As the old saying goes, if it’s too good to be true then it probably is. Unfortunately, thanks to the lack of regulations in the CBD industry it can be especially true here, with a number of companies offering free CBD oil trials. The problem is what you actually get with these trial offers.
Similar marketing and sales techniques have plagued the health, weight-loss, and supplement industry for years. People who want to try the next great thing are quick to jump in and the product doesn’t live up to its billing.
In this article, we’ll look at what companies are doing by offering these free CBD trials and how to make sure you’re buying a quality product!
CBD Oil Free Trial Scam
Many CBD companies have popped up offering a “Get a Free Trial Bottle of CBD Oil”. Initially, it sounds great. You pay a small shipping and handling fee with your credit or debit card and they send you a sample of their product.
What they don’t tell you is that by getting your trial offer you’re also signing up for a “subscription” or “membership” to their service and you will be billed monthly for their CBD. These charges are usually 90-100 dollars and in many cases are billed after just a few days of having the product.
These companies make sure to save your credit or debit card information so they can bill you regularly, and canceling can be quite a pain unless you go directly to your bank.
To add injury to insult, the CBD Oil they send is of inferior quality. These bottles of CBD Oil contain as little as 100mg of CBD per 30ml bottle. For comparison, our complete spectrum Coconut Citrus tincture comes in two options, 1000mg/30ml, or 2000mg/30ml. This is 10-20x the CBD in the same container.
You also don’t know if these brands are using a full spectrum, broad-spectrum, or isolate form of CBD. They are obviously diluting it, but with the other shady business practices, it’s hard to know what else is going on.
CBD Oil Brands to Avoid
To help you avoid this scam we’ve assembled a list of all the “Brand Names” we know of that are associated with this sales tactic:
- Pure CBD
- True CBD
- Miracle CBD
- Sky CBD
- Assure CBD
- Divine CBD
- Pure Med CBD
- Organix CBD
- Isolate Direct CBD
- CBD XRP
- Optimal Choice CBD
- Zen Labs CBD
- Star CBD
- Serene CBD
- Serenity CBD
If we’ve missed a brand, or a new one has been found, please leave us a comment or send us an email so we can keep this list up to date!
What to do If You’ve Been Scammed
Unfortunately, one of the many joys of this scam is that the CBD companies doing it normally have very, very poor customer service. If they have customer service at all. There are three steps to take if you’ve already run into this scam to help you get your money back.
Call Customer Service
Depending on the company you’re dealing with you may or may not get someone on the phone. If you do you can demand a full refund and if you need to threaten to file a fraud chargeback if they do not comply immediately.
Sometimes this will be enough to get your money back. These companies rely on referrals to get traffic to their offers and generally want to keep bad reviews as minimal and quiet as they can.
Contact Your Bank or Credit Card
We recommend you also contact your bank or credit card company after this happens as well. If you were unable to get a refund via the company, you can explain you did not authorize the charges and should be able to get your money back this way.
Even if you were able to get a refund, it might be wise to get a new credit card as who knows what these companies might do with that information.
Contact the Authorities
Contact the BBB, State Attorney General, and any other business-related news outlet you know of. Bad reviews, official complaints, and fraud charges will pressure companies to either clean up their act or at very least inform other consumers.
Finding a Quality CBD Oil Brand
So how do you know a brand is backed by a quality product that will offer you what it is advertising? We’ve come up with three things that you can look for to qualify a CBD company, both ours and others!
3rd Party Lab Reports
All good CBD companies are now providing 3rd party lab tests for consumers. These lab reports test for toxins as well as cannabinoid levels so that you know exactly what is in your CBD. This is a must-have for any quality CBD company right now.
We post pictures of these lab reports on all of our products as part of our efforts to maintain the highest quality CBD products on the planet!
Transparency
Your CBD company should not be hiding things like farming and manufacturing methods from the consumer. Lab reports are part of this process, but you should also have an idea if the company you are buying from grows their own hemp or purchases it from a grower, and what extraction methods they use. These affect the quality of the final product greatly and are important pieces of information to know before you buy!
Reviews
Anyone can fake reviews, but there are sources like Google and Trustpilot that gather verified reviews that can’t be faked! Look for third-party reviews and verified sources to double-check your research on a brand or a product before buying!
CBD Oil Scam Conclusion
Hopefully, you found this article before you fell for one of these companies and the free bottle scam. If not, we hope you’ll give CBD a second chance because we truly believe it’s a wonderful product with so many benefits!
Our shop is full of products that we stand behind fully. These quality products have third-party test results and tons of reviews to back up their legitimacy!
