While reviewing diet pills lately, I've come across more scams that I've previously seen. I always try to give notice to these scams and the products that use them. But I've been surprised at the increasing number of companies (not just diet pills) that are using a certain scammy sales tactic known as the autoship. Since so many consumers seem to be falling prey to the autoship, I thought I'd write a little article about it.
First of all, what is an autoship program? In it's basic form, and autoship program is where the company will send you new supplies of their product on regular basis. This makes it so you don't have to keep ordering the same product every month. Naturally, they will charge your credit card whenever they send new shipments.
Well that doesn't sound so bad does it? It sounds rather convenient if you ask me. And it is, as long as that's what you want to have done. It's important to understand that not all autoship programs are scams or necessarily bad. Here's the thing: it's the way that the companies use (or maybe better put, disclose) the autoship that can turn it into a scam.
Now I don't know the history, but at some point in time companies figured out that if they hid the details of the autoship in the fine print of the terms and conditions, that they could get people to agree to it without them knowing about it. People would skip over the terms and quickly purchase the product and bingo. They're enrolled in the autoship.
I imagine it wasn't too much later that companies (including diet pills) realized that "free" trials were very popular. So they started to offer these free trials, and again hid the autoship in the terms and conditions. Bingo! They just created a money machine for themselves. And all at the expense of the unsuspecting consumer.
To illustrate some of the one-sided details of some of the classic autoships that I've seen while reviewing diet pills, I'll use a fake scenario with our friend John. John is convinced by the marketing of a certain diet pills and finds that they offer a free trial. Being a naturally trusting person, he inputs all his personal information into the free trial request form and his credit card number to pay for the shipping of the trial.
John quickly checks the box stating that read the terms and conditions (even he didnt - who reads that legal jargon anyway?) and submits his request for the free trial. He is now enrolled in the autoship. He must now call and cancel the autoship within 15 days of his request or he will see a charge his credit card for $30 to $100 depending on the diet pill (a few will charge him for 3 months which would obviously triple these charges). Because he didn't read the fine print, he is surprised on the 15 day when he sees these "fraudulent" charges. He calls customer service to demand a refund but either no one answers or he is given the run around and never gets a real answer. Our poor friend John is now left with a few ineffective diet pills and a lot less money that he had previously. Now I don't know about you, but it sure seems like the company's taking advantage of our friend John along with all the other unsuspecting customers.
Again, I want to be clear that not all autoships are scams. Some companies give their customers an option of choosing the autoship while others do a good job of informing them of the autoship. But there are far too many companies who's main source of revenue comes from taking advantage of consumers who don't take the time to read the fine print. So be sure to read the fine print and be fully aware of what you might be getting into. We might not be able to stop companies from dong this, but we can certainly make sure that we aren't scammed ourselves. - 15995
First of all, what is an autoship program? In it's basic form, and autoship program is where the company will send you new supplies of their product on regular basis. This makes it so you don't have to keep ordering the same product every month. Naturally, they will charge your credit card whenever they send new shipments.
Well that doesn't sound so bad does it? It sounds rather convenient if you ask me. And it is, as long as that's what you want to have done. It's important to understand that not all autoship programs are scams or necessarily bad. Here's the thing: it's the way that the companies use (or maybe better put, disclose) the autoship that can turn it into a scam.
Now I don't know the history, but at some point in time companies figured out that if they hid the details of the autoship in the fine print of the terms and conditions, that they could get people to agree to it without them knowing about it. People would skip over the terms and quickly purchase the product and bingo. They're enrolled in the autoship.
I imagine it wasn't too much later that companies (including diet pills) realized that "free" trials were very popular. So they started to offer these free trials, and again hid the autoship in the terms and conditions. Bingo! They just created a money machine for themselves. And all at the expense of the unsuspecting consumer.
To illustrate some of the one-sided details of some of the classic autoships that I've seen while reviewing diet pills, I'll use a fake scenario with our friend John. John is convinced by the marketing of a certain diet pills and finds that they offer a free trial. Being a naturally trusting person, he inputs all his personal information into the free trial request form and his credit card number to pay for the shipping of the trial.
John quickly checks the box stating that read the terms and conditions (even he didnt - who reads that legal jargon anyway?) and submits his request for the free trial. He is now enrolled in the autoship. He must now call and cancel the autoship within 15 days of his request or he will see a charge his credit card for $30 to $100 depending on the diet pill (a few will charge him for 3 months which would obviously triple these charges). Because he didn't read the fine print, he is surprised on the 15 day when he sees these "fraudulent" charges. He calls customer service to demand a refund but either no one answers or he is given the run around and never gets a real answer. Our poor friend John is now left with a few ineffective diet pills and a lot less money that he had previously. Now I don't know about you, but it sure seems like the company's taking advantage of our friend John along with all the other unsuspecting customers.
Again, I want to be clear that not all autoships are scams. Some companies give their customers an option of choosing the autoship while others do a good job of informing them of the autoship. But there are far too many companies who's main source of revenue comes from taking advantage of consumers who don't take the time to read the fine print. So be sure to read the fine print and be fully aware of what you might be getting into. We might not be able to stop companies from dong this, but we can certainly make sure that we aren't scammed ourselves. - 15995
About the Author:
Before you buy any diet pills online, make sure you check Criticalorie's excellent reviews on diet pills. You'll get no-nonsense, scientifically-backed research and commentary.
