Man,
This company makes me so mad!
I, too, was ripped off by this bogus business. I will say though that complaint helped me prevent them from taking more then the initial $69.95, so thank you for that... Anyway, here's my story:
Due to excessive holiday indulgences, I was in a vulnerable state and was surfing the internet looking for motivating weight-loss ideas. Low and behold, up pops this innocous little ad about a free trial of Hoodia. Never having any lucking with this cactus I ignored it for awhile, but something about the ad wouldn't let me go... Next thing you know I am clicking away. I read about their extra special hoodia and it sounded great (as they all do)... Then, I even read ALL the FINE PRINT, about how you have to cancel within 10 days or you get charged $69.95 a month. And this fine print, it was eloquent and thorough and sounded so reassuring. They have a number posted there so I write it down and fill out the little boxes so I can get my 10-day supply for a measley little shipping and handling fee.
Which I do in a few days, and there's the expected charge on my account. The pills don't seem to do much, so I call and cancel a few days later (well within my free-trial time frame). Now, this is where things start to get a little wierd. When I call, I get someone right away (which does NOT seem to be the case with most other people) and she's pleasant enough... I tell her I am calling to cancel my free trial and she asks for my name. Within two seconds of giving it to her she says, "okay, there you are! You're all set!" Then she gives me a four-digit confirmation number, which I write down.
This for sure struck me as wierd. It was if she just happened to have this list right in front of her, ready to cancel's someone's membership at a moment's notice. I mean, it takes some time to look up someone's info and verify their account. And I have never had such a simple confirmation # (they're usually something like XV358JST4 and impossible to get down on the first pass) and salespeople do NOT let you get off the phone that easily, no way.
However, I wasn't aware that this struck me as wierd until after I got the $69.95 charge on my account and tried to call them again—only to find that the number I had used a week before was cancelled. As was the phone number they had sent to my bank.
Luckily, I goolged the name of the company (which I obviously should have done before blindly giving them my credit card humber) and the fourth entry that came up was complaint. After reading about everyone else's harrowing account with them I immediately called my bank to cancel my card. I reported the charge as fraudulent and that's that.
Here's what I propose: keep trying all the semi-operational numbers that they have because sometimes you can get through... And when you do, tell the person you are talking to that they are part of a fraudulent company! I mean, they might all be part of the conspiracy, but I get a measure of satisfaction from it regardless.
Oh PS, did anyone else get a "foreign transaction fee" associated with their charge? They're probably based out of Nigeria or something.
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