
Catherine of Dollard Des Ormeaux, QC on Feb. 11, 2009
In May 2008, I was up late at night, suffering a lot of pain, waiting to go into hospital to have a hip replacement operation. Kevin Trudeau came on with an infomercial promoting his book 0 Natural Cures They Don't Want you to hear about. That night he was offering Natural Cures Revealed, and Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Hear About, both at no charge, just pay shipping and handling. I ordered those books and also another that was being offered - The Weight Loss Cure which cost either $13 or $15 - to save on shipping.
To my shock, the cost was $62 - charged to my credit card. At the time, the order clerk offered me a long list of other products I could also include - it felt like a dozen or more, but I didn't actually count - I wasn't expecting this. To every offer, I said No - I only want the books. When I was on the point of cancelling the entire order in aggravation, she quit. One of those offers was a newsletter for $10.95 per month - and again I said NO - without question. I went into hospital on June 6 before the books arrived, and then went to a rehabilitation center for five more weeks. During that time, my son made sure my bills were paid and everything in order with my affairs.
It wasn't until December that I was back into a place where I was checking everything that I noticed I was being billed by Natural Cures for $10.95. I had been paying $10.95 per month from my credit card since June 2008. I tried to cancel using the phone number provided on my credit card but it is impossible to get through to anyone there. I found a website for Natural Cures, but it has no contact information there - which I believe is in contravention of the CAN-SPAM Act of (I think) 1993. Last October, while trying to get through to Natural Cures to complain about being charged for something I did not want, I got a letter from Kevin Trudeau by e-mail. In part it includes the following... I want to give you $10,000! And I want to give you a lifetime supply of Coral Calcium for FREE!! You will get a monthly supply of Coral Calcium every month for the rest of your life. ABSOLUTELY FREE! (just pay shipping and handling) A month supply normally costs as high as $80!! And it is yours each month you want it FREE!! Thats right FREE!!....
There is a whole lot more to this letter - much too long to include here. But you can see Kevin Trudeau is promoting Coral Calcium which, I believe the FDA or some other regulatory agency declared not to be a viable supplement a few years ago. The problem is, it looks like Trudeau is working up another scam. Then, today I got another e-mail from Natural Cures - this time, it tells me that the latest Newsletter is on line and I can get past issues in the archives. It is a formal looking sign-in form that tells me if I joined before 11/07 I should use my e-mail address as my user name and if I forgot my password, I can click on the password retrieval link to get my password.
Since I never joined in the first place, I have no password. I did not clink to get it because I do not wish to give the impression I want this newsletter. I do not. However, it reminded me that I needed to find a way to try to get through to Natural Cures to just cancel the charge to my credit card and, hopefully, get a refund of the illegal charges to date. This brought me to Google - and to you! Since I am living in Canada, I don't know if you can include me in any action you may be able to take. Still, since you gave the option of including a Canadian address, I decided to at least get my complaint on the record. For a matter of $10.95 a month, I should not need a lawyer to get it cancelled. I hope! But it has to stop.
I am a senior, living on a barely adequate fixed income where every penny counts. I cannot afford to pay this charge every month. I was able to submit this because I decided to do a search for Natural Cures Newsletter - hoping that others who were likely to have the same experience would give voice and report it. I was looking for a link. My next step will be to contact the RCMP, Scam Busters Division. Thank you for the opportunity to publicize what this company is doing to make its money. In my view, it is a pretty scandalous way to get money from people at any time, never mind what it can do to people in these difficult economic times.