Ordered free sample of Berkley Nutraceuticals product - Altovis. This took about 10 days to reach me. I began to take their product but it had no effect what so ever. I was given 30 tablets to take one per day so it was a surprise to see a $70 charge on my credit card 22 days after the initial date of my order.
After contacting Visa to deny the charge I emailed Berkley. (They have a "Managed Care Direct" system where ".. It includes an automatic enrollment and a new 60 day supply of the product will be sent approximately 5 days before the product runs out. Customers credit card will be billed $70 on the day of shipment... There are no refunds once product has been shipped.")
I told them I was returning their product as they had not given me their alloted time to complete and evaluate their sample. Got an automated reply that they do not issue refunds for shipped product. Called their hot line 1-800-altovis and gradually worked my way up the chain of supervisors until I finally spoke to someone who agreed to refund me once I had returned the product, he did point out that the "test period" began on the day I called to order the product! I sent it return receipt requested, certified mail.
From start to finish it took about 60 days to get my refund, with a lot of help from Visa & my bank. I was out of pocket the $4 or so to ship the sample and the cost of returning their prematurely shipped product. If you make enough noise and are prepared to fight for your money it is possible to get it back.
In my case I think they jumped the gun on sending the next cycle of product and that may explain my success. However, if the product does nothing for you - what is it's worth? My belief is that they prey on people forgetting to cancel once they find it ineffective; people who fail to reconcile their credit card statements; or people who don't give a damn about losing $70 and will cancel once they find they have been duped.
While what these people are doing is just on the side of legal, morally it is a scam. It is possible that the product may have a beneficial efect on some people, psycologically or genuinely, however I do feel that their products need to be tested and anylised in a double blind condition to really evaluate the beneficial effect of this stuff. We do live in a Capitalist society, so caveat emptor - let the buyer beware.
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