Proactiv Solutions - 'membership' and recurring shipments not cancelled when requested - still haven't received money back

Complaints.com received the following on March 10, 2003:

From: Matt Qualls [Email User]

RE: Proactiv Solutions - 'membership' and recurring shipments not cancelled when requested - still haven't received money back

My complaint is about Proactiv Solutions. I ordered their products in Oct. I received another shipment in Dec.

I was unaware that this shipment was coming. When I received it, I called their customer service number and told them that I wanted to cancel my membership and I would return my shipment. I returned their products immediately.

My account was credited on Jan 2nd. Then on Jan 31st I was looking at my account online and saw where they had charged me for another shipment, along with 3, $30 charges for insufficient funds from my bank. I immediately called Proactiv.

They had no record of my first call that cancelled my membership, of course! I talked to a supervisor and they immediately refunded my charge for the shipment plus shipping. I also explained about my $90 charge for insufficient funds caused by their charge to my account due to their failure to cancel my membership. They told me to fax a copy of my account record to them and they would review it. Someone called me the following Fri. and said it would be 2 weeks and they would let me know their decision.

I waited, and waited. Three weeks went by; on March 5th I called them. They informed me that they had sent a letter to me on Feb 17th. I had not received their letter yet. I asked what their decision was and she said it was denied because the shipment was sent before I cancelled my membership. I explained the story to her and told her that I wanted to talk to who ever made the decision. She said “Oh, they’re not in today. I’ll take a message and have them call you.”

They did not even have the correct phone number! And they probably still don’t. I called back 2 days later; they said it would be Wed. March 12th before I would hear from them. They said someone would call me. I checked to make sure they had the right number, and no of course they did not. I finally received their letter today, dated Feb 24th and post marked March 7th. It has been a three ring circus with these people. This is the worst Customer Service I have ever encountered! I refuse to give up until I receive my money that their poor Customer Service has cost me! Thank you for letting me voice my complaint.

Comment On This

proactiv posted complaint 012409

I encountered the same sorts of problems roughly 4 years ago as Matt Qualls mentioned in his 2003 post. I had no choice but to cancel my account at that time to stop their too-frequent shipping and billing. Under the assumption that a good business would correct its flaws and improve its policies in order to improve sales and grow a repeat-customer base, I opened another account in 2007. Nothing has changed--6 years after Matt's post! For example:

1. Their online-accounts-management department and phone-customer-care department cannot seem to communicate with their order-fulfillment department in less than 3 weeks, which seems excessive to me in the computer age. Specifically, in order to stop too-frequent shipping and billing of their standard "club kit," I used my online account to change shipping frequency to once every 16 weeks. Within the next 3 weeks, they sent two shipments instead of none. I have once again canceled my account with them and will never open another one.

2. Their return policy is not customer-friendly. As a working individual, I do not have the luxury of using UPS pick-up or drop-off and had to use the US Postal Service, which has some requirements of its own. In order to return an item Certified (the company's requirement), you must send the item First Class (USPS requirement), so it costs you $9.80 to return one shipment. Times two for me because they sent two shipments I did not want. That is a whopping 25% of the amount to be refunded.

3. There's more. The second time I became a club member, I ordered an item advertised in their catalog in addition to the standard club kit. They emailed me an order number and said it was back-ordered. In the five months between then and when I closed the account, I neither heard any more about the product nor received it. I was too disgusted to pursue the matter, so I don't know whether they are also guilty of extremely poor communications or fraudulent advertising.

4. I should mention that one of their moisturizer products is fantastic. I would order it regularly if I could, but that is not possible unless I remain a "club member" (at the cost of $39.90 per shipment of the standard "club kit," which in my experience always ends up being shipped/billed far more frequently than you have requested, which leads only to inconvenience for the "club member," as described above).

5. The standard "club kit" worked well for my daughter when she was a teen (the first time I created an account with the company). I would imagine that about half of the company's customers are teens (or their paying parents). Consider the ramifications. If the products work as advertised, the need for the products will end. So why should the company care about maintaining a satisfied, repeat-business customer base or about treating customers fairly who want to cancel or who have already canceled their accounts?

In sum, Buyer Beware!