Complaint Review: AVILA -

Virtually all these 14, 18 and 21 day "trial" offers are part of an integrated "forced compliance" scam, run by various fraudsters in different states, who hide behind fulfillment services (like The Fulfilment Lab in Florida... look them up on the BBB website to get the lengthy backstory); use cryptic, constantly-changing merchant ID information, to obscure their iddentition to credit card companies / cardholders. The people who put up the websites offering these trials, outsource their "customer service" to a large call center in Phoenix, where a building full of "Customer Service Agents" (a disproportionate number of whom are on probation) have only one objective: to prevent you from cancelling your automatically shipped monthly "subscription" to a lot of cheap, imported cosmetics and non-FDA approved supplements. 

The call center operates as Alpha Connect, and making it difficult; if not impossible, to get out of forced compliance "subscriptions" to trial products promoted as "free", appears to be its primary function, and the reason it was created. Interestingly, if you search the BBB website for complaints about "free trial offers" and "unauthorized credit card charges", the majority with a grade of "F" are directly tied, as clients, to Alpha Connect. The name Alpha Connect is never mentioned, because employees are prohibited from saying it to callers, or naming any company executive, officer or manager. Agents give only first names, and answer as "customer care".

Toll free customer service numbers for a staggering number of "free trial" products and routed to Alpha Connect. To the uninformed observer, it might appear Alpha Connect was created for the specific purpose of frustrating, impeding and obstructing consumer ability to cancel forced compliance subscriptions to awful, cheap, foreign products. Such an observer might conclude that the company engages in practices prohibited by the Restore Online Shopping Confidence Act (ROSCA). Others might perceive it as a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) that would not exist without; and serves no purpose other  than, to perpetuates apparently prohibited, fraudulent activities described above. 

Employees are not allowed to identify the name of their supervisor, the call center or its location; and, are encouraged to hang up on calls exceeding three minutes in length (in training, Agents are told the call center is paid only for the first three minutes of each call by its free trial marketing partners. They are also told that calls exceeding this length should be terminated with a "soft close" (Alpha Connect speak for hanging up on somebody).

These people seem to know what they are doing is illegal, and appear paranoid about employee whistleblowers to the point that they require non disclosure agreements. The walls of the call center are lined with surveillance cameras and personal electronic devices are forbidden, because management is reportedly worried that employees will gather and provide evidence of their activities to authorities. There are no interoffice memoranda, written procedures, or anything else that might create a audit trail employees could posses in physical form, or that investigators could use to  piece together what they are doing. Agents are not allowed to write anything down or have pens/scratch paper for fear they will notate phone numbers investigators could use to identify and contact callers. These people have seemingly turned "forced compliance" credit card scams into an art, and there is only one way to get out of it with your money.

Alpha Connect will refund credit card charges and terminate subscriptions only when callers make what is internally referred to as a Statement of Negative Action, or SONA. And this is where the rubber meets the road for Alpha Connect. Agents are trained to deflect (if not simply disconnect) anything a caller says with five exceptions. Any one of these statements will get you a refund:

1. "If you do not issue a full refund immediately, I will file a complaint with the BBB"
2. "If you do not issue a full refund immediately, I will file a complaint with the State Attorney General"
3. "If you do not issue a full refund immediately, I will instruct my attorney to file a lawsuit"
4. "If you do not issue a full refund immediately, I will file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission"
5. "If you do not issue a full refund immediately, I will Notify law enforcement"

There is a call flow chart for this, and Agents are under constant surveillance to ensure they do not commit the cardinal sin of refunding a callers money short of one of these five types of threats. If an Agent is perceived by management as "leading"(helping) a caller to obtain a refund by steering the conversation toward one of these five statements, they are subject to termination. 

when callers do spontaneously make one of these statements, Agents are trained to first offer a 30% refund; then if the caller continues to demand a full refund, 50%. If the caller declines and persists the Agent will offer 75%. If the caller declines that, they will ultimately relent and refund the full amount. Before they do this they will offer discounts ranging from 25% to 60% in an attempt to keep you on the hook with a subscription. If you decline all of these "amazing discounts", they will ask you what you can "afford to pay" which tells you a lot about the inherent (non)value of the products. Be resolute; continue to insist on a full refund; mention regulatory or law enforcement, and they will issue a full refund to your credit card. 

They train Agents to attempt to retain a "cancellation fee"; however, the computer screen displaying the scripts agents must follow, clearly states "The customer cannot be required to pay this fee -waive if caller protests". How's that for business ethics?   its more game of chance than business transaction, so keep that poker face; accept nothing less than a full refund with no deductions for cancellation/restock/service charge fees; and, don't hesitate to play any of the trump cards above. they will fold faster than you can say "organized credit card fraud".

These people are very, very experienced with this, and they know how to walk the line in a way that obscures their relationship to the trial product marketers and provides plausible deniability of criminal activity; but really, what kind of legitimate business refuses any form of compromise or refund, right up until the moment you mention law enforcement? LOL. 

I didn't last long there; couldn't sleep at night because my conscience was killing me, once I understood what they are really up to. That's probably why so many felons are employed there (no background or reference checks or drug testing); its the perfect job for somebody with no sense of guilt or remorse... you know, sociopaths.