Hydroderm free trial offer might cost you dear
Recently I've spotted a large number of negative comments in forums about the Hydroderm "Try it for free" offer.
For those of you who don't know, Hydroderm advertises its anti aging skin care products to new customers with a "try Hydroderm for free" introductory offer. On the face of it the offer of a free trial seems like a no brainer and I had recommended the product myself on one of the pages of this site.
Unfortunately it appears that the "try it for free" offer is no such thing judging by the comments made in many forums. Customers have to give their credit card details to access the trial offer and in fine print (very fine) the agreement they sign commits them to receive automatic shipments of the product every 50 days. Many customers say they have had to struggle to get their money back and extract themselves from an agreement they may not fully have understood.
I try to review and recommend good anti aging skin care on this site although obviously I don't have direct personal experience of them all. With products or makers I don't know I look around for reviews in beauty forums, check them out at the Better Business Bureau and also search on Rip-off Reports for bad comments.
There are over 50 complaints about Hydroderm currently on Rip-off Reports and 618 complaints against Hydroderm have been lodged at the Better Business Bureau which has this to say:
"We have enough concerns about this company (for example, their offer, customer complaints, advertising, etc.) that we recommend caution in doing business with it."
The Better Business Bureau grades companies according to an eleven grade system from AAA to F. Hydroderm has recently been assigned a D (previously an F).
I have removed any referrals to Hydroderm from this site and would just urge anyone tempted to sign up for the offer to hold on to their credit cards.
In the end of course it's Hydroderm that will lose out. They may have good products but the way they have been promoted mean a lot of people will never bother to find out.
Comments
Toni said:
Thank you so much for the warning!!! I have had problems in the past with companies automatically charging my credit card on a monthly basis without my permission. It was a nightmare! I had to eventually cancel my credit card.
I went as far as typing in my CC# for the Hydroderm "free sample" and at the last second I decided to research. Thank goodness I clicked on your site. Thanks again!
Toni
Kate said:
It's true. I signed for their free trial and receievd the product. tried it - nothing special, even made my skin MORE DRY, NOT moisturized.
For the last 3 weeks i haven't been able to cancel my membership, because i don't want to get charged, their system has been down for 3 weeks, and now eevry time i call - i am on hold forever, once they hung up on me, and then i called back and they were closed, now I am calling and both numbers are busy all the time.
Now how in the world will i explain this to them, they won't believe me and convenietly charge my credit card!!!!
IT"S A SCAM!!!!!!!! DON"T SIGN UP. TRUST ME THEIR CREAMS DON"T WORK
Eileen Gravelle said:
Kate I'm really sorry you had problems with the hydroderm free trial - these are just the sort of issue reported on the Better Business Bureau and Rip-off Reports sites. You can't always believe the bad things people say about products but unfortunately reviews of the Hydroderm free trial are consistently bad.
Deborah Keeney said:
IS HYDRODERM OUT OF BUSINESS???
I have been trying to contact Hydroderm for over a week now to cancel my membership. The first day I called, there was a recording that said: "Hydroderm is now closed. The hours of operations are 6:00 am to 5:00 pm PST. Please call back during business hours." Funny thing is I was calling during business hours! For the next 5 days, I called them and went to their website. I sent them an email which the mailerdaemon returned. On the 7th day, I called again and the recording now said: " This number is out of service." Are they now out of business? And who has my credit card info. Do I have to be worried about being charged and not receiving anything??
Eileen Gravelle said:
Deborah - I don't know whether Hydroderm is out of business but it doesn't sound good. If you look at comments on the Better Business Bureau and other forums you see many complaints like yours. Keep trying and/or lodge a complaint with BBB.