WordSmart Vocabulary

If you are dissatisfied with the product and cannot resolve the problem with the company, go to your state's Attorney General and fill out forms explaining your complaint and how you tried to resolve it. They will take care of companies that don't do what they claim...in this case return your money, minus shipping and handling.

I learned years ago the hard way that you cannot purchase shown on TV products without them selling your information to third parties, charging your card for subscriptions that you never knowingly signed up for, or tricking you on the returns policy. As a result it had been 8 years since I bought another made on TV product. Then I discovered pre-paid credit cards and with one I decided to purchase the WordSmart Program for Adults. At the time they were doing a pay with installments sort of thing and I paid my first installment (which I think was $50 or something) and made sure only $55 was on the card. That way they couldn't charge more than they said they would and if they tried it would instantly be declined. I gave them a friend's # instead of my own to prevent them from selling my information- In retrospect I should've just given them a completely fake # because the result was they called my friend 3 times a day for about 3 weeks trying to sell her other word smart programs! She was so angry with me for giving them her # & pretending it was mine, but I was glad they didn't have mine. The only thing if you want to give a fake # you have to remember it because the support staff saves your records under the phone # you originally gave. Since they didn't have my real credit card I was pretty safe in terms of them not charging me more than I wanted and since you can choose the name you put on the pre-paid cards (I didn't give them my real one) I wouldn't have to worry about them doing a collections on me if I tried returning the product and they refused. These people are sneaky for sure and if it weren't for the pre-paid credit card I would never have purchased this product. The amount of spam- especially via phone that they apply is horrible and the worst part is that some of the TV commercials for the product are not honest about how much the product really costs and is not honest about the fact that you don't HAVE to buy the whole program. You can buy just one of the levels if you want like I did. I had to go to the website to find that out. Because I was able to dodge having my information sold and having to deal with tricky things I was much more able to just focus on the product which is not perfect, but definitely the best thing out there right now. I got only the adult volumes G-H along with the progressive Speed Reader CD. Pros: My vocabulary has undoubtedly been enhanced and test scores have improved greatly. I can spend as little as 3 minutes or as much as an hour learning vocabulary. It's entertaining enough that I easily open up the program on my computer whenever I want to procrastinate doing chores or something else. (Never would have thought I'd procrastinate with vocabulary!)
Cons: Though it's somewhat entertaining enough for adults I can't see a child not getting completely bored by it. (Though keep in mind I do have the adult version.) The arcade game part of the came where you shoot down word meanings for points is not very exciting at all & in fact rather boring and that arcade section is exactly the same exact game on every level just different words. Also the program would've been a lot better if there was more utilization of using these words in sentences. Partial sentences are used, BUT the same exact sentence is used throughout the series for the same word. For example: for the word Supposititious they use the partial sentence, "supposititious remedies" If you count the challenge CD, there are 6 games or excercises where you can click the answer as to it's meaning and in EVERY SINGLE one of those excercises the sentence used for supposititious is: "suppositious remedies" It would've been much more practicable & effective if we could see the words used in different sentences. Though it is not perfect I've tried other programs & can honestly say this is the best out there right now. The results speak for themselves. When I realized I wanted to keep the program, I went out & bought another pre-paid credit card and paid the remaining balance. Altogether I got 8 CDs for about $200. If I had to deal with the customer service issues everyone else had to deal with I would've given it one star... but keeping in mind I didn't have to deal with that, the program was so very worth the money.

It is very ironic that the 4 reviews that didn't like the product were complete sentences with specific details and the reviews that liked the program were basic one word answers. I am seriously evaluating a tool for my family's increased knowledge. WordSmart is not likely my final answer...thanks Alex.