Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Smoke Free- just your standard S&H Scam

"You could try the nicotine patch or gums which cost $200-$400, only to find that they have a success rate of 7%, with no refund when they fail, 93% of the time...."-- the words come flying out of the announcer's lips so quickly, it's a bit hard to process the first time. Coincidence?

The ad is for "All-Natural Smoke Free," and it focuses far more on what's wrong with the traditional stop-smoking products than what's right about the product they are trying to sell here. In fact, we are never told what makes All-Natural Smoke Free work.

Yes, you could try the nicotine patch or gum, both of which are often recommended by doctors. "But these will cost you $200-$400." Oh, really? One nicotine patch, worn for a month, will set you back $21 at the online pharmacy I checked out. One hundred and fifty pieces of Nicorette (about a two-month supply for heavy smokers) will cost you $65. Both products are designed to wean you off Nicotine, not become permanent substitutes for cigarettes. So where did All-Natural Smoke Free come up with this $200-$400 figure? You'd have to use BOTH the patch and gum for FOUR MONTHS to reach $200 in expenses (not to mention the money you are saving by NOT SMOKING during this time.) I can only assume that the good people at All Natural Smoke Free just pulled those figures out of their butts (no pun intended.)

But here's the real red flag in this commercial: You can try this product risk-free, paying nothing but a small shipping and handling fee (the phrase "small shipping and handling fee" is used TWICE during the commercial, which is never a good sign.) And my favorite part: What do you get for your "small shipping and handling fee?" A "thirty-day supply of the Smoke Free Capsules (what are they? What are the active ingredients? We are never told) "A capsule holder" (Come on!) A "DVD support program" (DING DING DING!! PHONY HYPNOTISM ALERT! I SMELL KEVIN TRUDEAU!) "Weight loss capsules" (DING DING DING! THIS PRODUCT WORKS SO WELL, YOU'LL BE REPLACING CIGARETTE CRAVINGS WITH FOOD CRAVINGS!!) and a "guide to smoke-free living" (SEE DVD SUPPORT PROGRAM ALERT.)

What does all of this add up to? "A $130 value." Where does this figure come from? I'm not going to repeat the bad pun, but you get the idea. Sugar pills, a plastic container for the sugar pills, and handful of Dexatrim tablets, a stack of CDs designed to keep you entertained while your risk-free trial period expires, and a brochure is a "$130 value?" I doubt it.

Again, you get all this stuff for just a "small shipping and handling fee." And if it doesn't work, just send it back- on your dime, of course.

Come on. You are going to pay a lot of money on Shipping and Handling for a big, heavy box of junk-DVDs that are worse than worthless, weight-loss capsules you could easily pick up at the nearest pharmacy (and get free advice on which ones to take while you are there,) and a "guide" which probably spends more time telling you about time-share opportunities in the Caribbean than it does about quitting smoking.

This ad makes me almost as angry as the ones for Credit Counselors. Especially in bad economic times, there are a lot of people out there desperate to quit an addiction that may cost them thousands of dollars a year, and here come these scumbags on the radio to try to scam them out of money they don't have. I'd call them shameless, but they'd probably take it as a compliment.

10 comments:

  1. Wow, you cry a lot. Consider the idea that perhaps the average person does NOT only spend 1 month on the patch or gum. In fact, most of the people I know who have attempted to quit (quite a few) have been on the gum and/or patch for at least 6 months. To add to that, cigarette cravings are almost ALWAYS accompanied by food cravings. It is the nature of addiction to replace one addiction with another. Just the idea of being able to curb excessive cravings and raging appetite makes quitting that much easier. Have you ever quit smoking before? Have you ever tried this system? Boo hoo....quit your pouting and do some research first.

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  2. I have found the ad for this product eerily similar to other "try free" products being solicited across the web, radio and tv... More often then not, a credit card is required, trying to canel these free trials becomes almost impossable, due to lack of response from customer service. I have read many, many reviews of many products with free trials, ony to find that they mostly appear to be scams to get a few bucks from you. Honestly!! if any of these products worked, would they not appear in legitamate journals, backed by serious evidence? I could make a pill claiming it will make you taller, smarter, sexier, whatever, and some sucker will buy it because I said it would work..and legally get away with it because the fine print in these ads is very subjective...Why do you think there is a cure for everything and anything, as long as you have plastic? A sucker born every minute. But in such hard times it should be a crime to be sucking from the most desperate...
    Just my 2 cents
    Do the research people before buying anything!!
    Cheers!!

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  3. well, boy i wish i would have seen this page before i tried this JUNK. my wife wanted to try this stuff, so i was suckered in and bought it for her. she took it and it made her so sick she couldnt have smoked, because of the side affects. so i called them and got a "cancellation number". conveniently the day i canceled the order they drafted my bank account for $139.95 which i am still trying to get back. (and probably will never see again) so i called the well known radio station WHAS 84 radio out of louisville ky. to complain about there fraudulent ad, and i spoke to a man named kelli carls. he said that there was nothing they could do because it was a syndicated commercial. so in other words if you pay them to say SHIT stinks they will put it on their station, syndicated. so i called the bbb in chicago ill, thats where this all natural smokefree is headquartered at, and they said they had a bad rating... so yes i was suckered but would like to let everyone else know that this company is a bunch of FRAUDULENT CROOKS they got me for oh about $160.00 dont let them get you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  4. thanks!
    i was about to buy this product...
    not anymore now.
    thanks again!

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  5. thanks a lot!
    i was about to buy this product...
    not anymore.
    thanks again!

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  6. If you want a way to quit smoking and nothing else has helped, check out the electronic cigarette. After 40 years of 1.5 packs a day it gave me a way to quit. I am now over nine months smoke free.

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  7. Smoke Assassin Radio Commercial! Hillarious!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0f-5DBvxTg

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  8. Anna- I don't endorse or test products. I just criticize the commercials. I have no idea if Smoke Assassin works or not. I just know their commercial is really insulting. Period.

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  9. heres the thing. with the smoke free product you will get sick IF you smoke with the product you WILL get sick. to much tobacco in your system. The main ingrediant is lobelia powder (commonly reffered to as indian tobacco). and if you dont really want to quit then nothing will help you. if you take the product serious then your good.

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  10. I bought this product about 2 weeks ago and received it Monday and took 8 of the pills over a 2 day span. I found out I was pregnant and allergic to the so called "indian tobacco" in it on Wednesday. I called to cancel my order and they wouldnt let me. I paid the 9.95 S/H fees when I boought it. They told me I would have to pay 49.95 to cancel this order AND I would have to pay the S/H fees to mail the remainder of the product back to them. So I asked them..."Why do I have to pay 49.95 to cancel...Yall didnt tell me that when I bought it. Yall just said that if it didnt work for me to call and cancel and that is it." This company is INSANELY CROOKED! Someone do something with theses scams.

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