Over the years I have tried, unsucessfully, to shed some weight. With a family history of diabetes and high blood pressure I decided it was now or never. I followed a link from MSN to a 'health' site offering a month's free trial of Lean Clense and Lean Slim. Having read conflicting reports about Acai Berry I thought a trial would be a good idea and then I could judge for myself. The site was certainly encouraging and the BBC, The Sun and other logos was scattered around the site so I thought they must be endorsing it. I completed the online forms and waited.
I received my 'Welcome to the Lean Slim Family!' email before the product arrived (6th January). Later that day I got my parcel and saw the invoice for postage which was over £10. I was pretty sure that that had not been the agreed price but could find nothing in the emails to support this but, being on Job Seekers and having to watch my finances very careful I sent an email to the customer services cancelling everything and asking where to return the parcel to. I heard nothing so sent further emails on the 9th and 12th
The next shock was seeing my bank statement when I went to get some money to pay my rent:
11 Jan Visa LeanCleanse - Recurring Visa Transaction. £57.95
12 Jan Visa LeanSlim - Recurring Visa Transaction. £57.11.
I contacted my bank who said as it was a Recurring visa Transaction they could do nothing! I had just over £20 left in my account and my rent and visa card payment left to pay! I only use a Pay As You Go mobile for financial reasons but had to phone the number given (supposed to be a free number, according to Lean's operator, yet Virgin charged me for the call!). According to the Operative I spoke to the month's 'trial' was NOT free! He kept quoting the Terms & Conditions and said I had to call the number to cancel and that it was no use emailing the customer service section as that was for product advice (?!). I had actually been charged for my not-free-month's trial hence the deduction from my account 'read the Terms & Conditions'. By now I was a blubbering idiot not knowing how I was going to meet my financial obligations. They 'kindly' agreed to return 25% of my money. At this point I was informed by Virgin's recorded voice that I had a minute left on the call - round about the same time I was giving up the urge to live!
How stupid do I feel?..
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