Verve Beauty Derma, and Timeless Eye use deceptive advertising to sell their products.
1. In a very small, peripheral ad, they show a picture of an older woman who pats the product around her eyes. Quickly the bags under them disappear, as well as some wrinkles. You click on this to see the offer.
2. The product is advertised as “FREE”, just pay shipping and handling.
3. There is no more information on the web page about the offer.
4. There is no phone number to call.
5. You are not allowed to buy the first product without buying a second product, again you are told it is “Free” for the shipping and handling.
6. Again you are not given any more information about the deal on this web page.
7. They do not include ANY information inside the package that is delivered.
8. They do not provide ANY contact information to find out about the product, not on the ad, nor in the delivered package.
9. The only terms you are shown on the ad site, without navigating elsewhere, are that the product is “Free” for the cost of shipping and handling. No conventional method to navigate anywhere else is obvious, no scroll bar, nothing that says “see details here”.
10. The product does not work the way the video showed. It did not remove my bags or wrinkles immediately as shown, nor after days of use. Also, after a few days I had an allergic reaction to it. But there was no way to call and ask about it.
11. Contact information, a phone number, was only provided in the second shipment on a postcard describing another product. No further information about the products already sent was included.
12. When I called they informed me that I had a 14 day trial and a subscription began once the trial was over.
13. They will not accept the return of unopened product.
14. Not in any phone call did they tell me that the original “Free” products are not “Free”, not even after paying for the postage and handling.
15. They charged me full price 12 days from the day I placed the order, however I did not receive the order until AFTER that 12 day period. Therefore, it was NEVER “Free” for ANY amount of time. And paying full price for the product after the “trial” was never mentioned.
16. When I called and asked questions about why I was getting more product that I didn’t want and didn’t think I had ordered, I was told that “everything would be taken care of”.
17. A few weeks later I received an email saying that “any ongoing and future payments would be canceled”. However, much later when checking my statement, I found that I was charged for the subscription on the day I made the phone call as well as charged the day before. I consider those “any ongoing” payments as “ongoing” is defined as “current”.
18. I placed a second call about those charges, that I was “not going to be charged for”. The person on the phone was combative and only agreed to return 75% of the money for both products after a great deal of my shouting and being quite angry.
19. In this same call I was informed that there is a button that must be pressed that says “I am over 18 and I agree to the terms”, which I apparently pressed. No doubt because I am over 18 and I agreed to the terms that I was shown (“free” for the cost of shipping and handling).
a. Pressing the button does not lead to the terms. To get to the terms one must press the word “terms”
b. It is natural to assume the terms originally shown are the only terms.
c. This is a product aimed at older women.
d. Older women in general are not computer savvy and might not realize they must press the words and not just the button.
e. The type is very small and does not say press here to see further details and that there are more limitations on the purchase.
f. There is no reason to put the terms on a different page, or in a place that can not be seen without navigating to go to it, unless they are trying to deceive customers.
⁃ No print ad would be allowed to offer something “Free” without fully explaining the terms on the same page in reasonably visible type.
⁃ No TV ad would be able to offer something for “Free” without a voice over explain and small type listing the terms.
⁃ Both TV and print ads supply a phone number where everything gets explained fully again.
⁃ Internet pages are not limited by size, nor by time spent looking at them.
20. Verve Beauty Derma did finally return the money from the subscription payment for one product for $94.42, in two refunds. However, no money was returned from Timeless Eye. (I still did not know about the original charges at this time.)
21. After discovering the original charges, and that the product was not “Free” for any amount of time, I called a third time to ask for further refunds. The person answering the phone was combative and obviously not going to be helpful.
22. On February 8, I received a refund from Verve for $87.47.
Timeless Eye, A Verve company, still owes me $181.92 total for the original “Free” product as well as for the second shipment. Verve has returned $94.42 (in two refunds), which is the amount charged for the second shipment of one of their products and $87.47 on February 8, the amount charged for the original “Free” product. Timeless Eye has refunded nothing.
Verve Derma Beauty and Timeless Eye together have charged me a total of $363.81. I believe they get their money through deceptive advertising. They hide their terms, aim at older women, and the product does not work. They do not provide contact information until the subscription (that you don’t know you have) has begun. Once they give you a phone number to call they still don’t explain the terms clearly. They are combative if you want a refund of the money.
I want my $181.92 refunded from Timeless Eye. I also believe that Verve and Timeless Eye should be made accountable for what I believe are unscrupulous business practices.