Has anyone tried Stemologica and Beautemar?

[Hippychickster]

I know I know it's one of those companies which give you the first month for about £3 and then charge you £97 a month if you don't cancel, so I'm immediately alerted to the fact it's probably a scam.

But - I cannot find one single negative review on either product. The results look amazing.

Anyone tried it? And does it work? Or should I just accept that I will be 50 in December and grow old gracefully?

No one then!! That kind of answers my question!

Please don't do it.

These people obviously work hard on search engine optimisation which is why there are lots of positive reviews online that appear to have a negative title "Don't buy this until you read my review" but it's a whole web page not a review. This has the effect of burying less "optimised" reviews in the search engine which is why you can find no negative reviews. Given the £97 per month it's not exactly something people are going to jump up and scream about being scammed on. Have a look on sites such as Consumer Action Group.
HTH

Hi, I fell for the offer, I was stung with a credit card bill, however I did start to use the products & despite the cost etc I found the products fantastic! I have suffered with over sensitive skin for years, breakouts, redness, no anti aging creams suited me, I spent a small fortune trying to find a moisturiser. I don't agree with the marketing but I have to say I do love the products. My advice is if you have entered into the free trial give them a go....

Hello

Please, please don't buy these products. I have been stung for almost £200 of which Stemologica has agreed to refund me £80. Having returned the goods to them unused they have said that the 'box' has been opened and I am not entitled to a full refund. Given the customer is allowed a trial period of 2 weeks, how can the box NOT be open. I even asked if they would return the goods to me, thinking I might as well have them rather than lose £120. But no, they wouldn't even agree to that! I am going to write to them directly, both here and in the USA/Canada. However, I do not hold out much hope. I know this is my own stupid fault and a very hard lesson has been learnt.

I've been stung by these people as well, this is a very dishonest company. Their website actually does lay out their terms and conditions, you pay the postage on the products, they,'auto enroll' you, (this is in effect a direct debit mandate so they can take money when they wish) after 14 days they take a huge payment etc. BUT, I, and I suspect many of their victims are sucked in through advertisements which offer free samples, just pay the postage. In my case it was the Women's Freebies website. I suspect this is itself slightly dodgy. Anyway, the offer is free skincare samples, you do a questionnaire, then you're offered Stemolgica products, you just have to pay the postage. There is nothing to indicate that it is anything but a straight offer of trial samples. I went back to the website to see how I failed to notice the terms, and I found some small print AFTER the bit where you put in your card details , on my tablet you had to scroll past the card details section for several screens to get the small print. And there is no box to tick to say you've accepted, and you get nothing in writing to say that you've set up a direct debit. I've got my bank to block them from taking further payments, and after some fairly strongly worded emails they have offered me a partial refund on condition I don't ask the bank to try and reclaim the money. How dodgy is that! I have seen other posters saying that actually their bank did refund the money under the direct debit rules, so I think I may go back to the bank before accepting the partial refund.
Anyway, to any other victims out there, please do not feel stupid - this is a totally dishonest company who have found a way to remain within the law while actually breaking it, but making it difficult to demonstrate what has happened because their website is clear, its just these click through ads where they trick people. If you are caught out contact your bank quickly, a least you can limit the damage and perhaps claw back the money.
The products themselves are OK, not worth anything close to the price, and definitely not worth the risk of dealing with a company where you need the fraud dept of your bank to help out!
Also, I would steer well clear of Women's Freebies. Not only have I been caught by Stemologica, I've been scammed in exactly the same way by a different company and dietary supplements. Apart from these 2 scams I haven't got anything from that website, have now unsubscribed!!!!

Do not under any circumstances use this company for the 14 day trial.

I filled out a survey and ordered a sample. It arrived broken and I emailed them to tell them. A few days later another arrived but although the product was satisfactory I decided to return it and cancelled my repeat order on their website.

Their terms and conditions state that the product need to be SENT before the time is up, but I was charged the full price before I did. Essentially anyone who orders a trial will be charged, whether you want to be or not.

Repeated requests to have my money returned have resulted in return of £100 and they are saying that the other £100 is to cover Shipping and Handling. Just repeat that last line to yourself (I obviously paid the return postage) and you will see just what a scam this is.

Buy from somebody reputable.

I would be wary of anyone who charges £97 a month on skincare. It screams out scam to me.

Crikey! I'm glad I never did order this. They sound like a massively dishonest company. I'm so sorry for all those who got scammed

Well I'm another normal sensible woman that was conned by this company still waiting for the £30.00 refund ha ha but feel slightly better knowing I'm not the only total idiot

Please, please, never buy Stemologica/Beautemer products - they are a big scum and this is their main business - to be a fraud. I have also been stung by £200.00. It turned out their web hosting is in the Czech Republic, their HQ address appears to be in Cyprus and the transactions are done via Turkey. It is meant to be a scam that way as it is very difficult to initiate an investigation against them as too many countries are involved. The Citizen's Consumer Advice cannot do anything unless they are registered in the UK or too many people complain about that. The bad thing is the fraud is so cleverly devised to appear as if us, the customers have not read their T&C before registering, when in fact we are offered the products as gifts with only shipping costs required to be covered. Actually, they take this registration as authorization for further subscription without prior customer's consent. After I sought explanations I was told that this was between me and the third party that offered the gifts and they did not have any say how their brand name is used by other parties. Really??? I have been offered a partial refund of £80.00 in a rather cocky and non-apologetic e-mail after trying to raise the alarm that their business is involved in a fraudulent scheme and warned not to seek any damages by my bank. Strongly advise to stray away from this online business.

After a short survey I thought was from Sky (we had trouble that day) I was offered a trial of beauty produce. Seemed cheap trial so went for it. When I saw warnings about it I immediately contacted Natwest bank and they agreed they would stop any Direct Debits that came from Beautemer or Stemologica. Will see what happens and post it. Ces

There are several other similar companies, not sure if they are the same one operating under different names. I fell for one, a cream and a serum for the price of P&P. They charged me £89 and £97. My bank said this is a common scam and blocked the payments. I too went back and it took ages to find the terms and conditions. I reported them to trading standards, but sadly they are still operating within the law. The creams themselves are OK, worth about £10 I would say. For £160 I could have bottox.

I have been successful in obtaining a refund from this company recently and i might be able to help. Visit the Facebook page ‘Don’t get conned by stemologica’ and join the group. We are planning to negotiate a refund with Stemologica and the more people that join the stronger the voice. I will represent all that join free of charge but will need some details if you are interested. Find me on Facebook, my name is Sue Walters and my profile pic is my consumer champion logo of 3 men on a podium. Also email me on [email protected].

Hi I foolishly accepted free gift after doing small survey was only asked to pay pp looked on net to find out about the product and realised it was a scam immediately alerted Santander who promised to block any payments to stemelociga and the other name something like beautimar yesterday Santander phoned me to say a payment of £97 was pending by a company called demmicell bank could not guarantee that these payments would stop because the company were changing names to get your money in the end at great inconvenience I have closed my account so they will not be able to get any more of my money these people should be stopped at no time did I agree to any direct debits its 100% fraud

There is no doubt that this is a scam. I was caught in April, and asked the bank to refund the money which they did initially but after receiving information from the other bank took the money out again. There was then an arduous exchange of letters with the bank which went nowhere.

So at the end of October 2015 I wrote to their head office (Lloyds Bank) and informed them that I was of the opinion that they had failed in their duty of care to properly investigate the fraud and would be commencing legal action for the sum lost unless they resolved the issue. They did not come back and I started proceedings (cost £25) . The bank tried to deny liability then conceded that one of the transactions may have been unauthorised and eventually agreed to give me my money back. It arrived in my account yesterday. The total I would have lost is just under £200, and yes it cost £25 in court fees which I probably could have got back as well, but the point is don't give up and you will not end up out of pocket. The other thing to do is try and avoid scams in the first place..I still feel a bit silly about getting caught

Looks like Stemologica is now being offered for sale through the Easyjet website. I was just asked to complete a quick six question survey upon first arrival on their site. From what i have read this seems to be a product with questionable business practices and i am surprised Easyjet is associating themselves with it, unless i'm experiencing some kind of browser hijack?