Some of the folks oh so quick to judge need to revisit the sales page and actually READ IT this time. Then, take a visit to the FTC’s site. There is nothing illegal or unethical about what Matt did.

I’ve realized a couple of things after reading all the responses here. 1) More people than I would have suspected get sucked into these type of things primarily because they don’t ‘fully’ read the salespage.
2) There are a lot of people who are pretty unhappy with this type of underhanded promotion, and that will cause a lot of marketers to think twice about pulling this in the future (hopefully).

Due to the promotional emails and hype at the beginning of his salespage (plus my own pretty unhappy response to a book of his I bought a couple of years ago), I knew there had to be more than meets the eye, so I read the letter closely and decided NOT to go for it for 2 of the reasons stated previously (No Paypal and I wasn’t interested in the newsletter anyway).

I’m also pretty unhappy the way he and Russell Brunson actually promoted this thing. By most appearances, it was ‘pushed’ as Matt was retiring, until you read the letter enough. The whole “I’ve been ripped off so I’m retiring this product” line was a bit much. But also, I was very unhappy the way RB would let you get his bonus ’special call w/Matt’ if you kept the newsletter 30 days. It was like a ‘forced continuity into a forced continuity’. What kind of BS is that?

And as far as a few comments about ‘how clear it was in the letter’, all I can say is Bunk! I’ve learned to know that the longer the sales ‘letter’ (those 35+ pages of nothing buy text hype(rbole), the more you need to scrutinize everything. This material wasn’t up front and center, and add to that the fact it ‘appeared’ to be a ‘minor’ bonus, many would tend to skip over this to quickly get to the ‘alleged’ gold…a $5500 class for $1. That should have been the FIRST RED FLAG!!

Which reminds me, what’s with all these marketers lately (imho, p*ssing off their old customers) who last year sold an exclusive product for $1, 2, or $MORE Thousand dollars , and this year it’s part of some hyped up new product as a bonus or package, at a substantial discount from the original single product’s price?

MeThinks, somebody got ripped on the last go round. I’m just glad I didn’t buy a famous package from MF called BM, only to see it at $1000 less this year as part of another package. Or KW ‘killer’ deal at $497 with last years $997 product thrown in. PLEASE. IM is changing too fast? This is true, next year you can get the ‘must have’ package or product of today, for a couple thousand LESS!

Of course we need not worry about Matt Bacak ever doing this again, because this is his retirement campaign so he’ll disappear into obscurity and settle down to a happy retirement. HA HA!

I guess now that everybody has jumped on the bandwagon of passive recurring income such as with membership sites, etc., the latest trend is to get that recurring income by burying “free” newsletters or “bonuses” that actually lock you into a monthly fee somewhere deep in the lengthy sales page. And of course all you have to do to cancel is “contact them” somehow. I’m sure that ain’t easy.

Obviously it has become more critical than ever to carefully inspect every word of every seemingly great offer to look for deceptive ploys. This is a deliberate attempt to take advantage of the consumer. There is no excuse for this unethical practice, and I suggest that anybody who runs across an ad of this type immediately unsubscribe from the seller’s list (if they are on it), and post a warning on every forum they belong to.

I’m not too sympathetic to the marketers who promote these products either (and there are many of them). Either they are partners in the seller’s duplicity, or they simply haven’t examined the offer they are promoting closely enough. What happened to the advice of trying out every product before you promote it? Or at least making sure you are thoroughly familiar with it?

HMPH!