As a consumer you need to be aware of the deceptive practices that
SOME skin care companies use to mislead and rip off their customer.
These practices include:
Free trails that are NOT really free.
You
do a Google internet search and click on a search result or an ad, this
takes you to a fancy "landing" page which offers you a free trail. You
think, "great it's free, so there is no risk involved" and you
immediately sign up for it. Well unfortunately you may soon find out
that "free" is not really free. Firstly, you will pay a high price for
shipping and secondly, in the fine print, it states that after a certain
amount of days, if you don't return the product, they will charge your
credit card. So it's not really free they just delay the billing by a
few days. On top of that they make it very hard or almost impossible to
return the product to get a refund.
Even worse you have
unknowingly also agreed to (also in the find print) have the product
auto-shipped to you every month and your credit card billed. They also
make the auto-shipping very hard to cancel. Phone numbers may go to
voice mail. Email and voice messages are sometimes never answered. By
the time you are able to cancel the auto-shipping, by possibly resorting
to contacting your credit card company, you may have already been
billed 3-4 times. Adding up to hundreds of dollars. Their only goal is
to be able to bill your credit card 3-4 times, not to keep you as a long
term customer. If you have given the company your financial information
the product will probably not truly be free. You probably will also be
charged monthly for the product until you are able to cancel it. They
may tell you that you can cancel at any time but there are thousands of
complaints from people being charged for months and months after
canceling. There are numerous reports of people with the same complaints
about free trails and auto-shipping with the Better Business Bureau,
RipOff Reports and other places on the web.
Miracle products that work almost instantly.
Another
deceptive practice is advertising for products that claim to work
instantly to reduce wrinkle. Such as claiming a "5 minute face lift". No
topical product can instantly take away wrinkles. Often the product
will just be a sugary/sticky substance that will dry hard on your face
and make it feel tighter to you. Your skin will not look any better and
as soon as it is washed off the feeling of tightness will be gone.
Hard Sell advertising copy
"Hard
sell" landing pages for anti-aging skin care products will include lots
of copy writing tricks to try and convince you to try or buy their
products and be signed up for auto-shipment. Using phrases such as "Dear
friend" and creating a fake back story, such as "I'm a mother of two
living in [insert your city here]" The page will automatically, insert
your city based on your IP address, to try and make you feel an
association with this fake person.
To avoid wrinkle product scams
and rip-offs. Don't sign up for free trails. If you have to give your
credit card information to receive your "free" trial, it will usually
end up not being free. Never sign up for auto-shipment. It is better to
order and pay for something only when you want and need it. Don't
believe any claims of instant results. Look for a complete list of
ingredients so you know what you are actually paying for. Look for
contact information. Search the web before ordering for any scam or rip
off reports about the company and/or products you are buying. You can
use the company name and the word "complaint," "scam" or "rip off" as
keywords in your search.
There are a lot of great
wrinkle/anti-aging products out there just make sure they are reputable.
Companies with quality products will treat their customer well so they
can gain a customer for life instead of trying rip them off and move on
to the next one.
No comments:
Post a Comment