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Report: #544527

Complaint Review: The Healthy Back Institute - losethebackpain.com - Gaithersburg Maryland

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Debbie — Other United Kingdom
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
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  • The Healthy Back Institute - losethebackpain.com 333 Main Street, Suite 201 Gaithersburg, Maryland United States of America

The Healthy Back Institute - losethebackpain.com ripoff, scam, offer free products but make you pay postage/shipping charges and then put an excessive value on them that incur unaffordably high customs charges so you have to send them back Gaithersburg, Maryland

*Consumer Comment: Jesse Cannone scam

*Consumer Suggestion: national cousmers league fraud center

*Consumer Comment: Unfair Rip Off Post re Lose the back pain.

*Author of original report: Pathetic Excuses & Appalling Customer Service

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: False Charges - Ridiculous Claims

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I was sent info about the Healthy Back Institute/www.losethebackpain.com when I signed up to another site. They were offering their 7 Day Back Pain Cure book for free, along with some oil. My father suffers from a lot of back pain and has done for ages. He's tried tons of things to no avail, so I decided to order him a copy. We live in the UK, so paid an international postage charge of $9.95.

About 3 - 4 weeks later we received notification from Royal Mail that the package had incurred a handling fee + customs charges of 15! I called Royal Mail and they said this was because the Healthy Back Institute had put a value on the package of $75!! No way is this what the products were worth and even if they were, most companies minimise the value when sending packages abroad so that their customers avoid paying customs charges and handling fees for the package being held up in Customs. My father is a pensioner and I am on Disability Living Allowance, so neither of us were able to afford the 15 charge and we had to return the products to sender.

I called and e-mailed the Healthy Back Institute about the situation, also put in 2 Customer Support Tickets, but got nowhere with them. They refused to send another copy unless we paid the shipping charges again or to refund the customs charges, saying that apparently the "little print" on their web site said that customers were responsible for these if they were incurred. They also refused to explain why such a disproportionately high value was put on the package and even said that the same would happen again if we reordered and repaid the postage charges to England.

BUYER BEWARE!!!! DO NOT USE THESE MERCHANTS. They are a con, a scam and a ripoff. They probably deliberately overvalued the package because we did not order any of the products we had to pay for along with the free ones.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/23/2009 01:33 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/the-healthy-back-institute-losethebackpaincom/gaithersburg-maryland-20878/the-healthy-back-institute-losethebackpaincom-ripoff-scam-offer-free-products-but-ma-544527. 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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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
1Author
3Consumer
1Employee/Owner

#5 Consumer Comment

Jesse Cannone scam

AUTHOR: Teresa - (United Kingdom)

POSTED: Sunday, January 01, 2017

Actually there has been numerous complaints about the Healthy Back Institute.    There is no way the book and oil would be worth £75 and most companies would undervalue goods sent abroad.  I used to be on your e-mailing list and would receive e-mails from you on a daily basis and up to five a day in some instances.  When I looked on the order page from a link on the e-mail only to find out much I would have to pay for postage and packaging I declined.  Then I received irate e-mails from you asking why you hadn't proceeded with the order.  I would also receive numerous e-mails with the "I screwed up" in the title.  Because of your attitude I decided not to order from you and eventually decided to unsubscribe from the e-mailing list and delete all the e-mails sent to me including unread ones.

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#4 Consumer Suggestion

national cousmers league fraud center

AUTHOR: Nudist - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, January 07, 2010

any one thas be riped off by companys use the  above name in the title the compliant form will be out to all law enforcements around the an will be on the world wide data base usually when take the bbb side they work for them also if any has ben riped from the internet phone company or tv use the federal communication commission  (fcc) conpliant form 2000 any thing that is transmitted an recieved over a wire or thru the air comes under heading of fcc this form is good when a person trys to contact the company an get no reply  you   can be sure that you will get one after they recive a letter from the federal goverment pass this info on to others.thanks ray ne arkanas

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#3 Consumer Comment

Unfair Rip Off Post re Lose the back pain.

AUTHOR: Nickflame - (United Kingdom)

POSTED: Thursday, January 07, 2010

I am surprised to read the original post as I have found only an excellent supportive service and caring, committed attitude from the Healthy Back Institute. I have certainly had problems with some other companies but not with them.

 

When I got back and sciatic pain and had gone through many treatments for months which did not work I got the Lose the back pain system from The Healthy Back Institute. I was unsure at first buying from a foreign country. It arrived promptly and over the next few months, they gave me very consistent, supportive and helpful advice, discussed with me how to approach the exercises, listened to me and answered all my questions. In my experience it is an excellent service.

 

 As I no longer suffer from back pain and sciatica after doing this lose the back pain system I am very happy I purchased it!

 

I have ordered a few more things from them since and have had absolutely no problems. Easy shopping and great helpful products.

 

I live in UK and I expected to pay p&p on items as it will cost any company to send them especially overseas. I cant be sure but I dont think companies can downmark pricing on products as I believe it could cause issues with legality going through UK customs if checks are made.

 

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#2 Author of original report

Pathetic Excuses & Appalling Customer Service

AUTHOR: Debbie - (United Kingdom)

POSTED: Thursday, December 24, 2009

Firstly, there was NO warning on your web site that a book + a small pot of oil would cost an insane $75 or that this extortionate value would be marked on the package, potentially incurring high customs charges. In addition, like I said, most companies show some respect for their international customers by minimising the value to avoid these. I've ordered lots of products from N America and this has ALWAYS been the case. Free shipping huh? Not for us. It was a total waste of money that we could ill afford because we had no choice but to return the goods to you. And now you have these back for free and will charge some other poor innocent unsuspecting person for the same bad deal.

What did I expect your company to do to resolve the situation? Show a gesture of goodwill and either return the package to us that we had to send back with a minimised value on it that wouldn't incur customs charges and handling fees or refund the charges to enable us to accept the package.

I DO NOT appreciate you stealing $10 off us for products we were never able to receive. APPALLING customer service.

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#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

False Charges - Ridiculous Claims

AUTHOR: Jesse - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, December 24, 2009

First of all, we are an honest company with a great reputation. 


We are members of the Better Business Bureau and have just a few complaints in over 9 years of doing business and all have been resolved.

Now, to call us a scam, con and rip off because YOU had to pay shipping fees for a free book is pathetic. And we have no control over the fact that your country charges duties or taxes based on shipments you receive.

The value declared on the package is the actual value. The $75 value is a combination of $60 for the bottle of Heal-n-Soothe and $15 for the book, again, both of the actual values and prices we charge for these items.

And let's not forget that you received both of these items for free, other than the shipping fee and your countries taxes.

Then you claim that you contacted our customer service department and "got no where"... what were you expecting us to do? Why would we ship you more free items when you contacted us? Again, there's nothing we can do about your customs taxes.

I do NOT appreciate your making such absurd claims against us.

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