Not trying to defend the guy, but he does have a point... sometimes you CAN get useful information faster/more efficiently by spending a little money on the right place. Notice I said a little, dropping $3k for an online business course is stupid unless you're buying a site or some shit like that
I purchased PPC Classroom 2.0 and learned some tricks that have directly contributed to my bottom line... they also got me started with some already researched campaigns and even keyword lists. So I made my money back and will make it many times over in the future... all for less than $100 (even less since I bought from my own affiliate link). Pretty good deal if you ask me.
My point is not everyone has all the time/money in the world to figure things out for "free" (nothing is free... there's still opportunity cost)... besides selling to the "make money" crowd is pretty lucrative as well. That's how I actually got started before I found this forum
OK enough rambling for now.. to the OP: get a fucking refund and stop trying to justify your impulse buy