I was asked by my younger sister, who has been struggling with her weight for years, to use my credit card to purchase her the wu-yi tea in August. She tried it for a few weeks and found that it did not work. We returned the tea and canceled the membership... Or so I thought.
After completing the order form and billing information, I was sent an Order Confirmation which I saved with the rest of my online purchases info. The day I tried to cancel, I searched over this document and called what I thought was a phone number. I was directed by a recording to call a rather strange number, ex: 010 87 54 #. (not the actual number). I called and was sent to a directory of somesort, and was then informed that 'you will be charged $3.95 for this call' confused and frustrated, I hung up. Thinking that the numbers appearing in this portion of the document must have been reference numbers for billing purposes and not actual phone numbers, I read through the terms and conditions again.
'if, for ANY reason, you decide that Wu-Yi Diet Tea is not for you, simply call 866-449-* and return the remaining tea (all shipping fees non-refundable).' Great! I thought, I can cancel, and that's just what I did. On October 22 the tea was back in the mail and everything had been 'settled'.
Months go by and I forgot about the tea, until this morning, when I checked my Credit card statement. Turns out that I have been getting billed for the Web Access Fee and Membership for the last 5 months.'You're billed only four dollars ninety five cents and six dollars ninety five cents monthly for as long as your unique All-Access passes remain active.' Funny... I thought I had canceled. I called the number again and was told that I had not canceled my web access and membership. Seems I had only canceled the shipments and payments of the tea itself. I was told that I had to call 2 different numbers to reach these departments and cancel everything separately.
The numbers I was given, were the other two I had thought were those 'reference numbers for billing purposes', unfortunately the first number on the list had a typo. I requested an explanation and inquired about a partial reimbursement and I was told by a VERY rude man that I should have basically known better, to 'read the terms and conditions again'. I hung up and read them again.
'You're billed only four dollars ninety five cents and six dollars ninety five cents monthly for as long as your unique All-Access passes remain active.' This seemed strange to me, because since the very beginning I have been billed $4.95 and $9.95. When I called back regarding the $3 hike in the price I was told that their documents showed the price of $9.95 and that's all there was to it.
I admit it, they got me, they scammed me and it sucks... Something to the tune of nearly $100.00 has been taken to pay for absolutely nothing. Even though, it is 'only' $3 a month, from November to March... Totaling a 'mere' $15... I intend on getting it back, it is rightfully mine and it makes me wonder, how many other people are being charged this little bit extra each month? I imagine that there could be a few more out there... 3 bucks a month from maybe thousands of consumers... Makes a nice lining to someone's pocket don't you think?
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