Most people would have heard the “free trials scam” operated by so many on line sellers. These free trial scams have given the industry a very bad name, and unfortunately this effects legitimate Acai pill sellers as well as illegitimate companies. A recent settlement in Arizona has gone someway to solving the problems that existed.
This settlement was agreed between Arizona attorney general Terry Goddard and pharmaceutical giant Central Coast Nutraceuticals. CCN sold Acai berry and other health products, often on the basis of the “free trial offer”. CCN’s behavior was particularly bad in this instance, as it did not give its customers the opportunity to cancel the free trial: e-mails and phone calls were left unanswered indefinitely.
In addition to the painful transition from free trial offer to premium subscription that many customers experienced, people are also being sent products that they did not order. Naturally they were charged full price for these extra products, and once again they were unable to cancel. Often the only way to cancel subscriptions was to cancel the credit card upon which they were being charged.
The settlement sum amounted to $1,375,000, $350,000 of which was set aside by Goddard for customer restitution. I have no doubt that the actual amount lost by acai customers was far in excess of this figure, but a least Goddard is pushing in the right direction.
Hopefully the settlement will spur other actions around the country, and will finally mop up those remaining companies offering acai ‘free trial offers’ to their unlucky customers.