The Acai Berry: Beware of "Free" Trials!

The Acai Berry may be a great antioxidant, but through my research, some companies that sell it do not offer a sweet deal!  It's all in the fine print.  What happens is you sign up for the free trial, but unless you navigate to their terms and conditions page, you probably won't realize what you're really signing up for.  Many times, you have to call back within 2 weeks to cancel.  (This is sometimes before you even get your free trial).  If you don't, you're automatically signed up to get their product - and get charged! 

If you find yourself getting unending charges, here's what I found out:
Pull your bank statement.  There will be a phone number by the company that's charging you.  Call them IMMEDIATELY.  They will continue to ship and charge until they get a cancellation notice from you. 
Here are some of the phone numbers I've used to get a hold of the company (be prepared to be placed on hold :) 

SFL Nutrition (Parent company for Total Cleanse, Global Net Pharmacy, Aton Solutions, Cleanse V, White Tea, Body Trim, Acai Berry Supreme, My Colon Remedy, South Florida Nutrition, Best Net Pharmacies, Net Care Pharmacies, Colon Cure, Extreme Acai Berry, Fullfillment, Colon Cleanse, FCM, etc) - 1-800-962-9293

FX  Supplements (Acai Berry Maxx) 1-866-851-2279

Acai Resolution 1-866-913-0757

Chances are, the companies will not refund your money.  They will just say that you should have read the disclaimer before you ordered.  If you have charges that you feel are deceptive - call the attorney general's office in our state (they'll look into it on your behalf) and the state where the parent company is located!  I've seen it where an AG files suit against the company, and the company settles.  In some cases, the agreement is that past customers get reimbursed.

Oklahoma Attorney General's Consumer Protection Unit:  521-3921

SFL is in Florida and right now Florida's AG is investigating them.  Here's an excerpt from an email they sent me about it:
Our office opened an investigation into SFL Nutrition LLC, Aton Solutions, Globalnet Pharmacies, LLC, and GIC on 12/11/08. We are investigating whether the company's marketing non-prescription pharmaceutical and weight loss products over the internet would potentially violate Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. According to complaints we have received, consumers are signed up for reoccurring orders without their authorization, are unable to cancel orders, obtain promised refunds or get customer assistance.  We requested information from the company via subpoena on 12/16/08, the deadline for this information is February 20th .  The companies are owned by Juan Zuetta, Anthony Pellegrino, and Vladislov Skoro. Because this is an active investigation, we will not be able to provide much more information at this time.  Consumers can file a complaint with our Fraud Hotline, 850-414-3990.

FX is in Texas.  Their AG says they've received about 120 complaints and are also looking into them.  Texas AG's complaint forms can be found here: 
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/complain.shtml

Acai Resolution is in Nevada.  I'm still waiting on word from their AG to see if they've had any complaints.  To file a complaint go here:
http://ag.state.nv.us/org/bcp/complaint.htm

Good Luck!  This has definitely taught me to look at the fine print!