Visa, the FTC and BBB will hold a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., at 10 a.m. EST to alert consumers to the problem.