Veign's Blog - Unhandled Perception

Sunday, October 14, 2007

CDEarth = ThinkAll = One Big Scam

(leave a comment if this helps you)

It would seem that the notorious and underhanded company ThinkAll has opened their doors again under a different company name called CDEarth.

For those who don't know ThinkAll, here's an excerpt from my original post exposing them:
ThinkAll.com may not be what you are expecting. Although the CD's are sent to you free (pay shipping only) your CD's must be sent back to them within 10 days or your credit card will automatically be charged. Not only that you are signing up for a membership where they automatically send you CD's and charge your credit card if not returned after a very short evaluation period.

It would seem that CD Earth is doing the exact same thing. They are selling software that they say is Free software, as listed in the page title and in the footer under the FreeSoftwareCD.net, and automatically enrolling you in a Software Library Club, as listed in their Terms of Service. The Software Library Club is charging $14.99 per CD that you keep beyond 25 days that will automatically sent to you every month and they will charge for shipping these CDs to you every month.

By introducting you to our friendly company through this FREE CD Offer, we hope you will take the time to learn more about us. You'll get this CD for FREE and an additional FREE Software CD that you select on the next page (2 FREE Software CDs in all) with a no obligation, free twenty-five day test-drive of our Software Library Club

I bet you didn't know this when you requested a CD and paid the $2.95 shipping charge. Did you know you were giving them permission to automatically charge your credit card every month for CD's that are not promptly returned to them and which includes a $5.95 shipping charge?

For those who may not have noticed the Terms of Use here is the part you need to know:

6. Software Library Club Membership and Billing. CD EARTH provides numerous products, services, and software in connection with its business. With respect to software provided hereunder, there is a discounted, non-refundable shipping and processing fee of USD$2.96 for the initial four CD software set. You may keep any two CD's free of charge from the initial set. The other two CD's in the first set are yours to review during a 25 day trial period which starts the day you receive your CDs. If for any reason you decide the complete set is not for you, simply visit us at www.cdearth.com/freecd before your 25 day free trial expires. You will need to follow the instructions at such web link to indicate your intention to return two of the CD's and you will not be charged for the two trial CDs. If you elect to keep all four CD's or you otherwise fail to comply with the foregoing instructions, you will be billed to the credit or debit card provided the price of $14.99 for each of the two trial CD's.

As an added benefit and to help you expand your computer software library, about every seven weeks after you receive your first set you will receive another specially selected four trial CD software set to evaluate for just USD$5.96 shipping & processing, as long as your account is active and in good standing. For each such recurring shipment, you will have the same full 25 days from the day you receive them to review all four trial CDs. If you elect to keep all four CD's in the recurring set, you will be billed to the credit or debit card provided the price of $14.99 for each of the four trial CD's. You can cancel your participation in this program at anytime just by visiting the website www.cdearth.com/freecd. There is no obligation and no minimum required purchase.

Why do I think its ThinkAll? They are based in Texas, sell the same software and has the same manager that ThinkAll had.

Here is the detailed company information (same manager as ThinkAll):

Manager on Filing Document:
Yury Mintskovsky

Manager Address:
{snipped} N. Dallas Parkway, Suite {snipped}
Dallas, TX 75248 USA

Registered Agent:
Incorp Services, Inc.

Address:
{snipped} Brazos Street, Suite {snipped}
Austin, TX 78701 USA

In my opinion CDEarth.com / CD Earth, LLC should be avoided as its nothing more than a scam. The software, I have been told, is junk and you would be better off searching google for free alternatives.

here some Free downloads I gathered:

Labels:

posted by Veign at 11:02 AM

45 Comments:

  • You have been on their case for sometime and they need it. Another example is Video Professor. if you don't send two of the videos back that you didn't request to start with they charge you 69.95, I know I am a victim from way back.

    We'd have plenty of time to enjoy life if we didn't have to look over our shoulder all the time. Pitiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    By Blogger Gary McCurry, at 1:07 PM EST  

  • Not to mention their photo and image studio cd is Gimp. Also their desktop publishing cd is Scribus. Again, their av & firewall security cd is ClamAV...See a pattern here with the products that you could get elsewhere?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:22 PM EST  

  • Exactly what they did under ThinkAll. I think they are also selling OpenOffice and many other free, open source software packages.

    By Blogger Veign, at 4:09 PM EST  

  • Its all good software, just one problem, you gotta pay for the CDs. Your better off downloading the software and burning it to your own CDs. go to sourceforge.net they have most(if not all) of that software.

    By Anonymous Tall1, at 10:22 PM EST  

  • The problem is they hide the fact you are being enrolled in a membership where they keep sending your software and charging when you don't send it back fast enough.

    They did this before under their previous two companies: Manay Software and ThinkAll.

    Manay was shut down and ThinkAll is in legal troubles with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

    By Blogger Veign, at 1:31 AM EST  

  • Thanks Gary......
    i was going to order and suddenly i thought that i should see review and i got review, and you really save My money,

    Thank you very much !!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:35 PM EST  

  • I'll bet you get a ton of emails like this. ...I was looking for a simple time-killing Mahjong and checked out freeware. As I explored the 'hook' for cdearth the old adage 'there ain't no free lunch' came to mind. So...I looked for some reviews and found yours.

    Thanks for being there on the CDearth thing.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:38 AM EST  

  • I'm in the business of providing support on Open Source products and found it curious that someone would have a business model that allowed for free CD distribution. If you do want GPL software on CD, most of the distros will sell them to you at a nominal cost. OpenOffice for example has a link to a page where they list companies that will burn a CD for you...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:26 PM EST  

  • I believe they are misleading and others should be warn

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:42 AM EST  

  • I mistakenly fell for their "Pay only 2.95 shipping charges" and wound up with UNWANTED extra CD's and n a $59.96 charge on my Visa account.If you find yourself in this position, I recommend you do what I did. Call the Attorney General and your credit card company; then call CDEarth and inform them they'll be battling thegov't. for their money. After a long while I was transferre3d to a supervisor who agreed to refund my money if I sent back the unwanted CD's.
    STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY.

    By Blogger Polli, at 2:13 PM EST  

  • I agree. I got my four CDs and when I read the letter that came with I FREAKED out! I immediately cancelled my membership, and did receive a cancellation notice which I am saving. The programs are a joke to be sure. Microsoft Office Publisher beats Scribus hands-down! I'll be sending two of them back today as I would rather pay $6.00 shipping, than $30 for two worthless CDs. They should be sued!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:10 AM EST  

  • When I got to the page that required a small shipping fee and my credit card number, I got suspicious. I did a dogpile search and found your blogs. Thank you very much. I am not ordering anything from cdearth. Bill

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:04 AM EST  

  • I too received 2 unsolicited sets of the CD Earth cd 4 pack. I called 1-866-789-0369 to cancel my so called membership. I will see how it goes. They sent a cancellation confirmation email. I have to return the CD's to:
    CD Earth
    Attention Returns Departmrnt
    Return Number (cust. #)
    P.O. Box 2949
    Wylie, TX 75098-2949

    By Blogger rsstexas63, at 7:20 PM EST  

  • Thank you for the heads up, you can't trust anyone anymore.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:07 PM EST  

  • I have been caught to. by CD earth I missed a month of checking my card charges and even if I had wanted to send CD's back where is he address written? I couldn't find it. I phoned the number by the charge on my statement. I demanded a refund of unauthorized charges.Next day I received the same supercilious "Thank you for trying our product,but ha!ha! you didn't see our hidden message, you lose sort of thing. well I now have a written demand in. Will let you know if it works.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:50 PM EST  

  • Hi,

    Thank you for you info . I was just about to give my card number.
    But I already gave my address where to send the free CD , how can I delete that?
    Thanks,

    JC

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:59 AM EST  

  • You can try calling customer service and making sure you haven't enrolled in anything or just wait for the first shipment and send it back immediately and follow their instructions for canceling the membership.

    By Blogger Veign, at 11:15 AM EST  

  • Follow up of "will let you what happens" Keep at them, be firm and don't take "no" for an answer. You will get a credit !!!!!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:11 PM EST  

  • Unfortunately I found your site after I had signed up to CD earth, I have had the first lot of CDs for 11 days and not even looked at them. I have cancelled my credit card so they cannot take any money, Now I am about to cancel my membership with CD earth and return all the CDs including the free 1s(ha ha). If I had not found your site I probably would of got snered in there trap to.
    I will let you know how I get on.

    By Anonymous Dan Jones, at 8:49 AM EST  

  • Thank you very much for the information.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:44 AM EST  

  • CDEarth recently sent me 4 unrequested CDs, and they are worthless. Much better stuff is freely available on the Internet.

    Strange thing is that I NEVER signed up for a software club with automatic shipping.

    Months ago, I did request samples of their learning CDs for children (they came and they were awful ... threw them into recycling).

    Anyway, I cancelled my account (eventhough I didn't know that I had one) and they have acknowledged that. So we shall see what happens next. I have a feeling that this is not over yet.

    I will never again request "free" samples.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:11 PM EST  

  • Hello did them one better. Used a gift card with just enough money to make the first shipping payment then cancelled the membership letting them know there was no more money on the card I used. They are emailing me the return address for the two I don't want and a cancellation letter which I shall make a copy of for my records. Thank you for the heads up.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:50 PM EST  

  • I do sympathize with a lot of the posters. However, who does not read fine print these days? Who doesnt read the terms and conditions?

    It's as if the general adult population is running on kid instincts... Wave a shiny new quarter and ooo and ahhh.

    Be responsible for yourself. Read the fine print. Companies will continue to prey on all of you because you do not take the time to do your research before giving out your credit card info.

    So yes..it is pitiful. Very much so.

    By Blogger The Agent, at 6:15 PM EST  

  • Even the Federal Trade Commission determined that hiding things in the terms of service is considered underhanded business practices.

    By Blogger Veign, at 7:31 PM EST  

  • I want you to be a satisfied customer and since you were inconvenienced,
    you are free to keep the four Software CDs from this last set shipped to
    you on September 7th. I have marked your account so we will NOT charge you
    for them - $60 value! There is nothing to return!

    A LOAD of BULL they charged me !!!
    one month later

    By Blogger davhen, at 5:00 AM EST  

  • They are scum and exist only profit off of peoples trust that they are a legit business. No one would want to "join" a software club that provides software monthly (that you can download for free) so they have to hide the fact that they are ripping people off.

    To get your “free” CD, just pay for shipping. Once they have your account number for the shipping they start charging your account left and right until you cancel. When you do cancel, you have to send back the “free” CDs or they charge you more. Scum of the earth.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:29 PM EST  

  • I agree, My credit card got charged without my permission but i dod not receive any letrer stating its membership and i have to cancel it if not required.

    I am in process claiming it back. will update resolution soon.

    By Anonymous Jas, at 4:11 PM EST  

  • Yes you are definatly right thinkall & cdearth are the same.
    I have been duped twice by them.
    Check the pictures on the jackets they are exactly the same pics but re aranged, & from large to small visa-versa eg: (The pretty gal= large on last envelope of 4 pack container of cdearth / small on face of 4 pk thinkall cd envelope.
    ~~ I ordered a cd of open office as I am having trouble with the copy on my linux machine. Bug or rootkit)
    I thought it would save problems to order a cd directly.
    On my microsoft machine (laptop) I had already downloaded & installed the newest open office suite. I thought this may be newer & when I tried to install it it was an older copy. go figger! I was not impressed, now even less. If I had known it was Think All at the time I would have passed it by.Unfortunatly I can't remember how I terminated think all.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:05 PM EST  

  • Yup! I clicked on an ad, got taken to the CD Earth site, clicked on the "details" link...... Hmmmmm..... sounds very much like thinkall!

    ThinkAll=ThinkAgain!

    (And the refund check I recently received unexpectedly was a nice surprise)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:04 AM EST  

  • Hi all,like most people here, I was also fooled by these scums before its too late.
    I immediately cancelled my credit card so that they can't charge me in future.
    Besides, I stay in India. Do u guys really think I will b mailed those CDs?? And if mailed, do I have to return them?? coz they cant charge me in future anyhow..

    By Anonymous Ram, at 10:07 AM EST  

  • Was about to order when I thought I bettter Google them as it seemed a bit suss.

    Thanks for the heads up!

    By Blogger Wookiee, at 2:27 AM EST  

  • I have been hit by the same scam too, paid 69.95 to learn the lesson well, but this is not the end of the story.
    According to cdearth system, my subscription has been canceled on 2009-02-24 and yet they still charged my credit card for 59.96 on the 6th of april.
    To prevent any futher charges from this unbelievable company, I have no choice but to cancel my credit card too.
    Why can't someone or some authority put a stop to this company.....

    By Anonymous j kwan, at 5:05 AM EST  

  • I looked at their website today. My scam receptors went off when I saw free cd. They went into full alert when I saw the 'free' cd they were offering was Gimp. Seriously?

    http://www.cdearth.com/photo-image-editor.htm?gclid=CPHgrL2Dg5oCFQEeDQodTGp5Fg

    Not only that, if you google Gimp you'll see that link above right at the top as one of Google's sponsored links.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:33 PM EST  

  • Yet again Google are advertising CD Earth as they did Thinkall Publishing. They have to take some responsibility for promoting this rip off.

    As soon as I saw the first CD Earth page, I thought "Thinkall". My advice to anyone is: check the site, if there's no telephone number / address - steer clear! CD Earth offers one email address. That alone is highly suspicious.

    I was caught up in the Thinkall scam. Thankfully they were closed down - but the stress Yuri Mintskovsky's scam caused was a real pain in the arse.

    A note for Veign and other readers: the software these scammers are offering via CD Earth is good quality Open Source applications that are freely available from www.sourceforge.net. My opinion is that Mintskovsky = ThinkAll = CD Earth has decided to promote good open source products as a way of offering a credible hook. DO NOT TAKE A BITE!!

    For those that have taken a bite of the CD Earth maggot, my thoughts are with you. Get the software back and get them to cancel things whilst they are still contactable. Because before long they'll disappear and then you are if for a pain in the a*se ride.

    Mintskovsky = ThinkAll = CD Earth = Scum.

    Stay calm and avoid at all costs.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:20 PM EST  

  • I have also been charged for a subscription that I cancelled immediately after receiving the first CD's.
    I have emailed them an just waiting to see if I receive a reply. If not will take further action.
    compass43 australia

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:36 PM EST  

  • I too am notim to CD earth. I cancelled my subscription over 1 month ago and just looked at my credit card statement and low and behold this is what it states : 22/06/2009 CD EARTH 59.96 USD 2.24 $76.87 . Thats $76.87 AUD dollars. Some how these people need to be stopped

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:45 PM EST  

  • Thanks to your blog I checked.......and realized that they caught me too. So I simply cancelled my credit card.It's still annoying, having to go to those lengths to be one step ahead of the crooks.

    Manie, South Africa

    By Blogger Manie, at 9:37 AM EST  

  • A friend of mine was caught by the CDEarth scam too.

    We want to cancel but where can we find the return address?

    Any help appreciated!
    Thanks

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:36 AM EST  

  • thanks for the clearinghouse of information. I jsut received the CD's and have cancelled them via there website and printed all the confirmation information. I will now spend a bit more money to send them back registered with delivery confirmation so I can prove compliance to my credit card company. From what I have found the software is not great anyway.Thanks

    By Blogger D, at 11:19 PM EST  

  • I have been scammed by this Co. When I phoned the bank to tell them not to pay any more money to them, they refused, saying I had given them my credit card details.
    When I told them I wont to close my account. They told me it would make no difference, they would still pay them even if I had no money in their bank, and would pursue me for it. they are willing to do there dirty work for them.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:34 AM EST  

  • I aggree with Gary McCurry. I find both CDEarth and Video Professor are scams. I got saved from Video professor, but could not avoid CDEarth. Must read small prints, otherwise you will be charged $29.98 like they did with me.

    By Blogger Kamal, at 6:51 AM EST  

  • If they screw you...Wait 60 days(two credit cycles) order some new CDs and after they send you the CDs, return the cardboard folder that they come in,Empty. Then call your CC co. and tell them that this company is trying to screw you and demand a full return of ALL monies that they have charged to your CC.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:35 PM EST  

  • I basically paid 100$ for a so called "free" game for my kid over a period of 3 months! They are for sure scamming a lot of people. I thought I was helping them with some market research by answering all their silly little questions......well that was an expensive lesson in trying to help somebody!

    Analda Harmse

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:20 AM EST  

  • I am very angry - because all they say is the CD is CD - & just pay for the shipping charges - my CD envelope
    was signed & dated 10/26/09, not sure on what date it was handed over to the Wylie TX PO for final postage
    to me in South Africa -
    I Only received this in PO box exactly on the 12/26/09;
    VSR.SA

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:25 AM EST  

  • My wife purchased 2 cd from CD earth and paid for it, 14 Jan 2010 they deducted 600ZAR from her account!!!! Its definite a scam , please dont buy anything from them and if you did, please check your account and arrange a stop order with your bank to prevent them from deducting anything else

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:03 AM EST  

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