Complaint Review: Le Parise

I odered a free sample of Vitamin C Topical cream from Le Parise.  I have been paying about 20.00 for a jar of the product from a local health store and thought I would try ordering the product to see if it worked as well as the advertisement claimed.  No where on the form did it say anything about the trial not being free.  The add did say it was an automatic program where they billed your card every month for another shipment after 60 days, but that did not raise any alarms for me because I am currently buying it about once a month anyway, and it stated you had 60 days to try the product out and could cancel at anytime. 

After I had the product for a couple of days, my account was charged $89.95...TWICE.  I called the customer service phone number numerous times and they told me they would refund my money immediately if I sent the product packaging back.  I did, through priority mail, with a tracking number.  After I knew they had received the return, I called them every day for two weeks and they never credited the money back.  Luckily, I had notified my bank because I was told by the bank that on two separate occasions, during the time the package was being sent back, they tried to pull money from my account again. 

The bank already had information on the company and rejected the payment withdrawls.  Eventually, the bank had to take over and open their own investigation into the company and require them to refund the money before I could get a refund.  Bottomline, this company will run you around and get as much money off your card as possible, so if they do have your information, notify your bank immediately.  More than likely, your bank or credit card will want you to try and get the refund through Le Parise before they intervene, but you still need to let the bank or credit card company know not to allow any additional charges to go through while you are trying to get them to give you the refund (in vain). 

Another problem - the product is awful.  No big surprise, but I noticed immediately it was a fake cream.  Because I have to use the Vitamin C topical cream all the time, I know the difference in a quality product and face cream in a jar.  I looked online and the only complaints are buried underneath all their marketing information and links to buy their product, so I thought I would put this up in case someone else might decide to give it a try.