I’ve seen my fair share of email scams and phone scams over the years, trying to take advantage of unsuspecting folks. Now, it seems even the woodworking community isn’t immune. I came across Woodprix recently. Before you even think of parting with your hard-earned money, let me share my insights in a review I’ve prepared.
What I Like
- Professional looking website at first glance
- It offers convenient DVD video instructions
What I Don't Like
- Seems to be the new cover for Teds Woodworking scam
- Uses plans from other sites and woodworkers without consent
- They spam their information all over free Internet sites such as Youtube
- They have issued threats against some other woodworking sites for outing them
- The company information listed is false
- Lack of customer service
- Claims to have up to 16,000 plans, which they do not
Features
Let’s take a closer look at what this company promises you in the package versus what you get in reality. We’ve tried their service to see for ourselves, and our experience seemed a familiar one.
If you want a more glowing review, read what we wrote about Wood Profits instead.
Website
At first glance, their website actually looks quite appealing. Everything is labeled clearly with an enticing package promised to you. However, once you click into the “About Us” section, you will be met with a redirect that will take you to Ted’s biography, hence why it feels “familiar”.
I’ve done a bit of digging, and it seems Ted may not be a real person at all. He appears to be just a figurehead, knowingly or unknowingly, fronting these woodworking scams. In our circles—among seasoned woodworking professionals—we recognize his face, and we’re well aware of the illicit operations he represents.
What this experience has taught us is to not judge a book by its cover and get pulled in by the nice designs on a website. Despite the professional-looking graphics, we should do our due diligence on a company before spending our hard-earned money.
Publicly available reviews that are credible are a great resource, which you can find for services like Ryan Shed Plans.
DVD of 16,000 Plans
I took a closer look at their claims of offering 16,000 step-by-step plans for unique wood pieces. To be frank, that’s not entirely true. Not every plan is as detailed as they suggest. And while they say it’s suited for all experience levels, I found that not to be the case in practice.
You’d have better luck with our list of beginner-friendly projects, and for free too.
Based on our investigation for this Woodprix review, most of the plans are quite intricate and you need some skill to pull them all off. The total number barely touches 2500 plans, which is the same case as Ted’s Woodworking. Yes, that’s still quite a lot of woodworking projects to keep you busy, but that’s nowhere near the amount that was advertised.
Whenever you don’t get something that was promised to you, even if the deal is good, the slighted party can’t help but feel cheated. The organization of the plans is also poor as well, so even if it’s still a lot, you’re not really getting your money’s worth.
The entire package is basically just a mash-up of a lot of other people’s plans. There is a term for this and we can think of copyright infringement and piracy [1] off the top of our heads.
What really gets to me is that this so-called “product” can be easily put together by anyone. All you need to do is visit some genuine woodworking sites and check out free video streaming platforms. I’ve seen most of this content elsewhere. Reviewed woodworking books are better for earnest learners, particularly because they’re well-organized and more detailed.
It seems like this might be where Ted or Woodprix sourced their information. Nothing in their plans strikes me as original, and I’ve seen similar ones available for free elsewhere.
The New Teds Woodworking
If you have heard of Teds Woodworking (and we’re sure what you have heard isn’t good), then you won’t be too happy to know that this is their new cover.
Maybe too many woodworking professionals have outed Teds Woodworking that they had to find a new name and a new cover – Woodprix.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they want a clean slate to start fresh and to be legitimate. No, it’s just a new face with old scams. When we explored the site, it does look more legit but it’s the same old fraudulent schemes.
Spam
Woodprix is notorious for its audacious marketing tactics. They shamelessly spam free video streaming sites and other websites with their advertisements to lure visitors. Moreover, Woodprix even offers their “product” at a higher price than Ted’s Woodworking, all to capture your attention and make a sale.
I know that advertising plays a pivotal role in sales, but the approach Woodprix takes is not just overly aggressive and insistent—it’s downright irritating. To be honest, I wouldn’t be shocked if your credit card and mailing information fell into the wrong hands after making a purchase from them, so I would advise against sharing such details with them in the first place.
Email Identity Theft
Speaking of identity theft and leaked personal information, there has been evidence from fellow woodworkers of email theft. They took similar email addresses, so similar to the website name that it could be from the legitimate site.
They will push their product with these emails by sending mass chain mails to those on their list, which of course, is bad practice.
Threats
In this Woodprix review, this is perhaps the worst thing we’ve uncovered.
Woodprix has even been recorded threatening other woodworkers who have outed them on their sites. They use different usernames and handles and spam comments. Sometimes, they even use threatening language.
In these excerpts that can be found online, we can see that they are neither sorry nor do they admit to using other people’s plans. Their attitude can be defined as defensive and even threatening. They also come after the people who made posts to take down the stories and articles so they would stop with their threats.
The grammar and punctuation within the threats were also clear that it may not have been written by a native speaker. This leads us to think that either these scammers are from a country or countries where English is not their first language, or Ted and Woodprix hired people to retaliate.
Either way, no matter what the truth is, these threatening messages do their company reputation no favors at all.
They have then resorted to writing fake articles about a fellow woodworker’s legitimate site. They only stopped these attacks because the fellow woodworker got a hold of his/her personal information.
Now, does that sound like a legitimate business to you?
No Company
If you look on Woodprix or Ted’s website, there are two different addresses that do not exist. This means that their company isn’t traceable and there is nothing you can do once the money has left your account – unless you plan on pressing criminal charges which would hassle you even more.
Only with these measures would you be able to obtain the necessary information to track them down. There are videos of people driving to the address on Teds website, only to see that it does not exist.
Naturally, I conducted my own research as well. I examined the New York address listed on the Woodprix website using Google Maps and found it led me to an intersection. This was a reminder of the importance of verifying all available information like addresses and phone numbers before entering into any transaction with a company.
What’s more is that Woodprix doesn’t even list a phone number or email, which is clearly a red flag as well. How would you contact the company to get your return if there is only an address and no way to contact them otherwise?
No Customer Service
They claim to have a 60-day money-back guarantee that’s ironclad. However, you won’t really get your money back when there is basically no response from their non-existent customer service.
We did try getting our money back but to no avail. Woodcraft has a better model when it comes to customer support.
WoodPrix Review Conclusion
Woodprix will provide more headaches than anything else if you decide to buy from them. We don’t recommend this product. Just save your money and get all these plans and videos online for FREE, which is the best deal you can have. Don’t fall into the trap and whatever company you want to transact with, always do your research beforehand.
Want to make your very own home workshop? Do it in your own garage!
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