#1
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Deception or Clever Marketing?
Responded to an online guitar instruction course (I will leave it nameless) that offered the first 30 days for free. Never mind you still had to buy the course before you got the first 30 days free, which I shortly realized once I submitted my name and other contact information. And veterans, of which I am one, allegedly got the course for free. No response on my inquiry on that.
Now I am not a cheapskate, and believe it paying for everything. But I also like to try something before I commit. I have committed with other courses for the duration, and other than a dispute with Patreon, that Patreon refused to resolve, I had no issues with that. But does anyone else find this deceptive or is it just clever marketing?
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Martin Sc-13e 2020 Last edited by Cecil6243; 02-06-2023 at 09:53 AM. |
#2
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I’ve seen this with several other lesson sites. IMO, you need to be a smart consumer and keep track of the date that you signed on. Hopefully they are a good merchant and will honor their guarantee. I have opted to try several sites this way and have not had any issues with discontinuing the automatic payment and dropping the subscription. Good luck with that.
And of course, if you have any questions about their policies, they should respond quickly to an email. If they don’t, consider that a red flag. Most of these sites are self run, or at most have a couple of part time employees.
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#3
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I got 'taken' by one of those…once. Now I do a thorough check, and have passed on many tempting 'offers'. Obviously by my first sentence you know I think it's deliberate deception. |
#4
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It's deceptive. I've been stung by similar scams that lured me in thinking that I was paying once for a specific set of lessons only to later discover that they charge a recurring monthly fee forever until I jumped through their several hoops to cancel. My advice is to cancel at your first whiff that something is amiss and watch your credit card statements carefully.
On the other hand, I do maintain subscriptions to two guitar instruction services. They are totally legit and completely worth the monthly charge, which is less than a single in-person lesson: Blues Guitar Institute Fingerstyle Five (Part of Fretboard Confidential) Both have strong YouTube presence so you can get a sense of their style. Both have membership content that is much better than the YouTube samples. I also tried Active Melody. I believe that it is fully legit as well, and the membership content is also much better than the YouTube samples. However, I'm not up to the level of being able to keep up with Active Melody. Canceling my membership was easy. If I get to that level, I'll probably try it again. Last edited by jwing; 02-06-2023 at 11:50 AM. |
#5
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I paid for the yearly thing to Truefire. It has everything it advertises. Some of the lessons sort of take off vertically after an easy start, but that can happen anywhere.
My general advice to online lessons is the same for offline, "If it seems too good to be true, it is." General online lesson advice area (aka my 2 cents): It can take me a few nights when working on a lesson for a particular piece just to get the layout of it. Sometimes there are things in a piece that will take me more than a few nights of practice. You have to put your time in. The lessons are never a magic wand.
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Barry Sad Moments {Marianne Vedral cover}: My SoundCloud page Some steel strings, some nylon. |
#6
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It seems to me with some of these, the creator gets excited and puts out a series of lessons to start and then either looses interest or gets a better job. In the mean time their site lives on in perpetuity unattended to. Many of them are hit and miss.
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Please don't take me too seriously, I don't. Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. Guild D-20 Gretsch Streamliner Morgan Monroe MNB-1w https://www.minnesotabluegrass.org/ |
#7
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Derek Coombs Youtube -> Website -> Music -> Tabs Guitars by Mark Blanchard, Albert&Mueller, Paul Woolson, Collings, Composite Acoustics, and Derek Coombs "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Woods hands pick by eye and ear
Made to one with pride and love To be that we hold so dear A voice from heavens above |
#8
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When I was asked to give lessons back in 2020, I looked at various online folks, who do it as a business, and learned a little about the long subscriptions and kinda "partwork" methodology.
I determined that I'd offer no tie ins and no commitments. I ask for payment asap after each session, and ask at the end if my clients want to book for the following week. They can cancel/postpone at any time as long as they give me 24 hours notice. I avoid offering a "standard" process preferring to agree what my clients want to achieve - each person is an individual, and have individual needs and wants. I doubt that I could run a "business" like that but I prefer it this way and, it seems, so do those that I help.
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |
#9
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Thank you for your thoughtful replies. I was a little late in responding as I had to get a new laptop computer as my screen went haywire. Anyway the good news is they didn't get any CC number etc. out of me.
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Martin Sc-13e 2020 |
#10
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Always set your calendar reminder to 3 days before ‘30 Days is Up’
It’s not clever or deceptive. It’s business. Money is business. They are giving you a chance to try it out. Your fault if you don’t cancel it. Most will refund if not cancelled. Steve Stine will blow up your inbox for the next decade, but lesson learned. |