"If something sounds too good to be true...
...it usually is". Rule of thumb
"If someone is asking for money, and needs the answer right away...always say no. If there is any pressure and no time to consider, there is usually a reason for that". My dad
Usually I abide by these two "rules" and they have saved me a lot of money and worry, but a little while ago I went against both these saying, and got burnt. I have talked about my fascination for free stuff, so that kinda helped in my downfall. Here is my story...
In December I was listening to the radio while driving and I heard an ad that said you could get $1000.00 by participating in a diet study. It is called the "One Day Diet" (or ODD) and the main premise is here. I am not huge by any means, but I could lose the 'lil buddy I am growing around my waist, and get a grand for it??? I wrote the 1-800 number down, and then promptly lost it.
It wasn't until March that I heard the ad again but this time it gave a website... www.dietstudy.com. So I went here and it sounds good. The "Real Life Weight Loss Study" (or RLWLS) makes you take a little survey in order to make sure that you are really trying to lose weight, not just goofing off in order to get the money. The survey is pretty stupid because you can put down the "right" answer, and pass.
So I took the survey, got the special number at the end and called the 1-800 number.
I got a guy who was, of course, very nice and explained the diet to me, talked about what it is going to look like everyday, and asked me the same questions that the survey already covered.
He then explained that they will send me pills for energy, hunger depressants and multi vitamins. I need to stick with the diet for 90 days, write a testimonial and then I will get my 1000 dollars. Sweet. When it comes to food I have no problem with self-control or will-power, so I knew staying on the diet for 3 months wouldn't be a big deal.
Then he said that since they are providing the pills they don't want to send out all that product and have someone welsh on the deal half way through so they need to charge a deposit (of $150.00) for the pills. If you make it through the whole time then you get the money back along with the grand.
Warning lights went on with that, but it made sense, so I ignored the warnings and gave him my card number.
With-in a week I get my stuff. Excitedly I open it up. I pull out the first paper and there I read. "participate in the One Day Diet and get 1,000** Dollars".
What the crap were the ** there for? Nobody on the radio, website (which you can still read for yourself) or phone said anything about **. Which usually means certain conditions. But I continued reading on. I find out that I need to go to a doctor, not once but almost 6 times during the diet in order to weigh in. HMMM, funny no-one mentioned that little aspect to me. How much is that going to cost? You have to send "before" pictures in and if they aren't "80% professional quality" then you are disqualified and lose everything. HMMM, who decides that? If everything isn't turned in to them in 10 days or less you are disqualified and lose everything.
Well, since I am involved in a missions organization there is a doctor here that donates his time, so I didn't have to pay for a visit, (or six of them that this RLWLS required) but when I went to see him he said that they were requiring over $300.00 in labs!
At this point I am getting the feeling that I am getting screwed. I called the 1-800 number that they give you for diet support info, and it is canceled, they gave me a website address that I can "e-mail my questions and they will get back to me". Another bad sign. The only reason you stop talking to people directly is because you don't want to deal with pissed off people. HMMMM...
So I went to the website and they had a list of FAQ and one of them they said that you no longer had to get the labs done. OK, good. I am already 150 in the hole, 300 more wouldn't be a good idea.
Then I read some vague things that said the pills they sent were only one months supply, and they would auto ship the rest every month. HMMMM... does that mean they will bill my card again every month? Nothing said anything like that, but it was vague enough to make me wonder. So I e-mail that question. Surprisingly I didn't get an answer.
It was making me leary enough that I wanted to send it back and get my money back, but then I read that if you decide at this point to not do the Real Life Weight Loss Study, you can't get back your money. So I started the diet and was in my third day when I figured out a way to get more info from them...
I went back on the www.dietstudy.com website, got a new "special" number and called in as a new costumer. Everything I gave them was fake, and I got talking to a new guy. This time I could ask questions that I never even thought about the first time, but I could pretend that I knew nothing. This guy was a bit more open. He told be about the pictures, the doctors and the deposit. A whole lot more info then the first guy gave me. This second guy was only going to charge me $115.00 deposit as opposed to the first guys $150.00. HMMMM...do they get to keep whatever extra money the squeeze out of people?
So I asked if the $115.00 covered all three months worth of supplies? Oh, no, they then charge your card $75.00 every month!!! Of course you will get it back (if you aren't disqualified for any number of reasons...)
He mentioned the $1,000.00 and I remembered the ** and I asked if every person who participates in this study will get the money. Oh, no, only 1,000 people who they choose gets the money.
He then went on to tell me how good the pills I have to take, taste. He didn't know that I had already been taking them for a couple days.
"Yeah, they are vanilla flavored and they taste just like a vanilla wafer cookie."
THEY FREAKING DO NOT!!! They taste like vanilla flavored crap! But of course I couldn't tell him that, so I just hung up on him...
So here I am, $150.00 dollars in the hole. With $150.00 more coming because of the next two months of supplies being shipped. If I manage to dodge all of the disqualifying factors, (which would be amazing in itself) then I might get $1,000.00. MIGHT
Bull crap. I did a stupid thing, but I am not THAT stupid.
So I canceled.
If you have taken the One Day Diet and it worked for you, cool. It might be a good thing. But I feel the Real Life Weight Loss Study is a bunch of crap. So if you hear of your friends thinking of making an easy grand through this study...tell them to read this first. It might save alot of people alot of money...
"If someone is asking for money, and needs the answer right away...always say no. If there is any pressure and no time to consider, there is usually a reason for that". My dad
Usually I abide by these two "rules" and they have saved me a lot of money and worry, but a little while ago I went against both these saying, and got burnt. I have talked about my fascination for free stuff, so that kinda helped in my downfall. Here is my story...
In December I was listening to the radio while driving and I heard an ad that said you could get $1000.00 by participating in a diet study. It is called the "One Day Diet" (or ODD) and the main premise is here. I am not huge by any means, but I could lose the 'lil buddy I am growing around my waist, and get a grand for it??? I wrote the 1-800 number down, and then promptly lost it.
It wasn't until March that I heard the ad again but this time it gave a website... www.dietstudy.com. So I went here and it sounds good. The "Real Life Weight Loss Study" (or RLWLS) makes you take a little survey in order to make sure that you are really trying to lose weight, not just goofing off in order to get the money. The survey is pretty stupid because you can put down the "right" answer, and pass.
So I took the survey, got the special number at the end and called the 1-800 number.
I got a guy who was, of course, very nice and explained the diet to me, talked about what it is going to look like everyday, and asked me the same questions that the survey already covered.
He then explained that they will send me pills for energy, hunger depressants and multi vitamins. I need to stick with the diet for 90 days, write a testimonial and then I will get my 1000 dollars. Sweet. When it comes to food I have no problem with self-control or will-power, so I knew staying on the diet for 3 months wouldn't be a big deal.
Then he said that since they are providing the pills they don't want to send out all that product and have someone welsh on the deal half way through so they need to charge a deposit (of $150.00) for the pills. If you make it through the whole time then you get the money back along with the grand.
Warning lights went on with that, but it made sense, so I ignored the warnings and gave him my card number.
With-in a week I get my stuff. Excitedly I open it up. I pull out the first paper and there I read. "participate in the One Day Diet and get 1,000** Dollars".
What the crap were the ** there for? Nobody on the radio, website (which you can still read for yourself) or phone said anything about **. Which usually means certain conditions. But I continued reading on. I find out that I need to go to a doctor, not once but almost 6 times during the diet in order to weigh in. HMMM, funny no-one mentioned that little aspect to me. How much is that going to cost? You have to send "before" pictures in and if they aren't "80% professional quality" then you are disqualified and lose everything. HMMM, who decides that? If everything isn't turned in to them in 10 days or less you are disqualified and lose everything.
Well, since I am involved in a missions organization there is a doctor here that donates his time, so I didn't have to pay for a visit, (or six of them that this RLWLS required) but when I went to see him he said that they were requiring over $300.00 in labs!
At this point I am getting the feeling that I am getting screwed. I called the 1-800 number that they give you for diet support info, and it is canceled, they gave me a website address that I can "e-mail my questions and they will get back to me". Another bad sign. The only reason you stop talking to people directly is because you don't want to deal with pissed off people. HMMMM...
So I went to the website and they had a list of FAQ and one of them they said that you no longer had to get the labs done. OK, good. I am already 150 in the hole, 300 more wouldn't be a good idea.
Then I read some vague things that said the pills they sent were only one months supply, and they would auto ship the rest every month. HMMMM... does that mean they will bill my card again every month? Nothing said anything like that, but it was vague enough to make me wonder. So I e-mail that question. Surprisingly I didn't get an answer.
It was making me leary enough that I wanted to send it back and get my money back, but then I read that if you decide at this point to not do the Real Life Weight Loss Study, you can't get back your money. So I started the diet and was in my third day when I figured out a way to get more info from them...
I went back on the www.dietstudy.com website, got a new "special" number and called in as a new costumer. Everything I gave them was fake, and I got talking to a new guy. This time I could ask questions that I never even thought about the first time, but I could pretend that I knew nothing. This guy was a bit more open. He told be about the pictures, the doctors and the deposit. A whole lot more info then the first guy gave me. This second guy was only going to charge me $115.00 deposit as opposed to the first guys $150.00. HMMMM...do they get to keep whatever extra money the squeeze out of people?
So I asked if the $115.00 covered all three months worth of supplies? Oh, no, they then charge your card $75.00 every month!!! Of course you will get it back (if you aren't disqualified for any number of reasons...)
He mentioned the $1,000.00 and I remembered the ** and I asked if every person who participates in this study will get the money. Oh, no, only 1,000 people who they choose gets the money.
He then went on to tell me how good the pills I have to take, taste. He didn't know that I had already been taking them for a couple days.
"Yeah, they are vanilla flavored and they taste just like a vanilla wafer cookie."
THEY FREAKING DO NOT!!! They taste like vanilla flavored crap! But of course I couldn't tell him that, so I just hung up on him...
So here I am, $150.00 dollars in the hole. With $150.00 more coming because of the next two months of supplies being shipped. If I manage to dodge all of the disqualifying factors, (which would be amazing in itself) then I might get $1,000.00. MIGHT
Bull crap. I did a stupid thing, but I am not THAT stupid.
So I canceled.
If you have taken the One Day Diet and it worked for you, cool. It might be a good thing. But I feel the Real Life Weight Loss Study is a bunch of crap. So if you hear of your friends thinking of making an easy grand through this study...tell them to read this first. It might save alot of people alot of money...
posted by Original Blog-surfer | 12:45 PM
2 Comments:
There are consumer advocates in many areas that go after people like this. When I was unemployed (for many months) in 90-91 I answered an ad about working in Australia. Fortunately I kept copies of everything (they did, in fact, change the rules midstream) and a local advocate group (Call 3, part of Channel 3 News) helped get all my money back.
If you don't know where to find such groups in your area, contact the Postal Inspector. They're obviously a fraud, and they're using the postal service to help perpetuate that fraud. If you think the IRS can scare people, wait till you see the Postal Inspector at work!
Justin, I feel your pain!!!! The Real Life weight Loss Study got me too!! I honestly don't know how they sleep at night. I also heard the ad on the radio in my car. I got home as fast as I could, before I forgot the telephone number. I called, they told me the exact same thing as you said. Of course I qualified for the study. It cost me $70.00 for the 1st Dr. visit,( that you DON'T get reimbursed for), and another $70.00 for the 2nd Dr. visit that you have to have at the end of the 3 months. So that's $140.00 so far. Then there's the 3 months supply of their pills and waffers, that cost $180.00. So now I'm up to $320.00!!!!! I'm not even figuring in the cost of the before and after pictures, plus the cost of running all over the place to get everything done. Then to add insult to injury, when I finished the study and sent everything in, I was told in a letter that I was disqualified!!! The reason being that I cheated on the diet. Well in the directions for following , " THE PLAN ", It states that you are allowed 2 days, per month, to screw up,( eat something you're not suppose to eat ). As long as the next day you get back on ,( THE PLAN ),like you're suppose to be doing.
Anyway, I was really pissed! I called the number that I had originally called and one of the reps I talked to, I should say "YELLED AT" gave me the phone number of the woman that was running the study. I got her voice-mail and was told that she would get back to me as soon as possible. RIGHT!!!!! About 2 weeks later I called again and was told that she had a death in the family and that it might be a while before she could get back to me. ( Like I was really going to believe that ). I kept calling and leaving messages on her machine until, FINALY, I got a different lady who said that she was taking her place. I explained to her how much $$$$ this was costing me and that I was beginning to think this whole thing was a scam. She assured me that it wasn't and that she would look into WHY I had been disqualified and would get back to me before the week was out. Of course I didn't believe a word she was saying, but to my supprise she did call back 2 days later. She said the reason I was disqualified was because they couldn't use my testamonial for I had cheated a few times while on the diet. When I explained that the rules of the plan stated that I was allowed 2 days per month to fall off the plan, she said that she was sure that we could come to some sort of an agreement. After a few days she called and said that the best she could do for me would be to reimburse me $500.00. She asked if I would agree to that? What the hell could I say?!! If I said no, I'd probably never hear from her again. So, I said I guess I have no choice.......YES. That was a little over a week ago. Haven't recieved a check yet. I plan on calling again soon to see how long it will be till I get it. ( Probably never ). I did call the Federal Trade Commission and report my experience with them. Next will be the BBB and the Attorny General's Office, even though it probably won't do much good!
I wonder how many people they are ripping off? I wish there was a way to reach all of them. I'd love to get all of them together to sighn a petition and sue the ________'s for deceptive advertising or fraud or SOMETHING. I'll bet they're getting very RICH ripping us off!!!!! Anyway, That was my experience with TRLWLS.
PS My name is Bob Wilson. I live in Pa. My email address is, bobwilson508@msn.com.
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