brain sparks

December 23, 2008 4:13 PM

I recently ordered a product online, a free trial. They wanted my credit card info for the trial and in a fit of delusion I went ahead and requested the product without looking for the catch. The catch is a tiny 'Terms and Conditions' button checked by default where I agreed to a monthly shipment of their basically worthless product. Is there anything I can do about this?

I originally got an email for a product called 'brainsparq'. Their main page is at http://www.brainsparq.com/, which is pretty clear about the free trial and the autobill attached. It's basically some cheap vitamins that will give you mental superpowers or something.

However, the originating email didn't send me to the main page, it gave me this URL: http://sales.estoreoffers.com/brain01/index.asp?cy=3&pr=31&af=16&ad=42&a_aid=65a97fea&a_bid=9dd7a1bb&data1=9

This page never mentions the free trial + autobilling, it just touts the free trial and there is a box that reads 'Satisfaction guaranteed. Return your free sample within 14 days and you won't be charged'.

I went ahead and entered my info and got to the 2nd page where they wanted my credit card info and shipping address for the 'free trial'.
I should know better, but somehow missed the tiny 'Terms and Conditions' checkbox and gave them my credit card number so I could try their product.

Said trial bottle arrived after a short delay, then I noticed a $68 charge from Fusion Laboratories on my credit charges, which confused me until I spoke to them directly.

Here's a Flickr set of the screens including the Terms and Conditions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlxreed/sets/72157611572437224/detail/

So my question, dear MeFi's, is what can I do about this travesty? I guess by any legal definition I have agreed to a contract so I'm basically fucked. On the other hand, I think their website and their methodology is purposely concealing the conditions and absurd price of their product which I unknowingly agreed to. That's my rationalization at least.

What are some things I can do? Personally I'd be happy to get a refund and forget the whole thing but the company has already told me to take a hike, it's a done deal, thanks. So any and all options, including the nuclear option will be considered.

posted by diode to computers & internet (17 comments total)

I would suggest that you contact your Credit Card company. Tell them the story and ask for a charge reversal or at least a stop on future charges. I was able to cancel a credit card transaction that I fell for. It really is a dirty trick they pull. And in a weak moment we fall for it. Good luck.
posted by JayRwv at 4:22 PM on December 23, 2008

Return any merchandise received unopened if you haven't already done so. Speak to your card issuer's fraud department. Don't worry about Fusion Labs' terms or return policies. YMMV, but as long as you can tell your card issuer, honestly, that you received and were billed for something you did not intend to purchase and have since returned those items, you should get your money back and be troubled no further.

You can't say you're not wiser now than before you encountered brainsparq!
posted by anazgnos at 4:31 PM on December 23, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

Just to clarify: you responded to spam, saw the autobill thing, put in your credit card info, got the free product, didn't return it within 14 days and were charged as you agreed. Right?

The only option is to try to reverse the charges and for sure to deny future charges.
posted by gjc at 5:18 PM on December 23, 2008

Dude, you responded to spam. Spam that took you to a garish green and purple web page with a smiling happy doctor and "as seen on USA Today" badge. Into which you then typed your credit card number. Were you drunk?

Send the product back and talk to your card provider.
posted by flabdablet at 5:20 PM on December 23, 2008 [6 favorites has favorites]

What was the "short delay"? If you read the terms and conditions linked from their main webpage, they have a 14 day cancellation period. The terms and conditions link is the same color as the page background, so they are hardly trying to draw these to people's attention. The terms and conditions contain the following:
Please note: Upon ordering your initial supply of brainsparq Mental Energizer™, you will be billed $4.97 for shipping and handling. You will also be automatically enrolled in our Mental Energizer Program. Under the Mental Energizer Program, you will be automatically billed $68.45 for each 30-day supply sent to you ($61.50 + $6.95 shipping and handling). This ensures that that you should never run out of brainsparq Mental Energizer™ until you desire to stop your shipments.
Cancellation: If you do not wish to automatically receive a 30-day supply of brainsparq Mental Energizer™ at the price of $68.45, which will be automatically billed to your credit card, simply call our toll free number (1-866-925-2123) Monday-Friday, between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:00 pm (excluding Holidays), Pacific Standard Time, within 14 days after ordering your 10-day Free Supply.
If you do not cancel the Mental Energizer Program within 14 days after ordering your Free Supply, you will automatically be shipped a 30-day supply of brainsparq Mental Energizer™ and be billed $68.45 to your credit card. You will receive a new 30-day supply of brainsparq Mental Energizer™ approximately every 30 days thereafter until you decide to cancel the Program. Once on the Mental Energizer Program, if you wish to cancel for any reason, simply call our toll-free number during hours of operation listed above. After canceling the Mental Energizer Program, you will not be billed for any future product, but you will be billed for any product you have already received. ...
Negative Option Clause: I understand that this consumer transaction involves a negative option, and that I may be liable for payment of future goods and services under the terms of this agreement if I fail to notify the supplier not to supply the goods or services described.
If you are within the 14-day cancellation period, call the number to cancel. If not, you may have to accept the first month's supply -- but you should immediately call the cancellation number to cancel any future months' supplies (call tomorrow - the last working day before the holidays). Record the phone call. Also notify the Better Business Bureau (Fusion Labs seem to be registered in Wilmington DE). They have been getting away with this since at least 2004. So your best bet is to stop any future charges with your credit card company.
posted by Susurration at 5:39 PM on December 23, 2008

Maybe you should actually take the 30 day supply and see if it helps?

But you have followed their instructions now and canceled right?

As others have said, you can dispute the ccard charges and get a 'charge back'. I suspect if they fight you for it through the card company, they will win and get to keep that $68. But at least that will assure you you won't get the next month's charge.
posted by Xhris at 5:49 PM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The smiling dude in a lab coat? The generic Asian girl advertising the Chinese Secret? The sultry-looking Naughty Nurse with a stethoscope? The fact that it was spam? I'm drunk right now and it screams 'jumping jesus on crutches what a ripoff' to me.

First of all, has the 14-day period gone past? If no, call them and say you don't want their product. If yes, you can return the product, call your credit card company, and say you don't want it, and you don't want any shipments of their Chinese Secret in the future. Your chances of getting that first $68 back are slim, but at least you won't keep on getting charged.
posted by dunkadunc at 5:57 PM on December 23, 2008

diode said s/he was delusional when signing onto the deal...that's better than drunk. Say no more.
posted by mumstheword at 6:22 PM on December 23, 2008

Okay, just typed out this whole screed and then accidentally closed the browser tab deleting my post with it....so evidently I'm badly in need of some brainsparq consumption.

Anyhoos, here we go again. Short story: went over the whole deal with my credit card company. Fusion Labs took my order on Nov 11th, but didn't ship till Dec. 4th, which they notified me by email of that fact. It's safe to assume I got the stuff by the 10th let's say. On Dec. 18th, I'm billed for a 30-day autosupply of a product I've only had in my hands for a week or so.

On that basis, the credit card company thinks the charge will be reversed and I should provide full documentation plus send the 30-day supply back to the company. End of story.

I, on the other hand, have learned a strong lesson about the virtue of self control. Thank god I have 16 bright turquoise capsules of brainsparq left to help me over this crisis with a whopping 3 mg of CoQ10 each plus other magic ingredients.

I also found this site in case the nuclear option ever becomes inevitable: http://itstheroi.com/rant/10-ways-consumers-can-get-revenge-online
posted by diode at 6:44 PM on December 23, 2008

This is almost certainly contrary to the terms of their merchant account for accepting credit cards, so if you dispute the charge to your credit card then you will probably get it reversed. However that doesn't mean you don't still owe them the money (lawyer required to answer that one), but I'd bet that, even if you do, they won't pursue it after the card payment is reversed.
posted by winston at 6:45 PM on December 23, 2008

What a muckup. Anyways, I have definitively canceled my contract with Fusion Labs by phone, though I read on Ripoff Report of this company continuing to bill people. Guess I'll deal with that later if it should ever occur. Thanks for all the comments. Must have forgotten to wear my tin foil hat during a cosmic ray storm, only explanation for this series of unfortunate events.
posted by diode at 7:02 PM on December 23, 2008

cool! good to hear it all worked out.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:15 PM on December 23, 2008

File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Depending on the Complaint History of the company, you could stand a very good shot of getting your money back and also a stop payment on the charges from the company. Be forewarned that the BBB's complaint process can take up to 30 days.
posted by Gular at 8:09 PM on December 23, 2008

I would close this card, or at least get a new number issued too. Even if you get your money back, you've given your data to a company that is unscrupulous. Are you sure that they won't sell your number to a ring of crooks? Do you trust them to have a secure database that won't be hacked? Close it.
posted by saffry at 8:13 PM on December 23, 2008

Oh, and get delivery confirmation on any parcel you send back. If you do it online, it's only eighteen cents, and may be the best $0.18 you ever spent. Don't go to usps.com to do it -- they'll only give you the option of Priority Mail. If you have a PayPal account you have full access to Pitney-Bowes shipping and can get that $0.18 confirmation on a First Class Parcel.

Or if it's too much trouble, just send me your PayPal login and password, and I'll do it for you. I promise I won't do anything untoward with the information. ;^)
posted by quarantine at 9:34 PM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Closing your card will be a pain in the butt, but leaving your card number in the hands of unscrupulous people like this is probably going to be a bigger pain in the butt. If/when the law says they can't get away with this crap anymore, their unencrypted database on an unsecured laptop will get 'stolen' just in time for a friend of theirs to pay their bail out of his unexpected inheritance from an unfamiliar but very rich uncle. Bet on it.

Meanwhile, make sure your credit card company knows you have canceled your contract with these guys, because I'd say they have no more notion of leaving your card alone than AOL ever had of cancelling their 'service'.

I would impugn your intelligence à la flabdablet and duncadunc, but I suspect each little spam in your inbox already reminds you that this was a very bad idea. And you're probably about to get a lot of those: "We got a live one!"

Unfortunately, you will not get all of the tens of thousands of spams that your $68 just bankrolled. At least two of them will reach other people with the same bad idea you had, just as it has been "since at least 2004," and just as it may be till the end of the world unless people stop reading their frigging spam.

Hey, I only said I wasn't going to impugn your intelligence. Not a word about supercilious lecturing.
posted by eritain at 10:32 PM on December 23, 2008

Just to wrap up this thread, I followed the suggestions and went to my credit card company to resolve the dispute. Seeing as this is also my bank, they pretty much did what was mentioned above. They hemmed and hawed a bit but the charge was reversed.

I haven't cancelled the card. I'm not that paranoid about it. I admit there's a chance of this company coming back at me with another charge or what have you but throwing the dice into the air my sense of the odds of this are relatively low. So, not doing that. Thanks for the impugning and supercilious lecture.

Got the chargeback credited a couple of days ago, so far so good.
posted by diode at 9:26 PM on February 23