Anytime something is offered for "free" and they still want your card / bank account numbers.... it's not free. Even the legit sites use this method of marketing. You may get a "free trial" which really is free, but the agreement is, it converts to a paid membership unless you cancel before the end of your free trial. This is perfectly legit.

If the consumer fails to read the terms, who's fault is it?

@BZMedia: Personally I think that something offered for "free" that isn't free is fraud. Regardless of the fine print. No, not deceptive advertising. Fraud. You don't get to use that word unless your product has 0% of whatever comes before the word free, or it in fact can be had for 0 amount.

But then, that's just my opinion.

@BZMedia:
Well it can't be both free and not free at the same time. That's what I would call false advertising.

@chris_d: Yes, it can be both free and not-free.

You get a free trial for a specified amount of time. Upon expiration of the free part, it converts to a paid membership. Simple. Even Apple does this. It's not new, and it's certainly not fraud.

@BZMedia: When the company makes it almost impossible to cancel the membership and/or receive a refund, then it stops being "perfectly legit" and moves into "definitely shady." In such a case, the consumer could read the terms, memorize them, internalize them, and turn it into a freakin' one man show, and still run into resistance from the company. I think it's safe to say it's the company at fault, then, durr.

Well Acai Berry should have been a red flag it was a scam to begin with.

@chris_d: Schrodinger's Offer is both free and not free at the same time. Well, as long as no one looks in the box.

It is up to you, the consumer, to read and understand the terms, and make a decision from there. It's common practice. Time shares do this as well. They offer you something for free, like a snorkeling trip or whatever, in return for your couple of hours of time sitting and listening to a time share presentation. It's both free and not-free at the same time.

Considering all these 'fruit juice' things are gigantic MLM scams to begin with, using Craigslist to enlist your hordes of morons isn't new in any way.

Wait, 'risk-free' is not the same as free?
/So confused

This is just a warning about your "Try Consumer Reports Online Free" ad in the top left of the screen.

Thanks for your post on this. I almost fell for it!

Finally, someone said something about the Consumer Reports free trial. Normally, comments for the "articles" about the free trials are disabled.

I really like Consumer Reports, and I subscribe online, so my problem certainly isn't with CR.

Rather, if there is *anywhere* online where a 30-day free trial with automatic renewal should not be advised or advertised it is at the Consumerist-- even if Consumer Reports provides a reminder email at the end of the trial. Auto-renewing trials are simply not consumer friendly.

@Mike626: "Auto-renewing trials are simply not consumer friendly."

Perhaps, perhaps not. But it is the standard. How many sales would companies lose if at the end of your free trial, they had to contact you to ask if you'd like to pay for it now? It is assumed that if you don't make the effort to specifically cancel something, you must be satisfied and therefore won't suffer any interruption at the end of your trial period. For some, that IS consumer friendly. I know I certainly don't want to have to go through that to maintain something I've already signed up for once.

@thinkliberty: My thoughts exactly!

Don't know if anyone has actually bothered to read the terms of one of these sites, but it's all in there. There's no excuse.

[www.acaiburnmax.com]

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

I wouldn't call free trials fodder exclusively for greedy customers...personally I'd rather try something before investing money in it. However, anything listed as "free" but asks for your credit card number is NOT free. That should immidiately be sending up red flags for everyone, I'm not exactly sure how these people got suckered in...admittedly though, I've had to lecture my older relatives not to fall for scams like this simply because they lived in a time when you actually followed through with what you said you'd do, and they weren't trying to be scammed at EVERY turn.

@BZMedia: On the contrary, if a company has full faith in the product they are selling, they should be confident that the customer will place an actual order after the free trial.

The 30-day free trial is not a trial at all, it is a money-back guarantee, and should be advertised as such if companies are going to treat the trials as de-facto orders.

@Scuba Steve: Sorry, but it's not fraud. They promised a free trial, they got a free trial for a specific period of time.

If they didn't bother to read that they would be automatically signed up after that free trial, it's kinda their own fault.

Deceptive, possibly. Fraud, definitely NOT.

@Mike626: "The 30-day free trial is not a trial at all, it is a money-back guarantee, and should be advertised as such if companies are going to treat the trials as de-facto orders."

You're not being billed for the trial period, so yeah, it is a free trial.
As far as the confidence model goes, it's inconvenient at best, and seriously disruptive at worst.

So, when I signed up with my new payroll service, they were offering a 30-Day Free Trial, after which it would convert to a monthly fee. If it hadn't auto-converted, my service would have possibly been stopped until I was able to go and sign up a second time. Now, what if I was unavailable? My payroll would have shut down, and my employees would be quitting. And for what? To hold the hands of a few incompetent consumers who can't be bothered to read the terms of things they are signing up for? No thank you. I like the system just fine the way it is.

As a longtime direct response copywriter, I am ashamed at the current prevalence of these scam companies ripping people off.

I hear ads all the time these days on the New York Times radio station WQXR-FM. I did some online snooping and found numerous complaints about "Acai Fresh", "EyeQ", and "Hydroxatone", all frequent QXR sponsors.

The terms of the deal MUST be stated in the commercial, and in all of these spots, listeners are assured that they can get a FREE sample of the product, paying only for shipping and handling, and return it if not satisfied within 30 days.

The complaints on various consumer websites reveal a common pattern of charging customers for the next shipment even before the end of the trial period and then ducking all requests to cancel.

These companies are scammers -- there's no other way to describe their disreputable conduct -- and they have done a grave disservice to legitimate companies who DO offer a traditional free or risk-free trial.

So caveat emptor: one MUST do a background check before requesting any of these free samples. Why the FTC can't put a stop to these fraud perpetrators is beyond me...

@thinkliberty: They didn't even put a little asterisk in there anywhere! It's free*, not free.

I saw a story about this juice scam on the news a few weeks ago. The way they get you is that you have 30 days to cancel before it converts. That's fine.

What's not fine is that it's not 30 days from when you receive the product, it's 30 days from when you place the order. So you place the order, they "process" it for 2 weeks then ship it out via z class mail. It arrives on a donkey 15 days later and your card is already charged, and no one's answering the phone to stop it.

If you really want to try this more or less risk free, use a pre-paid visa card and a fake name. Fake quality company can have a fake customer. Let's just see them try to get the money from Phuk Yu.

@jpdanzig: "Why the FTC can't put a stop to these fraud perpetrators is beyond me..."

There are companies doing things like this in broad daylight, right on your tv, every day. Every single one of those "male enhancement" products is a scam. US Fidelis is a scam. The agencies can't do much about any of it because 1. they play by the general rules, even if they are shady. And 2. for every one you do shut down, ten more will replace them.

I do agree with you. Proper research into any company you deal with is REQUIRED if you don't want to be taken to the cleaners. I have friends that still won't do business with Amazon. I myself won't do business with eBay. Any website hawking the kind of snake oil like herbs, weight loss products, sex pills, or any other magic elixir is most likely designed purely to separate you from your money and nothing more. This goes for "work-at-home" gimmicks, real estate "flipping" gimmicks, and investment gimmicks too.

Work-at-home gimmicks: There is no magic bullet that is going to take you from being broke today to making $12k a month next month. I don't care how many actors profess their success, it is all a lie. The ONLY way to success is long, hard, w-o-r-k. Whether it's at home or not. But especially if you intend on running an actual business.

Sex Pill gimmicks: There is no known substance that can make a single part of your body physically grow larger, while leaving the rest of you untouched. Ladies, this goes for the magic breast enlargement creams too. Every single one is a scam. Period.

Real Estate Flipping gimmicks: These promise you can get started and make a fortune, even if you are currently broke. What they don't tell you is it's dependent on you borrowing money from friends and family to buy properties at prices not seen since the 40s. They charge you tons of money for something that will give you zero benefit. Stay clear.

Stuffing Envelopes gimmicks: No company run by people in their right minds is going to pay someone $10 dollars per envelope to "stuff" an envelope. Common sense should tell you this is ridiculous.

It's real simple people. READ THE TERMS & USE YOUR HEAD. If nothing else, Google the name of the company at least and see what pops up. If the first page is loaded with people telling horror stories, don't add to the horror. If it's advertised on tv at 2am for an hour with every flavor of human (the suburban stay-at-home mom, the middle-aged wannabe cowboy, the retired lady on a golf cart, the rebel on his motorcycle, the black guy that's doing well but not too well, the gray haired guy in his Jag, etc) professing its infallibility, it's a RIPOFF. It will be less painful if you just flush your wad of money down the toilet and get it over with.

Slightly OT, but my pet peeve are the solicitations I receive in the mail from my credit card companies for a free trial for some "savings club" of some sort that usually advertises discounts at certain shops & restaurants for usually anywhere from $80-150 per year.

It's bad enough that the fine print on these offers show them to be almost completely worthless, but it's the large print on the envelope saying, "CHECK ENCLOSED" that bothers me. Most particularly that they're sent bulk rate and are payable to bearer, while I'll be billed for the service no matter who might happen to cash the check.

@eb0nyknight: If they can't cancel then fraud it is.

@BZMedia: Sure, it's "the standard." So are usurious bank overdraft fees, and "juice drinks" that are basically just sugar water.

If I wouldn't buy something if I got a letter, phone call, or email message saying "hey, you've had your free trial, would you like to keep using this product?" that means I either don't want it or can't afford it.

@sonneillon: In Germany, advertising something as "free" is pretty much against the law, as indeed nothing "free" really ever is.

@BZMedia: "If it hadn't auto-converted, my service would have possibly been stopped until I was able to go and sign up a second time."

I see, so you can't be troubled to pay attention to when a useful service runs out, but you expect dissatisfied customers to remember to cancel?

Perfectly logical.

@I Love New Jersey: SERIOUSLY. Who still falls for this Acai crap? Can't we just put out PSAs during reality TV or something debunking the "Acai berries are magical ambrosia of the gods" BS once and for all?

I got one of those Acai Berry emails today. The subject line said "Leave Me Alone." My sentiments exactly!

if it's truly a legitimate clinical trial then it's going to be here:

[clinicaltrials.gov]

@catastrophegirl - brand new homeowner: "it" being ANYTHING saying it's a clinical trial - not just this particular scam

@Flynn: It is perfectly logical. I shouldn't have to sign up TWICE for something. And in case you hadn't noticed yet, this is the standard practice for pretty much every monthly fee based service out there today that offers ANY kind of trial period, whether it's days, or months. Get with the program and quit whining because you fail to read a paragraph concerning something you are signing up for. There is no free lunch.

I bet you think those people that knock on your door offering to shampoo the carpet in one room are really just good samaritans that go around shampooing people's nasty carpets for free too right?

@catastrophegirl - brand new homeowner: Ooh-cool. Thanks for the link.

@BZMedia: the problem is when there's no practical way to cancel, which is how many of these work. Oftentimes, they'll require you call but then put you on hold for hours or something similar, the practical effect being it's impossible to cancel.

@tdatl: That's the business model of these companies:

1) Entice people with free stuff that comes with strings attached.
2) Make it impossible to cancel after the billing period starts
3) PROFIT!

And it happens all the time. Employees of these companies are told to make it as HARD AS POSSIBLE for customers to cancel. They want you to give up so they don't have to give you your money back.

Yes, it's shady, but it must be legal somehow or they wouldn't let everybody get away with it.

Anything having to do with Acai berries is a scam. It's basically a pyramid scheme where the people who actually make money are the ones who convince other people to sell it for them. The people at the bottom then do all sorts of shady stuff to try and get sales. I am still waiting for an in-depth article on the issue. Feel like taking point on that?

@josquin021: The sample people at the supermarket have some lovely cheeses that are free. I'll eat between 4 and 8 toothpicks of their delicious products sometimes.

They also make the person involved end up calling their bank and filing a claim... which they are denied b/c they signed up for it and didn't read the ToS in the first place.