heartburn Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 355 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 73 of 193 28 April 2005 at 12:12pm | IP Logged |
I will concede that the Google search that I posted was rather unscientific. I did say it was simple, and I did say that I didn't know how many reviews there really were. However, my point was that there are more than a few. I wanted everyone to realize that this was not an issue only with Platiquemos, but with many good products.
And yes Mr. Jackson, I did click through many of the links. Many did contain mentions of LSLC inside reviews. Frankly, I don't see where an exact number is important. If you only post a single fake review, maybe nobody will notice, but it would still be wrong.
I don't feel like it's my duty to prove that you posted fake reviews. If you want to deny that you did, that's fine. Everyone here is an adult. Everyone can decide for themselves.
Edited by heartburn on 28 April 2005 at 6:06pm
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heartburn Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 355 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 74 of 193 28 April 2005 at 4:24pm | IP Logged |
pentatonic wrote:
It's obvious to me that those are false testimonials and part of their (somewhat shady) advertising campaign. |
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luke wrote:
I too belive that a lot of the postings on amazon that surreptiously praise LSLC are by people with a financial interest in the company. |
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NYC_Trini_Span wrote:
I too thought the reviews were a little far fetched |
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jpking173 wrote:
I saw it mentioned on amazon.com but I am skeptical of those mentions. |
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crylant wrote:
I found LSLC from Amazon reviews and I also immediatly became suspicious and suspect the reviews at Amazon are less than objective. |
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Malcom wrote:
In my view, LSLC "irreparably injured its reputation" when it started the review campaign on amazon.com. |
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mtwalker wrote:
I noticed sort of a pattern in the reviews. |
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Half of these remarks are from people who use and like the product. It must take a special kind of businessman to be comfortable with that.
Edited by heartburn on 28 April 2005 at 4:29pm
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Platiquemos Hexaglot Language Program Publisher Senior Member Panama platiquemos-letstalk Joined 7165 days ago 126 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish
| Message 75 of 193 28 April 2005 at 5:50pm | IP Logged |
Agreed, Heartburn, that it would take a very special kind of businessman; but in this case are we even talking about a businessman? Could it possibly be not a lowly "businessman", but a member of one of the most highly self-regarded and lowly publicly-regarded professions?
I certainly hope not to offend Francois or anybody else on this forum, but to me the "quality" of the product of a person who one knows, or has reason to believe, promotes her product by fraudulent attempts to harm her competitors through such tactics as false "reviews", attempts to intimidate anybody who questions her with threats of lawsuits, and describes ALL of the remotely competing products as "useless junk" (see Crazy's new web page) is just irrelevant. Most Americans (present cmpany of course excluded) are so innocent of knowledge or experience of language learning that they fall for all kinds of cutesy stuff--that's what I attribute the success of Pimsleur to; in my opinion Pimsleur and all the other "learn like a baby" progams are basically and deeply flawed. That's one of the reasons you won't find many "testimonials" on the Platiquemos website (the few that are there were put there by the guy who designed the first site five years ago). I could get a hundred people by tomorrow to describe Platiquemos as almost on a level with the Bible--but so what?. Language, or any other kind of learning, is largely a matter of trust: I trust that you know the subject you propose to teach me and know how to do it, you trust that I'll put in some effort and my check won't bounce.
Enough, already, Don he said to himself. Now you've not only confused your readers, you've even further confused yourself.
By the way, Platiquemos just got its first 1 star review on Amazon after about 3 years--a real hatchet job that goes on to push Michel Thomas's (the teacher to the stars) course. No matter how wonderful M. Thomas's program may be it just isn't a viable alternative to Platiquemos simply because it's basically a beginner course (8 CD's and a fairly small book vs. 54 CD's and about 1400 pages of text). Intriguingly, on M. Thomas's site there is a 1 star review which looks much like those mentioned above by heartburn and others--ending up with pushing Crasy.
The 1 star review of Platiquemos is of course anonymous (well it has a name, but that's not much identification), which means I can't offer the guy his money back if indeed he ever did buy Platiquemos. I've put a few reviews on Amazon myself--with my own full name. If I'm not willing to identify myself with what I say, I shouldn't say it is my motto (though often I later realize I should just have kept the big mouth shut).
Isn't it a strange coincidence that while this brouhaha with Crazy (and PLEASE remember who started it, and it wsn't Crazy Don--my daughters' high school boy friends' pet name for me--this hatchet job suddenly appears on Amazon?
I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have access to a group who will not only listen (read) what I have to say, but actually understand where I'm coming from. Thanks to all of you.
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heartburn Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 355 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 76 of 193 28 April 2005 at 6:28pm | IP Logged |
I noticed that all of the reviews by the Amazon reviewer named Student of Learning Spanish Like Crazy "La Flaca" (Florida) have been deleted from Amazon. Hmm, I wonder what sort of person uses the name of a product as an Amazon account name. Google has two reviews here for safe keeping.
Edited by heartburn on 29 April 2005 at 3:48am
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7208 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 77 of 193 28 April 2005 at 7:25pm | IP Logged |
Quote:
Platiquemos just got its first 1 star review on
Amazon after about 3 years--a real hatchet job that
goes on to push Michel Thomas's |
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The 1 star review seems disingenuious. I've got a
fondness for Michel Thomas, primarily because I spent
about 40 hours editing the 8 CD set down to 5, 4, 3, 2,
and finally 1 CD. I can't let myself think that was a
waste of time ;) The reality is, the MT course should
have been edited down by at least 1 hour before it ever
shipped in the first place, excessive pauses, etc.
That said, I like the MT approach of teaching the
language by building sentences. It's insane to compare
the MT course with Platiquemos the way that reviewer
did, which is why the review smells. My "80 minute
review" (all the gems from the 8 hour MT CD) is
equivalent to about 3 hours of unedited material from
Platiquemos. Platiquemos has about 15 times that
amount of material though. If you compare prices,
Platiquemos is a much better value.
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heartburn Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 355 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 78 of 193 29 April 2005 at 2:35am | IP Logged |
It looks like all of the reviews of Papi Morenito "Representing El Barrio to the Fullest" (Washington Heights, NYC), another huge fan of LSLC, have mysteriously disappeared. In case anyone would like to read them, Google has kindly cached them for us. He plugged LSLC six times.
Edited by heartburn on 29 April 2005 at 3:47am
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heartburn Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 355 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 79 of 193 29 April 2005 at 2:47am | IP Logged |
Guess what! All of the reviews by Learning-Spanish Fiend "Learning-Spanish Fiend" (D.C.) are gone too. I love Google!
You'll find eight reviews here!
Edited by heartburn on 29 April 2005 at 3:48am
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heartburn Senior Member United States Joined 7210 days ago 355 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 80 of 193 29 April 2005 at 2:51am | IP Logged |
Poor Sam "Spanisholics" (Daytona Beach, Florida) . All three reviews deleted. Did someone say Google?
Edited by heartburn on 29 April 2005 at 3:48am
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