Have i been scammed?? Raspberry Ketone Fresh

HousL

I signed up to the free £4.95 trial and cancelled within 20mins of signing up. The automated CS line told me I would be charged £38 for the privilege ! Money was out the account straight away and I've not even had the pills to try them (it would have been less of a sting if they were still going to send them!)
Is there anyway I can get this money back or have I been well and truly duped ?

Lynzog

Why do I do these things?!

I was duped last night and didn't do my usual google until I noticed the confirmation emails went into my spam box - alarm bells went ringing!

I have cancelled my card with my bank so they can't take any more payments and have ordered a new card with a new number. I've also emailed them to say that I want to cancel. They have told me to call a number and it just sounds like an international phone and no one answers. I've read most of the comments now, and can see a mix bag of experiences (albeit all bad).

Has anyone cancelled their card before the payments came out and just kept it as cancelled without any financial comeback? I can see the p&p has come out for both products, but just wondered the time lapse between this and the £80-160?

Many thanks (from someone banned from making purchases online after 10pm)

purpledays

I have just cancelled my Debit Card to make sure Raspberry Ketone and Green Coffee don't take any more money from me. I have lost nearly £200 and there is nothing I can do short of loosing my temper with them.
I ordered them on the 7th and today counts as day 15.
My bank have been brilliant but as today was day 15 and they took the money today there is nothing they can do. There is no fraud.
I feel stupid falling for such a scam, I've always considered myself to be clever enough not to do so.

wealdroam

purpledays wrote: »

I have just cancelled my Debit Card to make sure Raspberry Ketone and Green Coffee don't take any more money from me.

Unfortunately, cancelling the card will not have the desired effect.

Both Visa and Mastercard (and probably the others) have processes in place to allow a merchant to charge the underlying account.

It is important that you, and anyone else in this position, take steps to ensure that the Continuous Payment Authority is cancelled properly.

lalalaliv

I bought the diet pills through the 'rebate' thing on 13th March. I feel stupid to this day, it clearly says 'mail-in rebate' so I should have known I would not just be paying £4.95 - it is very misleading but it's not really a scam because as consumers we should have been more careful to thoroughly understand what we were getting into before providing our card details.

I received one bottle a few days after this, rung up and received my RMA number through the 0800 404 6960 number and sent the product back to the West Lothian address in the terms and conditions on 26th March. I sent the package signed for and my tracking number the next day confirmed it had been signed for by a Mr P Lacki (a name I've seen mentioned in the last couple of pages).

At no point was I told I would need to give this tracking number to them nor does it say this in the terms and conditions. Unfortunately I can't find my post office receipt with my tracking number anywhere even though I know I kept it. I'm worried me or my boyfriend has accidently thrown it away. Now customer service tells me I am not entitled to a refund without the tracking number. I asked on what grounds they needed the tracking number because I wasn't informed when I rung for rma and it doesn't say so in the terms and conditions and she said they don't have contact with the fulfillment centre and they get 'millions of packages' all the time so they need the tracking number to confirm I sent the product and it was received. I said that does make sense but it's not really very fair that I was never made aware of the fact I would ever need to give it you, and I repeated it doesn't say that in the t&cs. She hung up on me...

So even though I've sent back the products and followed the t&cs to a tee (got an rma number, sent it back within 30 days of ordering) I'm not entitled to any of my money back through a loophole that I was never made aware of.

My point is, if you're sending your products back, please please keep your tracking number so you can give it to them and not make the same mistake I did.

stewpot090272

My wife was also duped by this. I did however print T&C's and to get rebate and have followed everything by the book.
Accessed rebate form after 30 days, filled out with codes and POSTED TO AMERICA tracked.
Patiently waiting to see if i get my £150 back.
If this does turn out to be fraudulent will this be covered as it was paid on a VISA DEBIT.

Lynzog

Ok so bit of an update: cancelling your card doesn't work, spoke to another person at my bank that has put a stop on all payments from this company. Luckily all that's come out is the p&p charges.

I've received a confirmation email from the ketone people:

ketone_scammer wrote:

Thank you for using Ketone Advanced Trial. This email is to inform you that your subscription status has been recently updated and any ongoing or all future charges have been cancelled as per your request.

If you have any questions about the cancellation of this subscription, or if you would like to re-activate the same in the future, please feel free to contact our Customer Service team.

I'm yet to receive any tablets, and hopefully I don't.

I just wanted to check if anyone has received this email / cancellation before they received the goods. And if so, did they still send them? As I hope I don't get them but also worry about returning them after reading all the issues other have faced.

Many thanks

ank4

I did the same about 2 months ago, straight away 154 pounds were taken from my account. I rang up the bank as soon as it happened and they said there was nothing they could do. All i could do was wait for the tablets, and send them straight back.
Which i did as soon as they cam through the post.. MAKE SURE YOU PAY FOR RECORDED DELIVERY because the ketone people asked for my package number, after 3 weeks of me sending the tablets back!
They said my money will be back in my account on the 11th, it wasn't there so I rang up on the 14th and they said my money will be in my account on the 22nd. IT IS NOT THERE STILL. It has been 6 weeks since they received my package back.. IM currently on the phone to them.. they said there was a ERROR with the refund so they are sending the details to a SPECIALIST ACCOUNTANT to work out the problem...
I rang my bank on the fraud team and they said If i can get in writing a reference to my credit card, with the note saying the word REFUND, a date of the transaction they attempted to send it and the amount needed to be refunded, then i can claim my money through my bank account.
I rang back and they said the emails were blocked and he would ring me back in a hour!!

KILL ME.
I warn anyone.. DO NOT DO THIS> ITS A AWFUL SCAM!!!!!

Voyager2002

These sales are illegal, and so your banks ought to process charge-backs, no matter whether you paid on a credit or debit card. They are illegal for two reasons:
Firstly, at the time you give your card number a price is displayed, and that is the amount that you agree to pay. They are not allowed to charge a different amount. So if you have been caught: try to find the original page where you ordered; make a 'dummy' purchase up to the point where it asks for a card number; take a screenshot. Use that as evidence of what was agreed when contacting your bank.

A second point is that raspberry ketones are banned: it is against the law to sell them anywhere in the European Union since they are an unauthorised novel food. If you contact the Food Standards Agency they will provide you with a letter confirming this: again use that as evidence to your bank that the sale was illegal.

And please everyone, contact your local Trading Standards and Environmental Health departments for advice, and ask them to let the FSA know what is going on. I hope that once we have evidence of the scale of the problem, something decisive can be done.

wealdroam

Firstly, let me make it clear that I do not work for any one of these companies, nor do I approve of their tactics.

Voyager2002 wrote: »

These sales are illegal, and so your banks ought to process charge-backs, no matter whether you paid on a credit or debit card. They are illegal for two reasons:
Firstly, at the time you give your card number a price is displayed, and that is the amount that you agree to pay. They are not allowed to charge a different amount. So if you have been caught: try to find the original page where you ordered; make a 'dummy' purchase up to the point where it asks for a card number; take a screenshot. Use that as evidence of what was agreed when contacting your bank.

Look at post #327 and you will see a screen print from that very payment page.
OK, they could've been clearer on the amount due, but it is quite clear to me that £4.95 is not the the amount to be taken from the card.
Read the whole of that post for an explanation.

Voyager2002 wrote: »

A second point is that raspberry ketones are banned: it is against the law to sell them anywhere in the European Union since they are an unauthorised novel food. If you contact the Food Standards Agency they will provide you with a letter confirming this: again use that as evidence to your bank that the sale was illegal.

Are you sure they cannot be sold in the UK?

I ask because Holland & Barratt are currently selling them in their high street stores and online:

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/vitamins-supplements/raspberry-ketones/#totalNumRecs=3&rpp=15