If you read the fine print in their satisfaction guarantee it is now stating that you have 14 days to evaluate the product. If you are unhappy, cancel anytime. What am I canceling? Oh, you will be charged $88.90 for next months supply. But, they are also stating, “a RISK FREE 30-day Money back Guarantee”.

This is violation #1. I was led to believe by page 1 that I am paying $4.95 S&H for a free product, but they are now in the tiniest font available enrolling me in an $88.90 monthly subscription that most people probably won’t even see.

A smarter person than me would probably just have shut everything down at this point, but I really wanted to try the product, and I have a 30 day money back guarantee so there’s no risk, right?

I ordered my free product on 6/1/09 and it arrived a few days later. I used the product for a few days, I did not see any noticable results, so it got put into the closet and forgotten about. (author note: my complaint is not about the effectiveness of the product. It may work for others, it may have worked for me if I exercised more, I don’t know, I don’t care. My complaint is entirely regarding the fraudulent theft of my money detailed below.)

On 6/30/09 while checking my bank statement I notice a charge on there for $83.95 from www.my-berry-trial.com, placed on 6/19/09.
I call the phone number next to the charge on my statement to inquire about the charge and after waiting on hold for 20 minutes I am told by “Joshua” that when I ordered my product from www.acaiberrybreeze.com I agreed to be charged the full product price if I did not call to cancel within 14 days. What are you talking about? I’m looking at your site and page 2 says I’ll be charged $88.90 for next month’s supply but this month is free. What am I canceling? Do you want my free trial product back or the next month’s supply that I haven’t even received? Please tell me where to ship the product for a refund. His reply was “sorry, all sales are final.” What sale? We argued for a few minutes with no results. I begged, I pleaded, I was officially being screwed. He canceled my “subscription” so that no new charges would appear, but refused to refund the $83.95 that they charged me for my free product. He sent me an email confirmation of my cancelation, with a link to a checkout page that I supposedly filled out and agreed to their terms on. Guess what, it’s completely different than either of the above pages!! I’ll post it later, first let me finish this part of my narative.

Here comes violation #2, refusing to honor their printed satisfaction guarantee:
Man, I was PISSED OFF! Fuming, raging, someone is outright stealing from me pissed off. I start looking at the original checkout page some more and I see the above mentioned “Risk Free 30-day Money back Guarantee”.
I call back, sit on hold for 20 minutes again, and this time I tell “Trey” that I would like to return my product for a full refund. I read to him the entire text of their satisfaction guarantee and inform him that it has not yet been 30 days. He gives me the line about agreeing to be charged if I don’t cancel in 14 days. Okay, fine, I don’t agree, but you charged me, now give me my money back, I’m not satisfied and it has not been 30 days. “Oh, uh, just a minute, please hold”. I sit on hold for a few more minutes and he comes back on the line, “Did you open the product?”. Yes, of course I opened the product, it’s a trial with an evaluation period. I’m supposed to try it. “I’m sorry, we don’t issue refunds if the product has been opened.” WHAT!!!! I ask how one is supposed to try a product without opening it. He tells me he doesn’t know, a supervisor will call me later…

Oh man, now I’m really about to blow a gasket. I wait around for a few hours and realize that tomorrow, 7/1/09 will be 30 days and I won’t have any argument at all to get my money back (other than the fact that I supposedly “agreed” to pay $88.90 for next month’s pills, not $83.95 for this month’s FREE pills…) if I don’t get this thing resolved and in the mail today.

I call back, for the 3rd time, sit on hold for 20 minutes (I’m not making this up!), and demand to speak with the alleged supervisor. “Sara” comes on the phone and repeats the company line about the product being opened. I ask again how I can evaluate the product without opening it. She replies, “it doesn’t matter, you are not getting your money back, that’s our policy, too bad”. But it has not been 30 days I exclaim. She says she doesn’t care, the product has been opened, no refund. I threaten to report them to the attorney general’s office. She tells me again, no refund. She further adds that she will not be taking any more of my calls and hangs up on me.

I looked up the Arizona Attorney General information and filed a complaint online. I am still fuming over this, I mean I feel like hopping on a plane from NY to AZ so that I can, well…, nevermind. Let’s just say that I’m angry. We can’t always do what we want, right?

So, that’s my experience with this thieving company and their low life employees. I have been ripped off for $83.95 by fraudelent advertising and business practices. I have demanded a refund within their 30 day money back guarantee guidelines and have been refused multiple times by multiple people.

I mailed the product back anyway, on 6/30/09, certified mail, so that when I take them to small claims court there will be no question about the 30 day timing. (ATTN attorneys, I’m more than happy to act as lead plaintiff or any other role in a class action suit, send me a post, I’ll reply) I enclosed the product, a printout of their webpage with their 30 day satisfaction guarantee, and a printout of the AG complaint that I filed. We’ll see what happens…

Oh, right, you want to see the checkout page that was emailed to me when I canceled. This is a checkout page that I don’t remember. I filled out the checkout page posted above, but even if I did somehow manage to fill out 2 separate checkout pages with my credit card info, it would only lead to

Violation #3:

This page states that I will be charged $83.95 for my FREE product if I don’t cancel in 14 days. However, it is again a material change to the product/price/services that were originally offered. It is completely different than page 1 which states everything is free, and page 2 which states that the first product is free but there will be a charge for the 2nd month. Again, I really don’t remember if this page even exists in the checkout process, it was emailed to me, blank, when I called them about the charge, but it’s existence or non-existence in the checkout process is irrelevent. Their marketing is intentionally misleading, the terms of their offer change from page to page as you are trying to place your free order, their text is so small as to be nearly hidden, and they are not honoring their 30 day money back guarantee, regardless of which month or which product they claim to be charging me for.

Click pic for full size

acai berry breeze rip off checkout page 3

So, that is how I had $83.95 stolen from me by Acai Berry Breeze, www.acaiberrybreeze.com. Outright fraud, theft, interstate commerce and Consumer Fraud Act violations.

Please, everyone, I again urge you as strongly as possible to avoid this company!! Do not try their product, do not order from them, do not under any circumstances give them your credit/debit card information! They are the very definition of fraud. You will lose your money. Don’t buy their product through other retailers either, you are supporting unscrupulous thieves who are stealing from your friends and family.

Again, if you have already been ripped off by them please take action! Here are the links and phone numbers again to file a complaint. Do it!! They will continue to steal from innocent people. I obviously don’t have access to their accounting books, but I can only guess at the thousands of dollars that they are taking and withholding from people every single day that they operate. Don’t let them get away with it! The AG is probably too busy to address a single person losing $83.95, but 1,000 people losing $83,950, 10,000 people losing $839,500? Yeah, I think that he would be quite gung ho to go after a company that has fraudulently stolen near a million dollars from the general public. It is up to you to speak up and speak out. Just fill out the form below, it only takes a few minutes.

AZ Attorney General Complaint form:
http://www.azag.gov/consumer/complaintform.html

Also, please contact the Maricopa County Sherrif’s Dept:
602-876-1092
and/or the Scottsdale Police Dept:
480-312-5000

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Please feel free to comment or to add your own experiences here as well, every little bit will help in taking down this disgusting orginization.