I ordered the Accelerated Battlefield Combatives course, which Chris Pizzo purported to be offering for "free", but the "back-breakingly gigantic box", as Chris described it, couldn't have weighed more than two pounds, so I am certain it didn't cost $28 to ship it to me.
Anyway, in the 29-page offer, it didn't mention I was signing up for a $87/month membership—except for a part of one sentence in the section about bonuses. After all that reading, I wasn't too concerned about what he was "giving" me for free on top of the ABC course I wanted to try, so I didn't notice that buried sentence, and so the following month, my bill showed two of those $87 charges—$174 for two CDs, a t-shirt, and a basic newsletter for which I wouldn't have given you $15!
Chris' rebuttal to another one of these reports (just like his offers) makes it sound like he will gladly cancel your membership if your aren't completely satisfied, but that is clearly not true:
* When I went to e-mail to cancel, I was told it couldn't be done that way, since you never know if an e-mail could get lost (I wonder why reputable companies use e-mail, then?)
* When I went to call to cancel, I was told I had to do it from 9-5 on weekdays.
* When I called to cancel during the appropriate hours, it was a not-very-efficient automated system that made me speak and spell my name and e-mail address, and allowed me to speak to no one (now why was it that I had to call during business hours?)
* Nothing was done to cancel my membership, anyway.
* His FAQs that you don't need before ordering, but he refers you to if you want to cancel make it clear that when people return the product to him or even refuse delivery, he will refuse to refund them and try to return the product to them. His words are that he "can't" refund you.
* His rebuttals on this site show that one of his tactics is ridiculing people who have legitimate gripes against his practices. That is not wise, especially when dealing with people who are smarter than he and who understand their rights.
I was disappointed in the quality of the videos, looking like they were filmed in Chris' apartment in a couple of takes and rather poorly edited. That wouldn't be important enough for me to request a refund, but had I learned of all the others I now know of who have been tricked into this "membership" and who were refused a refund when they realized what was happening, I would have avoided this guy and his companies.
Chris' writings (including his offers) are very entertaining, but he is either lying about not wanting you to pay for what you don't want, or he is suffering from too many hits on the head. I think I would enjoy working out with him, but I don't ever want to be his customer again.
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