I Survived Dr. Joes Hypnotic Marketing
A while ago, I received an email about a new Web 2.0 related product by Dr Joe Vitale, (Doctor Fire) who is a well known Internet Marketer. I haven’t bought anything from Dr. Joe before, and the sales letter did its work so I dutifully punched in my card number.
Oh my.
I’ve NEVER seen such an avalanche of hard sell "One Time Offers" in my life!
One Time Offer #1
First up was a video of Dr. Joe doing a hard sell on his $397 set of 10 Hypnotic Marketing CD’s for only $97. Regretfully, I passed. Apparently his hypnotic spell was not strong enough.
One Time Offer #2
After declining that, the good doctor popped up again with another video about a special offer of $297 for an advanced course, containing material from a seminar that people paid $5,000 to attend. Even Joe couldn’t remember exactly what was in the package, but he said it was REALLY good. And there were lots of CD’s
With trembling fingers, I resisted the hypnotic spell again and clicked on "No Thanks".
One Time Offer #3
Then, hard sell video number 3. Only $197 for 35 CD’s of "Hypnotic Gold" where Joe interviews 35 experts on a variety of subjects. Dr. Joe can’t even remember what’s in them all, so he listens to them over and over again.
You won’t believe this, but I summoned up all my strength, and clicked on "No Thanks" again.
One Time Offer #4
So I was taken into hard sell Video #4, where I was invited into Doctor Joe’s personal Executive mentoring Program.
After an extreme internal battle, sweat pouring down my brow, I clicked "No Thanks" again, I was finally able to download a part of what I had bought.
Boy, I had survived an amazing mental onslaught by one of the Marketing Industries finest – and escaped with my credit card relatively intact.
Getting My Stuff – Like finding a needle in a Haystack.
In a confirmation email, I had to wade through 2 screens of audio files, transcripts, and other stuff trying to find what I had wanted to buy.
I couldn’t find it – it was hidden like a needle in a haystack amongst all of the other stuff that had been shovelled into this sale.
I had to go back to the original sales page, reread the copy, and eventually work out where the web 2.0 article I bought was located.
But Wait. There’s more.
The Sting In The Tail – Forced Continuity @ $29 per month
Apparently I’m now signed up to receive a monthly newsletter from the good doctor – something I did not ask for, or want. A reference to this was buried somewhere in the pages and pages of blurb. Can you spell "Forced Continuity? "
Now I’ve got to contact the Doctor Joe’s people, and probably have to do battle to have my enforced "subscription" cancelled.
Funny. The charging authority I agreed to on screen had one payment of $29.00 shown. It said nothing about recurring payments.
In Australia, any attempt to do somethjing like this would have Australia’s Trade Practices commission down on them like a ton of bricks for misleading conduct. Obviously there isn’t similar Federal legislation in the USA.
The Afterglow – Spammed with the One Time Offers (Repeated.)
And as a nice little after touch, a Matt Gill from Dr. Joe’s company sent me 2 further emails telling me that I could still have the upsell CD packages included in my order, which was just being prepared to be sent out.
Such consideration. Such Spam. Couldn’t you tell that I DIDN"T want any smegging one time offers.
Well Doctor Joe, I had expected more ethical behaviour from someone who is regarded as one of the "good guys".
I expected some good manners on our "First Encounter" with each other. Not to be wrestled to the ground, hogtied, branded, and then have a ring forced through my nose and led along like a good little dawgie. I found it offensive, and total overkill. All I wanted was what your sales letter promised. An interview with a web 2.0 expert.
I’ll be cancelling my enforced subscription, and if there are any problems, you’ll meet my little used medical friend – Doctor Chargeback.
Hi Eric – I am enjoying your website. “Smegging”, eh? Aha – another Red Dwarf fan!
Cheers,
Edith
Yes, I love Red Dwarf.
Great post! This happened to me but from another marketer. These days I get far fewer offers since I’ve unsubscribed to anyone who does this, for lack of a better term, UNETHICAL CRAP!
I think it would be fantastic if they would all offer us a subscription for half price (or less) for life instead. I’d easily get sucked into a $9.95 or $14.95 monthly subscription and would be far less likely unsubscribe than when it’s $25 dollars and up. With a CD or DVD, $19.95 would be fair. They’d keep more subscribers and have far fewer cash backs and unsubscribes to their newsletters. And of course the magazines and CD’s are littered full of affiliate programs that they earn money on so why not get the price down and sell more of them?
The worst deal so far (squeeze page has changed since this happened and hopefully it was just an over enthusiastic out-sourcer responsible) was a guy who’s book I wanted and when I finally decided to buy it there was a free offer for his insiders club. Cost came up as zero in the shopping cart and there was no way to remove it. It was free for 60 days. Wouldn’t you know it on day 30 I got billed. I complained of course and it took three emails until I finally saw that there was one small line added in about an additional free product that of course I didn’t see because I didn’t read the whole page. My decision was made before I went to the site. All I wanted was the darned book! I thought the freebie CD set was part of the insider club stuff. GRRRRR!!!!!!! Thankfully my credit card expired and despite their email to me and my friendly (yes, really!) reply to check their previous correspondence and get back to me, I haven’t heard back yet.
What is wrong with people? While I won’t say who this was online since he’s got more money for better lawyers than me I certainly won’t be recommending his products like I used to. Next book I buy will be from Amazon, not through the author’s site.