Never has the phrase “ it’s too good to be true” rang more convincingly than in the case of Acai berry free trial offers. Many people have fallen for this scam over the last few months, and it is getting something of a reputation over the Internet. Unfortunately legitimate Acai sellers are being punished as a result of a small minority trying to make a quick buck at the expense of their moral obligations to customers.
One such organization that rejected the idea of genuine sales practices and completely ignored the concept of customer satisfaction was Central Coast Nutraceuticals. CCN offers health products – www.acaiberrysite.com being one of these – for sale over the Internet. The general market model for CCN was to snare customers with a low-cost free trial offer which then turned into a high cost subscription to products customers had not ordered, and did not want. This description turned out to be very difficult to cancel, and often the only way of stopping the charges was to cancel the credit card that they were being charged to. People ended hundreds of dollars down, and seriously, seriously annoyed.
So annoyed, in fact, the they sent hundreds of complaints to the Arizona attorney general Terry Goddard. Goddard brought an action against the CCN as a result of these complaints.
The case against CCN was such that they felt better to settle before legal proceedings began proper. The total settlement sum was $1,375,000 which includes $350,000 for consumer restitution. Customers of CCN – buying acai or other health products – who feel they have a right to claim some of this money should contact the office of the Atty Gen before August 17, 2009.