Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyApparently, we haven't written enough about risk-free trial offers here. Because every week, viewers e-mail their complaints about signing up and then wanting their money back.
Once again, if you see an advertisement that claims "risk free", don't click. There is no such thing.
The Arizona Attorney General went after local businesses for not making their risk free claims clearer.
Attorneys General in California and Texas have gone after other businesses for the same thing.
And "risk free trial offers" is one of the Better Business Bureau's biggest complaints, says Valley BBB's Matt Fehling.
Fehling says when you give your credit card number for a small postage fee, before you know it, the trial period is over and you're being charged.
It's too late to cancel.
Here's a note to all the businesses operating this way: If you want to offer a free trial do it. But don't force customers to cancel or pay.
Let the free trial end and if the person wants the product, they'll order it. It's that simple.
Of all people, my wife recently ordered a risk free product.
It took me about five hours to get it removed from our credit card, contacting the company to get some "special" number that I had to write on the box and on some paper inside. Then I had to send back all the containers.
It was a hassle.
Fehling's been hearing about another issue.
"Consumers try to call and e-mail and can't get through to a live person and 6 months go by. Then they have 400 to 500 dollars taken out of their account," he says.
And some of the claims made about the products, like hair gain or weight loss, are not tested by the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA usually doesn't get involved until there are complaints.
What do you think about this way of selling products? Leave a comment.
