Beware Of The Trial Offer Scheme
July 30, 2010 by: Daryl MichaelsThere are tons of free offers these days. Here are some precautions, which i have gathered. Few things are totally free. Free of charge indicates no contract, cost-free, nada, nothing! Not long ago I offered a “free” ebook on beginning an online home business. To acquire this ebook you needed to give me your email address. Therefore I imagine in a way that it was not totally free, since you were required to give me something in exchange for it. That item would have provided me the authority to send you email routinely about home-based business information. Personally I think it was a reasonable trade, and not a misleading one at that. But that’s not exactly what this particular post is all about. It’s about stretching the truth and baiting customers.
Not too long ago I received an offer from a well-known Online marketer who I think sells some very respectable products. The offer appeared to be that this individual was giving away a new product for just $5.00. This product sells for more than $100 so this ended up being quite a bargain. I was thinking, at the time, exactly what does this person mean? Why would anybody offer this product for five bucks when the item had been selling for more than $100. The simple fact was it wasn’t. Not even close. The actual “special offer” was permitting me to be able to try it out for the $5.00 and following the initial tryout period I would immediately be charged the regular price in regular installments because it was a subscription product, which unfortunately took some digging to find out.
You have to give him credit for originality but it really was the old classic “bait and switch” tactic. A number of you might say I was quite naive to think that the product was merely going to cost $5.00. The fact remains that I never genuinely believed that the product had been offered for five bucks, however I’ll bet there were a few that did and were really surprised after they discovered the installment on their credit card monthly bill.
Personally I believe that the present global financial slow-down has resulted in loads of entrepreneurs to defer to some tried and tested hard-core internet marketing maneuvers that border on being unethical.
This is, by no means, a judgement of trial offers mainly because it’s not. Point in fact, I’ve personally purchased products and services from online marketers that plainly express that the initial tryout timeframe is $X but that the purchase price will be $Y following the trial. This is a terrific strategy for both product seller and for the product buyer for two main reasons. First, it’s good for the vendor because it encourages buyers to act for a really low price for a specific time-frame. Second it’s good for the buyers simply because they get to measure the product cheaply just before they actually have to buy it. There is nothing incorrect with this particularly when it is spelled out plainly inside the sales pitch. It’s a win-win situation.
My pet peeve is that in many instances whenever marketers are offering to you subscription based products they cover up the real monthly membership with an inexpensive first month only and once they’ve got your card number you will quickly get the “real” cost in your card statement before you know what’s truly happened.
Tha harsh truth: Study everything twice before you buy. If the numbers aren’t there in the sales copy either do not buy it or email the actual product owner and ask the question. Generally if the offer is reputable the seller will answer your pre-sales query straight away. Otherwise, don’t even bother.
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