Acai Seller Central Coast Nutraceuticals Hit With Fine

One of the largest on line distributors of Acai – Central Coast Nutraceuticals – has been forced to pay a settlement to the tune of $1,375,000 after Arizona attorney general Terry Goddard attacked what he described as “deceptive on line advertising and sales practices”.

CCN were offering a so-called “free trial” to new customers. This free trial required a small down-payment for shipping and handling, payable by credit card. There was then a short period during which, if they wanted to, customers needed to contact the company in order to cancel further payments for a continued ’subscription’. This subscription involved in CCN shipping Acai berry and other products at premium prices. The difficulty came when customers tried to cancel the charges: CCN didn’t answer e-mails, and people phoning were left on hold for well over an hour.

Terry Goddard’s office received hundreds of complaints from customers who felt they had been treated wrongly: the settlement includes $350,000 for consumer restitution. Customers of CCN feel they are owed money have until 17 August, 2009 to submit their claim to the Arizona Attorney General’s office. $25,000 of funds set aside to cover the states legal cost, while the remaining $1 million went towards civil penalties to the state.

Acai has been very popular topic with the media of late, and settlements like this are big news which only serve to heighten the public’s interest in Acai products. Unfortunately a small minority of disreputable on-line sellers are dragging down the good name of an entire industry.

How My Mom Helped Me Find Ares Connect

Ever heard of Ares Connect? No, I haven’t until recently when one of those regular episodes where I had to help my Mom with her computer led me stumble across it. Here’s my story.

Somehow my mom found out about filesharing. She also found out that it was something I did on regular basis. Unfortunately for me, my mom is overly curious. She is even curious when she knows she can’t even turn on a computer. Never mind, that’s what I’m here for! Hmmm….

That evening we sat down, I took her straight to Ares Galaxy. We downloaded the software, and installed it no problem. We try to connect and… nothing. Ares Galaxy had to choose tonight to not work. I’ve had this problem before, and so many, many others around the world; why tonight though?!

Never mind. I love my mom, as annoying as she is, and I was determined to get her up and running with this. We went to the Official Ares site and downloaded Ares Vista which I know works better than the first one we tried. To my relief, it did. We managed to make Ares connect straight away, and my mom’s glee was visible. Now she could download all her use of songs. Great.

Next morning I was rudely awaken at 10 AM. Ridiculous. My mom was shouting at me to “make the computer work”. Of course I had no idea what she was talking about, but when I descended the stairs I could see that she was having trouble making Ares connect.

This was starting to become a problem.

I did a quick search and saw that other people solving this problem with a little application called Ares Connect. I’d never heard of Ares Connect before, but I was eager to get back to bed, so I was willing to try anything.

I downloaded the application and read about how I should use it. It just installs alongside whatever version of Ares you have and you’re good to go. Definitely glad I had this little adventure with my mom now!