This company offered a free trial of weight loss pills in a UK national newspaper. The trial offer was for a month's supply of Beri Ultimate pro pills at a total cost of 2.95 inc. P&P.insofar as I was aware these were the terms of the offer which I paid for with a bank debit card. I received an acknowlegement for my order by email notifying me that this transaction would appear on my bank account statement under the description of E-health.
The pills duly arrived and a debit was made to my bank account on July 20th. All appeared fine and dandy until I later checked my bank account and found that a further debit of 69.95 had been made on 16th August which I had not authorised. This money had been taken by www.e-Healthweb.com. To add further insult to injury my bank had added a further 1.50 debit card charges presumably for a dollar transaction of $104.93 which translates to 69.95 in real money. On questioning this transaction with the bank teller I was told that this sort of scam was not unknown to the banking fraternity.
On telephoning the UK 0207-084-4081 several times and being deliberately put on hold and kept waiting for several minutes I did eventually manage to speak to a call centre person representing the company. After being told that I had signed up to a trial programme which entitled the company to debit my account to the tune of a further $104.93 on a monthly basis. I categorically stated that I had made no such undertaking and that my entire remit was for a total amount of 2.95. I asked for the UK address of their company so that I could report it to UK Trading Standards. This was not forthcoming but I managed to otain a 15 digit RMA code to attach to my return package containing the trial sample of pills upon receipt of which the company would refund my monies in total. I have today packaged the pills and returned them to the above Clearwater address in Florida at a cost of 2.07 and await the outcome. I am less than optimistic as to the outcome.
As a further safeguard I have cancelled my debit card and requested a replacement from my bank. This should prevent any further unauthorised withdrawals from my account. I am also contacting Trading Standards in the UK because this scam was perpetrated under the auspices of a UK national daily paper.
Will keep you posted on further developments.
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