After reading a "weblink" for this product, the free trial looked interesting (but more importantly gullible)!! I was sucked in big time and goes completely against my usual judgement. Sadly, I clicked and proceeded to purchase without reading the small print in it's entirety.
If you order the free trial, you have 14 days to try the product but the problem begins when you try to cancel the subscription. They will not cancel it until you have returned the "free trial sample" which must reach them within the 14 days. You have no way of knowing when it will be received, as it is not signed for, and from what I can see on other pages on the internet, they charge the subscription fees almost immediately and before the trial period is over. Also, when you "buy" the 14 day trial unknowingly they automatically sign you up to www.worldclubfitness.com and www.weightlossresourcesmembership.com for which you are also charged subscription fees.
Trying to cancel the product (even before it has been received & the free trial has ended) if you live in the UK is a nightmare. There is no email address to contact them, you have to go on to the live "chat" with a representative, who's automated responses are very limited and uninformative and they just give you a phone number for their UK office (who you must contact to arrange for the return of the item), as well as two phone numbers for each of the two subscriptions above. The office is not a UK based office, as they only operate on MST time and not UK time. They are insistent that upon the expiry of the 14 day free trial (which they say doesn't start until after you have received the item) you will be charged - and this is where the SCAM is - the full initial price of $79.95 even though you have requested that your subscription be cancelled.
I ordered mine, saw the additional charges, and immediately contacted them but they insisted it had already been despatched even though it was Sunday in the UK and within 10 minutes of completing the order.
What alterted me to the other "small print" was that the initial postal charge suddenly increased on the check out. I have had numerous chats with them online and the upshot is that they have now cancelled all 3 subscriptions and given me a UK telephone number (which I could get off their internet page anyway) but as it is only available on MST time which is -7 hrs from the UK, I have no idea when I can get to speak to them.
I am planning to phone them tomorrow to try and obtain the "return" address but if not I will be returning it to their USA postal address. As long as I have "proof of posting" that will be accepted by my credit card company. This company operates under the umbrella of Farend Services Limited and are actually based in Cyprus with their USA office being a postal box no. I see that there are also lots of other companies registered under this umbrella company as well, all of which seem to be based around teeth whitening services or diets.
I have reported this matter to my Credit Card company, advising them that I have only authorised the initial payment of $11.90 and that no further debits on my account have been authorised by me and are fraudulent. My credit card company advised me to keep a full log of any conversations as well as the transaction itself, which I have done. My credit card company cannot "stop" the payments going through, however, as long as I return the item, with proof of posting within the 14 day period, I can then provide this information to my credit card company, and then commence a "chargeback" process to refund any debits.
To assist me with my case, I copied the order to a Word document (as it doesn't give you the option to print it as a normal webpage would when placing an order) and I also copied all of my chat conversations to the same document. I also never received a confirmatory email after the placing of my order although, after having a very heated conversation with their chat representative, I have now had emails confirming cancellation of all three subscriptions. Even though I have had these, I fear that they will still try and debit my credit card for some initial subscription fees, all of which I will be challenging via my credit card fraud helpline.
This whole situation is very bad, and I am angry at myself for getting sucked in. I have tried sending an email to them requesting the removal of my personal data from their records but unsurprisingly it "bounced back" as unknown recipient! There is no fax number on their website and the one email address on it [email protected] isn't a valid email address. I will update this report more once I have spoken to their UK customer helpline tomorrow when I try to get their return address!!
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