ALIGNERCO Reviews

I went to Smile Direct who did a computer model and they do your aligner preview the same day and in person. No trays, no waiting 3 mos for your trays and their preview was exactly what I hope aligner co could do. Went here to save a few hundred dollars- my bad. If I had it to do over again, I'd pay the extra few hundred dollars and save myself almost 3 yrs of ** and still being unhappy and trying to figure out what to do as I can't afford or want to go through a 4th set. They sent me new aligners to make me happy but asked me to take down my truthful review. Do it right the first time so u don't deal with this. Sad you can't post pics. My journey started in Oct of 2020 and sadly I need to probably see an orthodontist now or pay somewhere else because my bottom protruding teeth are hitting my top teeth and bothering me. Date of experience: April 26, 2023

I was given a personal staff member to oversee my journey. She did a one-on-one Zoom video session with me at the onset to ensure my initial molds from the Starter Kit were the absolute best they could be for my very best end result. I was able to approve the end result via 3D progress visuals on my ALIGNERCO app before beginning my journey. I absolutely love using the ALIGNERCO app to keep track of both my daily wearing hours as well as my aligner weekly/monthly progress. I highly recommend ALIGNERCO and am truly excited about having my absolute best smile in just a few more months. Thank you ALIGNERCO!

Got the kit and some of them were painful but it worked out fairly well. Didn't fix all the issues I had but they said that "it'd be future dental work cheaper". Gee thanks guys. Then came time to use the retainers. They are deliberately made more fragile than the aligners so they need to be constantly replaced. This is another huge red flag. They are paper thin and stopped working after about a week. So I switched by to my aligner and told them about it, and they apologized and knocked it down from $99 to $80. Still massively overpriced for the fragile retainers they sent but in for a penny in for a pound.

Several weeks pass and they eventually ship to me (I'm convinced they wait so long to make your teeth ship back so they can charge you $200 for realignment) and the package is lost and eventually (absolutely no thanks to these guys, they were extremely unhelpful) and I got them. Broken. In a paper thin envelope. I can only assume something heavy was placed on top of them. I emailed Alignerco and told them the situation and send them pictures of the aligners as proof. Their response was "that sucks, pay $70 and we'll replace them." They could not be bothered to put these things in a box to keep them safe while shipping and they want me to pay for another pair and wait a whole month again to hope they come intact this time.

At this point I've had it and I tell them I'm not paying to fix their mistakes. They refuse either a refund or to send replacements. They tried to negotiate on that said they'll ship them for free if I pay $40 shipping. Where in the world are these being made that UPS standard shipping is $40 for an envelope??? Obviously another attempt to con their customers. Now my teeth have begun to shift back making all the money spent on them wasted. Probably their goal to get me to purchase realignment. So here I am 6 months later back where I started and trying to get all the money I poured into this scam back. Don't buy from these guys.

Well asking for a refund gets you sent to the “resolution specialist” who will argue you in circles in hopes that you eventually give up. After explaining more about how they could not offer a better projection and that anything more would pose significant medical risks but also being unwilling to refund my money, they suddenly were able to offer a new smile projection. Not once has anyone been able to explain how they were insistent that the first was the best they could do but suddenly (when pressed for a refund) they were able to offer a better projection. Never once in this process did I speak to an actual dentist or orthodontist. Just their customer service rep and the resolution specialist.

Well at this point I had lost all confidence in this company and did not trust a thing they were doing. The new projection looked impossible to actually accomplish (which based on their previous correspondence it would have been), still had crowding, and had gaps that didn't exist before. They essentially filled in gums that were not there in order to push the teeth out further and make more room. I am not a trained dentist but I know that is not how gums work.

Aligner Co is still insistent that they can fix my teeth (despite telling me on more than one occasion that they could not and failing to provide an adequate smile projection) and would not issue a refund. At this point, I have already opened disputes with Affirm and the BBB. BBB could not mediate as Aligner Co continued to talk in circles, but their rating has now gone from Not Rated to F, so hopefully that will help others avoid my fate. Affirm was able to get me a partial refund, minus the cost of the impression kit. I am still fighting for the remainder of the money.

On 2/9/23, 4.5 weeks later, I had to inquire if I missed an email notifying me of shipment. I was emailed on 2/10/2023 that the aligners are under fabrication and they will "expedite" the process. On 2/26/2023, I emailed again inquiring about the aligners' arrival, no response to that email. I received my aligners on 2/28/2023 at my place of business which was never given to Alignerco but was in my signature line on emails (example of the poor customer service communication). Upon arrival, the lower aligners have an obvious defect in the fabrication that creates an over-hang of the plastic which rubbed and caused a sore on my tongue.

I shared why I felt they were ill fitting and now they are asking that I pay for the shipping for a new set of impressions. I had to repeatedly explain this to the customer serviceperson; it felt like they were just replying with pre-formatted replies and sometimes that they were asking information that was on the email they were replying to. The original timeline AlignerCo estimates on their website is 5 weeks from the date they receive the impressions. I did take longer to approve the impressions because of the holidays and vacation, but it still took 8 weeks from that date. Their communication and instructions are terrible.

Original Review: Dec. 24, 2022

Do not trust this company! This is an outright scam. I purchased clear aligners for $895 on June 28th, 2022 and have still not received a single functional aligner. To date I was sent one set of test aligners, months after I originally placed my order, which did not fit correctly. When I repeatedly reached out to "Ele" (which is their anonymous customer service account which only sends automated responses on Zendesk) regarding my concerns, I was only told to "use chewies". I never received these chewies with the aligners, nor had any idea what that meant. I was not provided with proper instructions. I had to purchase chewies off Amazon and wait for them to arrive in the mail.

Afterwards, when it became apparent that the issue with the ill-fitting aligner was not going to be rectified by chewies, I was made to pay for additional materials to redo the entire impression process while still not being provided better guidance on making impressions. I had to request additional guidance. Their responses led me to believe that I was capable of making the impressions on my own, which was obviously not the case. The instructional material that I did receive the second time around was vague and unhelpful. I was told that scheduling a video call was possible, and I quote, "if I was not convenient".

When I called in to customer service line to try to speak with someone, I perceived that the blame was somehow being placed on me for the fabrication errors. Additionally, when they finally sent the second impression kit, they forgot to send trays with the impression materials, further delaying the process! They failed to provide me a return shipping label and I had to repeatedly ask for it before I was finally given a PDF of a shipping label to print out on my own.

Then, after being told that my impressions were in their lab being evaluated, I patiently waited six weeks. When I finally reached out for an update, I was immediately informed that the impressions were unusable, and I would need to be sent a third impression kit and go through this entire process for a third time. Is it just me, or does that seem highly suspect?

How would it take six weeks for them to even perform the initial evaluation of my impressions? Why was I not notified sooner that the impressions they approved for me to send in were unusable? Was there not a modicum of urgency placed on this matter? And does this mean they are in fact unable to accurately assess the quality of impressions beforehand, even with detailed sets of photos showing each individual impression from multiple camera angles?

I have never once experienced a company that outright refuses to disclose the names of any of its employees. This is not an acceptable business practice, in my opinion. For all I know, I have not spoken to a licensed dental/orthodontic professional at any point during this process, and I am seriously questioning why there is such a lack of transparency and whether there are even any licensed medical professionals employed by this company... Their resolution specialist had the nerve to state that they were doing me a favor by sending ill-fitting test aligners, and made a point to express that the company was actually losing money by doing so, as if that somehow had something to do with me.

For a time, a very helpful employee was assigned to my case and got a new set of aligners to complete the job - but soon after their receipt I noticed in the motion chart that my two teeth with the biggest gap between them were not being moved at all, despite the before/after preview clearly showing that gap being closed, with the two teeth in question back in contact upon projected completion. I brought this to the helpful employee's attention, who acknowledged the problem; a new preview was created and the "before view" did not accurately resemble my teeth - which would seem impossible since there was a digital scan done! From that point, no progress has been made on my case for several months.

ALIGNERCO would prefer that I take a partial refund and walk away; in principle I cannot accept this as my teeth have problems created by their treatment (monitored at every step of the way, and for which I was very compliant) never present before I began. One agent even told me something to the effect of "If I were you, I'd accept that preview" - referring to the one where the "before view" did not accurately represent the position of my teeth. I want resolution so that my teeth are properly aligned/spaced with proper bite. I have been all too patient already. I cannot more wholeheartedly advise avoidance of this company. I never had to fight this hard or this long as a consumer for basic fulfillment of reasonable expectations.

After a subsequent week of reaching out to Alignerco to receive a refund (or the paid-for retainers), with no response, I have filed a BBB complaint (they have an F rating) and filed a dispute with my credit card company. I am now working on letters to the FTC, the attorney general’s office, local news agencies, and consumer fraud bureaus, and, if need be, I will file a claim in the NY small claims court to recover the monies paid. I am also fortunate that both of my brothers-in-law are attorneys as I will be reaching out to them as well.

Alignerco Business Practices:

1. After paying for an initial teeth impression kit, Alignerco claimed that every mold I made was not perfect enough and asked that I pay an additional amount each time for several more impression kits. This went on for three cycles. I refused to pay for the additional kits so AlignerCo sent them for free. I recommend that you not pay for any additional kits.

2. The aligners seemed to have been (purposefully) designed to only achieve 80% alignment, just as their “contract” states. This forces a client to spend an additional amount ($250 in my case, which I refused to pay so they sent them for free) for supplemental aligners. However, they require that the client make new impressions and, not surprisingly, none of them seemed to be perfect enough for them to work with so they request an additional $25 for each additional kit.

3. After initially leaving an honest but obviously scathing online review of Alignerco, they contacted me and asked that I remove that review in return for them providing the additional aligners at no charge. That’s when they sent the impression kit (they wanted to charge me $25 but I refused so they sent it for free), but then they once again claimed none were able to be used and requested that I pay $25 for still another impression kit. This one time, in good faith, I paid the $25. They sent a new kit, and, unsurprisingly, they claimed that none of them were good enough. That’s when I requested a refund for the already paid-for retainers—and skip trying to further realign my teeth (or to just send me the retainers).

4. Since their “guarantee” is that you’ll achieve 80% or so alignment, my first round of 21 aligners left me with my top and bottom teeth hitting each other, thereby forcing me to purchase supplemental aligners or just put up with it, which is what I ultimately chose to do.

5. My bottom front teeth became very loose during the alignment process—one became so loose I had to pay my dentist to install a splint after completing the 21 aligners. Beware that Alignerco, being an online company, doesn’t concern themselves with the amount of prior or during-the-alignment-process bone loss by examining X-rays. This is a vital element that is missing from the Alignerco process and had I known its importance beforehand I would have spent the extra money for a dentist-based aligner system like Invisalign. There were several other negative aspects of dealing with Alignerco but since they pale in comparison I’m leaving them out of this review. In summary, I would strongly recommend that you consider almost any other company for aligners.

The lower aligner is malformed causing a gap between the teeth and the aligner. Causing wounds and ulcers of the mouth as the bulging plastic slices against the tongue. She couldn't eat, drink, or speak without pain. This cannot be fixed with filing. You would have to remove so much material that you would compromise the aligner's ability to do its intended purpose. Effectively cutting off teeth from the aligner. Refabrication is absolutely necessary. By the company's own admission this is not a case of "refinement". They made it clear in the sales process that if we did not use the impressions kit properly that would be used to make the aligners then we would have to pay for a new kit. Understandable. Those are $50. However their licensed dental experts approved the impressions and treatment plan without any reservations. Which they also admit. This means that the defect arose in fabrication. That is the company's responsibility. Not the customer's fault. I am not liable for a company's mistakes.

Avoid this company if you need aligners. You will save yourself a lot of time and frustration. You are effectively financially punished for anything that goes wrong.

Alignerco offered me a refinement plan for $200.00 to achieve further movement. I was shown a treatment preview again, displaying my desired results. During the second treatment, I expressed my concern once again explaining that I didn’t think the aligners were tight enough to provide any movement. After finishing my refinement treatment, my gap is still there!

I contacted the company AGAIN to only be offered ANOTHER refinement plan for $150.00. I’ve already spent $1500.00 with Alignerco. At this point, I am extremely unsatisfied. Their lack of customer service is disappointing. They don’t provide you a way to contact a manager directly and when requested to speak to one it takes DAYS to get a response. Alignerco scams people of their money and provide unachievable results.

The good news is that in spite of the fact that the upper aligners 'hang off' my top front 4 teeth by about 3/16", they are working. (They look wonky which is disappointing as I have to wear them in public). This is pure luck that they are working. The company seems to be purely focused on making the dental appliances. That is all they do, no allowance made for any adjustments or issues. You get one set, and that's it. The company finally stopped asking me for feedback on the fit; haven't heard from them in a while. Are they still in business?