The Mathematics Learning Institute

In November last year I wrote a post about how Ellie from the Mathematics Learning Institute had been calling me trying to get one of their representatives to come and show us how their fantastic learning program works. Well just a few weeks ago she called again. I had forgotten all about them by this stage but she obviously had some notes on her database about how I was busy at the time or something. Anyway I decided to book a time to get this thing over and done with so they would just leave me alone. To put them off though I said I would only be available on Sunday. "No problem, we can have Craig come around on Sunday morning. See you then". I can only say that they mean to sell if they're prepared to do that.

Sunday morning came and we were on the phone to Grandma Mary when Craig arrived so I had to cut that conversation short. Craig must have been all of about 21 but ready and willing to do the hard sell. After a half an hour of touting his product and regaling us with stories about how poor, single parents are so committed to doing what's best for their children that they're prepared to live with second hand patio furniture in the loungeroom just to pay for this product, he got to the nitty gritty. Suddenly he was all business.

"Now you have to commit today. If you truly care about the future for your children you will find the money to pay for this. We only recruit 100 people in an area and I have several more people to see today so if you don't commit right now you will probably miss out". (this was interesting since they've been chasing me since November so they can't be filling up that fast since it's now March the following year).

I asked the price.

"Well it's a line of credit and what you pay is only $45 a week and with that you get all that we talked about here. You also get the phone tutor who is on line until 8pm nightly to help you through the difficult times and to set work for your child to do".

Right. So what's the bottom line price?

"As I said, it's a line of credit, if you truly care about your children this will seem like nothing. It's (writes the figure on a piece of paper and turns it in my direction to emphasise his point) only a small figure of $5995.

I gasp and ask him what happens if I no longer want it. Can I just cancel?

"Oh no. You've bought it. You've borrowed the money from us and you have to pay it back. Remember this is a program you can use for the lifetime of your children's schooling lives"

I think to myself "yes, until you go bust and the receivers step in". What I actually say is "I'll have to think about it. I'm not prepared to commit to this right now. Can you leave me a trial CD?"

He says, "I'd have to call about that. I'll go and give you some time to think about this and find out about the trial and be back in a few minutes".

So out he goes. He comes back in several minutes later. By then Ben and I have decided that no way are we turning over that amount of money which he can't give us any testimonials about, no trial period, nothing. We tell him we're not interested.

"Well if you went to buy a car you couldn't get a trial period with it" he said.

We agreed with him but we would have time to do some research, give it a test drive, get it mechanically checked out etc before committing to spending that kind of money.

He got a bit shirty after that and tried harder and the harder he tried the more frustrated and determined we got. Eventually he realised we weren't going to take the bait and he left muttering something about regretting our decision.

I guess it was his hard sell tactics that turned me off. His use of anecdotes about wealthy parents not caring enough to invest in the product but poor single parents doing anything they can to ensure their child has the best possible chances in life. What right does he have to assume these things. What right does he have to use these kind of selling tactics. From the little he did show us of the computer based program it didn't seem to differ much from other mathematics learning software I've seen which comes at a much more reasonable price than $5995. Like around $20. It's sharks like these that make products like this seem less than desirable.