RVTL
Complaint 290085 Details

I ordered a 'free trial' of RVTL anti-aging cream from this website - https://www.rvtlskin.co.uk - I found the info about the offer from a website called Women's Freebies. - http://womenfreebies.co.uk - It was the first time I had looked at the website, upon the recommendation of a friend. I am not sure if this website knowingly advertises scam 'offers' and I do not intend to look at it again.

The RVTL offer was that you pay £6.95 for a free trial of the product with no further obligation for additional purchases. I would like to say that I have an advanced degree and always read the small print before submitting my credit card details when I make online purchases. I remember checking and double checking before I was convinced that this was a legitimate offer. I normally pay about £6.95 for face cream so it did not seem ludicrously cheap to me.

I received my free trial product and thought nothing more of it until a month later when a second parcel arrived, which I was not expecting. At that point, I did some online research and contacted the company by phone. This was when I was told that after 14 days of paying for the "free trial", if you do not cancel, you get charged a further £89 for the "free trial" and then £95.95 every month for additional shipments. I should mention that NONE of this, not even the company's phone number, or how much you are charged, or anything, is printed on the despatch note. The man I spoke to on the phone, who had very poor English, told me that he could cancel my subscription and if I returned the product I would receive a refund. I intend to send the product back by registered mail and hope that I do get the refund. I have also contacted my credit card provider requesting that they do not allow any further transactions from this company in future. I will update you if this does not happen.

Sure enough, I checked my credit card statement and they had indeed charged me the additional £89 and one payment of £95.95. I normally keep abreast of my credit cards and bank account statements, but this being an account I do not use regularly and since I get my statements online, I did not notice the first charge right away.

I feel that this "offer" is intentionally misleading and the terms and conditions are not clearly presented to customers. No mention of further charges appears on the offer page and I do not believe the terms and conditions were made clear when I placed my order or I would never have ordered this product. At the very least, I would have set a reminder to myself to cancel within the 14 days. I can see that this company has a number of complaints against them and that they operate out of the US as well as the UK as there is an entry about RVTL on a site call Scambook -http://www.scambook.com/company/view/126589/RVTL

The companies UK address is: P-O-Box 13511 Linlithgow, West Lothian, EH49 7YH UK
This is where I have been advised to return the product to.
The phone number is 020 3014 0761 or 029 2048 6302