After seeing and being redirected by a Dr Oz advert in late December I agreed to accept a free trial of Advanced African Mango & Metaburn (1 free bottle of each) for the cost of postage (per item) only. I received the two bottles separately (the Metaburn first and the african mango approximately two weeks ago), however after checking my online bank statements today I was alerted to the fact that the above company had continued to take additional payments as follows:
3 feb debit card purchase advmetabill gbr usd 91.66 incl. Westpac foreign transaction fee aud $2.57
19 jan debit card purchase advmetabill gbr usd 85.35 incl. Westpac foreign transaction fee aud $2.45
1 feb debit card purchase extmangobill8885920238 8885920238 gbr usd 102.06 incl. Westpac foreign transaction fee aud $2.89
17 jan debit card purchase extmangobill gbr usd 95.40 incl. Westpac foreign transaction fee aud $2.77
I contacted my bank today and they advised that I needed to contact the said company without delay in writing. Therefore, I phoned African Mango Support Centre on 61-862252035 and queried why they were taking additional payments from my account when I had not authorised them to do so. The lady Nicki who took the call (she would not give her surname but said she was based in the US on extension 0042) said I had accepted the terms & conditions and within them it stated that if i did not notify them that I was unhappy with the product within the 14 day trial I would pay full price for the products and commit to an ongoing subscription were I would continue to receive the product/s and be charged at full price for them. I advised Nicki that I do not recall reading such information, nor being advised that I would incur such costs after 14 days.in addition, I pointed out that I had not long received the products and there was no mention of this information within the packaging (in fact other than the bottle there was nothing in the packaging, not even an invoice). When I attempted to inform Nicki that I had not agreed to these terms she appeared to find the situation amusing and continued to repeat the information she had given me earlier, albeit she said that she had cancelled the subscription at my request (which I followed up with an email) as from today. After further discussion (between Nicki, myself and my partner) Nicki informed my partner that Dr Oz endorses their product/service and when he stated he was going to look into this further she said she would put him on to her supervisor and the line then went dead. When attempted to call several times thereafter and the line continued to be engaged.
Even if the terms and conditions had made such specifications (which I definitely do not recall), my bank statements confirm that they took the postage costs on 3 Jan (the only payment I knowingly agreed to) & then further payments exactly 14 days later when I had not even received the products (and a third payment since), therefore I did not even get the opportunity to try the product out in accordance with their alleged terms/conditions (ie the 14 day period).in addition the company failed to make it clear that I needed to notify them within a specific timescales (I didn't know I had to notify them at all) or other costs would be incurred by myself.
I had genuinely understood that I was getting the above two products for free to trial and if I liked them, I then had the choice to order and pay for further bottles. I had no idea that the Dr Oz advert would lead to such a scam.
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