Stemologica Cost me £97.95 for Free on line products

[Feelsofoolish]

I am sad to say I have been duped into giving my bank details to a company for postage and packing for free trial products.

 

My bank is helping me to deal with this, albeit very slowly,

but the company has told me that their terms and conditions,

which I should have read, are watertight and as I have involved Direct Card Disputes they now cannot offer me compensation

unless I get my bank to telephone them to dissolve their investigation which I have 99.9% of losing.

 

My others issue is, I never received these goods but company say they are not responsible a

nd I should take it up with their delivery company as delivery company say they left products in my garden shed.

 

 

Checking, albeit after the fact, their terms and conditions on delivery it says a signature on receipt is required,

as I never received the delivery, they don't have a signature.

They still insist it's up to me to investigate delivery.

I believe my contract was with them and not their chosen delivery company.

Where do I stand?

 

I hope to get an appointment with Citizens Advice tomorrow in the hope to recover my £97.95 for Free Products. Thankfully I managed to get the company to dissolve future subscription and unwanted shipments to me. But I would dearly love to get my hard earned cash back even if I did unwittingly allow them access to it.

 

Thank you in advance for your time and any advice. I feel quite ill for being so foolish

Edited July 14, 2015 by Andyorch
Paras added

[SabreSheep]

Hi welcome to CAG

 

Name the company please, it sounds very familiar.

 

Will move your thread to a correct forum to get help from the right people.

 

regards

 

SS

[SabreSheep]

Stemologica?

 

do a search on this forum and have a read

[dx100uk]

yep I bet it is!

 

 

dx

[unclebulgaria67]

If anyone finds any free stuff online, without any catches can they please let me know.

 

Getting anything free is difficult these days.

[Feelsofoolish]

Stemologica?

 

do a search on this forum and have a read

Yes SabreSheep that's the company.

[Feelsofoolish]

If anyone finds any free stuff online, without any catches can they please let me know.

 

Getting anything free is difficult these days.

 

I realise that now unclebulgaria67 Learned the hard way * sighs*

[Feelsofoolish]

Hi welcome to CAG

 

Name the company please, it sounds very familiar.

 

Will move your thread to a correct forum to get help from the right people.

 

regards

 

 

 

SS

I was worried about naming the company as they say everything they have done is legal.

[Feelsofoolish]

Thank you for your help SS I am new to this and am still reeling at what's happened.

Kind regards

Fif

[dx100uk]

moved to the online forum

 

 

hundreds of posts here about them

 

 

http://www.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-8889411648654839:6449422593&ie=UTF-8&q=Stemologica&sa=Search+CAG#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=Stemologica&gsc.page=1

[Feelsofoolish]

They are very good at what they do, I suppose that is still no excuse for allowing myself to be duped by this company. It's shocking to see how long they have been getting away with this . But as they keep reiterating to me, what they are doing is completely legal and they have watertight terms and conditions which I should have read properly for my 'Free Products'.

Kind regards

Feelsofoolish

[renegadeimp]

Their terms are far from watertight.

[Feelsofoolish]

Here's hoping my bank will find a a leak and get my money back renegadeimp

 

Regard

Feelsofoolish

[dx100uk]

do a chargeback and cancel the CPA

 

 

which bank?

dx

[Feelsofoolish]

I'm with Halifax and its Direct Debit Card at Lloyds that are dealing with it at the moment.

 

 

They say as it was my Debit Card details that were handed over to them, for as I thought Postage and Packing,

they had the right to access my account and take the funds.

 

 

They are now trying to get my money back,

 

 

as far as I know, on the grounds it was not clear or apparent what I was signing up to.

 

 

So it's a matter of waiting. I called my bank on 06/07/2015 but it seems longer dx

 

Regards

Feelsofoolish

[Conniff]

If you had taken notice of their website, you wouldn't even have bothered as that screams 'we tell lies'. There is a picture of Helen Mirren and she is looking immaculate but we know from current tv adverts for another product, her skin is old and wrinkled and she looks her age. The picture has obviously been photoshopped.

 

While on the subject, why even bother to look for this rubbish, none of them work they are all a con. If rubbing a bit of cream on your face took away wrinkes, celebrities wouldn't be spending tens of thousands on surgery that makes them look even worse than they were.

[dx100uk]

Halifax/Lloyds are bad with these things sadly

 

 

demand a chargeback and for them to cancel the CPA

[continuous payment arrangement]

 

 

GENERAL NOTES ON CHARGEBACK & Continuous Payment Authority & BACS

.....

We have been telling people to put a letter into their bank instructing them

not to make any payments under any circumstances to these companies

.

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/- it works!

usually this should be done using the number on your debit card

.

banks MUST follow written intructions from their customers !

.

CANCELLING YOUR EBIT CARD DOES NOT STOP CPA'S

.

This fsa guide has now been updated:

.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/static/pubs/consumer_info/know_your_rights_guide.pdf

http://www.fca.org.uk/news/continuous-payment-authorities-your-right-to-cancel

.

Here's the text:

.

Cancelling a regular

card payment:

.

When you give your credit or debit card details to a company and authorise them to take regular payments from your account,

such as for a gym membership or magazine subscription,

it is known as a ‘recurring transaction’ or ‘continuous payment authority’.

.

These are often confused with direct debits, but do not offer the same guarantee if the amount or date of the payment changes.

.

In most cases, regular payments can be cancelled by telling the company taking the payments.

.

However,

you have the right to cancel them directly with your bank or card issuer by telling it that you have stopped permission for the payments.

Your bank or card issuer must then stop them – it has no right to insist that you agree this first with the company taking the payments.

.

Be aware, though, that you will still be responsible for paying any money that you owe.

and that CANELLING YOUR CARD WILL NOT STOP THE CPA

.

..

.

New june 2013

.

Regulator orders Banks and mutuals to review complaints about not cancelling recurring payments from November 2009.

.

Consumers who have set up a regular payment from their account will now be able to successfully cancel that arrangement

by contacting their card provider, the Financial Conduct Authority said.

.

The FCA has been examining how easy it is for customers to cancel Continuous Payment Authorities (CPAs)

due either to payday lendersicon or for other regular payments such as subscriptions or gymicon memberships.

.

CPAs, which are also commonly called recurring transactions or recurring payments,

are relatively easy to set up but can be hard to cancel, causing problems for consumers trying to manage their finances,the FCA said.

.

Now, following the FCA review of how the largest high street banks and mutuals process requests to cancel CPAs, they have agreed that they will ensure that when

a customer asks for a recurring payment to end, that will be sufficient to cancel the arrangement. They have also confirmed that should a payment go through by

mistake following cancellation by a customer the customer will be refunded immediately.

.

In addition to securing this commitment, the largest banks and mutuals have agreed to review every individual complaint they have received about the non-

cancellation of a CPA and to pay redress where payments have continued to be made despite the customer cancelling the arrangement. This applies to all complaints

since November 2009 when the Financial Services Authority, the FCA’s predecessor, began regulating banking conduct.

.

Clive Adamson, the FCA’s director of supervision, said: “It’s important that consumers are confident that banks are meeting their everyday banking needs. Today

customers can be confident that when they ask for a Continuous Payment Authority to be cancelled – it will be cancelled - and that it can be done easily.

.

“We recognise that historically this is an area where some customers have struggled but the banks and mutuals have responded positively to our work on this issue.

From now on we expect them to be getting this right. In addition, they have committed to review past complaints.”

.

.

Also mentioned your displeasure that as whomever took your money had obviously attempted this many times

probably activating your banks own anti fraud software - nobody had the decency to inform my you this was going on.?

.

.In the FSA's own words:

.

..

What should I do about a payment from my account that I didn’t authorise?

.

Your bank must refund an unauthorised transaction.

Money can only be taken from your account if you have authorised the transaction

or if your bank can prove you were at fault –

.

see below.

Contact your bank immediately if you notice an unauthorised payment from your account.

.

If you are sure you did not authorise the payment, you can claim a refund.

.

However, your bank does not have to refund you if you do not tell it about the payment until 13 months

or more after the date it left your account.

.

Your bank must refund an unauthorised transaction

.

------------------

.

Your bank may only refuse a refund for an unauthorised transaction if:

.

? it can prove you authorised the transaction

– though your bank cannot simply say that use of your password,

card and PIN proves you authorised a payment; or

.

? it can prove you are at fault because you acted fraudulently,

or because you deliberately,

or with gross negligence, failed to protect the details of your card, PIN or password in a way that allowed the transaction

.

-----------------------

.

How quickly must my bank refund me for an unauthorised transaction?

.

The bank must make the refund immediately unless it has evidence that one of the above reasons applies.

Your bank may ask you to answer some questions and fill out a form confirming what has happened,

but it cannot delay your refund while it waits for you to return the form.

If the bank has evidence that one of the above reasons for refusing a refund applies,

it may investigate before making a refund

but must look into it as quickly as possible.

If your bank rejects your claim for a refund it should explain why.

If the transaction was on a credit card, the refund may not happen immediately.

But the card issuer cannot charge interest or ask for repayment of the amount unless it can prove you are liable to pay

 

..................

[Feelsofoolish]

If you had taken notice of their website, you wouldn't even have bothered as that screams 'we tell lies'. There is a picture of Helen Mirren and she is looking immaculate but we know from current tv adverts for another product, her skin is old and wrinkled and she looks her age. The picture has obviously been photoshopped.

 

While on the subject, why even bother to look for this rubbish, none of them work they are all a con. If rubbing a bit of cream on your face took away wrinkes, celebrities wouldn't be spending tens of thousands on surgery that makes them look even worse than they were.

 

Thank you for your feedback Conniff

I was on Facebook and just took the advertised offer at 'face value' I believed I was getting a free product so was just happy to get free moisturiser wrinkles and all. And yes if only I had researched and if only I had read the terms and conditions but I didn't hence my name

 

Regards

Feelsofoolish

[Conniff]

They do admit it's all a big con way down in their T&Cs:

 

Our website may contain simulated imagery and/or manipulated graphics.

 

There are a hundred disclaimers in there that are not legal in this country, they are just amended T&Cs from their US / Canadian sites and reading through shows this. Most of what they say would not pass the 'Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts' regulations.

 

They admit their product is bunk:

 

.... this information is based solely on the traditional and historic use of a given herb, or on clinical trials that are generally not recognized by any US government agency or medical organization.

 

It also says:

by email at ,

 

Not protected, hidden so you can't email them. Their company, registration details etc are all hidden so even a domain name search will not bring up the 'real' owners.

 

I would suggest as many as possible send a complaint email to the host - domainabuse@tucows.com - to see if you can get their account terminated.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Conniff

[Feelsofoolish]

They do admit it's all a big con way down in their T&Cs:

 

 

 

There are a hundred disclaimers in there that are not legal in this country, they are just amended T&Cs from their US / Canadian sites and reading through shows this. Most of what they say would not pass the 'Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts' regulations.

 

They admit their product is bunk:

 

 

 

It also says:

 

 

Not protected, hidden so you can't email them. Their company, registration details etc are all hidden so even a domain name search will not bring up the 'real' owners.

 

I would suggest as many as possible send a complaint email to the host - domainabuse@tucows.com - to see if you can get their account terminated.

 

Thank you again Conniff it is a great help to be armed with the support of all your research. I hope to take all this information back to my bank. I will certainly post outcome

 

Regards

Feelsofoolish

[ericsbrother]

as you didint receive the product you can do a rechage for that anyway. The company are lying when they say you have to take the matter up with the courier.

[Conniff]

The whole website screams 'I'm a Con', I cannot see one single thing that complies with UK/EU law. At a minimum they must show the geographic address at which the service provider is established and contact details, including an email address.

There must also be a company number and a landline number.

 

They show none. They freely admit that they have a convenience address in the hope it abides with regulations but they cannot be contacted at that address.

 

I really would put this company in the same category as the Nigerian sc*mmers.

Edited July 15, 2015 by Conniff

[Feelsofoolish]

as you didint receive the product you can do a rechage for that anyway. The company are lying when they say you have to take the matter up with the courier.

They say it's in terms and conditions that they are not liable for loss or theft and it's my problem to sort out with courier. As courier left package in my garden shed its up to me to sort it. I then email pointing out that I noticed in T&C (a little late in reading them properly)that goods need a signature on receipt as I didn't receive them they won't have a signature. Not had a reply yet.

[Feelsofoolish]

The whole website screams 'I'm a Con', I cannot see one single thing that complies with UK/EU law. At a minimum they must show the geographic address at which the service provider is established and contact details, including an email address.

There must also be a company number and a landline number.

 

They show none. They freely admit that they have a convenience address in the hope it abides with regulations but they cannot be contacted at that address.

 

I really would put this company in the same category as the Nigerian ****mers.

I just hope Direct Card Disputes are as thorough as you in their research Connif and I don't end up the loser in this. They are not very encouraging in their emails of a hopeful result.

[Conniff]

They say it's in terms and conditions that they are not liable for loss or theft and it's my problem to sort out with courier. As courier left package in my garden shed its up to me to sort it. I then email pointing out that I noticed in T&C (a little late in reading them properly)that goods need a signature on receipt as I didn't receive them they won't have a signature. Not had a reply yet.

 

 

Exactly as I said earlier. Their Terms and Conditions have no legal standing in this country. Non receipt is their problem and not yours, our regulations say so.