What You Should Know Before Signing Up for Bob Greene’s Bestlife Diet Plan

What You Should Know before Signing Up for Bob Greene’s Bestlife Diet Plan

Bob Greene’s Best Life Diet Plan is Part of Oprah’s Weight Loss Challenge

This is a true story. A month ago I signed up for Oprah’s weight loss challenge. I looked at the option of joining Bob Greene’s weight loss plan ‘The Bestlife’ at the time but decided it was not in my budget. I made a go of it on my own. Eventually I decided that I needed some help and went ahead and signed up. This was Ten days ago. I found nothing wrong with the program, but if you had read Bob Greene’s books and watched Bob Greene on Oprah enough times, you kinda already go the point. Still the program appears to be solid.

The price however bothered me. Its not that $49.99 a quarter would kill me, but having recently set a household budget, I knew that this did not rank as a priority. Had users had a monthly payment option, there is a chance I would have stayed with it. However, thanks to a good friend, I found a free diet community online that I have to say, I have had great success with in just one week. Therefore, today being the 10^th day from sign up, I decided to go ahead and cancel my trial membership. This is where things got sticky.

I went to the Bob Greene Bestlife website and clicked the cancellation button. I got the following message. “To cancel your account, please call 1.800.324.2846. I sucked my teeth, held my breath and dialed the number. I got the standard hold messages. I was informed that I could use the website for numerous reasons but to cancel I had to hold. A minute passed, and I was politely asked to hold again. After two minutes, I heard once “Our operators are busy. We can be reached for cancellation between the hours of 10-6 Eastern Time. We don’t want you to have to hold any longer. CLICK”. My call was dropped after 2 ½ minutes! I was astounded. Normally you would get the option to press the button and continue to hold. A caller should have that option, right? Not here!

So, I pressed the redial button for an hour. While I was holding, (repeatedly), I emailed the help address at Bob Greene’s bestlife.com informing them of the problem and leaving my cell phone number for them to call me back. (That has not happened yet). Then I decided to call my bank and try to get the charge cancelled that way. The bank informed me that the charge was on hold, but because I used my debit card, I had to dispute it after the fact. The operator told me that I would have to use my phone bill to document how many times I had called to get the charge disputed. If I didn’t want the charge to go through I would have to continue to call and wait the hold periods.

I went back to my phone and using the speaker as my neck was killing me by this time, I proceeded to dial, wait, have my call dropped, press redial, and continue to hold for another 30 minutes or so. Finally, an operator picked up. I attempted to tell her how long I had been holding, but was ignored. She gave me no problem cancelling. I told her the price was my issue and suggested they offer members monthly payment option. Then she informed me that my account had already been charged but I would get a refund. Being that I was already in a heated state, I began to argue that they charged me a day too soon, and she insisted that they had every right to charge me on the 10^th day of my 10-day trial. I mentioned that I thought it was unethical, and she got a little heated herself.

Not wanting to go into a logistical tirade about membership ethics, I instead went into a rant about being on hold so long and that callers should be allowed the option to hold if they wish. She humored me, and I decided that since I was getting a refund at this point that I should stop while I was ahead. Besides, I always have the power of the pen.

So, this is my story regarding the Bob Greene Best Life Diet Plan at www.Thebestlife.com . I will not say that you should use another program if you are joining the Oprah Weight Loss Challenge (though I think they should suggest other online options instead of the one that will benefit her and her personal trainer). I am saying however, that if you do join this plan that you will go through an ordeal comparable only to cancelling an AOL account in the 1990’s. If you do join this diet plan, consider using a credit card so you can use that route to cancel the charge if need be.

Disclaimer: This is my personal true story from my personal point of view. I have been careful not to slander anyone, just told the truth exactly as it happens. It is very well possible that the companies used to service the diet plan are at choice. Still the owners of the website should be responsible for the way customers are treated.