false advertising by BCNtv

pooltime said:
When watching the Mika / Paez match on BCn I noticed a banner in the background for, what I thought was your product. I went to the web site listed on the banner and bookmarked it. I just checked it now and it is for Chalk-Off.

Check out:
http://www.pooltablecleaner.com

If you then click on the "About" link up top...
http://pooltablecleaner.com/about.php
it goes to a page with you on it and a vid clip of the product in action. Though at the very end it mentions the Quick Clean name, during the entire clip it has pooltablecleaner.com across the bottom which goes to a storefront that sells Chalk-Off. It gave me the impression Quick Clean and Chalk Off was the same product.

Thought you might want to know.
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Looks like the site is selling both Quick-Clean and Chalk-Off. The TV ad viedo shows Quick-Clean and gives the address for the site that apparently sells both with what looks like a word for word description about both products except for the name.

Probably nothing that would stand up in court, maybe false advertising if Chalk-Off has not been advertised under its own name.

All that aside, it leaves a very bad taste about BCn.
 
This is an attempt to mislead the market, plain and simple.
The commercials show Mr. Hodges cleaning a table, and then advertise the "Chalk Off" product.

An example.

Don't you think Cuetec would have a problem if Scorpion made a commercial showing Earl playing, and touting the features of that product.

I doubt Mr. Hodges would clean a table with anything other than his own product. This is a cheap shot by a crooked marketer.
 
I was just about to order some Quick-Clean, saw the adds on BCN and was checking out pooltablecleaner.com when this thread popped up. I have no vested interest in either business, but as a normal consumer I found the pooltablecleaner.com both confusing and misleading about the nature of what it is selling for the following reasons:

1) Although there are seperate sales pages for Quick-Clean and Chalk-Off, the website "About" page refers only to Quick-Clean. This leaves the consumer free to assume they are identical.
2) There are 2 "Buy Now" links on the "About" page. The left-hand one takes you a page to (apparently) order Quick-Clean, but the right-hand one takes you to the Chalk-Off sales page.
3) The "About" page makes no reference to Chalk-Off at all, leaving the customer free to assume it is so similar to Quick-Clean it requires no additional information.
4) On the Chalk-Off sales page, which is the default home page of the site, it clearly says "Quick-Clean, Pool Table Cleaner is the answer." right above the listings for Chalk-Off.
5) The Chalk-Off sales page mixes images of Chalk-Off and Quick-Clean on the same page, which give the impression to a customer that they are either the same or very similar products.
6) The detail description of Chalk-Off in the product listings is 99% identical to the detail description of Quick-Clean on your website. The only difference I could see was "This revolutionary product..." is changed to "This New & Improved product..." on the Chalk-Off page. If Chalk-Off is genuinely new then why is the description identical to that of Quick-Clean? If Chalk-Off is improved then why not detail the improvements of Chalk-Off over Quick-Clean?
7) Why is Chalk-Off cheaper than Quick-Clean, unless the lower price itself is the supposed to be the improvement? Without more information a customer can assume it is a cheap imitation.

I am not a lawyer and cannot comment of the legality of this. However as a consumer I strongly suggest the owners of pooltablecleaner.com take immediate action to rectify the misleading nature of this site and the desciptions of the Chalk-Off product. I will be ordering what I need directly from www.quick-clean.com instead and do not intend to purchase any other products or services from BCN or pooltablecleaner.com until this situation is rectified.

David - I'd suggest you grab a copy of the entire PooltableCleaner.com website before it gets changed if you are intending on following this up with legal action. (Send me a PM if you need advice on software tools to do this.)
 
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AuntyDan said:
I was just about to order some Quick-Clean, saw the adds on BCN and was checking out pooltablecleaner.com when this thread popped up. I have no vested interest in either business, but as a normal consumer I found the pooltablecleaner.com both confusing and misleading about the nature of what it is selling for the following reasons:

1) Although there are seperate sales pages for Quick-Clean and Chalk-Off, the website "About" page refers only to Quick-Clean. This leaves the consumer free to assume they are identical.
2) There are 2 "Buy Now" links on the "About" page. The left-hand one takes you a page to (apparently) order Quick-Clean, but the right-hand one takes you to the Chalk-Off sales page.
3) The "About" page makes no reference to Chalk-Off at all, leaving the customer free to assume it is so similar to Quick-Clean it requires no additional information.
4) On the Chalk-Off sales page, which is the default home page of the site, it clearly says "Quick-Clean, Pool Table Cleaner is the answer." right above the listings for Chalk-Off.
5) The Chalk-Off sales page mixes images of Chalk-Off and Quick-Clean on the same page, which give the impression to a customer that they are either the same or very similar products.
6) The detail description of Chalk-Off in the product listings is 99% identical to the detail description of Quick-Clean on your website. The only difference I could see was "This revolutionary product..." is changed to "This New & Improved product..." on the Chalk-Off page. If Chalk-Off is genuinely new then why is the description identical to that of Quick-Clean? If Chalk-Off is improved then why not detail the improvements of Chalk-Off over Quick-Clean?
7) Why is Chalk-Off cheaper than Quick-Clean, unless the lower price itself is the supposed to be the improvement? Without more information a customer can assume it is a cheap imitation.

I am not a lawyer and cannot comment of the legality of this. However as a consumer I strongly suggest the owners of pooltablecleaner.com take immediate action to rectify the misleading nature of this site and the desciptions of the Chalk-Off product. I will be ordering what I need directly from www.quick-clean.com instead and do not intend to purchase any other products or services from BCN or pooltablecleaner.com until this situation is rectified.

David - I'd suggest you grab a copy of the entire PooltableCleaner.com website before it gets changed if you are intending on following this up with legal action. (Send me a PM if you need advice on software tools to do this.)
Click to expand...

Thank you for your suggestions and ideas. It is very wrong for Rob Sykora to use his TV production company to deceive people and try and hurt someone finically. Everyone should post to this thread and let Rob know that these types of action are hurting our industry.
 
powderburner said:
Looks like the site is selling both Quick-Clean and Chalk-Off. The TV ad viedo shows Quick-Clean and gives the address for the site that apparently sells both with what looks like a word for word description about both products except for the name.

Probably nothing that would stand up in court, maybe false advertising if Chalk-Off has not been advertised under its own name.

All that aside, it leaves a very bad taste about BCn.
Click to expand...

You are correct about the Chalk-Off web site. I have not changed my web site (www.Quick-Clean.com) in over 2 years and you can plainly see that Rob has copied my site almost exact trying to get people to think that our products are the same.
 
Particularly aggregious in my opinion is that BCN is continually running video adverts that show you using Quick-Clean to clean a table (You can clearly see the green Quick-Clean label) in the background whilst they tell people to buy Chalk-Off.

Surely commercial use of your personal image to sell a competing product is something you can stop with a cease-and-desist letter?
 
AuntyDan said:
Particularly aggregious in my opinion is that BCN is continually running video adverts that show you using Quick-Clean to clean a table (You can clearly see the green Quick-Clean label) in the background whilst they tell people to buy Chalk-Off.

Surely commercial use of your personal image to sell a competing product is something you can stop with a cease-and-desist letter?
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The court system works slower than I like.
 
I just watched the google video of Daulton vs Efren from this year's open. It's link is HERE. The commercial is from 6:48 to 7:20.

I listened to the commercial several times and wrote every word the guy said below. My words are accuarate. I have no idea who is talking.

"Get the chalk off with the new and improved pool table cleaner. Just spray it out over the table, and wipe it clean with the handy microfiber wiper, and your pool table is cleaner than new. Get the chalk off with this professional pool table cleaner. You get free shipping, when you call us toll free 866-774-8770, or visit us online at pooltablecleaner.com. Get the chalk off today!

While the annoucner is speaking, David is seen cleaning the table with his product. Flashing across the screen are several "Get the Chalk Off!" text lines. This amplifies the product name.

At the end of the commercial they show a still picture of teh "Chalk-Off!" can and website address.

Not one time during the commercial did the anoucner refer to the product as "Quick Clean". Watching David clean the tables gives no idication whatsoever as to which product he is using. The reason is becasue you can't see clearly the name on the can or on his shirt. I did see one "Quick Clean" poster that was on the wall of the US open event in one of the bacground shots while David was cleaning the table.

Unless someone knew David personally, or came across this thread, there is NO WAY they would think the product being demonstrated was anything BUT "Chalk Off"

I don't know any of the parties involved in this, nor do I own a pooltable. But you can be sure I will never buy a BCN broadcast.
 
iusedtoberich said:
I just watched the google video of Daulton vs Efren from this year's open. It's link is HERE. The commercial is from 6:48 to 7:20.

I listened to the commercial several times and wrote every word the guy said below. My words are accuarate. I have no idea who is talking.

"Get the chalk off with the new and improved pool table cleaner. Just spray it out over the table, and wipe it clean with the handy microfiber wiper, and your pool table is cleaner than new. Get the chalk off with this professional pool table cleaner. You get free shipping, when you call us toll free 866-774-8770, or visit us online at pooltablecleaner.com. Get the chalk off today!

While the annoucner is speaking, David is seen cleaning the table with his product. Flashing across the screen are several "Get the Chalk Off!" text lines. This amplifies the product name.

At the end of the commercial they show a still picture of teh "Chalk-Off!" can and website address.

Not one time during the commercial did the anoucner refer to the product as "Quick Clean". Watching David clean the tables gives no idication whatsoever as to which product he is using. The reason is becasue you can't see clearly the name on the can or on his shirt. I did see one "Quick Clean" poster that was on the wall of the US open event in one of the bacground shots while David was cleaning the table.

Unless someone knew David personally, or came across this thread, there is NO WAY they would think the product being demonstrated was anything BUT "Chalk Off"

I don't know any of the parties involved in this, nor do I own a pooltable. But you can be sure I will never buy a BCN broadcast.
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Thanks for your information. There is actually another chalk-off commercial with me cleaning the table at 35:13 in the same tape.
 
How come in the past Quick-clean was advertised with the web site:
www.pooltablecleaner.com
I've seen Dave spraying the quick-clean on the table and the stuff wasn't advertised as chalk off, the Quick-Clean name was displayed with the pooltablecleaner.com web site.
The match I see was on satelite television on a comcast broadcast with BCN TV and the match was Cory Deul vs. Danny Basavich. Basavich won like 10 to 1 and ran like 8 or 9 racks or something like that.
I've also seen the chalk off name being used with the pooltablecleaner.com web site.
 
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christopheradam said:
How come in the past Quick-clean was advertised with the web site:
www.pooltablecleaner.com
I've seen Dave spraying the quick-clean on the table and the stuff wasn't advertised as chalk off, the Quick-Clean name was displayed with the pooltablecleaner.com web site.
The match I see was on satelite television on a comcast broadcast with BCN TV and the match was Cory Deul vs. Danny Basavich. Basavich won like 10 to 1 and ran like 8 or 9 racks or something like that.
I've also seen the chalk off name being used with the pooltablecleaner.com web site.
Click to expand...

At one time he was an authorized dealer.
 
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