Those Free Hoodia Trials May Not Be What You Think

June 30, 2008 by Reagan Miers

The popularity of obtaining free hoodia samples is on the rise. If you don’t know very much about hoodia gordonii, it helps people lose weight because it’s a natural appetite suppressant. Hoodia is an all-natural supplement that is very safe and has virtually no side effects. Hoodia is becoming one of the top weight loss pills on the market.

There are several brands of hoodia diet pills on the market today. In order to be competitive, many supplement companies offer free hoodia samples. The idea behind these free hoodia trials is that you’ll be enticed to try the product and if it works, you’ll buy more. Free hoodia trials can be a win-win proposition because the consumer gets to try hoodia for free and the company selling the product gets an opportunity to make more sales with future purchases.

Yet, there is an ugly side to free hoodia samples that you need to know about. With some people reporting that nearly 80% of the hoodia being sold are actually fakes, trying these products probably won’t do you any good! Only hoodia products that are made with authentic hoodia gordonii work to suppress the appetite. Trying free samples of an inferior or fake product can make you believe that all hoodia doesn’t work - and that’s not true.

Before you agree to receive free hoodia samples from a company, make sure the hoodia they are offering you is authentic and not fake. The two easiest ways to identify real hoodia from fake hoodia is to view the company’s CITES certificates and their lab test results which were completed through an independent lab.

In regards to CITES certificates, these certificates must be obtained by the government of South Africa before you can legally ship hoodia gordonii out of their country. If a company doesn’t have one, they are not using hoodia gordonii that is authentic South African hoodia gordonii. Companies that do bring in the real plant from South Africa for their products will proudly display their CITES certificates for all to see. To prove they have nothing to hide they will also have independent labs test their products for authenticity.

Companies that use authentic hoodia gordonii in their products will go out of their way to display their CITES certificate and their lab test results on their websites so that consumers can buy in confidence. If you can’t find CITES certificates or independent lab test results on the websites of companies offering free hoodia trials, then they most likely don’t have real hoodia gordonii in their products. If that’s the case, you should not accept their free hoodia samples no matter how tempting it might be.

The other thing to be cautious of with these free hoodia trials is the actual cost of accepting them. When you sign up for these free hoodia samples you are usually charged a small shipping and handling fee. You are given a certain amount of time to sample the product. If you don’t do anything after the trial period ends, you are charged for the products and are automatically enrolled in an autoship program.

An autoship program is where the company will automatically ship you a 1-2 month supply of their product every other month or so and charge you accordingly. These autoship programs aren’t necessarily bad. In fact, they can be very convenient and cost effective. You don’t have to worry about reordering and running out of supply, and you usually get a discounted price on the product.

The catch is to make sure you know how to cancel out of the trial before you get signed up for something you don’t want to be shipped to you. Make sure you know how to get yourself out of an autoship program if you find you don’t want it, later. Many times getting out of these programs is very difficult.

There have been horror stories by consumers who have had their credit ruined by accepting these free hoodia samples because they can’t cancel the trial so their credit card gets charged every month. This happens because a representative from the company can’t be reached to cancel or they ignore the request. The result is you stay enrolled in the program and your credit card keeps getting charged month after month!

Before you agree to receive any free hoodia samples, read all of the information involved. Call the number given to you as a point of contact to verify that you can indeed reach a live individual on the other end. Once you do reach them by telephone, get a feel for their company by asking questions about their offer.

You should do the same with any email addresses that are given to you. Send out an email to the address to see if you get a personal response from someone. Did they answer your questions? Did they get back to you in a timely fashion? If you can’t reach a live person, or if your emails are ignored, forego the free hoodia trial. It probably isn’t worth the hassle you may find yourself in down the road.

Getting free hoodia samples and enrolling in hoodia trials is a great way to sample products and save money in the process. With a little caution you can easily weed out the bad companies from the good ones. As always, before you give out your credit card information to anyone, make sure you know who you are dealing with and do your research.

About the Author:

It’s too easy to get scammed by these free hoodia trials! Get indepth reviews and recommendations of the best hoodia diet pills and find out which free trials you can trust now.