It's Always Something (Roseanna Roseannadanna)
In today's St. Pete Times newspaper:
Q: In March, I bought a copy of Kevin Trudeau's Weight Loss Cures from an ITV infomercial. I paid $39.90 and it carried a 30-day return policy.
During the order, I was asked if I wanted the newsletter and Web site privileges, but I declined.
Upon receipt of the book, I was automatically signed up for the newsletter and a seven-day trial for the Web site. I called to cancel, though out of curiosity I did access the Web site during the trial period.
I read some of the book and found it to be totally bizarre. I called to return it and was given a confirmation number. I sent it back with delivery confirmation. It arrived on March 24.
My April credit card statement did not reflect a credit for the book so I called customer service at ITV and was told the credit would take between 30 and 60 days.
My May statement showed no credit, but I did have a charge for $9.95. A representative said it was for the Web site. I asked her to cancel it, which she agreed to do. She also said there was a backup in return credits.
When my June statement came, there was still no credit, and yet another charge for $9.95. Another representative explained the company's refund procedure was being revamped and I needed to wait another 30 to 60 days. She also determined I had two accounts with different spellings of my name and that's why I was still being billed for the Web site. I asked to speak with a supervisor, but was told no one could come to the phone.
There seems to be no end to these charges.
Diveda Spector
A: Vice president of ITV customer service, Catherine Ratcliffe, sent a short note saying your issue has been resolved. I hope this is the case.
On Sept. 11, 2006, ITV Direct announced that it had partnered with Trudeau to market both of his "Natural Cures" books. There is no information about the partnership at ITV Direct's corporate Web site, but the infomercials have continued to run.
Trudeau has criminal convictions for larceny and fraud. A federal case in 1991 alleged Trudeau misappropriated, for his own use, the credit card numbers of customers of the memory-improvement courses that he offered at the time. He pleaded guilty and spent nearly two years in prison.
His marketing firm, Trudeau Marketing Group, then partnered with multilevel marketing firm Nutrition for Life International Inc.
In 1996, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Nutrition for Life International and Trudeau Marketing Group on behalf of common stock purchasers in Texas. In part, it charged the companies with "misrepresenting and/or omitting material information concerning NLI's business, marketing efforts, sales and earnings." The suit was settled for $2-million in cash to the plaintiffs, plus attorney fees.
In 1998, Trudeau signed an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission barring him from making false claims about products he was marketing. He was accused of violating the agreement in 2003 by claiming coral calcium was a cure for cancer, among other things. The FTC filed a preliminary injunction.
A court found Trudeau in contempt for violating this preliminary injunction.
He signed another agreement with the FTC that banned him "from appearing in, producing, or disseminating infomercials that advertise any product, service or program." In addition, he may not use any advertising medium to make disease prevention or health benefit claims for any product, program or service.
His book, The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About, has been on the New York Times best seller list for seven weeks.
To read the FTC's entire statement on the settlement, visit
www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/09/trudeaucoral.shtm.
Credit: ACTION
