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Report: #1147466

Complaint Review: BetterHelp.com - Sunnyvale California

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: lovelylady — Elmira New York
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
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  • BetterHelp.com 440 North Wolfe Road Sunnyvale , California USA

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I signed up for a trial at BetterHelp and gave my credit card information (was required).

Their website indicates that they bill weekly and that I had 1 week to try the service for free. I was contacted by a Counselor left a message.  I was not home.  So, I did not talk to anyone

After my 7 day trial period I was billed $over 100.00  on my credit card. I tried to call the phone number listed on their website but all I got was a recording stating that I should 911 if I was having an emergency OR use their contact email to get in touch with them.  I emaile them called them..received no response.

The service is not legitimate. The counselors don't make any meaningful contact to give you a chance to get to know them and are, apparently, just waiting to get paid.

The website clearly states the fee is 35.00 per week and nowhere does it state that they will bill $150.00 in advance. I have filed a complaint with the BBB.

This company preys on people who are vulnerable.  This is one of the biggest scams, I have ever seen.  I'm going to the Attornye Generals's Office in California to file a complaint.

Dont use them!!!!!!!!!!

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/17/2014 07:39 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/report/betterhelpdotcom-verified/sunnyvle-cliforni-mentl-rpist-1147466. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
2Author
12Consumer
1Employee/Owner

#15 General Comment

All from the same person? I think not

AUTHOR: MusicDude - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, March 29, 2017

You are wrong betterhelp.  These are coming from the public, we are not the same person.  We can see through deception.

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#14 Consumer Comment

how do you resolve deceptive advertising?

AUTHOR: MusicDude - ()

POSTED: Monday, February 27, 2017

You are stacking Google with the "betterhelp reviews" keywords so that they simply direct back to your homepage, and you are paying money to do this.   You aren't resolving anything.

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#13 UPDATE Employee

So sorry for your experience, we're always happy to help resolve this!

AUTHOR: BetterHelp Support Team - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Hello, I just wanted to reach out and say that if there are ever any outstanding concerns with a BetterHelp account, our support team is more than happy to work with you to resolve the issue. We also respond to and handle all concerns directed to the BBB regarding BetterHelp. The best way for us to help you with any account concerns is for you to email us at contact@betterhelp.com.  Our team sends our best wishes, and again we are truly sorry for any confusion regarding our subscription billing process. 

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#12 Consumer Suggestion

Is betterhelp engaged in paying to control their reviews?

AUTHOR: MusicDude - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, December 28, 2016

I saw this company today, and was curious about it.  I went to Google and typed "Betterhelp.com reviews" because I wanted to see what people say about it.  The #1 result in Google was a paid ad by betterhelp.com that said "betterhelp.com - Reviews for BetterHelp - 100% Private & Professional‎" which of course linked back to BetterHelp.com homepage.  No reviews, no nothing.  This is deceptive to me and immediately gives me suspicions of a shoddy company.   It seems like Someone at betterhelp.com deliberately and purposefully setup a Google AdWords advertisement titled "Betterhelp.com Reviews" and is paying google on a per-click basis to make sure the ad sits at the top of the search page.  In other words, it looks like BetterHelp.com doesn't want the public to read about actual reviews and wants to divert you away from them and straight to its own homepage and is paying money to accomplish this.   Needless to say, based on this alone, I wont be using betterhelp.com, in my opinion people do this kind of thing when they have something to hide.

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#11 Consumer Comment

One victim more!

AUTHOR: annafidor - (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

POSTED: Monday, December 19, 2016

I am also a victim of this company.

I have submitted for the free account and gave them the number of the card. They explain that they will not use it but they have to be sure that you are a serious client.

After seven days (I sent one message to my counselor on the first day) they took from my account 45$. I contacted them and I didn't get any response.

 

I have reported this to my bank and National Bureau for customer protection. Bank will put this company on the black list. I will send the report about this issue to VISA.

 

I will share this experience on every social media I use. 

 

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#10 Consumer Comment

It clearly states the fee

AUTHOR: Daniel - (USA)

POSTED: Friday, April 29, 2016

 When looking into signing up, it clearly stated in the fine print that you would be charged for a 4 week basis going off of a 52 week scale

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#9 General Comment

Another person scammed by BetterHelp

AUTHOR: Unsatisfied User - (Australia)

POSTED: Tuesday, April 05, 2016

I was also scammed by BetterHelp.

After contacting the service for a free trial - I received no feedback/ councelling/ contact or any service at all. Stupidly (as I was in a time of need) I provided my credit card to begin the 'so called free' trial. 

To my surprise 20 days or so later i found a $180 fee on my credit card from BetterHelp

Complete ripoff !!!! Not happy and I have contacted my bank to initiate legal action. 

Very upset. There is no easy way to contact the company to discuss, as they never contacted my with an email in the first place. .. grrrr. 

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#8 General Comment

Cash grab companies

AUTHOR: Kim - (Canada)

POSTED: Friday, March 25, 2016

Personally i believe offering a free 7 day trial should be just that. I am an intelligent insightful person who may have benefited from something like this .. However in today's age where identity theft is a very real concern I think that on line companies should not ask for financial info for a free trial ... If I like the free trial I am quite capable of signing up to your program all on my own ... Your procedures and many others who follow this are nothing more than a cash grab. If you truly believe in your on line business and your mandate , your consumers will come freely and willingly. 

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#7 Consumer Comment

I also was bilked by Betterhelp.com

AUTHOR: Monte - (USA)

POSTED: Monday, February 08, 2016

 I find the statement that "she used our service many times" to be very suspect, since in the beginning, six months ago, I only exchanged contact no with an assigned counselor at Betterhelp.com, when he said he was leaving them and wanted me to go with him, as a patient, which I declined. They have billed me six monthly payments of $140 since then, although I've had zero contact with them. So since they have bragged that they offer 100% customer satisfaction, let's see how long it takes them to refund the money they bilked me for.

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#6 Consumer Comment

Im Not the owner

AUTHOR: Sen77 - (USA)

POSTED: Sunday, March 15, 2015

No idea how i got defines as an owner, I apologize

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#5 REBUTTAL Owner of company

I agree

AUTHOR: Sen77 - (USA)

POSTED: Sunday, March 15, 2015

Accidentally added  rebuttal to my own report.

Anyway. I totally agree with you, they take advantage of the vulnerable people, advertise to the depressed but refuse to help them later. All the letters are aimed to trick you to pay for another month. The company removes all the negative reviews online, on their Facebook page the comment count can be 9, only 3 comments would show. The reviews on their website are fake. If you foogle them amother resource will come up and all the positive reviews are marked as unhelpful by the real people. 

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#4 UPDATE Employee

This report is bogus (and all coming from the same person)

AUTHOR: BetterHelp Support - ()

POSTED: Saturday, July 26, 2014

Please note that all the "reports" in this page are coming from the same user. Over 20,000 people used BetterHelp to date (see betterhelp.com/reviews) and we have been operating for over a year. If we were indeed a rip off, you would expect many reports coming to this site. Instead, it is the same user posting again and again (and again).

As explained in our first reponse the user signed up, used the service extensively, never canceled and was charged when the free trial period ended. When the user saw the charge she contacted us. Although there was no doubt it was her mistake, as courtest of service - and since we believed it was an honest mistake - we processed an immedidate and full refund to her payment within 20 minutes of her email to us. It is part of our "100% satisfaction" policy. The user does not deny any of these facts (and she couldn't as there is a thread of emails) but instead keep posting more and more false and defamory reports regarding the same "issue".

The user then added a report claiming that she was charged three times. This is simply false. We ask the user to attach to her report a printout of these three charges. If she can do that we commit to writing her a check in the amount of 5 times of what she has been charged.

The user mentioned that she is going to file a complaint in the BBB. She indeed did that. We have filed all the documents to BBB (which we couldn't do on this site). The BBB has sent questions to the user and she hasn't responded to their inquiry at all. Following that, the BBB has closed the complaint and ruled in our favor.

 

 

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#3 Author of original report

It gets worse

AUTHOR: lovelylady - ()

POSTED: Thursday, June 05, 2014

 Better help.com, just attempted to bill me again. 6/5/2014. My bank took care of it. Please stay away from them. As i'm rebutting what the company said..they are attempting to charge my credit card.

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#2 Author of original report

Lies and stretching the truth

AUTHOR: lovelylady - ()

POSTED: Thursday, June 05, 2014

 I have three payments that were charged to my checking account...May 9, 19, and 29? I went to my bank, The bank officer tried to call this company at 2:00 pm, eastern time. That is 12:00 pm, western time. The recorded response was "send an e-mail?" You absolutely positively cannot cancel that easily as explained by the company. There never was an email response at anytime, during this process. The issue was not resolved, at all. I have lost my money. I can't afford to sue. I'm on a fixed income. But, once again, I can't stress enough...I never talked with anyone. This is really pitiful, That not only would this company falsify information, but once again, take advantage of vulnerable people. Pleasse people, don't use their free trial, or anything else they promise. Do your reasearch..go to a legitimate site. I'll never see my hard earned money again.

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#1 UPDATE Employee

BetterHelp Response

AUTHOR: BetterHelp Support - ()

POSTED: Saturday, May 17, 2014

We offer several payment plans: a weekly plan which is $45 per week charged every week, a discounted monthly plan which is $35 per week charged monthly, and a further discounted plan which is $29 per week charged quarterly.
The user enrolled into the monthly plan when she signed up to the service. The plan was clearly described on the sign up page as well as in our FAQ (www.betterhelp.com/faq?id=11). Also, users can select to switch or cancel plans online with a click of a button - there's no hassle.
The user was charged $150 per month ($35 per week for a month of service) when her 7 day free trial ended. She has used the service during the trial, didn't cancel it or contacted us on any issue.
The user first contacted us by email on May 9 7:25am PST and got a response at 7:33am PST (8 minutes later). She asked to cancel her account and get a refund because apparently she misunderstood (or forgot) that she signed up to the monthly plan. Per her request, we closed her account and processed a full refund at 7:44am PST (19 minutes after she contacted us).
The fact that she didn't get hold of someone on the phone when she called before 8am PST isn't surprising (we are located in California - Pacific Time Zone). Our email support is 24x7 and she has got the issue resolved within less than 20 minutes.
We believe we have provided an excellent and remarkable customer support, and that we attended to the her needs as much as possible.
The user wrote above that "The counselors don't make any meaningful contact to give you a chance to get to know them and are". For privacy reasons we can't go into detail about this specific user experience or interactions. We can say, though, that thousands of people used BetterHelp and its counselors to face various life challenges and the raving testimonials we receive on a daily basis speak for themselves.

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