A pretty interesting report was made public by our very own senator of West Virginia, Jay Rockefeller. The study was done by a division that he is the chairman of, the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation about the “aggressive sales tactics on the Internet” focusing on the post-transaction sales that have been plaguing consumers. If you aren’t familiar with these type of post transactions, refer to the exhibit above from the staff report he published.

I cannot tell you how familiar I am with these types of companies that are doing these “aggressive” marketing schemes. Personally, I feel like they should just be labeled “scams” all together and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t use that term often. (Not a lot of people do in the marketing world these days)

Why should they be labelled scams?

1. They aren’t giving what they promise to give in the first place. (Free $20.00, Vacations, Auto Insurance, etc.)

2. They are marketed in an extremely fishy way. (Box check marked, font small, in between confirmation page and purchase page, etc.)

3. Horrid customer service.

4. They are put in a place where members feel like they are safe. (They trust (business name here) and so they don’t think they are being misled)

The companies (the ones that latch on to big vendors where you buy your stuff) are identified in the documentation:

Three Internet companies?Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty?exploit consumers? expectations about online shopping to trick them into joining their membership clubs.

Vertrue used to be really big in the incentive marketing place about 2 years ago and they were the shadiest of the shady. They charged $1.00 upfront and usually paid from $20 – $24 per lead, so naturally they were popular with a lot of sites. They always had short stints of campaigns coming up and being shot down from legal fire almost immediately after false promises about free money and vacations never proved to be true, among other things.

These types of campaigns should be nixed as soon as possible, that’s why I’m glad to see Sen. Rockefeller and his committee make these guys known and their shady practices. Not because I’ve been burned before, but it just gives Internet marketing more of a bad name. The people that support these kinds of things are the big vendors out there, not individual affiliate marketers. I mean sure, they are just trying to make money but it’s money on top of money they are already making and it’s taking advantage of the consumer that’s supposed to trust you in a very questionable way. Vistaprint is the one who I’m most familiar with doing this since I’ve ordered business cards from them. I will order, then be pitched their stamps, mousepads, etc., then third party offers show up. Not to mention the slew of emails that blow up my inbox.

Anyway, I’m glad Senator Rockefeller pointed this stuff out, it’s about time these guys had mainstream media fire shed on them. I just hope it doesn’t lead to all Internet marketing methods being shed with an even more negative light… If I had to place a bet I’d say that this type of attention will be focusing on rebills in the very near future. Does anyone else agree?

To check out the list of other vendors that are teaming up with the aforementioned companies, check out this link to the .PDF of Exhibits.