1678 Debt Enlargement

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Wow! Amazing news! Hard to believe! You know "Smiling Bob", the idiot of the Enzyte commercials? The ones where all the women look like '50s housewives? Well, turns out the stuff doesn't work! No kidding! It's a scam!

The advertising and sales departments made up all the testimonials and studies. Wow! Who'd a thunk it!

And that's not the worst.

Folks figure if the company is giving out free trials, then it must work, since if it didn't, nobody would order more, and they'd go broke. Right?

Wrong.

If you called to get the free trial, they wanted checking account information, or a credit card number. Even though you never authorized it, they signed you up for automatic delivery, and before the free trial was even over, they had hit your account for another month or two's supply. They'd keep doing that, and it was next to impossible to cancel.

They guaranteed satisfaction, but if you said it didn't work and you wanted to return the pills and get your money back, they'd ask for a notarized statement from your doctor saying that it didn't work. In the meantime, they kept charging your account.

So, the company officers are in federal court. One of the ex-officers is testifying against them.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a complaint with the FTC on September 23, 2004. That's more than three years ago. Jury selection started the middle of last month. Now they're in federal court, charged with stuff like committing wire and mail fraud, money laundering, and misbranding.

And - the commercials are still on, and that's ok, presumption of innocence and all, but what confuses me is that they're still offering the free trial. If they're not still making unauthorized debits to checking accounts and credit cards, how are they avoiding bankruptcy?

Unless ... it actually works ....
.