On September 29 I wrote about a slippery, hard-sell website called caracol-cream.com. The site sells an anti-aging cream (made of snail extract), and I detailed its connections to a dubious entity called the American Anti-Aging Association, which happened to really, really recommend Caracol's product. Now the company has responded with an email?basically 'fessing up?and remade its site in part to address the criticisms.
But not much of substance, in my view, has changed, and the company's naive explanation offers a peek behind the curtains of websites that try to lend legitimacy to products that are hawked like snake oil.
Before we get to the response, here are some of the key points from my original blog.
- There was little evidence that the American Anti-Aging Association?purporting to be an impartial tester of anti-aging products?even existed in the way the AAAA site claimed.
- There was evidence that the AAAA was commercially connected to caracol-cream.com.
- The so-called president of Caracol Cream, Pam Estel, who popped up in a video showing cleavage, is not the president at all.
- The site engaged in repeat-billing practices that had produced a growing number of complaints on complaintsboard.com.
- The site used "countdown clocks" to suggest limited product stock and availability?but those clocks reset every time you visited.
I concluded by pointing out that many of these practices echo those that the National Institute on Aging?part of the National Institutes of Health?lists as key in "spotting health scams."
Next page: Caracol-cream.com responds
Last week I received an email from caracol-cream.com president Jason Popko, whose name I found, ironically, through the Better Business Bureau (I had asked Popko to answer questions before the first blog was published).
Although I'm not running the entire email, the parts included here, which are indented, have not been edited. I have added my own comments after each explanation.
AmericanAntiAgingAssociation.com
As you've discovered, this website is owned and operated by us. As your research also suggests, this is common practice in the wrinkle cream industry. Many of our competitors such as LifeCell, Dermapril-SP, Athena 7 minutes Lift, and Replexion offer similar style of review sites.
However, given our new company direction, a re-design of our AAAA site is under way. We have discussed hiring a copywriter to review the products in a similar fashion as http://www.theperformanceleader.com (seen on your blog post). We hope to bring honest facts of who we are, and that the site was designed for informational purposes only.
My comment: Yes, it's common practice, and it's deceptive. Since when can a "copywriter" review the validity of anti-aging products?
Limited quantity
We no longer use our countdown clock to show a false stock quantity. Although the countdown is still present, we've changed the wording to "This offer will only be guaranteed to the next x customers." This has been suggested to us by a former FTC lawyer, as it's written vaguely enough to not promise anything.
My comment: That's as close to an admission of deception as I've seen recently, and the lawyer sounds weaselly, too.
[About] Pam Estel
You will notice that we no longer mention Pam Estel as the president or the founder of our company. She is now just a minor virtual spokeswoman developed to advertise some of the features of our website. We have made this change to help avoid future confusion in regards to the BBB information, and anyone else trying to do some research on our company.
My comment: A virtual demotion?that's a new one.
Complaints
As your research shows, we've recently had an issue with our reoccurring billing system. This has resulted in a number of documented online complaints against our company. This is largely due to an education issue in our new call center and ordering department. We however have adjusted the learning curve and hope to have the issue sorted out for all future reoccurring transactions. As well we are working on making this subscription model more apparent to those customers who do not choose to read over the terms and conditions of the offer. We did not account for these customers is the past, and those are the customers we are looking to address in the future.
My comment: Blame the call center and the customer, but the revamped site's terms and conditions are still 380 words long, in tiny type, and hard to follow.
Next page: You need to brainstorm "legitimate sales techniques"?
Transparent pricing
Although we haven't changed our pricing and billing approach, our new website brings more clarity to the process. The new design features has our Terms and conditions more predominately featured, and has already shown an increase in readership.
My comment: Yes, the terms are there, but the ordering/return process remains a rigmarole. It's not unreasonable to conclude that it's designed to maximize the extraction of money from people who don't read, or can't follow, the fine print.
Internal changes
As previously mentioned, we had former FTC lawyer, review our site and provide his insight to the changes above. We hope the changes we've made not only protect us from a legal standpoint, but provide a better more effective company image.
We've also developed a new communications and market development team to brainstorm and introduce new legitimate sales techniques.
My comment: Here's hoping. Incidentally, although I thought this site had launched last summer?the company's profile with the BBB says it started in August?archive.org turned up a page from October 12, 2007, when the site said "Hurry, We Are Almost Sold Out."
I repeat that I have no idea whether "snail slobber" (as one site called it) helps aging skin. I give Popko credit for replying to complaints on complaintsboard.com (at least, I assume the "senior representative of the company" called Jason is the same Jason Popko). There, he apologized. But the email makes it clear that it's really business as usual?with a few wrinkles smoothed out.
To see the two versions of the site being tested, go to caracol-cream.com/TestA/ or caracol-cream.com/TestB/.
Caracol-cream is invited to continue the conversation below.
Recent posts by Scott Mowbray:
(PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES)
Original source: http://healthpoked.wordpress.com/?p=3183
