Far from free: Torbay woman out more than $1K after ordering face cream samples

A Torbay woman who thought she was ordering a free face cream sample last May is out more than $1,200. 

Betty Yetman, 67, was scrolling though Facebook when she noticed an ad for Endure Beauty System.

She called the number and ordered a sample. She gave out her Visa number, but from what she understood, it would only be used to cover the product's small shipping and handling fee.

"I didn't mind really at that point because there wasn't very much to give my Visa for. It was only like four or five bucks," Yetman told the St. John's Morning Show Tuesday. 

But two weeks later, another package filled with more Endure products showed up at Yetman's house. 

"All these boxes started to come. Like every month or every so many weeks, it would be the same kit arrive, same kit arrive, same kit arrive and it just kept going on for months right."

Yetman said each time she received a package, she wrote "Return To Sender" on it, and put it back in the mail.

It wasn't until she looked at her Visa statement that alarm bells went off. 

"There was different amounts that came out, but they were from three different companies, not one company, and I was thinking I never heard tell of this."

None of the three companies on Yetman's Visa statement were listed as Endure Beauty System. They were Buy Skin, Global Youth and Smooth Skin Los Angeles — all based out of California. 

When she called the numbers listed on her Visa statement, she was bounced around from person to person and spent a full day trying to speak with someone who could help her cancel the order.

"I talked to them, but they kept like saying 'what's wrong with our product', and really in a nasty way. I said 'there's nothing wrong with your product, I just don't need your product.' One person even hung up on me." 

Yetman said the only option she had left was to cancel her Visa. 

Sender refused to accept return

Betty's husband, Bob Yetman, tried to get to the bottom of the issue. One of the frustrations he has is with Canada Post.

"First when she got the product, she just thought that by you sending it back, marking refused on it ... the post office automatically sends it back to the sender....But the sender apparently got the right to refuse it," he said.

"And the post office do not send it back to you and do not notify you if it was refused. Really i think that's pretty unfair too, cause if that first one [of the packages] had to come back to me, that's where we would have got the problem right there and then."

When contacted by CBC, Canada Post explained that if a "return to sender" package is not picked up within 15 days, it is sent to the undeliverable mail office where it is kept for seven months while a team tries to determine its intended destination.

Company known for subscription scam

The Better Business Bureau is aware of Endure Beauty System. In fact, there have been so many complaints from other customers, it has an F rating on the BBB website. 

"The reason that they have an F rating is because of a pattern of complaints that is very, very similar in nature, almost exactly, to what the couple in Torbay experienced," said Peter Moorhouse, President & CEO of BBB in the Atlantic Provinces.

He said the approach is known as Subscription Scam, one of BBB's 2015 Top 10 scams. And while it may be considered unethical, it's not illegal. So in other words: buyer beware. 

"If you're hearing about something for a really unreasonably low price for an introductory sample, that should set off red flags," warned Moorhouse.

"Unless you're reading the fine print very, very carefully as a consumer, what you don't realize is that by providing your credit card information for that initial (sample), you're actually locking yourself into a much bigger bill down the road." 

The reason that they have an F rating is because of a pattern of complaints.     - Peter Moorhouse, BBB

Betty Yetman said this ordeal has made her much more skeptical about ordering anything online. 

"If I see something on Facebook or on TV that I really want to order, I'm scared to order it, because I don't know what's going to happen right. I'd just like to see these people caught." 

"I think it's an awful thing to do to a person," said Bob Yetman. "Sure she made a mistake and gave them her Visa number. You say 'okay most i'm gonna lose is five bucks'. But the next thing you know she's out $1,200." 

CBC has put a call into the Endure Beauty System company, but as of Tuesday the company had not responded.