August 18, 2008
Cody Moya - Only $1!
The email says “Free with coupon!”, or “Only $1 with coupon”. With the “regular” price being $97 or $147 (for the templates / private label / articles / whatever…) it seems a bargain. The mile-long landing page is standard - and at the bottom is the price and link to buy. Follow the link, and the catch is revealed - you will be billed $97 or $147 per month membership for Private Label Wholesaler or AdSense Wholesaler.
Yes, you can cancel at anytime, but in my experience they don’t make it easy. You’ll probably have to search through the help file to fing out you need to submit a support ticket. All designed to limit the number of cancellations they get.
In my book this is very deceptive. There is a massive difference between $1 and $147/mo. There is no information provided about the monthly service they are signing up for.
Offering rebates that people may forget to claim is OK.
Offering a monthly service that people may forget to cancel is OK
Offering a virtually free product, and bundling in a very expensive subscription product at the last stage is DECEPTIVE, WRONG & A BIG WASTE OF MY TIME
Examples:
http://marketing.us/supergraphicsplr/
http://www.marketing.us/mrrplrsupersale/
Also, I love the line:
STRICTLY LIMITED TO 50 COPIES AT THIS PRICE!
Most people would have arrived via the “only $1 with coupon” email, so it is easy to limit sales to 50 at full price when nobody is paying full price.