My mother thought she was ordering a free sample of the AuraVie skin care product from their website. She saw the ad on facebook where they said "As seen on the Dr. Oz Show". It stated that it was a "risk-free" 10 day trail and all she had to do was pay shipping. Of course we all know the story that it was not a sample but a 30 day supply of the product and if she didn't want to be charged more she had to contact them in 10 days.
To add to the problem they also signed her up for another product called "Levela" that came in a separte package. She had no idea what this was or where it came from and figured it was just a free sample from the same company. It turned out to be from a separate company (so they claim) but when I called the number it was the same exact recording as the AuraVie except they changed the name to Levela.
The way these companies work is they sent you the free trial and if you don't respond in the next 10 days they charge your credit card (that they got from you to pay for shipping) the full amount of the product. Then, and make sure you understand this, they will continue to charge your credit card every month and send you another day supply.in my mother's case it was as follows:
AuraVie
$4.95 for shipping
$97.88 for product
Levela
$4.79 for shipping
$89.95 for product
I first called the AuraVie people at 1-866-216-9336 I selected "1" for AuraVie. They then said I could push 1 again if I wanted to cancel my account. Don't do that... Press 0 to talk to a operator. I spoke with the operator and told her I was upset that they had charged my mother's card $97.88. She kept saying there was nothing she could do because it was after the 10 day "trail" period. I then told her two of the bottles were defective because the pumps did not work on them and they were broken. She immediately said she was going to talk to her supervisor to see if she could issue a partial refund. She came back to say they would refund $59.59 and also cancel her account so she would not receive any future orders or charges. I figured that was good enough because that would save us from having to ship the products back and all that hassle plus she could keep the products. So in the end she ended up paying $37.29.
On to the Levela people at 1-888-283-7452. Again I was asked to press 1 for Levela which I did. Then I was told I could press 1 again and have my money refunded and account canceled even if it was past my trail period DO NOT DO THIS. Press 0 for an operator. Levela is who I was most upset with because she never ordered from them and if she did is probably because she didn't uncheck a box somewhere on AuraVie's order page. They charged her even more than the AuraVie people and she only got one little bottle that had a broken pump. I should mention that this was the only bottle that had a broken pump out of everything so I guess I lied to the AuraVie people but who cares if that's what it takes to get your money back. Anyway, I was very polite to this woman and told her my mother never ordered this product and it was only sent to her because she ordered from the AuraVie website. I told her that when she got it the pump was broken and the bottle was only half full. I said she never did anything about it because the bottle was so small she thought it was a free sample. The woman I spoke with told me she would refund my mother's bank the $89.95 and also gave me a confirmation number for the account cancelation and a confirmation number for the refund.
So that is how I went about getting her money refunded (let's hope). I will update if for some reason the money does not get credited back to her account or there are more charges after today. I also plan to call my mother's bank and tell them to block any future charges from auravie, levela, eskin, or bunzai media group. These are all the same company who scam people all over the US.
I hope my story will help others out there get some of their money back. I also informed my mother that no companies send "free samples". They all work this way by getting your credit card number to pay for the super low shipping charge and then charging you full price in a few weeks and then auto ship and auto charge your account month after month.
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