AuraVie.com
Complaint 127675 Details

I want to be very careful and scrupulously fair in providing this review of my experience with AuraVie because there was insufficient time fully to evaluate the company's claims regarding the efficacy of its product. Rather I will limit my comments to AuraVie's misleading advertising and my experience in dealing with the company's "customer care" staff. I ordered the "free" AuraVie sample package for my wife on 05/14/2012, one day before we began an 8-day vacation. Our mail was placed on hold from 05/16-05/23/2012. More about that later. First regarding the company's advertising practices, AuraVie either operates or sponsors multiple Web sites advertising its products, all or most of which link directly to the order form for the AuraVie "free" sample. The site from which we placed the order was http://www.smartstyleliving.com/health_beauty/skin2/v18/index.php ... This site clearly and conspicuously advertised the AuraVie sample as "free" and the trial period as 14 days. I will return to this point later. In addition, the site claimed that the effects of the product would become visible almost from the first day of trial and be very obvious after 14 days. It supported these claims with a number of "before" and "after" photos, which have since then been replaced by others. The "before" and "after" photos on May 14, the day I placed the order, were, in my opinion as an experienced, advanced amateur photographer who is very familiar with photo software, not "before" and "after" photos at all, but rather identical photos, except that the "after" version had been either lightened or retouched to remove wrinkles and blemishes, but it was clear from the facial expressions, hairdo, etc. of the subjects that the photos of each person were identical. On its own Web site proper, AuraVie claimed that full benefits of the product would be realized after three months, quite a difference from the claims on the "smartstyleliving" Web site. I can only confirm that while my wife tried the product for the few days it was available to her, there were no noticeable effects, none, zero, nada. Now to the unsatisfactory customer service experience with AuraVia. We returned from vacation on 05/23 and found the AuraVie product sample in our mailbox on 05/24.
On June 1, 2012, I found that AuraVie had charged my credit card for $97.88, the full price of a month's supply of its product. I was baffled. First, we were under the assumption that the shipment we had received was a "free" sample, and that we would be charged the full price only if we decided to keep it. Secondly, we were of the impression that the trial period was 14 days, as advertised on the Web site from which the order was placed. Thus. we thought, that we had until June 7 to decide. In any event, I immediately called the AuraVie number that was posted with the charge to my credit card. I was unable to reach anyone and got an announcement that the office was closed "for Memorial Day" (which, of course was on 05/28, 4 days earlier). I tried calling again the next day, which was a Saturday, only to find that the office was closed and to call back on the next business day, which was June 4. There was no option to leave a voice message. Rather than waiting, I sent an immediate detailed e-mail to [email protected] and demanded to know why my credit card had been charged $97.88, even though there was a week left on the trial period. When I received no response on 06/04, I followed up with another e-mail in which I made it clear that I wanted the charge removed from my account immediately, and that, failing that, I would take additional action to recover the money. I then received several phone calls from an anonymous number (1-818-200-1036 North Hollywood, CA), which I did not recognize or answer because I have made it a habit not to answer or respond to anonymous, unsolicited phone calls. Thereafter, I received repeated e-mail messages from AuraVie informing me that they had tried to contact me but had not been able to reach me, and that I should contact them by phone. I never received a substantive response to my e-mails until I made it clear that I did not wish to be called but preferred to document all exchanges in writing. This cat-and-mouse game continued for another couple of days ... I would e-mail, and AuraVie would merely acknowledge receipt and ask me to call them. Finally, after I reiterated my position once more in considerable detail and threatened a wide range of additional actions, I received a terse, one sentence response : "The trial period expired May 28." I was flabbergasted, but soon got to the bottom of the problem. The USPS had actually either dropped the AuraVie shipment into our mailbox on 05/18 or at least scanned it as "delivered" rather than "delivery attempted" on that day. So I had a letter from the local post office sent to AuraVie that supported my position, because, even if, contrary to the advertisement, the trial period was only 10 days, the trial would not have expired until 06/03, which was a Sunday, and I had begun attempting to contact AuraVie as early as 06/01. To make a long story short, at my insistence and the prospect of being reported to the Better Business Bureau, Chambers of Commerce, and local and national consumer protection agencies, AuraVie finally yielded after the USPS letter was delivered and agreed to refund the $97.88. They would not refund the cost of certified return shipping ($9.25), nor the original S&H charge of $2.95 I had paid when the order was placed. To sum up, AuraVie did everything to discourage returns, from misrepresenting the duration of the trial period to being unavailable after hours or on weekends, from not responding to e-mails to using anonymous phone numbers. Their so-called "customer care" stands in stark contrast to the excellent customer service experience and hassle-free return we experienced with a competitor, DermaPerfect, from whom a similar sample was ordered on the same day as the AuraVie sample. My advice to all would-be purchasers, stay away, but if you've already ordered, stand your ground and accept AuraVie's manner of doing business.