Acai Berry Scams: How to Avoid One By Dee Power At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

For those of us who watch TV regularly, acai berry is not unfamiliar - it's even appeared on news programs. But, there are companies out there who supposedly scam people by offering free trials of this popular acai berry diet aid. Most of the time, the people who complain about these so-called scams are people who don't read the terms of service before they make an order through these websites.

These free or risk free trials are only sent when a customer voluntarily fills out a request form and provides the company having the free trial with their credit card information. The trial is free but the shipping and handling is from $2.00 to $6.00.

Most websites terms of service state, very clearly, that by giving their credit card information and ordering/receiving products, that the company has permission to continue charging the customer's card every month, and send out more products. These types of trials are called forced continuity, or negative opt out.

Trials can last anywhere from 14 to 30 days. An alternative to the negative opt-out is to claim a trial is for 14 days but send a 60 day supply of product. If the unused portion of the product isn't returned in a timely fashion with an authorization number from the company, then your credit card will be charged on a monthly basis until your order is canceled.

You may also receive products that you did think you ordered, like a monthly membership, fat flushing tea, or weight loss report. These extra products usually appear in detail in the company's terms of service on their website,

but since you didn't read the terms of service carefully, what you thought would be a free 14 day trial ends up costing you $4.95 or hundreds of dollars more.

Companies know this about consumers and are more than willing to take advantage of their ignorance. So does that make it a scam? Unfortunately, no. As a consumer, it's your responsibility to pay attention to the fine print. When a site has terms of service displayed, do yourself a favor and read through them. If they terms are unreasonable or nonsensical, don't purchase anything from that website.

Maybe you think it would be nice if a company told you ahead of time that your credit card will automatically start being billed every month from the time you start your free trial, but it's not illegal for them not to do so.

A real scam is when a company charges more for a product than they say they will. Refuses to send you the products you ordered. Sends you products, or signs you up for products you did not order. Or makes it impossible for you to cancel your orders by not answering their phones, or not answering them within an acceptable amount of time.

Free trials can be a good thing, make sure you read the terms of service and never use your debit card to sign up.

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