Health

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Beware “Free” Trial Offers for Net Teeth Whiteners

Who doesn’t want a whiter, brighter smile? Everyone does, and so companies have popped up online offering “free trials” of their teeth whiteners. But beware of geeks bearing gifts.

One consumer wrote to Mouse Print* describing how a friend was taken in by the promotion:

It seems she came upon a site that was put together in a way that it appeared to be some local housewife going on about how using two different teeth whitening products together (one after the other in succession) she got amazing results comparable to the hundreds of dollar laser whitening you can get at the dentist. There was all this hoopla about how the lady had tried for years to get coffee and cigarette stains off her teeth and how the normal teeth whitening products never gave her satisfying results but yet with both the products it was amazing blah, blah, blah. The housewife ad says that she is from Houston (turns out it is a code meant to trick you that says she is from where ever the viewer is – if your in New Zealand so is she trying to give a false sense of camaraderie) … Here is the thing she received the trial samples 15 days after signing up for the “free trial” so before she would have even had a chance to try the item and decide it wasn’t for her (if she had realized that was the deal)they had already sent out two more packages of each at $75 per and revoked any satisfaction guarantee.

On a similar site, the geographic connection to the reader is trying to be made, but they obviously used a directionally impaired computer program:

toothwhite1

Another regular reader wrote that he was taken in by this similar site that extolled the virtues of two other teeth whitening products that had free trial offers.  He received three shipments and multiple bills when he was only expecting two free samples.

When visiting the actual sites of the two products being touted, there is a ton of fine print disclosing a ton of charges.

*MOUSE PRINT: For Dazzle White, the charges include [red highlighting added]:

Upon placing your first order for Online Products, you will automatically be enrolled in the DazzlewhitePureTM all-access program (“All-Access Program”). The All-Access Program enables you to access, via your Services Account, the Insider Secrets Expert Tips Package (“Insider Secrets Package”) and the Comprehensive Weight Loss eBook Package (“eBook Package”) made available on the Website. Initially, you shall have access to the Insider Secrets Package pursuant to a fourteen (14) day trial period (“Insider Secrets Access Pass”). If you do not cancel your Insider Secrets Access Pass during your fourteen (14) day trial period, then your Active Credit Card will be charged the monthly Insider Access Package fee of Three Dollars and Twenty-Four Cents ($3.24) (“IAP Monthly Fee”). Thereafter, for as long as your Insider Secrets Access Pass remains active, your Active Credit Card will be charged for the IAP Monthly Fee on a monthly basis, for your ongoing Insider Secrets Access Pass.

Further, you shall initially have access to the eBook Package pursuant to a twenty-eight (28) day trial period (“eBook Access Pass”). If you do not cancel your eBook Access Pass during your twenty-eight (28) day trial period, then your Active Credit Card will be charged the monthly Insider Access Package fee of Seven Dollars and Fourteen Cents ($7.14) (“EAP Monthly Fee” and together, with the IAP Fees, the “Access Fees”). Thereafter, for as long as your eBook Access Pass remains active, your Active Credit Card will be charged for the EAP Monthly Fee on a monthly basis, for your ongoing eBook Access Pass.

All Access Fees will appear on your Active Credit Card bill as “Internet Access Fee and Membership.” You hereby authorize DazzlewhitePureTM (or its partners, affiliates and/or agents) to charge your Active Credit Card all such Access Fees on a monthly basis. You acknowledge and agree that DazzlewhitePureTM will not obtain additional authorization from you for each installment of Access Fees charged to your Active Credit Card.

B. ONLINE PRODUCTS

When our Offer is indicated to be “Risk-Free” we mean that by providing the ability to fully cancel and stop future payments, we eliminate the risk of incurring unwanted charges or commitments.

Trial Offer and Sixty (60) Day Guarantee: Where DazzlewhitePureTM offers its “Trial” Promotion, and where you have chosen to register for such Promotion, upon submitting your initial DazzlewhitePureTM Application, your Active Credit Card will be charged only the non-refundable Shipping and Handling Fee for your initial fourteen (14) day trial membership (“Trial Membership”) and you will receive a one (1) month supply of DazzlewhitePureTM. If you do not cancel your Membership as set forth in Section 6 hereinbelow, and return the one (1) month supply at your expense, which must be received by us within fourteen (14) days of your receipt of the one (1) month supply of DazzlewhitePureTM (“14 Day Trial Period”), your Active Credit Card will be charged the monthly Membership fee of Fifty-Eight Dollars and Seventy-Six Cents ($58.76) (“Monthly Fee”). Your first three (3) month supply of DazzlewhitePureTM will be shipped thirty (30) days from the date that your initial one (1) month supply was shipped in connection with your Trial Membership. Thereafter, for as long as your Membership remains active, your Active Credit Card will be charged for the Monthly Fee on a monthly basis, plus Shipping and Handling, every third month, for your ongoing Membership. You hereby authorize DazzlewhitePureTM (or its partners, affiliates and/or agents) to charge your Active Credit Card all such fees associated with Membership on a monthly basis. You acknowledge and agree that DazzlewhitePureTM will not obtain additional authorization from you for each installment of Monthly Fees charged to your Active Credit Card. All Monthly Fees will appear on your Active Credit Card bill as “Internet Access Fee and Membership.” Orders outside of US pay an additional Nine Dollars and Ninety-Five Cents ($9.95) for shipping and handling.

Ebook access, insider secrets, and weight loss information? What does that have to do with trying a tooth whitener?  And why are consumers being charged for these things?

For the Smile Brite product, there are even more expensive surprises:

*MOUSE PRINT:

In the event you do not cancel within ten days after you order your trial product, you will be automatically enrolled in our convenient home delivery plan and your credit card will be charged $92.37. Thereafter, 30 days from your initial order, you will be billed the monthly charge of $92.37 each month when product is sent to you.

These are all negative option plans (like the old-fashioned book clubs).  If you don’t cancel during the trial period, you get automatic shipments of products and bills every month.  Some say there isn’t enough time to cancel before the costly shipments and billing begins.

And just to add insult to injury, there are dozens of these tooth whitening websites with what appear to be personal stories of female bloggers who found a miracle in a tube. And surprise, these sites are suspiciously similar to one another in content and format. Even the comments that appear on some of these websites seem to be fabricated.  Someone named “Patty” commented on “Rachel’s Teeth Whitening Success Blog” saying that she “never tried a teeth whitening kit before so I have high hopes based on your success”.  Funny thing, this Patty person seems to have visited a LOT of teeth whitening sites and made the same exact comment on blogs that touted the whitening success claimed by Sandy, Karen, Manda, Anna, Allie, Cathy, Molly, Holly, et al.

A word to the wise: stick with over-the-counter whiteners or professional whitening services performed by a dentist.

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Plumped Chickens: You Are Paying for Water

plumped1If a butcher puts his thumb on the scale, you wind up paying for meat you never actually receive. 

Some chicken producers are now doing something similar when processing their chicken. On the left is a typical package of chicken you might find in any supermarket. It says “100% natural” breasts (with some rib meat).  You expect there to be nothing but chicken in the package in all likelihood. However, look at the fine print disclosure:
 

plumped2

*MOUSE PRINT: “with up to 15% natural chicken broth.”  What’s that?  Primarily salt and water.  So you are really paying $3.99 a pound for the water that comprises 15% of the package weight.

Current labeling law still allows the chicken to be labeled “all natural” because water and salt are natural ingredients, irrespective of the fact that they are being injected into the birds to make them weigh more.

Makers of plumped chickens say the extra water and salt help make the chicken more moist and tender. While that may be true, they are not eager to tell you that a four-ounce serving of enhanced chicken may have eight times the chicken’s normal sodium content — equivalent to the salt in a large serving of fast food french fries.

For more information on plumped chickens, here is a recent LA Times article, a video on the plumping process from CBS News, and Foster Farms’ wonderfully clever website, “Say No to Plumping“.

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Cheerios Helps Lower Cholesterol 4%; No, Make that 10%; Do I Hear 20%?

While we have come to accept that products containing oats may help to lower cholesterol, the claims can be very confusing.

Take Cheerios, for example. On the left is a box purchased a couple of months ago, and on the right is a box purchased last week.

cheerios4    cheerios10

The old one claims that Cheerios can help lower your cholesterol four percent in six weeks, while the new one says by 10% in just one month. It further goes on to claim on the front panel that eating three servings of Cheerios a day “may reduce the risk of heart disease.”  The products themselves are unchanged. So what’s going on here?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Old box: “A [1998] clinical study showed that eating two 1-1/2 cup servings daily of Cheerios cereal reduced bad cholesterol when eaten as part of diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.”

New box: “A new [2009] study proves that Cheerios cereal plus a reduced calorie diet that is low in fat can help lower bad cholesterol about 10% in one month. … Eat two 1-1/2 cup servings [daily] … and cut 500 calories from your diet.”

So basically, Cheerios found a new study that lets them tout a significantly enhanced cholesterol reduction claim. Well, “found” is too strong a word. How about paid for and co-authored an as yet unpublished study? (See abstract of the study, which was published, in a somewhat unconventional journal.)

*MOUSE PRINT:

cheeriosabstract

This is not to say that every study paid for by a corporation is suspect, but it seems a bit unusual that the company also co-authored the study.

General Mills says that 204 overweight/obese adults with high LDL (bad) cholesterol were tested. While General Mills touts Cheerios helps lower  (bad) cholesterol 10% on its box and website, the abstract of the study seems to say it was actually lowered only 8.7%.

All of this has not made the FDA happy, so they sent the company a warning letter in May. The letter asserts that the  health claims the company is making for Cheerios puts it in the category of a drug, and they have not registered Cheerios as a drug. Interestingly, the letter only refers to the original 4% claim, and not the new 10% one.

Time will tell how this cereal drama plays out, but odds are all their cholesterol lowering claims won’t disappear completely and you still won’t need a prescription to buy Cheerios.