I was excited and eager to use AdvancedYou Probiotic as I saw a clip with Maggie Q and review online about it helping your digestive system!
I am someone who suffers from a slow metabolism because of hypothryroid, and I take medication every day just to make processing food more normal in my system. Pro and prebiotics have been known to help as well, and after seeing other great stories online, I was really hopeful about trying this product.
Towards the end of ordering, I was turned towards special offer pages as options. Being a first time customer, I wanted to use these available deals as they were cheaper than the original price (and who knows if I was happy with the product maybe I would become a member with larger orders at a discounted rate).
Upon checking out, I was redirected to the initial original amount for the probiotic bottle at a cost of $76.29 with taxes and fees and only one confirmation number. Seeing this, I assumed the promotional deals did not go through as I was not given the slashed pricing to my order as advertised (my mistake!).
Later on, I was emailed multiple receipt charges to my card with not only the full price for the product I wanted, but also additional costs for the Special Offer deals. Assuming this was a mistake, I called the company's customer service number to get a refund for these multiple charges. I spoke to a gentleman named Martin, who was not helpful at all. He said that I accepted these offers and mentioned that the package had already been shipped and that there was no way I could get a refund at the time. Which was shocking as it literally was only a few hours since I ordered it that day.
I asked to speak with a supervisor but was told that there was no one available at the time to speak with me about this issue and that they were "closing" (side note: if you are closing, don't answer the phone for customer inquiries, especially without a Supervisor present, you don't know what kind of call it will be about.)
Naturally, I felt that I had been played. The fact that the package was "shipped" but I had NO TRACKING INFORMATION and that I received multiple charges with different confirmation numbers than the one I was provided upon the initial purchase came across extremely shady to me. I expressed my concern and was told that I could get a refund upon returning the package back, but there is not a returning shipping label provided (so I would have to pay my own additional money to send this back to even get a refund!). Being upset I was told to call back the following day to speak with a Manager and that he would note everything in my file.
While I was sleeping, I received overnight a tracking number for one package with all these multiple products. Seeing this when I woke up the very next morning, I called and spoke with another rep, a lady named Belma, who gave her apologies for the situation but said the exact same thing Martin told me the day before which was there was nothing they could do as I had "accepted" these and that I would have to return the package to get my money back. Something I mentioned to her was that I ordered these products on my mobile device with my finger, so (playing devil's advocate) I asked, would this charge still have happened if I had accidentally clicked accept instead of denying on my cell phone? I thought it was a valid question as I could see this as being a problem in the future as a system flaw and stated that it doesn't make any sense to charge people without their knowledge, to which she retorted simply with a "No" and went back to saying she can give me the info I needed if I wish to return this package.
At the end of receiving this return info on the call, I stated that I felt this was a scam and did not believe that this was actually about a healthy product for consumers, but rather about sales for them to justify making more money off of people on deceiving situations like this.
Had I known these special offers would have been charged on top of my initial purchase I would have declined them as I thought these were two deals in place of it and would equate to the original sale amount. I just wanted to try the product before buying more items to see if I was happy with the results. Most (if not all) businesses have the FULL AMOUNT listed upon checking out with one confirmation number distributed at closing listing all items purchased. The fact that I was sent separate email receipts and different confirmation numbers as "Add Ons" for these Special Deals, but was not shown this on the website upon checking out is BS.
I was frustrated that I had to spend time with USPS to return for a refund (which I am waiting on). I also know that this package was NOT actually shipped when I called the second time, as I checked the email with the tracking info and online it stated the label had been created but it was in Pre-Shipment, not in USPS possession yet. So it seems to me, this could have been canceled as I had requested but was refused by the Customer Service team.
This is definitely not a company that will get my business moving forward, which is disheartening as I really was looking forward to receiving this product and seeing if it worked for me or my friends. I am saddened that this is how this company operates and that others may be affected by something like this in the future. I decided it was best to leave this review for others to see a story that conflicts with the perfect five stars on here. This whole experience discouraged me from ever wanting to try this product and overall has been DISAPPOINTING to say the very least.
If I really wanted to I could have called my bank to dispute these charges, but I felt the proper way to go about this was to do what I have done and try to connect with the company's service team first. After the responses I have received, I believed it was best to speak MY TRUTH in an online review to show the REALITY of how this business operates.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend
