Slashdot Mirror
Calling Video Professor a Scam
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.
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... you must cancel your subscription before the trial period ends or you get billed. Do you call Blizzard a scam company and want their CEO in jail? Just because you didn't cancel the subscription that you signed up for doesn't mean they scammed you, it means you were too ignorant or lazy to cancel it.
It is the rule not the exception that when you sign up for a "free trial" that you will be billed for the real product unless you opt out before the trial period ends. This is nothing new in any product trial situation. Maybe you should read the contracts and keep up with the norms of how the world works and you wouldn't get "scammed". Sure this may be ethically suspect but that doesn't move it to the realm of scams and definitely doesn't make it illegal. I don't even think it is ethically suspect because no one should honestly just expect free anything to come with no strings. Since one should be expecting and looking for strings in a free trial situation it doesn't really count as trickery when you ignore the terms of the trial you signed up for.
Every element of this "scam" is common among almost all free trial TV ads, past and present, get over it.
*awaits the flaming and troll mods for being right but not aligning with the communities(unwarranted) rage*