Video Professor a Scam?

Video Professor infomercials have been around for a long time, over twenty years to be exact.

They have caught a lot of heat for some of the marketing tactics they have employed over the years. Their advertising says that you can try their products for free, and there is an asterisk next to the statement. Some believe this to be deceptive. I looked at their website to see what the big hoopla was.

Sure enough, at the very top of the order page, it says “Try my product® for FREE*”. Next to the asterisk four lines below the statement, it says “*Pay up to $6.95 (or $8.51 USD in Canada) shipping & processing.” So, they want you to pick up the non-recoverable costs. I am not certain why that is considered “shady.”

Right below the sales pitch, it states the terms of how one could avoid getting charged if they decided not to keep the products. They send you a single product that consists of three CDs. If you return the only one of the three within ten days, they will only charge you for shipping and handling. I have had the opportunity to take a look at the “Learn Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Advanced with Video Professor” product, and it is truly a great product. The lessons were well organized, and incredibly informative. I have worked with Photoshop for years, and I was taught things that I never knew existed. As far as I am concerned, it would make sense for Adobe to bundle this tutorial with their product.

Some people consider Video Professor a scam, because there is a ‘fine print’ to their offer. But when the fine print is clearly written in plain view, and you don’t bother to take a moment to read and understand that, then who is to blame?

I am sure, that some people have fallen through the cracks over the years when they returned their product, as agreed, but they got charged anyway. I am sure that it was really inconvenient to get their money back, because they had to spend time on the phone, time that would have been better spent doing just about anything else. However, if Video Professor had done this deliberately to make money, they wouldn’t have ended up doing business for over twenty years. That’s just a fact.