The financial system continues to crumble and 4Q 08 GDP may plummet 6 to 8 percent and I have to deal with this bull-oney. My wife, God bless her (because I won't), fell for the Extreme Acai Berry scam. This website sells a trial sized package of acai berry pills for, like, $3.95. It has a little disclaimer that says if you don't cancel within the 14-day trial period it will automatically ship a slightly bigger bottle for $89 and some change. In even smaller type (at least on the day I looked at the site), it said that the trial period began immediately, not upon receipt of the product, which, in our case anyway, was 12 days after purchase! Customers who call the number to cancel are greeted with a message saying that they should call back due to high call volumes. So it is basically impossible to cancel even if you figure out that the "trial period" is not a "trial period" in any meaningful sense of the word.
For additional details, see these sites:
http://www.sybervision.com/reviews/Extreme-Acai-Berry.php
http://www.ultimatefatburner.com/extreme-acai-berry-review.html
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/372/RipOff0372878.htm
This is what really peeves me, though: the credit card issuer that my wife used to make the purchase, Target National Bank, will not credit us the $89 and is continuing to do business with the scammers! There is no way that the government can police all of cyberspace but it certainly can ensure that Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and other transaction service companies are punished if they co-operate with known scam artists. These companies should regulate themselves before the government does. As soon as people start calling in to complain about the scam, they need to alert the offending firms to make good. If they don't, they need to cut them off. Otherwise, the transaction service companies are enabling the scam artists. They are accomplices, if you will. Suing some fly-by-night isn't worth it but suing Target National Bank could be lucrative. Until it goes bankrupt that is. Any class action lawyers out there who want a piece of the action?
In the meantime, I cannot stand doing business with companies that don't even understand their own interest so I've severed our relationship with Target National Bank and urge everyone else with a target on their credit card to do likewise. You shouldn't be charging much in this environment anyway.
