- Report: #1219388
Complaint Review: Alpha Distribution Inc. - Internet
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Alpha Distribution Inc.
Internet, USA
Phone:
877-871-1329
Web:
www.alphaformen.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
Alpha Distribution Inc. ALPHA Free Trial Scam- Was Not free- Charged $180 New York New York
On March 13 I ordered what appeared to be a free trial of Alpha Ripped and Alpha-T mucle building and weight loss supplements. The website had the GNC logo at the header and looked like a legitimate website. The initial charge on my credit card was $4.98 for shipping. The website stated this was an 18 day trial, there did not appear to be other charges associated. When the product arrived on March 17th I was surprised to find 2 regular sized 30 day bottles in the package, but didn't think anything of it. On March 31 I was charged $89.95 for each bottle! I was shocked! When I looked online for evidence of a scam I did find a video warning of this particular scam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snHzhlvCyvA
I also went back to their website looking for the fine print to inform the consumer of these charges. The fine print is at the bottom of the final billing page. You would have to scroll down farther than the button to send your infomation in order to see it. The terms and conditions are also available through a small link on the bottom left hand corner of the website that says "Legal". According to FTC rules and ROSCA "In addition, for all online transactions with a negative option feature (both initial sales and post-transaction sales), the Act requires the seller to disclose clearly all material terms, obtain the consumer's express informed consent to the charge, and provide a simple means for the consumer to stop recurring charges."
Disclose clearly is the key term here- Normally when you are going to be charged additionally a legitimate company is upfront about it. The fact that your 18 day trial is free and then you must pay would be made quite clear and you would have to agree to the terms and conditions before you sent in your credit card number. This is not the case for the Alpha company who is clearly trying to hide the fact that they are running a trial conversion scam.
I called customer service for their company, which is a customer service company, not run by the Alpha company, I was told that since my 18 day trial period was up I could not get a refund.They also wanted to charge me $4.99 to cancel my account. Absolutely Ridiculous! They did wind up dropping the $4.99 charge but I view that charge as further evidence that these people are only in business to suck money out of people. When I attemped to insist upon a refund I was told to have a nice day and was hung up on.
In addition, the address on the bottles is in New York, they don't give an actual address but is says Alpha Distibution INC, New York, NY 10003-1502. The address given on their terms and conditions is 2360 Corporate Circle Ste 400, Henderson Nevada 89074. This address is linked to a company called InCorp who deals with incorporating businesses for a fee. A legitimate company would a)have a publicly known address, and b) have a phone number where you could contact someone from their company instead of a group of unfortunate drones. Instead they are in hiding becuase they know what they are doing is wrong and likely illegal.
