A friendly warning:

If you are someone who never gets upset, not even when some company takes out of your account almost $100.00 without your consent or knowledge, if your attitude stays positive no matter the degree of injustice done to you, please STOP reading this post because it will not help you or entertain you.

This post contains very practical  and to the point information  for people who wish to fight back an injustice and don’t know how to go about it. The purpose of this writing is to save others time and hopefully help them get back money taken from their accounts without their knowledge or consent.

I will not repeat the story explained in the two previous posts, but start from where I left off on Saturday, August 10, 2013, when I discovered that $92.61 had been taken out of my checking account and I did not given approval for any amount to be taken out and wasn’t familiar with the company which withdrew the money.

General Rule # 1:

If you notice on your bank account any activity of which you are not aware, the FIRST action to take is  to call the company which withdrew the money from your account. Generally, their phone number is on your bank account, next to the amount which was taken out and the name of the company. If customer service number 1 is not willing or capable to resolve the problem, ask for a manager. Assuming a manager is available, write down their name and take notes while you speak to them. It is vital to know the date you contacted the party you believe at fault and know the name of the people you spoke with and what they said, or didn’t. Document, document, document.

General Rule #2:

Call your BANK and report what happened. Generally it will take three days from the date the company in question took money out of your account, for your bank to be able to begin the dispute process. Generally, there is a phone number on the back of your card (debit or credit). If you call the general number, after several prompts you will speak with the DISPUTES Department. The person in charge will ask you DATES (when happened, what) and the NAME(S) of people you spoke with and if you attempted to resolve the issue directly with the company you are reporting at fault. For these reasons, General Rule number 1 is so important. If your claim is reasonable and you have a good bank, which I am lucky to have (Bank of America), they will credit to your account the amount disputed, while they investigate. What this means, is, that if the bank’s final findings are that your claim didn’t have a foundation, they will inform you of the reasons, and withdraw the amount initially credited back to your account.

If you have a sense of right and wrong and justice, which I do, you could take additional steps and perhaps by your actions help other people, who otherwise might be fooled.

You may write or call the local Better Business Bureau    (www.bbb.org) but I found that the most efficient way is to simply go on the web site of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which protects consumers, and write a complaint on line. You could accomplish it by going to: http://www.ftc.gov and follow the very clear instructions of the site.

I believe in the power of journalism and that if more people would take a small amount of time out of their busy lives, there would be less schemes and crimes. If we would only try to do a little for others and not expecting something for us. If only our egos would be a little smaller and our hearts bigger…

With that in mind, I did several searches and found a very useful article on Consumer Health Digest (CGD), which I wished I read BEFORE starting the “FREE TRIAL” for Skin DM and RejuvaGlow Combo! The article, written by Expert Author Linda Daniels, provides to the point information which had I had the smarts to read before giving my debit card  for the “free trial,” for shipping only ($3.95)  none of this unfortunate and expensive experience would have happened!

Additional options.

Unless you wish to spend a fee of $25 to make a complaint, I do not recommend writing through Consumer Complaints Agency (www.consumercomplaintagency.org). Again, had I been more “alert” when it came to the language used, “want revenge?”  question should have alerted me! Who wanted revenge? I sure didn’t! I wanted justice, I wanted others to not be fooled as I was, and of course I wanted my $92.61 back!  But the $25 fee was not stated at the beginning, so I filled in the form on the Consumer Complaints Agency site until the VERY last moment, when they asked HOW did I want to pay the $25.00 fee… then quickly I closed the window and hoped they didn’t “save” my information.

Today is Wednesday, August 14 and I am closing the chapter of this “free trial,” but before I closed it, I noticed on their web site not only that the BIG title (in bright purple) states: MY SKIN MD!!! (and continues down the page with DM!!! just a convenient typo) and further on, it states the “combo SkinDM/RejuvaGlow” is OUT OF STOCK, but don’t worry, NOW “MY SKIN MD EXCLUSEVLY RECOMMENDS” a NEW COMBO:

TruVisage and PurEssance Combo Offer, also “100% RISK FREE TRIAL!!! JUST PAY FOR SHIPPING!!! FOR BEST RESULTS TRY BOTH PRODUCTS TOGETHER!”

Would anyone like to bet they, too, belong to two different companies, so if  I were to be a fool again, and return BOTH to the same warehouse, just as with the SkinDM/RejuvaGlow, I’d be charged for not seeing in my Crystal Ball that I were supposed to return them to TWO different places! Rest assured I will NOT be fooled again:)

Buyer BE AWARE. Every day, the evil minds of super intelligent crooks come up with new, more complex schemes. Many times I wonder, why don’t these super-smart people use their amazing minds in the service of Good?

I don’t have an answer… do you?