Essence of Argan
Complaint 354868 Details

I ordered Idrotherapy cream (order# 2820512) on 14-day trial on 30th October 2016. I paid $6.59 USD for shipment for Idrotherapy and agreed to pay $5.99 for shipment of Essence of Argan. I received both my cream and oil on the 7th November and started using it straight away.

As per normal rule, 14 day trial starts on the day I receive the item -right? I counted my days to finish trial on the 21st November.

I religiously used the cream morning and evening just as asked until 18th - that is 11 evenings and 11 mornings applications. I did not notice any visible difference in my skin compared to my own oil mix that I used to use before starting the trial. I got convinced that this cream does not stand up to all the promises it has made and all the big hoo-haa's by the others.

So, I picked the phone and waited a while before I got in line with a customer service (CS) lady.

1. Issue with my shipment of products:-

I told the CS my concerns - the first was why I did not receive any response to my email that I sent on the 31st October (a day after my signing up to the trial). I was charged $10.98 instead of $5.99 for shipment of Argan of oil.

She told me that this happened because I clicked on 'Rush my trial' offer so I was charged double the normal value. However, I wasn't charged double for the Idrotherapy cream as I didn't click 'Rush my trial' while putting my order in for it - phew!

I thought 'damn' and I asked her what the normal time of shipment is - she said about 3-5 business days! I received my products in 7 days even after 'rushing' my trial - I expressed my concern and confusion to her and I received both items together - one 'rushing' and the other not rushing - how did that happen? Answer: Sometime their shipment might be delayed (even after rushing) - wollah.. you still pay double amount unless YOU call them to find out why!!! Biggest surprise!!!

2. Issues with their start of 14 days of 14-day trial:-

Anyway, I swallowed having to pay $5.99 extra for nothing. Then, I told CS my other 'bigger' concern- I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE PRODUCT. They have made no visible changes in appearance of my problem areas and would like to CANCEL my order BEFORE 14 days trial period is over. Then to my BIGGEST SURPRISE, she told me that I have already passed my 14 days! After digging more, I find out that 14 days begin from the day I put in order not when I receive the order!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? She said it's all clearly written in their terms and conditions... grr... She made me two offers: one, usual - I return their products by 30th November, pay for the postage of two products separately to send to NSW from VIC and then they will give me full refund of $202.70 USD. I calculated my cost: $18.67 paid already + shipping two parcels to NSW roughly $20.00 AUD. Total cost to me= around $45-50 AUD. The second option was that she will refund me 80% of $202.70 that is $161.73 and I still have to cop the loss of $40.97 USD + $18.67 USD; total of $59.64 USD! I got tired of the argument and was very frustrated at how I missed that term and condition - what a fool... I agreed to the second option to save myself the hassle and was on kept on hold while she was transferring my money back to me.

For me it's hard to believe that I was being victimized by a company hiding behind their Terms and Conditions. I am an avid reader of T's and C's as I know some companies do play on it. I started digging the emails sent by the company confirming my purchase. I read it again and came across this sentence 'You will have 14 days to try the product and discover why Essence Of Argan is the right anti-aging, multi-purpose, eco-certified organic, treatment for you.' I read this to the CS when she got back in line. It clearly states that I WILL (definite, not may) have 14 days to TRY the product! How can I TRY the product before even RECEIVING it? I knew that the girl was just playing me dumb. I was more assertive now that I had an evidence in the email that they sent me. I demanded full refund. She then agreed to make full refund of $202.70 USD that they extracted from my credit card before they were authorized to take out (14 days trial period) back to my credit card. She did it straight away. However, they still took my money out $92.18 for Idrotherapy on the 13th November and $109.99 for Essence of Argan on 15th November and kept that sum of money with them for 6 days already - UNAUTHORIZED and without paying me INTEREST!!! It'll take a while for money to appear in my bank account and that's a loss too. Since I wasn't even aware that they took money out from my account, I might have incurred interest on it already - that's a loss of money on my part still....

Anyways, I now have to send the 'empty and used' bottles back to them - separately - so will be paying postage fees twice. I am not going to get any money refunded that I paid before $18.67 - I was aware of this in their t's and c's - so no dramas. Still cross for having to pay 'rush the trial' money while they didn't rush it. CS told me that I should have called them if I didn't receive the item in time I expected - wow! It's customer's responsibility even after paying money. So, you MUST be ready to call them several times to save yourself from not having to pay lot of money extras.

LESSONS learnt:-

Firstly, NEVER buy anything online using credit card. If they don't offer you pay using 'paypal' option, I will never buy anything online. I have made excellent purchases before. So, this experience will not put me off from buying online. However, I will never give my credit card details to companies like such.

Second learning: Do research before falling in for such promises that are too good to be true. When I googled 'idrotherapy complaints' and 'essence of argan complaints' - there were many more who had already suffered from their credit card misuse. Had I known that before, I wouldn't have gone ahead and put in my credit card details to purchase these - instead would have preferred buying it from Amazon if I really was keen in trying these out - would have been safer and less headaches. Anyway, I found out that I am not alone. I felt that it's my responsibility to make others aware so that they don't fall in their trap of hidden fine lines and t's and c's and make avoid making expensive mistakes. Chow.