It's frustrating to see so many new diet pill scams pop up lately. It's also frustrating to see so many people (or websites) supporting such diet pills by endorsing their products so they can get their cut as well. In light of this frustration, I thought I'd write about one of the most popular scams that's hit the internet lately: The Autoship.
So what is an autoship program? Basically it is where the company agrees to mail you supplies (usually monthly supplies) of their product to your home on a regular basis and then charge your credit card when they ship the products.
So what's so bad about it? It sounds pretty nice and convenient right? Well, it is. If that's what the consumer wants, then there's nothing wrong at all with sales practice. Please note, that I am not saying that all autoship programs are evil. An autoship can be good or bad, depending on how the company uses it. Unfortunately, many companies try to trick you into enrolling in the autoship without you knowing about it.
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 give you an idea of just how horrible some of these programs can be, I'll try to walk you through a classic autoship agreement hidden in the fine print. I'll use Customer John as an example. John sees an ad for a free trial and says "Sure, why not?" In order for John to get the free trial they ask for all of his information. If John looked enough he might also find in their privacy policy that they reserve the right to sell his information to third parties (this is not a good thing). They also get his credit card information so that he can pay the small shipping fee (Bingo! This is also so they can charge it in the future).
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.
So what is an autoship program? Basically it is where the company agrees to mail you supplies (usually monthly supplies) of their product to your home on a regular basis and then charge your credit card when they ship the products.
So what's so bad about it? It sounds pretty nice and convenient right? Well, it is. If that's what the consumer wants, then there's nothing wrong at all with sales practice. Please note, that I am not saying that all autoship programs are evil. An autoship can be good or bad, depending on how the company uses it. Unfortunately, many companies try to trick you into enrolling in the autoship without you knowing about it.
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 give you an idea of just how horrible some of these programs can be, I'll try to walk you through a classic autoship agreement hidden in the fine print. I'll use Customer John as an example. John sees an ad for a free trial and says "Sure, why not?" In order for John to get the free trial they ask for all of his information. If John looked enough he might also find in their privacy policy that they reserve the right to sell his information to third parties (this is not a good thing). They also get his credit card information so that he can pay the small shipping fee (Bingo! This is also so they can charge it in the future).
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.
About the Author:
Before you buy any diet pills online, make sure you check Criticalorie's quality commentaries of diet pills. You'll get common sense advice from an industry insider.
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