I also ordered a free-trial for $6.95. I did not receive the product until 7 days into the trial period, it hurt my teeth, and NOWHERE in the confirmation email or packaging or even the order form online did it say anything about an automatic $79.99 charge to my credit card. All they could do was lecture me on reading the terms and conditions, if the question I asked didn't fall into their scripted response, they just rattled on and didn't even address my issue. Well I had to go to my dentist yesterday and he advised me to discontinue use of the product because it made my teeth hurt. I also noticed the charge on my account dated Monday 3/30/09. That is when it posted, so it was initiated AT LEAST 2-3 days prior, on the 27th or 28th, which means I really only had 7 days to test the product before they charged me. I ordered on 3/13/09, received 3/20/09 and was most likely charged on Friday 3/27/09.
SO, here is my plan:
I am going to submit a complaint to the BBB. I suggest anyone who has been scammed by this company, or others like Advanced Wellness, do so also.
I have also consulting an attorney. I know this is not a huge amount of money, but these companies are banking on the fact that no one will actually DO anything about it. The charge to my debit card overdrew my account, so I have overdraft charges to contend with as well. What they are doing is false advertising at the very least, fraudulent and possibly criminal. If anyone reading this would be open to participating in a group lawsuit (the term class-action has NOT been thrown around yet) or would like to help at all with information only, please let me know. teethwhiteningscam at yahoo dot com. I am collecting information to present to my attorney so he can decide if this is worth pursuing. No personally identifying information is required at this point.
I have had it with these companies ripping us off, forcing us to deal with foreign customer service reps that either don't speak english well or clearly are only reading from a script and have no idea how to actually serve customers.
My last step is to contact a local news agency that does reports on injustices and scams that target regular people. If I can’t reach the worls, I’ll reach a large portion of Southern California.
My voice will be heard, darn it. This has really made me angry and I want to do something about it!