How to tell if your P90x Ebay or Craigslist purchase is a fake!
Hey folks. If any of you have been following my conversation with fellow P90xer Stactum in some of my blog comments, you’ll know that we have determined that my copy of the P90x Nutrition guide is a fake! =(
We purchased P90x off of Craigslist from a guy who was selling it remarkably cheaply (around $70). He said that he had been given an extra one as a gift. We were skeptical, but the box was unopened and all of the materials were there and looked legit when we opened it, so after that we didn’t think much more of it. As I was preparing for the nutrition, however, I noticed that the nutrition guide was very badly written and obviously hadn’t been proofread at all – it was RIFE with spelling errors and typos. I was really surprised that Tony Horton had put his name on such an unprofessional product, and even considered calling up Beachbody and offering to proofread the next print run! Silly me.
| As it turns out, I was the victim of a P90x scam. This also makes something else make sense – the plyometrics DVD skipped from the moment we took it out of the box. Apparently, we got off easy – it turns out that a lot of people who are looking to buy P90x cheap end up using Ebay or Craigslist, and either the nutrition guide or workout materials are missing, all of the DVDs skip, or the DVDs never work in the first place. |
The really unfortunate thing about this is that I have learned that there were multiple errors in the portion approach pages of my knockoff nutrition guide, so some of my journal pages have had the wrong information! I am very upset about this, because I know so many of you have been trusting me and the journal pages to be correct!
Stactum has provided me with the correct information, and as a result I have had to update 6 out of my 9 journal pages to fix the errors. The journal pages on my P90x Nutrition Plan Download page are now all correct (as of 8/28/2010).
Differences between my knockoff and the correct P90x nutrition guide:
Fat Shredder:
Level 1 – Mine incorrectly says 2 Fat servings. The correct guide says 1 Fat serving.
Level 2 – Mine incorrectly says Snacks are Dbl, Sng, Drink. The correct guide says Dbl, Bar, Drink.
Level 3 – Mine incorrectly says Snacks are Dbl, Sng, Sng, Drink. The correct guide says Dbl, Dbl, Bar, Drink (also mine says 3800 calories/day vs. the correct 3,000 calories/day).
Energy Booster:
Level 1 – Mine was correct.
Level 2 – Mine incorrectly says Snacks are Dbl, Sng, Drink. The correct guide says Dbl, Bar, Drink.
Level 3 – Mine incorrectly says Snacks are Dbl, Sng, Sng, Drink. The correct guide says Dbl, Dbl, Bar, Drink.
Endurance Maximizer:
Level 1 – Mine incorrectly says 4 protein servings. The correct guide says 2 protein servings.
Level 2 – Mine was correct.
Level 3 – Mine was correct.
If you’re looking for how to tell if your version of P90x is a fake, here are some clues based on my knockoff version:
- Mine was shrink-wrapped in the white box that says P90x on it. (However, according to Kylie’s post below, this is not always a clue – apparently Canadian versions of the system come in a black outer box, and American versions are sold in the white box.)
- My nutrition guide has a lowercase “n” in the words “nutrition Guide.” The real version is correctly capitalized “Nutrition Guide.”
- My nutrition guide and fitness guide are both filled with typos and obvious spelling errors.
- Also according to Kylie, if the DVD wallet is rectangular in shape instead of square, then it is a knockoff.
- If you want to see what the items in the box should look like, check out this YouTube video that shows what the materials should look like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-gGcxRMykE
A few more tips for buying P90x second-hand:
- Used P90x materials typically sell for around $150. Be VERY suspicious of anyone on Ebay or Craigslist who is willing to sell it to you for $50-$70. Either all of the materials are not there, or if they are, they are knockoffs that contain the incorrect information or badly copied DVDs!
- If anyone uses the stock P90x materials image in their ad be suspicious of that. Only buy it from someone who provides an original picture of the actual copy you will be purchasing!
- If I were you, I’d avoid Ebay and Amazon entirely. Don’t trust it if you can’t see it. I would do Craigslist, but trust your gut. We felt like the guy was a little shady (he wanted to meet us in a parking lot instead of having us come to his house, seemed very cold and a bit rude, etc.) but we ignored our better judgment. Don’t make the same mistake we did!
If the ad uses this image, be wary!
- CJ =)
P.S. Many thanks to Stactum for helping me figure this out!
***1/5/2011 Update:
What to do if you realize your P90x is a fake:
Since the original post, I’ve done a bit more research and contacted Beachbody about what we should do about it if we discover we have purchased a fake P90x. Here are the steps I recommend:
1. Contact the seller and ask for a refund. This has been surprisingly effective for some people, especially through Amazon and Ebay. Multiple folks have contacted the seller stating that they have learned that the copy is a knockoff, and the seller provided a refund and told them to keep the knockoff copy. I think these scammers want a low profile, and it is easier to refund the money for the few people who bother to contact them.
2. Contact the website you purchased it through, especially if it is Craigslist, Amazon, or Ebay. Simply send them an email with all pertinent information, identifying the seller as a scammer. That way they can go through their own processes to block the seller. I know that Craigslist is starting to require phone numbers, and both Amazon and Ebay are motivated to keep their sellers clean. It may not stop the scammers completely, but hopefully it’ll inconvenience them and slow them down a bit.
3. Send an email to Beachbody. I called Beachbody and asked them what they want us to do when we discover our copy is a knockoff. They said that we can contact their legal department with information regarding our fakes.
Send an email to: piracy@teambeachbody.com. In the subject line include: “Attn: Legal Department”
Then include as much pertinent information regarding your case as you can provide.
I would include all of the following information, if you have it and if it’s applicable to your case:
- Website URL where you purchased it and/or link to the ad. I’d also take a screenshot of the ad and attach that – that way if the scammers take it down, the legal department still has the info
- Name or screen name or seller ID# of the person you purchased it from
- Email address of the person you purchased it from
- Cell phone number of the person you purchased it from (if they gave it to you)
- Which knockoff version you have (examples of a few typos, whether it was wrapped, whether it contained all the materials, white or black box, whether the DVDs actually worked or skipped)
- The price they sold it to you for
The more details you can provide, the better the Beachbody legal staff will know which scammers they should pursue first.
***
Thanks for this post. I realized from this that I also have a fake copy. Just received it early this week and was planning on starting P90X this week. Now I have to make sure all the DVD’s work.
Hey William!
Thanks for your comment and email as well. I’ve decided to answer your email question here for posterity: “Message Body:
I have the same little fake setup. White box. nutrition Guide with small n. Same wrong info inside. I do have all the DVD’s, at least there is a DVD in each like plastic carrier inside the P90X DVD case. I’ve watched the “Bring It”, “Ab Ripper X” and another DVD and the all worked fine. Was there any differences in the actual work out DVD’s or should I be fine there?”
First of all, how crazy that you have the same fake P90x version! These people must be making a fortune. In answer to your question, all of our DVDs seemed to work, except for our Plyometrics video which freezes up in several spots. You’ll just have to start using all of the DVDs and cross your fingers that they all work! The actual content is exactly the same as far as I can tell. My understanding from researching this online is that it’s a crap-shoot regarding whether the DVDs work, since they are copies, but if you luck out and yours work, you should be fine!
I should also mention that I know there is at LEAST one other P90x knockoff out there, because I’ve corresponded with one other P90xer whose nutrition guide has tons of typos on the inside, but has the correct uppercase “N” on the cover. If anyone has a version that is obviously a knockoff, but doesn’t have that tell-tale lowercase “n,” please comment and let us know so that we can try to find a way to identify that other bad copy.
Thanks for commenting, William, and here’s hoping you’ve lucked out! lol
- CJ =)
CJ – We bought ours off Craig’s List as well – a young girl with the same excuse “I got two for my birthday” – hello??? No way someone gets 2 given to them. But it was only $40 so I was not really interested in her reasons. I laughed so hard once I started reading my nutrition guide – because like yours, mine was FULL of typo’s! It gave us a good laugh, but all the pieces were there and the DVD’s seemed to work fine and the case/book for the DVD’s was done very professionally!
It’s totally a scam and I almost felt like I wanted to report this person to Craig’s List, but just decided to move on and forget about it.
Thanks for pointing out the errors though, I will need to go make changes in my book too!
Hey Melissa!
Isn’t that crazy? Once everything seemed to be professional, I didn’t think any more of it. It never once occurred to me that someone would go to the effort of copying the materials so closely, and that the actual info in the guide could be wrong.
I should point out one other error that could cause problems if taken literally – mine says that a double snack serving is 30 OUNCES of pistachios, rather than the correct 30 pistachios! lol. That would be eating 1.87 pounds of pistachios, so hopefully no one would do that, but I figured I should point it out just for the sake of completeness! =)
Thanks for posting, and glad to hear that you weren’t burned as far as the DVDs are concerned. =)
- CJ =)
Hey CJ,
Thank you SOOOO much for this site! P90X has been fairly bearable due to some of your incredible recipes! I, too, have a knock off. Though, as you mentioned, mine is the one w/the uppercase N. Strangely enough, my plymetrix doesn’t work, either!! We’ve been borrowing my parents. I will do some investigating and try to get back to you about some of the tell-tale signs about this knock off…
Ooh, awesome Randi! That would be very helpful! So weird about your plyometrics DVD also not working. I wonder if this is common!
You can try comparing some of your nutrition guide pages to the official P90x Nutrition Guide pdf published by Beachbody and see if there are any differences inside the book.
Thanks so much for your help!
- CJ =)
I’m another Craigslist scam victim. I should have known it was too good to be true to buy a “brand new” set for $70. I was wondering about the typos too; that is one of my pet peeves.
I have the uppercase “N” version also. On page 27, it has a recipe for Lemon-Dill Sauce, but the ingredients include “1 teaspoon fresh bill, chopped”, and the directions include “Strain out the lemongrass and stir in the bill”. LOL! Pretty sure that would be illegal. Poor Bill!
Do you know if the pages with the portion approach foods are correct? Thanks!
LOL Kimmie! Poor Bill indeed!
Thanks for the info about the uppercase “N” version. I’m not sure if the portion approach foods pages are right in that version – I know that in some versions on page 17 it says that a single snack serving is only 50 calories (when in reality it is 100 calories) and it says that 30 oz. of pistachios are a double snack serving (instead of the correct 30 pistachios). Does yours have either of these typos?
- CJ =)
Any plans to report these folks? (please – you gotta’ do it)
Perhaps BeachBody has a conduit for reporting people like this. As long as they can do this and get away with it (earning $ off of the dev & production work that gave us a great product) they will. As suggested: if it’s done enough, it’s a dis-incentive for BeachBody to develop more good stuff!
Hey Mooney! OK, you’ve talked me into it. lol. When I get a chance, I’ll try to find out what the best course of action is if you think you’re the victim of a P90x scam like this. Stay tuned. =)
- CJ =)
I too was a victim of this scam. I’m at work and don’t know what version I have, but it has many errors in the nutrition guide and some of the DVD’s skip here and there (still very usable though).
Beachbody obviously knows this is going on. I purchase my copy from Ebay (twice actually). Ebay put a block on the first auction I won and was refunded my money. They sent an email saying the manufacturer believed the copy I was purchasing was counterfeit and Paypal would be putting a freeze on the sellers account until the money was refunded. I didn’t know what to think and tried purchasing again from a different seller. Sure enough Ebay put a hold on the sale again with the same message. However, this time I never recieved a refund and the seller shipped the item. I was very anxious to get started at this point, but did notice all the spelling errors and too thought it was very unprofessional. The box and all the materials looked like the real deal though and never thought I had a fake until now. This all took place about 4 months ago. Thanks for sharing…good to know what I have. I guess now all the fakes are going through Craigslist since Ebay is no longer an option for these people.
Hey Ron!
Thanks for sharing your experience with the Ebay P90x scam. So interesting.
Hopefully other folks will read your experience and know what to look out for! Did either listing look suspicious at all? Did they use stock photos? Did you notice any other red flags that other folks who are looking to buy P90x on Ebay should watch out for?
Thanks!
- CJ =)
I just read this very helpful comment on moneysavingmom.com, and thought I’d copy it here:
“JoDi – August 24, 2010 at 6:39 pm
If you purchase from eBay, another thing to check is the Seller’s feedback. Some people will say they are selling a slightly used P90X set because they tried it and didn’t like it or someone gave it to them as a gift, blah, blah, blah, but when you look at their feedback, you see that they’ve sold several other sets recently. You can also check what else the person is currently selling to see if they have several more sets listed or other workout programs they’re selling. The scammers selling illegal bootleg copies are sneaky and abundant on eBay so you have to check very carefully.
It was tough, but after carefully sifting through the listings, I was able to find an authentic set that was in almost new condition from an honest seller.”
OMG, I am sitting here looking through my nutrition guide getting ready to start p90x next week and lo and behold – I have a fake version with the big “N”! I got it on craigslist for $70 and immediately noticed the typos throughout the nutrition guide. I haven’t tried any of the DVDs yet and will be so MAD if any of them don’t work. On page 17 my single serving snack is incorrect (says 50 cal) and it doesn’t list any ounces for turkey jerky. Luckily I found a word document online with all of the foods and amounts so I’m going to follow that.
Isn’t that crazy, Sara? I totally know how you feel because it was such an A-HA moment for me, too. I’ve been using the materials extensively for almost 3 months now, managing this site, answering questions, etc. I about hit the floor when I realized that all of this weird stuff I have been attributing to unprofessionalism on Beachbody’s part was just indicators that I was using a bad copy of P90x!
Thanks for the contributions about the typos. The weird thing is that even though mine is a little “n” version, I have the same two typos on that page that you do. I’d be really interested to figure out how these knock-offs evolved, because there is enough overlap in the errors that it seems that they have to be related in some way.
Thanks again for contributing!
- CJ =)
I think, in hindsight, it was fairly obvious they were counterfeit. Any seller that claims to have multiple “brand new” copies of the program for a very discounted price is likely selling fakes. I guess I was naive and was enticed by an apparent bargain. If I had to do all over again, I would have plunked down the extra cash and bought from Beachbody. I will do that for sure next year when the new version comes out.
I have the lower case “n” version by the way…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nanajoth/sets/72157624801722655/
Here are the photos of my bootleg set, regular p90x but came with p90x plus booklet.
Awesome, Johnathan. Thanks so much for taking the time to take photos – hopefully these types of contributions will help others avoid the same mistakes!
- CJ =)
Hi!
I bought mine on Amazon for 85.00. It does not seem to have any of the typos in the nutrition guide. I suspected the Butternut Squash recipe was wrong b/c using 3 cups of squash to 1/2 c liquid can hardly make “soup”. However, my fitness guide has tons of typos as well. I also thought about offering to edit for them:) For example, on page 23, does the official fitness guide have Phase 1, Day 5 – “Ab Riper X”?
Thanks!
That is interesting, Lori! Crazy to think that these knockoffs are on Amazon, too! I wouldn’t have expected that. And how funny that you thought of offering to edit it for them, too. I’ve heard other people make the same comment. Isn’t it funny that so many of us got such awful copies, and yet so few of us considered that we might be victims of a P90x scam.
I think this means that there is a third knockoff version floating around out there. We have three documented so far:
- Big “N” on the cover of the “Nutrition Guide” but multiple typos in the portion approach pages
- Little “n” on the cover of the “nutrition Guide” and typos in the portion approach pages
- Big “N” on the cover of the “Nutrition Guide,” no typos in the portion approach pages, but typo in Butternut Squash recipe.
If anyone else has a different knockoff, please do comment and let us know!
Thanks for sharing, Lori!
- CJ =)
I purchased a lower case n p90x…. After reading this…. Although I purchased it online not from cl or ebay but a website that said p90x. Not beachbody. It said for the next 30 minutes they were selling for 65.99. Anyways was wondering where I can get the correct nutrition guide online? Thanks…
Hey Foolmeonce! (lol on the name, by the way)
Thanks for sharing. That is so interesting to know that some of these scammers are actually selling knockoffs online! I never would have thought they’d be so bold as that. Can you share what the URL of the website was? That way, if others are searching for whether that website is legit, they’ll find this review and know that the site is part of a P90x scam!
Regarding getting the nutrition guide, the complete guide is not (legitimately) available online. However, I do have the Beachbody-sanctioned partial P90x nutrition guide available on my site here: P90x Nutrition Guide. While some pages are missing, that PDF does give you all of the introductory information regarding how to find your level, and also provides the meal plan approach information and recipes. In addition, if you check out the comments on that page, I’ve replied to one commenter with a list of links for where you can find most of the information from the missing pages here on my site.
I hope that is helpful!
- CJ =)
Dude, your story is IDENTICAL to mine. Guy off of craigslist told me he got an extra one as a gift and that it was legit. I went to meet him in a parking lot and he was very shady and rude. He handed me a P90X box that was white and shrink wrapped and sure enough, I got home and it was a fake. Is all of the information on the DVDs legitimate or is it cut short and incomplete?
Hi Matt! How crazy. That really is identical!!! As far as I know, the DVD information is legitimate. The only concern at this point is whether your DVDs, which are copies, are going to work right. If they play correctly, and don’t freeze or skip, you should be OK. Sadly it seems to be a crap shoot regarding whether the DVDs in these knockoff versions work. Watch through them all and let us know how yours turns out! Crossing my fingers for you.
- CJ =)
I too purchased a knockoff but the guy who sold it to me is a complete moron because he called me from his cell phone and I have his number stored and will be reporting this to Craigslist as it appears he is at it again, I have a partial license plate number as well. Are there legal repercussions for this? Thought about offering to buy it again and when I meet him, have some sort of law enforcement there also but don’t know if it will be effective or more dangerous than I think. Suggestions?
Our sure sign of it being a knock off was that the mailed packaging was all in Chinese! There have been some minor grammatical errors but so far none of the above listed errors are in my version. (Uppercase N) We bought ours off a website that we thought was the real thing. p90xoem.com Stupid! We have only watched the Bring it video and so far so good. So annoyed though! I am worried future dvds won’t work and major info in the books may be wrong. I can’t believe all the work they go through to make it look like the real thing. We almost bought a version of ebay last night once we realized this one was fake. We would be the most gullible to do this twice! So glad I found your site. I will let you know if/when i find more problems.
Hey Karen!!
LOL at Chinese packaging – I guess that would be a pretty big clue! =) That is crazy that the p90xoem.com site isn’t legit. I just looked at it, and it looks just fine! I guess it goes to show that anyone can put up a website. Thanks so much for posting the URL – hopefully other people will search for it first and find your experience here.
Isn’t that crazy that they go to all of that effort to copy it? Doesn’t it make you wonder why they don’t just scan the pages and reprint them correctly? WHY retype the whole thing?
I am SO glad you didn’t purchase off of Ebay!! =D
You mention minor grammatical errors – can you list a couple so that other people can compare theirs to yours? At this point it looks like we have at least 4 knockoff versions out there!
Thanks again for posting!
- CJ =)
Hello,
Just bought mine a couple of weeks ago, on ebay for $74.00, and noticed the typos immediately. Did not really occur to me that it was fraudulent. Kind of thought that maybe it was a cheaper version because of the typos, kind of like a clearance item.
Watched the Bring it DVD and part of the Shoulders and Back DVD. Did have skips but atributed it to me watching at work on a computer and the probability that it was used , as the DVD holder is somewhat worn,
Sent a message to the lseller on ebay. will let you know if I get a response.
Hello,
Made contact with seller and he sent my money back through pay pal and told me I could keep the P90X, Thinking of re-ordering the real one from beachbody, Any benefit to that or go with what I have?
Please order the legitimate one. What you’ll get is good participation in a true healthy transaction – a potentially life-changing exercise program produced by people who deserve to make money off of it and will be encouraged to produce more.
I am glad in your case that these people who are just copying disks are not making the money that should go to reward and support the people who produced this great content. I want these guys at Beachbody to feel like they’ve gotten great rewards for producing P90X so they’ll be motivated to do more of the same.
This program does really ROCK. What doesn’t rock so much is the idea that some guy with a DVD copying program and no guilt about making money illegally w/ little effort (whether a big organized bootleg shop in China or a pimply 15-year-old with a xerox and PCs in rural NY state).
Please order, and take the opportunity to let Beachbody know what happened and who the seller was. –thanks for reading.
(’course there is potential comedy GOLD in some mis-spells (or strange meals in the nutrition guide)). ;o)
Ordered…should arrive in about two days. Wanted to be apart of Beachbody and didn’t want to be using the knockoff.
If I Start right…better chance of ending right!!
people wouldn’t be forced to buy fake or cheap copies if companies weren’t so greedy and charging nearly £200 for a set of DVDs!!! if they were around £50 – £60, then more people will be attracted to buying this from authorized dealers rather than finding the cheapest places!
whew!!! I read this before buying the one I was going to buy off of ebay.
thank you!!!!
I ordered mine from beachbody… costs more.. but, at least I know it’s the real deal!!
Thanks for posting!!!
You’re welcome, Pamela. So glad to save you the annoyance. Good on you for doing the research before purchasing!! Some of us weren’t so smart.
- CJ =)
I also purchased a copy on Amazon that turned out to be counterfeit. I was astonished with the amount of misspellings and incorrect grammer. I have contaced Amazon and filed a complaint and requested refund. Interestingly enough, the seller is no longer listed as an Amazon seller.
We just bought ours off Craigslist…$60 ($70 with shipping). Unfortunately, I did not see your website before ordering. There were pictures on his listing of his Amazon receipt and the white box, in plastic wrapping. I received the white box, all the materials shown on the YouTube video, and, so far, 3 of the DVDs seem to work fine. BUT, Nutrition Guide (with capital N…and says “Nutrition Plan”, not guide) does have the Dill-bill typo and squash soup proportion as listed (although, I would have believed that proportion, as it is a pureed soup and plausible, to me, that the squash to liquid ratio would be fine.) Also, on page 15, it shows 2 boxes for fats for Level 1, Phase 1, but does not have any number next to it. All the other information seems correct with what you have listed.
What have you found out about reporting fake copies? I am a little concerned about what to do…in part, because he has our address since he shipped it to us. (He was very courteous though, shipped it priority so it arrived in 2 days, and was polite via text messages.) Where were the other fakes located? This one was from the San Francisco/Sacramento area.
Thanks!
Hey Jeanne –
Sorry, I haven’t yet called Beachbody to find out the official word on what they want us to do when we find out we’ve bought a fake copy. I’ll call tomorrow and let you all know the results.
I do know that a lot of folks have successfully complained directly to the seller, and have received their money back without having to return the fake. But stay tuned – I’ll see what Beachbody has to say.
- CJ =)
OK, Jeanne! I called Beachbody today, and they said that we can contact their legal department with information regarding our fakes.
Send an email to: mailbag@teambeachbody.com. In the subject line include: “Attn: Legal Department”
Then in the email include as much pertinent information regarding your case as you can provide.
I would include all of the following information, if you have it and if it’s applicable to your case:
- Website URL where you purchased it and/or link to the ad. I’d also take a screenshot of the ad and attach that – that way if the scammers take it down, the legal department still has the info
- Name or screen name or seller ID# of the person you purchased it from
- Email address of the person you purchased it from
- Cell phone number of the person you purchased it from (if they gave it to you)
- Which knockoff version you have (examples of a few typos, whether it was wrapped, whether it contained all the materials, white or black box, whether the DVDs actually worked or skipped)
- The price they sold it to you for
The more details you can provide, the better the Beachbody legal staff will know which scammers they should pursue first.
I’m going to add this info to the body of the article, too, because I think it is important that we all provide them with as much info as we can.
- CJ =)
Thanks, CJ! I did send an email to them before reading this, and so didn’t put Attn: legal dept. in the subject line, but I haven’t heard back from them yet. I don’t know how to do a screenshot, but I did copy and paste the page, including pictures and identifying info and sent to them as an attachment. I will wait a bit more and then follow-up. Thanks for all the helpful info!
Hey Jeanne!
You’re welcome. =)
FYI, if you have a PC, you can easily take a screenshot by pressing the “PrtScn” (print screen) button on your keyboard, then opening up a Microsoft Word document and selecting Paste (Control+V). =)
I forgot to mention that they may or may not actually get back to us. I imagine their legal department has to pick and choose which cases they actually pursue. But I figure, the more info we give them, the more effective they will be in fighting this!
- CJ =)
That is so cool (I want to hit the thumbs-up ‘like’ button (ala facebk ;o))
Thanks, Richard! I appreciate your thumbs up!! =D
- CJ =)
Hi, CJ. Thanks for posting this website. I got one of these for Christmas and I didn’t want it, am short on cash, and thought I’d sell it on eBay. (I’m more of a yoga/running kinda gal, lol) Anyway, about 12 hours before my auction ended, eBay yanked my listing and told me to contact Product Partners. I did, and the woman told me mine was bootleg and easy to spot. Needless to say, I’m rather upset. I watched that video and mine is exactly like what’s in the video, minus the black outer box. My Nutrition Guide is correct, no spelling errors, no portion errors, everything looks exactly the same! Could there perhaps be some sellers on eBay selling the real deal? I’m also curious as to how it was so “easily spotted” from the 2 pictures I submitted when it looks exactly like the real product. Do you know of any other telltale signs I could look for?
Hi Trish!
Wow, that’s the first time I’ve heard this side of the story! Your experience is just another example of how these bootleggers are making it difficult for the rest of us. =/
I’d be very interested to see the pictures of your version that you submitted to Ebay. If I had to make a guess, it’d be that they are making the judgment based on the fact that yours is a “white box” version, minus the black outer box. Lacking that black outer box is a big red flag for the knockoff copies.
In answer to your question, I’d say yes, there are absolutely legitimate sellers on Ebay, Craigslist, and Amazon who are like yourself, selling the real deal. Buyers just have to be really careful and wary about these purchases.
All of the telltale signs that we have come up with so far are listed in the article and comments – I’m afraid I don’t have any more to give you. If you’d like, though, you can send me your pictures and I can see if I can spot anything! cjsplace321 at gmail dot com.
I’m sorry that you have been burned by this issue as well!!
- CJ =)
C. J.,
Thank you for posting your experience! I have to go check my guide when I get home. The cl post is still up, I took screenies with my iPhone just in case. Will provide pics later if it is indeed a fake, which it looks like it might be. =\
I’m fairly certain I just bought a bootleg. Same deal, college kid got it for christmas, didn’t want it. Said it was legit, still in the packaging. I looked it over somewhat hastily, and it looked okay. A couple minutes later, I was looking at the white box it came in, and saw the now glaring typo:
“WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF SERIOUS TRSNING”
Ouch.
It has the big N on the cover of the nutrition guide, but a small n on the first page. Promo code from quick start guide is SERTQ9XP. I haven’t seen any other typos, but I’ve just glanced through the books. In general the print work looks poor, the paper is thin and the edges of the print are not very sharp (looks like a copy).
I guess there’s a SMALL possibility that this is legit. Wishful thinking I guess.
Yeah, sorry Brian! Sounds like a classic knockoff to me! Assuming all of your DVDs work, you should be OK. If you are planning on using the portion approach, just be sure to use the portions #s from my P90x Nutrition Journal to make sure you are working with the correct portions of each thing. And report it! =)
- CJ =)
Hey CJ,
Thanks for all the info on this site. I bought p90x on ebay about a month ago and I’ve been disappointed with the quality, only to find out tonight that I probably have one of the fakes. The biggest problem right off the bat has been the skipping/freezing discs, especially disc 1. It took me about 20 minutes to get it going the first time, and I don’t even bother with the Ab Ripper on disc 1 because it freezes so much. I just pop in disc 3 and skip ahead to Ab Ripper. I’m only 2 weeks in so I’m sure I will have issues with some of the discs that I haven’t played.
What led to me finding this site was actually something other than the skipping. I was simply googling the typo in my training guide (the poster style one). Now that I went back and found the whole package I see that the fitness guide book has what I’m assuming is the right routine. But my poster style one says that in training block 3, under “classic” instead of weeks 9, 11 it says “weeks 5,6,7″. Simple mistake but just another to add to the list.
I noticed that I have the same “dill-bill” issue, but I didn’t spend much time with the nutrition guide to pick out others. I like you also had 2 fats on the phase 1 level 1, but there was just 2 yellow boxes and no number “2″. One other thing I noticed is that on page 77 at the bottom of the page the font is very hard to read. Don’t know if this is a bootleg give-away but it seems odd.
Anyhow, I’m hoping to get a refund from the seller. Thanks again for posting these messages.
Hey Derek!
Thanks so much for taking the time to detail all of the differences you’ve noticed! I’m sure this information will help other people identify their own fakes. I hope you succeed in getting your money back!
- CJ =)
I stumbled on this thread, and although it is a few months old, I would like to leave a comment anyways because I happen to know someone that works at Beachbody and know a thing or two about how their Legal team operates and deals with counterfeits. BB has people monitoring eBay and craigslist daily. They say 99% of these listings are selling fake P90X. Besides the obvious typos on the guides etc, they know of other ways to detect these fake DVDs. Sometime all it takes is to look at a picture of the white box and they can tell it’s a knockoff. If the placement of their logo is off centered or something, then it is a sure sign, or if the DVD wallet is rectangular in shape instead of square, then it is a knockoff.
Someone here suggest looking out for the black box that the white box comes in. That is not always the case. Only the Canadian version comes in a black box. US version just has the white box.
If you need to get in touch with BB legal dept, the best email address is piracy@beachbody.com.
Hi Kylie!
Thanks so much for providing this additional helpful information! I didn’t know that about the white vs. black box and the piracy-specific email address – I’ve updated the article to reflect that.
Thanks again,
- CJ =)
i got mine for $40 on korea site and it works perfect 2 typos, dvd’s work perfect
It just occured to me to Google “P90X typos” and was stunned at all the hits. It never occurred to me that people would go to all the effort to create fakes for the product, but I guess I am just naive that way and not appreciative of P90X’s success.
My DVDs work just fine and the card board wallet is square, as it should be (it is supposed to be card board, right?). The work out guide is confusing as heck and the Nutrition Giude, wow. The typos were so distracting I could not get into following it. It seems to increase the calorie counts which leads me to suspect a much larger and more sinister plot by the Chinese to keep Americans soft, doughy, sluggish and lazy, but I digress…
BTW – I bought this from a guy on CL I orginally contacted about a pair of Bowflex Selecttech 1090 dumbbells for relatively cheap. They turned out to be aweful, but that product has such a bad rep anyway, so the term “knock off” did not ocur to me until now as I learn about P90X fakes. I met him in Covina here in SoCal at a Public Storage place where he had a 10 x 20 room full of Bowflex and P90X product. he said he was a rep for both companies and would honor warranty issues. So, if you spot this stuff on CL, beware!
Wow, Charlie! I can’t believe this guy was dumb enough to actually take you to a storage space full of the products. PLEASE contact Beachbody about this – if you still have the address and number of the storage space, they might actually be able to track down and prosecute this guy!!!!
It didn’t occur to me either that it might be a knockoff. Especially because I wonder, if they are going to go to the effort of color printing and binding, why in the world didn’t they just SCAN the pages exactly as written? Why RETYPE them? It’s so weird.
Anyway, PLEASE contact Beachbody’s legal department with the info above – I think yours is the best opportunity yet to help Beachbody make a conviction!! =)
- CJ =)
PS – What’s up with this blog engine?
All posts are from Saturday 28, 2010
Perhaps it’s a knock off, too!
LOL I know, it’s been like this for a long time – it is so weird but I can’t figure out what the problem is! I’ve tried to track it down a few times, but it’s fairly low on my priority list! lol
Bought mine last night and was suspicious before finishing page 1 of the fitness guide. I watched the first two CDs before reading and was actually quite impressed, I just hope the remaining CDs work!
I didn’t actually save that much with the one I bought, it was more a case of not wanting to wait for it in the mail when I could get it right away from someone claiming to be a local distributer.
My question is are people getting good results using the bootleged copy?
Hi Dave!
Yes, as long as your bootleg copy has DVDs that actually work, the actual content of the DVDs is the same, so the results should be the same. The only other problem that I can think would make or break someone’s results would be if they had the one like mine that said Level 3 was 3800 calories instead of the correct 3000 calories – if anyone goes by that, I can see an extra 800 calories per day blowing their results! As long as you go by the portions outlined in my P90x nutrition plan journal, you can be sure you’re eating the right portions, so you should be OK.
(Of course, there’s always the issue of supporting the actual creator of the great content!)
- CJ =)
Curious if I have a fake. The inside flap of the box has an area (lower left) with no writing. Just a blank area. The picture of the box onthe website shows some sort of gragh or chart in that same area.
Thanks
joel
Hi Joel -
That’s a new one! Do you have any of the other errors in the nutrition guide? Anyone else have this as well?
- CJ =)
Here’s a link to a picture of what I purchased. So its a fake?
http://cgi.ebay.com/P90X-WORKOUT-COMPLETE-13-DVD-SET-WITH-ALL-GUIDES-/160579735206?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25634c4ea6
I don’t know if it is a fake. You’ll have to look to see if you have any of the other confirmed signs in the article and comments above! If you do find one of the other indications (tons of spelling errors and typos in the nutrition guide, skipping DVDs, etc.) then that would indicate that it is a fake! Do you see any other indications?
- CJ =)
Just an interesting add on to my above post. I went to a reputable local fitness store claiming to be interested in purchasing P90X. Really my intention was to look at what the real thing looks like to compare (still hoping I wasn’t duped). Although nearly identical side by side, my fake box is much smaller, the paper in the fake manuals feels cheaper and they are full of typos and some CDs do skip.
After I was done looking the sales clerk took me aside and told me that if I was interested in saving some money he was selling a “travel version” of P90X for his distributer friend. He claimed it was manufactured by Beach Body but just in a smaller box for “travellers.”
People may be buying knockoffs from actual fitness stores.
O. M. G.
Wow! I am truly amazed. Thanks for letting us know, Dave.
Can you imagine how much money Beachbody would be making if all of these knockoffs didn’t exist?
If you feel like doing a good deed, you should report this store to Beachbody. This is getting ridiculous!!
- CJ =)
CJ’s diary PDF’s were correct though…or am I missing something? Only people who ordered this were affected right? I’ve been using the PDF’s on this site for 2 months! lol
Hi Jacob!
If you have been using the journals for the last few months, you should be fine. There were errors in my original PDFs that I uploaded a year ago, but I discovered and fixed them on 8/28/2010.
- CJ =)
You can also grab P90X from a Torrent site like isohunt.com or kickasstorrents.com I recommend actually paying for it though so bad karma doesn’t follow you around. But if you’ve been ripped off perhaps that’s a legit reason
It also includes pdf files for all the manuals that came with it. That’s what I started with just to see if I liked the program. After my first month’s results I bought the product and vowed to buy P90X:Muscle Confusion 2 when it’s released this year. (did my own version of “try before you buy” hehe)
I own the real discs and downloaded the torrent to my netbook (no dvd drive). This way I don’t have to move my tv to another room, I can just synch it up, do what I can in one room, and do the rest in the other.
I do not know if I have the correct version….. I actually got mine from a torrent site! My videos work fine, my guide have a capital “N” in nutrition but there are a lot of typos! Like in chicken salad, it says “ghicken” Plus I compare3d it to one purchased at GNC and the same typos were in that guide
So I am thinking that quite possibly that the real version does indeed still have typos
My copy is from Beach Body itself, and while I haven’t read every single word in the literature, I have yet to come across a typo.
Hey Christine!
I agree with Bruised – the real product does not have typos that I am aware of. Given Dave’s comment above, that some health shops are selling fake products, it sounds like the one you were comparing it to that was purchased at GNC may have been a fake as well.
By the way, I absolutely do not recommend downloading the P90x system from a torrent site. Please do purchase the product from Beachbody or purchase a REAL used version – they should get the benefit of money for their product! The only circumstance where I can see using a Torrent site download really being ethical is in Bruised’s case above, where he has already purchased the product and then is using it from a Torrent site on a different computer.
- CJ =)
Hi CJ! You know you say the p90x nutrition guide you uploaded is fake, well. is this one – [edit by CJ: P90x Nutrition Guide Download on myp90xnutritionplan.com] – the one that you get given in the real p90x ? THANKS!
Hey Dominic!
I think you may have misunderstood. The physical copy of P90x that I bought was a scam, knockoff version. The PDF version of the nutrition guide that you linked to above, the one I have provided on this site, is hosted by Beachbody and IS a legitimate version of the guide. However, it is missing several of the pages that outline how to follow the portion approach. Check out the comments section on the same page, I’ve given a list of links for where you can find the missing information on this site to fill in the gaps.
Does that make sense?
- CJ =)
CJ=)
Thank you man for posting this. I got one too. But it was a slick package! Everything is here, but when I got all high speed and bought a portable DVD player to take P90X to the gym with me, I began having trouble playing the DVD’s. I called 2 customer service numbers for BeachBody and chatted with another rep online. They were of no help, and I am a little reluctant to say this, but I believe it’s because they have outsourced their customer support.
Anyhow, my Nutrition plan is much better looking than yours, but right there on page 15 was all the incorrect info. I then called my buddy who is doing it with me, and his page 15 was correct.
That was the most expensive $20 I ever saved. Now I have to order another set for real this time.
Hello, my fiance and I have recently purchased P90X from a website called cheapestworkouts.com. They claim they do not sell fakes or copies and work directly with the manufacturer to secure the best price on bulk. They sell P90X, Turbo Fire, Insanity, and Zumba all for $50 plus some shipping and handling.
After reading this article we are afraid we have a fake. We have the Nutrition Plan and the first page has the lower case “n”. Our plans are also wrong in their fats and the snack words. Our Fitness Guide has a lot of typos as well.
The DVDs come in a square container and they are all there. We haven’t tried to play them all but the first one played perfectly.
We have a 30 day money back guarantee so we will be able to get our money back. Has anyone else gotten fakes from this site? Please, we are worried that we’ve been scammed and don’t want to run out of time before we can get our money back.
Hi Leetah!
You have definitely purchased a fake version. The real version is typo-free. These knockoff artist have a million excuses for why theirs isn’t a knockoff and everyone else’s is, but it comes down to the same thing: you will not find the real version of P90x for less than $100.
Hope that helps!
- CJ =)
CJ,
I begin the P90X program today! I’m excited. I’m 5′1” and 120 lbs. I’m looking to lose about 10-15lbs. build muscle, and tone up. I’ve always been active but my diet is my issue. I’m planning on following the portion plan closely. Thanks so much for the worksheets. Those will definitely help me!
I was reading your website earlier and learned the P90X I bought off Amazon is a knock-off. My Nutrition Plan has a capital N but the meal plans (snack portions) are wrong. I went through and corrected them from what you has listed. Thanks Again! I did contact the seller off Amazon and he is refunding my purchase 100% and I get to keep the order. Ha! I’ve only tried the first two DVDs and the Plyo skipped a bit so hopefully the others are ok. I plan to do Insanity after P90X and I will most definitely order right from Beachbody.
Michelle
This is a scam right? http://myp90xnutritionplan.com/p90x-nutrition/p90x-scam/
Hi David – Did you mean to link to a different page? Not sure what you are referring to.
- CJ =)