Deceptive Advertising Tactics

Let's face it, there are many unsavory characters out there. Those that simply want to make a buck. They don't care about you. They don't care about satisfied customers. One thing is paramount... money!

Don't misunderstand. There is nothing wrong with making money. What is *dead wrong* is misleading others in the pursuit of monetary goals.

Recently, while searching for a new list hosting service to deliver my Ezine, I ran into such a company.

I read their sales pages... several times. I was hesitant because of the price. Although they were very reasonable, it was still a recurring cost. Taking a deep breath I went ahead and signed up for their services.

Excited, I dug in. It took me 3 days to copy, paste, and to reformat my subscribers, and then upload them to my new list service. Then came the web page and letter changes. Ready!

I sent myself a test ezine and everything went smooth as silk. This was awesome! All I had to do was push a button and send to all of my subs... no more waiting hours baby- sitting my software! I hit the send button to send to my subscribers...

and my excitement came to an dead halt! I received an error message. It seems I could not send my ezine *until* I paid them an additional charge to upgrade! What was this?

I sent an email to the company and asked what was going on. No where in their sales pages did it mention I would have to upgrade. The reply came back to me: "Did you read our terms of agreement?" They had hidden this fact in the fine print!

Guilty! In a hurry, thinking their terms only consisted of informing you not to spam, I did not read them. Had I taken the time to do so, I would have found out that anything over 1,000 subscribers and you had to upgrade. This was no small upgrade. Now instead of paying them $17.95 per month, I was expected to pay $47.90 *per month!*

Was this fair business practice? In my opinion... NO! In my opinion, this is deceptive advertising. About as low as you can go. They *know* people do not read the fine print. They bank on this, I believe.

They also informed me I was not entitled to a cash refund. If I wanted, I could use their services for one month free. Fat lot of good that would do : )

My point is... Be careful out there! Do not expect people to be as fair in their business practices as you are because many are not. Read the terms of agreement of any web site you plan to do business with. Another smart move is to look for the iCop Seal. If someone has been granted an iCop (International Council of Online Professionals) membership, you know they are a safe company to do business with.

Wishing you the best,
Eileen

About the Author

Eileen Rodriguez is Publisher of Sunset Opportunities Ezine. sunsetopps.com/subscribe.shtml
She also manages: sunsetopps.com and is a proud member of iCop: http://i-cop.org/cgi-bin/mem/jl.pl?1282

Sunset Opportunities.

:To contact see details below.


editor@sunsetopps.com
http://www.sunsetopps.com