Pathway to Genius dodginess: Not so 'genius' posting from the same IP...

[enwiabe]

Edit: We now strongly believe that Pathway to Genius is in breach of the Trade Practices Act with their fake testimonials and have reported them to the ACCC for investigation.

I wish to preface this by saying that this does not illegitimise their entire operation (the lectures may still be great etc.) (this may no longer be true, please check bottom of post), however, I do not appreciate their underhanded attempts to deceive the community. I present to you first-hand evidence of a heretofore successful attempt, by Pathway to Genius, to promote their company by the duplicitous assumption of the role of a student. I view this as the lowest of low and it speaks volumes about the character of the people running the operation that they would attempt to manipulate you all in such a way.

I now expect a full apology from the CEO of Pathway to Genius to the community, and a solemn undertaking to never repeat these actions, or their entire operation will be persona non grata on these forums. Just like I can ban users who misbehave, I will ban corporate entities engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct from using the forums to spruik their services. (Regular users can, of course, continue to talk about their services but we will monitoring such threads closely for suspicious behaviour). I won't stand for this nonsense. It's not fair to you guys, and attacks the core of the trusting, encouraging nature of this community. Dodgy services are not welcome on this forum.

The evidence is as follows:

First, a link to the dodgy thread so you can view it in context: http://vce.atarnotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,39844.0.html

Evidence of posting in the same thread from two different accounts using the same IP, just minutes apart:


Direct denial of connection to Pathway to Genius despite -explicit- asking of such details by another member. To my mind, this is the real nail in the coffin of their integrity.




New Information

It turns out that VN was a great place for PtG to gather information in planning their new business. Through the posts of 'youngdoc' you can actually track their development. Among them was the more innocent "Your Favourite Teacher" thread (easily discernable as research on which teachers to hire for lectures). I honestly have no problems with that thread. What comes next is quite unsettling.

Following this, there were some posts voraciously buying notes of other companies such as TSFX, NEAP, Engage etc:

http://vce.atarnotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,34019.msg373296.html#msg373296

and

http://vce.atarnotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,35253.msg373288.html#msg373288


While very much circumstantial, this does indicate that they were perhaps trying to copy the notes of other tuition services. Again, this is unprovable and circumstantial as the lectures have not yet happened and nobody has seen their notes, but this does not bode well for what remains of their credibility. I think this new information, in addition to the earlier findings, are cementing a portrait of this service as a very dodgy enterprise.


New Information #2

It appears PtG has crossed over from the realm of immoral to illegal behaviour, generating fake testimonials of their services. Details here: http://vce.atarnotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,41044.msg424212.html#msg424212

[taiga]

This is disappointing to see. That is all.

[ninwa]

lol

[HERculina]

maybe youngdoc wasnt even part of the pathways to genius crew? i mean, did the members who were offered free tickets even get them? o.o
 it says on pathwaystogenius's profile that School:   School of Rock
i dont think a serious promoter of the lecturing company would have that on their profile  :uglystupid2:

[taiga]

maybe youngdoc wasnt even part of the pathways to genius crew? i mean, did the members who were offered free tickets even get them? o.o
 it says on pathwaystogenius's profile that School:   School of Rock
i dont think a serious promoter of the lecturing company would have that on their profile  :uglystupid2:

Appealing to the youth yo

Connecting the dots, some things do make sense; for example the "Your Favourite Teacher" thread late last year may have been looking for the top teachers in the state (which the company emphasizes heavily in their promo).

What's more concerning is the fact that under "Youngdoc" many earlier posts were to do with purchasing tsfx notes.

That said, there are also quite a few normal posts.

Will be interested to see the response from p2g.

[Mao]

AN/VN/FSN, thwarting your scams since 2007.

The prominent ones that I remember:

Mental blank
David Shen/flusher1248u71389571934723 and his associated whatever
Pooschwalter (sp?)
Pathway to Genius

[luken93]

So should I warn ATAR - he thinks he's gotten a free pass to the Psych Lecture...

[Russ]

It's not so much a scam as it is underhanded dealings. If they're running a lecture and he's got a free pass, then there's no reason not to go unless you feel particularly strongly about it

[pathwaytogenius]

First of all, I’d like to apologize for this. I’ve been alerted to this today by an email message from Daniel and it’s totally and utterly unacceptable. I need to disclaimer at the start that both accounts “Young doc” and “Pathway to Genius” belong to Pathway to Genius.

Our part time social media manager frequently visits sites such as this to keep a track of what students want and how we can make our programs better for you guys. In one of the accounts he helps answer questions the best he can, without promoting us at all. He has been told not to promote the site other than a link in signature and to answer questions from students.

Obviously Chris has stepped out of line on this, using one of our accounts to act as a student is clearly unacceptable to both ATARnotes and PathwaytoGenius and his relationship with Pathway to Genius has been terminated this morning. His actions are unacceptable to everyone at Pathway to Genius.

I’m furious and disappointed that this has occurred, because it’s not what ATARnotes is about and never has been. But at the end of the day the blame doesn’t sit with part time employees of Pathway to Genius, but myself as CEO.  In retrospect it was a mistake to not more closely monitor his activities on these forums both in the office and at home and I take full responsibility for anything that has occurred.

Put simply, it’s not good enough.

Another issue is the notes, all of our notes are written by top scoring students (many of which are members of ATARnotes) as well as teachers. We supply them with as many resources as we can past exams, new and old textbooks, students notes, competitor’s notes and anything we can that will ensure that cover everything to an A+ level. We never copy anything, period. We just require some notes to be able to compare the quality and ensure we’re over delivering.

We’ve ran copyscape and a range of other checks through everything to make sure this hasn’t happened. Hundreds and hundreds of students are coming to our first Victorian events in a couple of weeks and I want to make sure they’re getting 10x what they pay for, by giving the best notes which requires comparison of the other companies.

We’ve always believed other companies were massively overcharging students for education services that should cost a fraction of what they do, and our goal has always been to make the very best teachers, notes and exams available to students as cheaply as possible and offer the best value. That hasn't changed.

Having said all of this: I take full responsibility for Chris' dishonestly and offer my full apologies.  This will never happen again and frankly is unacceptable.

Best of luck for your mid years,
Josiah Humphrey
CEO Pathway to Genius

[pathwaytogenius]

It is also interesting that the CEO appears to know about the 'pathwaytogenius' account in great detail but not about the 'youngdoc' account, even though they were accessed at ~ the same time from the same ip

Hey Bazza16, We've allowed a few Atarnotes members to come along at no cost, so we should get some good reviews after the first round of events, but I appreciate that. To clarify, they would be under the same IP because they were used from computers in our office or when he was working from home (depending what I.P address).

I was aware of both accounts, but had no idea about the posts mentioned above, however like I said, I take full responsibility and find it unacceptable that this has occured. Chris is no longer working for us and we're going to focus on delivering the best lectures we possibly can for our students. If anyone has concerns, we'd be happy to refund their money.

[lexitu]

It is also interesting that the CEO appears to know about the 'pathwaytogenius' account in great detail but not about the 'youngdoc' account, even though they were accessed at ~ the same time from the same ip

Hey Bazza16, We've allowed a few Atarnotes members to come along at no cost, so we should get some good reviews after the first round of events, but I appreciate that. To clarify, they would be under the same IP because they were used from computers in our office or when he was working from home (depending what I.P address).

I was aware of both accounts, but had no idea about the posts mentioned above, however like I said, I take full responsibility and find it unacceptable that this has occured. Chris is no longer working for us and we're going to focus on delivering the best lectures we possibly can for our students. If anyone has concerns, we'd be happy to refund their money.

Just to clarify: if you were aware of both accounts why didn't you take action to cease the fabricated one?

One more: How many hours of actual lectures/webinars are there?

[Russ]

Irrespective of what has happened (which is obviously inappropriate/inexcusable), the apology and the implicit promise to not repeat such actions are commendable for a company

If you were aware of both accounts, what did you think 'youngdoc' was being used for? selling chocolates?

Just to clarify: if you were aware of both accounts why didn't you take action to cease the fabricated one?

From what I can tell it was meant to be an account to provide help without acting as pathwaytogenius advocate

[Russ]

I can think of justifications but I'll leave it to the CEO to actually answer your question

[lexitu]

I was aware of both accounts, but had no idea about the posts mentioned above,

EDIT: i think there is 8 hour lecture and 2.5 webinar

You're right on that. What I meant was how many hours are there of actual teaching lecturing as opposed to time being spent on stretching legs and eating.

[pathwaytogenius]

Hi Bazza16,

Yeah we had an account to post without promoting Pathway to Genius to answer questions and mostly keep an eye out for good ideas
we could help students with. We didn't promote anything on that account (youngdoc). PathwaytoGenius was created as a more
'official' account to answer questions about the company when asked.

If we posted as PathwaytoGenius all the time, it would like constantly promoting ourselves which isn't what we do here.

I understand that you can't recommend us to your friends. Our lectures have sold hundreds of tickets so far, and our goal is to over deliver on a massive scale. Hopefully there will be alot more reviews in a couple of weeks. But, if anyone is unhappy at anytime we refund them 100%

Lex- Our lectures are 8 hours plus 2.5 hours of online class (however the teachers are available during the breaks). Breaks are up to the teachers running each lecture, but teachers are available during the breaks to answer your questions.

Hope that clears everything up guys. Once again, I take full responsibility for this mess and wish you all the very best with your studies
Josiah