Who Sucks? - Video Professor, Inc. Sucks

Video Professor, Inc.
P.O. Box 150741
Lakewood, Colorado 80215
800-525-7763

My wife wanted to do eBay, and although I am otherwise computer literate, I know next to nothing about selling on eBay. I had just seen John pushing his eBay CDs on TV and thought, Why not? I'll tell you why... Ordered and stood fast saying no to the hard sell sales pitch for so many products I can't remember them all. I focused on saying, No! and got through it without committing to anything except the eBay discs. Yay! Got the order and life happened and I didn't get around to calling to return the disc until the day after my 10 days. OK. They charged my card. My fault. But I did get the RMA and promptly returned the discs. I then waited two weeks, and looked at my card online, no refund. Called customer service. Yep, they got the disks back. No, the refund hadn't been processed. But, she would see to it. I waited another week. Checked the card, no refund. Called again, checked my records. She doesn't understand what happened but she would get her supervisor to look into this. OK. Perhaps looking into this doesn't mean resolving the issue. I wait another week and call again. She is so sorry, and probably so, I'll bet SHE doesn't get a cut of the interest on my money. Anyway she is going to have her supervisor run down there and hand carry my refund authorization. Wait a week, no refund. I had no idea there was the Ladies Room next to accounting. I hope the authorization backed up their toilet! Next call the young lady fills out the form while I am on the phone with her. Wait a week, no refund. Call again, and this time the refund is, down there. Was there yesterday. It should be posted to your card tomorrow. Today is tomorrow. No refund. I'll call again tomorrow (I have the patience of Job) if the refund isn't on my card and probably threaten legal action. MY thought... John and company likely take the position that they WILL make money on every transaction. First, they make getting a refund extremely difficult with the thought that some (most?) will give it up as a bad experience and chalk it up as tuition on a life lesson. This keeps the cash flow safely wherever my refund is. Second, they will keep a certain level of funds waiting in an interest bearing account for as long as they believe they can get away with it. Yes small potatoes but it all adds up. Bottom line. Good product. Inexcusably bad customer service for returns. I believe that NO organization is this bad. This type of horrible responsiveness can only be planned. Their ads are absolutely misleading!

Jon

About 3 years ago, I purchased the basic Video Prof Windows lesson for my 75 year old mother. When I ran the installer, it automatically replaced my mother's ISP with some other ISP that Video Prof was promoting. It took me about 2 hours to get her original ISP working again. When I called the company to complain, they essentially told me that the new ISP was a promotion, and I should be happy that Video Prof provided this valuable service! I threw away the CD, telling my mother that it contained a virus. By the way, I hear many of the Defenders of this company saying things like Yes they try to pitch stuff, but Just Say No. It's obvious to me that you people have never cared for an elderly family member, one who easily falls prey to leeches like Video Prof. Also by the way, there are news articles online that describe lawsuits that Video Prof is issuing to anyone who complains on the web. Sites like Wikipedia have given away the IP addresses of complainers to Video Prof's lawyers. Fortunately this site has held true to their promise of privacy, and refused to provide IPs' to Video Prof's lawyers. Kudos to this site... bravo.

Rodney

Scherer is a disgrace. He conned my Grandma into the free Windows lesson. He preys on the elderly especially, his geriatric [] is retiring by robbing others of their social security! First off, she endured 35 minutes of the phone people trying to sell her ALL of his other products. She managed to somehow only agree to the one lesson, confirmed it was 6.95 and she wanted NOTHING else, ever. Cool. Card charged. Within a week, TWO $129 charges also appeared. One thing came in the mail, internet security suite crap. The other lesson never even came. I am a smart girl and was absolutely ferociously mad that those dirty [] exploited my grandma. I called in. I was assured that it would be ok, they would refund her if I sent the products back (a bit of an issue since one never even arrived). They assured me they would refund both anyways and no future orders would be charged. But, lo and behold, two more were. AND the first two were not refunded. I called again and was told that they had decided not to honor my request because (though my grandma had told them expressly that I was doing this on her behalf) I was not her and it would be illegal without Grandma's permission, mind you, the same permission she already gave. Repeat AGAIN. Refund promises, two more lessons. No refunds. Grandma couldn't pay her phone bill that month. It got cut off because they refused to refund almost $1000 of fraudulent charges despite the fact that she had even mailed back all the lessons. That was IT for me. I added her to my cell phone family plan and talked to my boyfriend, who happens to be a county prosecutor where I'm from. I called in and had Grandma ask for the legal department. She informed them that her lawyer would speak on her behalf, notifying them that we would be suing in small claims court if restitution was not made in 3 days. After about 10 minutes of his time with the legal department (he offered to fax the papers he had drawn, asked where to direct the claim, explained what we were suing over and how it was well within our state law, yadda), they quickly decided that perhaps a refund was in order. It posted two days later. Oh, and the best part, before they hung up, I told them to apologize to my grandma. It took me asking (or, uhhh, demanding) 3 times, but the CSR eventually did tell her he was extremely sorry for any hardship caused by the ordeal and that he was very happy that they were able to finally make it right. They ended up sending her a free Excel lesson with a VERY short Sorry for your dissatisfaction, we hope you will consider us in the future note. I think I gave it away at a garage sale soon after. SUE THEM IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT. You can draw the papers yourself. It's relatively easy, very inexpensive, and once you have the papers drawn, they will do ANYTHING to placate you. I threatened to sue them and they didn't give an absolute S--T. But, when I had a lawyer call them, their tune changed VERY fast! Not everyone is fortunate enough to get a lawyer's time for free like I did. Seriously, once they know your threats are not idle (KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT) it will help! My lawyer bf never ended up faxing or filing anything. He recited a few statutes, discussed the law failings of implied consent, touched on small claims court law and applicability, and VOILA. Look it up, be informed, and stand up against this JERK and his SCAMS!

Dorothy

I called to order "for free" the CD on digital photography. I had no idea they sold this product in 3 levels, and I was told that not only could I get Level 1 "for free," Video Professor would also give me Level 2 "for free" and send me Level 3 at a cost of $129(?) which I could return within 10 days if I didn't like it. I am always wary of bait and switch offers where suddenly I am going to pay a lot of money if I don't send something back in time. I said that I would be happy to take Level 2 as well as Level 1, but that I didn't want Level 3 because I didn't want to be put into a time crunch if I decided I didn't like it. Ultimately they would only send me Level 1 since I would not agree to "trying out" Level 3. I received Level 1 which is so basic as to be worthless. I haven't seen Levels 2 or 3, but I suspect all three levels should be a single course, not 3 courses. The whole business is a scam.

Craig