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.

Comments

Re:Bad Summary

[Brian Gordon]

It's not a minor point in the article, it's the entire article. This 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:Who/What is Video Professor?

[Trebawa]

Video Professor is a company in the U.S. with ads that are very common on TV. They consist of an older man advertising his videos in which he shows how to use various software. He then assures the viewer that he is so sure you will like his product, he will send you one free. What actually happens is that you get the free video (plus shipping and handling), then a charge on your credit card for another video each month.

Re:Is this the guy

[Orion Blastar]

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.

I'm the lucky one.

[bigdonthedj]

I tried out the Photoshop package. It actually has a lot of info and tutorials in there. However, from watching and reading ads, it seemed that it would be a reasonable price. I wasn't notified of the nearly $200 charge for it. I called theem and told them it was a rip-off and false advertising. They gave me my money back AND let me keep the course. That really surprised me.

Re:I'm the lucky one.

[Anonymous Coward]

They can happily refund the money of the x% who call in and make a fuss and it's no big loss to them.

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".

They may well be acting within the limits of the law so as to avoid being shutdown

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.

 

Legal notice sent to Uncyclopedia

[lstarnes1024]

Apparently, this guy's lawyers can't take a joke (then again, no laywer can), Last year, Video Professor's legal department sent an email to Wikia, a wiki hosting company, concerning this article about John Scherer on Uncyclopedia, a satirical parody of WIkipedia. They requested removal of the article. However, the article in question and the pictures on it were used for the purposes of parody and humor and thus are likely protected under fair use. Instead of deleting the article, the community decided to take the opportunity to make fun of the lawsuit as well. The email sent to Wiki (and the associated drama) can be found here.

VP sues 100's in 2007

[binaryspiral]

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

Yeah, that worked out well for them, didn't it?

Video Professor

[hedge49]

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.

Re:Who/What is Video Professor?

[grahamwest]

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.