Brian 3rd of 5
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- California
I got a call yesterday from a friend of mine who lives in California and needed to borrow some money. She applied for Social Security as soon as she was eligible so her monthly income is modest however she has learned to manage her money, something she couldn't do when we were together, and she is able to cover all her monthly expenses with some money to spare. At least she thought she did until this week when her debit card was denied for lack of funds. Checking her account she found $200 in ACH payments for skin care products. She called the company and they told her that when she ordered a free sample she had also agreed to recurring monthly orders and approved the payment directly from her bank account. They told her she could cancel the program at any time but then don't accept returns or make refunds. She gave me as much information as she had and I began investigating. I soon discovered dozen of references to this product on the internet everyone one of them negative. Little was said about the effectiveness of the product, good or bad. Rather almost every complaint involved unauthorized billing for unwanted expensive product.
The scam goes like this: They have this amazing new cosmetic product which they believe is so effective that if you could see the results from using it for 14 days you would become a permanent customer. So they are willing to give a sample for free if you will just pay the $1.95 shipping. Sounds reasonable and you're only risking $1.95 because they have to get your consent to charge anything more. They display no details on the website, no information is emailed or included with your sample so for most people it's only when their bank account is inexplicably empty only halfway through the month that they discover they've agreed to pay full price for that sample and another will arrive every month ($100 each) with the money being taken straight out of their bank account.
The company rep said my friend agreed to the terms but my Ditsy claims she never saw anything like that. Normally you will see a checkbox requiring you to confirm that you have read the Terms and conditions, I couldn't find one. Finally after searching meticulously I noticed three links at the extreme bottom of the page. "Contacts"," Privacy Policy" and "Terms". They were printed in such low contrasting colors that if you could see them at all you would get the impression that they were disabled links, plus this is where you customarily find Term of Use covering the website and this link is a long ways from where the order form is located. The Terms document is unreal. It states that by just being on the site that you agree to all the terms even if you are unaware of them. You also agree not to sue them in court or join any class action against them but rather settle all disputes through an arbitrator and to accept arbitrators ruling without appeal.
This can't be legal can it? If legal, what keeps them from simply setting the monthly cost of their product at $10,000 Can someone take a look at this contract and render an opinion, and keep in mind this is buried at the bottom of a large and busy web page and no instructions on where to find it or any indication that the contract even exist .
The scam goes like this: They have this amazing new cosmetic product which they believe is so effective that if you could see the results from using it for 14 days you would become a permanent customer. So they are willing to give a sample for free if you will just pay the $1.95 shipping. Sounds reasonable and you're only risking $1.95 because they have to get your consent to charge anything more. They display no details on the website, no information is emailed or included with your sample so for most people it's only when their bank account is inexplicably empty only halfway through the month that they discover they've agreed to pay full price for that sample and another will arrive every month ($100 each) with the money being taken straight out of their bank account.
The company rep said my friend agreed to the terms but my Ditsy claims she never saw anything like that. Normally you will see a checkbox requiring you to confirm that you have read the Terms and conditions, I couldn't find one. Finally after searching meticulously I noticed three links at the extreme bottom of the page. "Contacts"," Privacy Policy" and "Terms". They were printed in such low contrasting colors that if you could see them at all you would get the impression that they were disabled links, plus this is where you customarily find Term of Use covering the website and this link is a long ways from where the order form is located. The Terms document is unreal. It states that by just being on the site that you agree to all the terms even if you are unaware of them. You also agree not to sue them in court or join any class action against them but rather settle all disputes through an arbitrator and to accept arbitrators ruling without appeal.
This can't be legal can it? If legal, what keeps them from simply setting the monthly cost of their product at $10,000 Can someone take a look at this contract and render an opinion, and keep in mind this is buried at the bottom of a large and busy web page and no instructions on where to find it or any indication that the contract even exist .
