Some one just asked me about a product called Quick Cash From Craigslist. Since I had just gone through a similar Craigslist money making product that was offering a “free kit” that had actual potential charges of $58.61/month I thought I better check this one out.
So I decided to go through the order process of QuickCashFromCraigslist over at QuickCashFromCraigslist.com.
Page 1: OK. At the top of the page I see “As Seen On Yahoo, CNN, AOL, USAToday, MSN, Forbes, Esquire, and The New York Times”.
That’s a pretty vague statement. A lot of times sites will claim to be “seen on” site like those if they PAID to ADVERTISE on those sites. Also, what the heck does “As Seen on Yahoo” mean? Yahoo is a search engine. I mean a lot of huge scams are “seen on Yahoo” so “As Seen on Yahoo” doesn’t seem to mean anything at all. It certainly does NOT mean that a site is trustworthy.
I also searched on Forbes.com and CNN.com for QuickCashWithCraigslist using the following variations:
- QuickCashWithCraigsList
- QuickCashWithCraigsList.com
- Quick Cash With CraigsList
- www.QuickCashWithCraigsList.com
And didn’t find the product mentioned anywhere. I did find a couple very general stories about Craigslist, but nothing about the QuickCashFromCraigsList product.
Refresh your browser to restart the “Countdown Timer”! 
Well, looks like I just ran out of time to claim my “free kit”. Good thing I can just press my browser refresh button and restart that timer! LOL.
OK. Now it’s asking me what my goals are.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have MY GOAL which is to find out how much the monthly charges for QuickCashFromCraigsList are after the trial period. I’ll just pick “Make Extra Money”.
The most baffling question on the QuickCashFromCraigsList page:
Next I’m supposed to answer the following question:
“Do you have access to a computer?”
Ummm. Is this one of those trick questions? The answer seems sort of obvious since I’m LOOKING at the page on a device commonly known as a COMPUTER, but maybe it’s one of those trick questions like:
Question: Some months have 30 days, some months have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
Answer: All of them!
Anyhow. I told QuickCashFromCraigsList that I DO have access to a computer (I know, I know…I probably got that one wrong).
Next question: Do you have an hour a day? Boy the questions are getting progressively harder here. But I went ahead and answered “Yes”.
Final step on page 1 of QuickCashFromCraigsList:
Hmm. I just noticed over on the LEFT side of the screen the following words:
“It’s fast.You’ll be shipped our exclusive QuickCashFromCraigslist CD-Rom, which includes the official Rapid Success Guide and lots of other helpful information. You’ll also get a free trial account to the member’s website, so you can begin making money as soon as today if you want.”
Hmm. If it’s a “Trial” account then at some point I will have to PAY if I don’t cancel my trial account, right? It would be kind of nice if QuickCashFromCraigsList would tell me RIGHT THERE how much I have to pay if I don’t cancel my trial account. But I guess that would be asking too much, eh?
I guess they must tell me that one Page 2.
OK. So I filled out the name, address, phone, and email fields…
According to the Quick Cash From CraigsList timer my time is up, but sneaky old me…I went ahead and pressed the CONTINUE button anyhow…heh, heh…”Fool me twice, shame on you”…no, that’s not right…LOL….anyhow…wait…
Act Now and it’s FREE! (Just enter your credit card?)
OK. I know it’s standard marketing practice to claim something is free and then charge the person for “shipping and handling” but it still makes me laugh every time I see that.
This Order Page is Giving Me a Headache!
OK. Wow. This order page is kind of freaking me out. There are SO many different sections to it. But I’m going to go ahead and go through them one by one.
What’s on the LEFT SIDE of the QuickCashFromCraigsList.com Order Screen:
I see “Option 1: Get Your Starter Kit“
Apparently shipping and handling is usually $5.95 put if I order by January 12, 2009 I can save $4.00 and pay onlly $1.95 for my free starter kit.
O.K. There’s also “”Option 2: Starter Kit plus 1 Year VIP membership into the CraigsList Rapid-Success Club”
Apparently, this is the “Best Value” and the one for you if “you’re really serious about making money”. I you’re just goofing around about making money, then I guess you’d take Option 1 or none at all.
Oh. Here’s how the free trial works – I found it!
I scrolled down the page some more to check what else was on the LEFT SIDE of the QuickCashFromCraigsList.com screen on page 2 and I found the details of the trial offer.
Here’s how it says the trial offer works:
There’s a 14 day free trial and at the end of the trial period the cost is $39.95/month.
It also tells me that “you can cancel your membership at any time by calling us at +1-800-381-7820. Our phone support is open for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
Hmm. So a full year of this Club would be $479.40
THE BIG QUESTION: WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST LIST THIS DIRECTLY UNDER OPTION 1?
How to Cancel within the First 14 days of the trial period:
I do also see that to cancel within the first 14 days of the trial period I need to return the free kit, but I will still have to pay for the shipping fee…that part is not refundable.
What’s on the RIGHT SIDE of the QuickCashFromCraigsList.com Order Screen:
Again, I have two choices here.
I can either take the free kit or pay $97.00 for the Starter Kit plus 1 Year VIP Membership.
I guess they’ve offered this for sale somewhere else before for $479.40, since it says the “Retail Price” before the 80% discount is $479.40 and according to the Federal Trade Commission’s FTC Guides Against Deceptive Pricing’s section on former price comparison’s it states:
“(a) One of the most commonly used forms of bargain advertising is to offer a reduction from the advertiser’s own former price for an article. If the former price is the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time, it provides a legitimate basis for the advertising of a price comparison. Where the former price is genuine, the bargain being advertised is a true one. If, on the other hand, the former price being advertised is not bona fide but fictitious — for example, where an artificial, inflated price was established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction — the “bargain” being advertised is a false one; the purchaser is not receiving the unusual value he expects. In such a case, the “reduced” price is, in reality, probably just the seller’s regular price.
(b) A former price is not necessarily fictitious merely because no sales at the advertised price were made. The advertiser should be especially careful, however, in such a case, that the price is one at which the product was openly and actively offered for sale, for a reasonably substantial period of time, in the recent, regular course of his business, honestly and in good faith — and, of course, not for the purpose of establishing a fictitious higher price on which a deceptive comparison might be based. And the advertiser should scrupulously avoid any implication that a former price is a selling, not an asking price (for example, by use of such language as, “Formerly sold at $XXX”), unless substantial sales at that price were actually made.
(c) The following is an example of a price comparison based on a fictitious former price. John Doe is a retailer of Brand X fountain pens, which cost him $5 each. His usual markup is 50 percent over cost; that is, his regular retail price is $7.50. In order subsequently to offer an unusual “bargain”, Doe begins offering Brand X at $10 per pen. He realizes that he will be able to sell no, or very few, pens at this inflated price. But he doesn’t care, for he maintains that price for only a few days. Then he “cuts” the price to its usual level — $7.50 — and advertises: “Terrific Bargain: X Pens, Were $10, Now Only $7.50!” This is obviously a false claim. The advertised “bargain” is not genuine.
(d) Other illustrations of fictitious price comparisons could be given. An advertiser might use a price at which he never offered the article at all; he might feature a price which was not used in the regular course of business, or which was not used in the recent past but at some remote period in the past, without making disclosure of that fact; he might use a price that was not openly offered to the public, or that was not maintained for a reasonable length of time, but was immediately reduced.
(e) If the former price is set forth in the advertisement, whether accompanied or not by descriptive terminology such as “Regularly,” “Usually,” “Formerly,” etc., the advertiser should make certain that the former price is not a fictitious one. If the former price, or the amount or percentage of reduction, is not stated in the advertisement, as when the ad merely states, “Sale,” the advertiser must take care that the amount of reduction is not so insignificant as to be meaningless. It should be sufficiently large that the consumer, if he knew what it was, would believe that a genuine bargain or saving was being offered. An advertiser who claims that an item has been “Reduced to $9.99,” when the former price was $10, is misleading the consumer, who will understand the claim to mean that a much greater, and not merely nominal, reduction was being offered. [Guide I]”
Can someone explain the “Asterisk” by the pseudo-word $FREE* to me?
I asked someone else to look for the information that the asterisk was supposed to go to and he couldn’t find it either.
I did find the following that have asterisks by them, but they don’t really seem to have anything to do with the pseudo-word $FREE:
- “* Required.” I see that where it tells me to enter my credit card verification number (i guess they won’t be CHARGING me to ENTER that number? huh?)
- “* Individual results may vary based on factors like your dedication.”
I’m not sure what that has to do with “$FREE” either. - There’s an asterisk by the expiration date drop down for where I can enter my credit card number…maybe that “drop down menu of years is a free service they provide?
I must just be overlooking what that asterisk on the word $FREE goes to, but I did ask someone else to try to find it and they couldn’t find it either. But it’s gotta be there somewhere.
What are these weird security logos?
I don’t quite understand the security logos on this page either.
It shows a “HackerSafe” logo, but HackerSafe was bought out by McAfee towards the end of 2007 and automatically replaced the HackerSafe logos on websites with their McAfee Secure logo.
I just don’t understand why this page is showing a trust logo that’s no longer viable. Plus the logo can’t be clicked to verify the authenticity anyhow.
It also shows the Authorize.net verification seal, but…
The Authorize.net verification seal on step 2 of PayMeToList’s order process is NOT clickable.
Why is that important? Because the Authorize.net seal is provided by Authorize.net so that the consumer can CLICK on it and verify that the merchant is an authorized Authorize.net merchant.
OK. I’m done here and I’m NOT going to order this product as I see too many things I don’t like on the sales page. But good luck to anyone who does get it.
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