Trapped in acai berry hell

Post Reply New Topic

I worked for 5 years in a major bank and was in both the Visa credit card chargebacks and fraud sections. Unless you are certain you read ALL the small print, you will have unwittingly go yourself into a scenario involving regular debits from your card. Contact the acai berry merchant by email and tell them you have not received the product for which you paid and would like to cancel any future debits. If you have a VISA card, then the rules are that the merchant then has 15 days in which to process your request. After those 15 days, if there are any further charges made on your credit card, you need to approach your nearest branch and tell them you wish to initiate a VISA dispute. You will need to take a copy of the email you sent to the merchant to cancel the payment plan, as it will be attached to your case as proof of cancellation. Your bank's chargeback section can then start the chargeback process and get the amount back for you. As for the amounts that have already been charged, you will just have to wear them.

If you really want to fight for those amounts, you will need to do a "Goods/Services Not Received" chargeback, which is a little different. For that, you will need to contact the merchant by email and tell them you have never recieved any products and that you are going to intitate a chargeback unless they can send out the product or reimburse you. The merchant then has 30 days to address your request. If after 30 days from the date of your email you have not received anything or heard from them about an alternative solution, approach your bank with any and all relevant emails and ask them to chargeback for goods not received.

Customers inevitably win these sorts of scams. The process is not that dissimilar for Mastercard, but I have not dealt with them personally. Contatc the merchant ASAP, keep records and get your bank involved. Cancelling the credit card will have no effect, so don't do that. Good Luck.

Given that most of y'all seem to have as much trouble with phone calls as I do, I thought I should point out that if you get one of those little boxes that splits off the phone line into your computer, and use a program called VRS Recording System, you can record your phone calls to audio files on your computer.. That way you have proof of everything you did via phone, so if the company tries to claim that you didn't call them when you did, you have it recorded. Also helps like if you tend to freeze up on phone calls and not remember what was said or what information was given, you can just play it back. They're just files, so you can always delete them if you don't want them saved, but it's nice to be able to reference if the company says "well, we don't have a record of your call" or something.. then you can be like "I do! Shall I send you the recording I had with your representative?" Might kinda shut 'em up.
(Kris is reading my post and offering to zip up the recording program so I can e-mail it if anyone needs it.. I don't know exactly how admissible it is in court in different countries but it's at least a useful reference... OK, Kris is now pointing out that if you state to the company at the time that the call is being recorded and then immediately e-mail the file to someone as soon as the convo is done, it would work kinda as proof that you didn't have time to alter it. Bit like using the postal system as a "poor man's copyright" by sealing something and sending it to yourself and keeping it unopened so you have legal proof of when it was written by the postmark.)
Also useful against those annoying companies that illegally use auto-dialers..

If you think you're being scammed, it's probably a good idea to cancel you're credit card as soon as possible to be safe. I've been scammed and it sucks. Once in a while we get bills for products we've never heard of or ordered, it's really frustrating and I wish there were more to do about it. I mean, if tons of people are complaining (I sometimes check online to see if anyone else gets scammed on a certain thing)about a certain company, then they should be taken down. But I guess it's not that easy.

I would suggest the website http://consumerist.com You can search for acai berry but also it gives lots of good advice for dealing with unscrupulous and scam businesses.

The same thing happened to me with Glow.com I ordered their "free" sample make-up, having only to pay the $5 shipping charge. One month later, they charged me $90 for the "free" products. I got my money back, and here's how you can, too.

First, write to the companies that charged you and let them know that they did NOT have your permission to put these false charges on your account. Let them know that you have been scammed and they will be held accountable.

Tell them that until and unless you get your money back, you will go on every social networking site you know of and spread the word about their scam. Then do it.

Tell them that you are also contacting the Better Business Bureau and the Attorneys General of your state and their state.

Glow.com also told me that they had no record of my returning their product, although I had returned it right away, as per their directions. I repeated the above steps, and forward several postings I put on Twitter and Facebook. They were not happy. I got my money back the next day--with an e-mail that they had miraculously found my returns.

Oh, I also mentioned that if I had to, I would forward the mess to my lawyer. I don't have a lawyer, but the word alone makes things happen. I have used the word "lawyer" several times in various situations---it works wonders.

Good luck and let us know how it all turns out!

1. Cancel the credit card. They should be taking YOUR side in the dispute as you never got the product promised and the law gives you the right to cancel orders without being bound to a contract.

2. Refuse to pay the illicit charges. Again, the law is on your side. No matter what the alleged contract says, you never got the product and a judge will want to know what you got that entitles them to constantly charge your account. Let the card company take YOU to court. If they try to smear your credit record over a couple hundred dollars in disputed charges, you can state your side to the credit reporting agency. It's a non issue. I refused to pay for electric bill surcharges which were to compensate for low rates the prior year. I was new to the area, so I'm paying the charge owed by a prior tenant. I said, "No." I told them why. I moved away. Never a word said after that. Nothing on my credit report for failing to pay.

3. File a complaint with the FTC (you can Google their online complaint form). Stuff like this should not go unchallenged.

heys guys you can get through to them by adding 0011 to their given number (+44)2031399027.

i'm from AUSTRALIA so i don't know if it will apply to you if you are not in the same country.

HOPE THIS HELPS!! !