Cindy’s Other Blog

Who doesn’t like free stuff? I know the popularity of free hoodia samples is very tempting to people. After all, hoodia is fast becoming one of the top weight loss supplements available. Who wouldn’t want a free sample of an all natural weight loss supplement that has virtually no side effects?

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.

There is a down side to getting those free hoodia samples that you should know about. It is believed that upwards of 80% of the hoodia in the marketplace is not authentic. Since only products made with authentic hoodia gordonii can suppress your appetite, trying out these fakes is really a waste of time. Trying these freebies may also give you a bad impression of hoodia if your samples didn’t work!

Before you enter into these free hoodia trials, you need to make sure that what you are getting is authentic. Since most hoodia diet pills are fake, you need to know what to look for to avoid being scammed. While there are several things to look for before you accept these free hoodia samples, the two most important are CITES certificates and independent lab test results.

To legally export hoodia gordonii from its native country of South Africa, companies must obtain CITES certificates. Without one, companies are not allowed to export hoodia gordonii from South Africa. Companies that have purchased authentic hoodia from South Africa will display their CITES certificates to prove their product is the real deal. They will also go a step further and have their hoodia randomly tested by independent labs that verify the plant’s authenticity.

Companies that are on the up-and-up will display their certificates and lab test results. It is there way of assuring consumers that they are using authentic hoodia in their products. If you find yourself on a website and you can’t locate a CITES certificates or lab test results, you can be guaranteed they are not dealing in authentic hoodia. Agreeing to receive free hoodia samples from them is a bad idea.

Often times when you agree to accept free hoodia samples you are the one paying for the shipping and handling. Some free hoodia samples come with a twist, too. If you don’t do certain things after you receive your free sample, some companies will sign you up to be automatically shipped their hoodia products - and you may be billed for your original “free” samples.

When you are signed up in an autoship program, a company may ship you a 30 or 60 day supply of their hoodia every month or so. These programs can be cost effective and convenient if you are dealing with a company that is producing authentic hoodia gordonii supplements.

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 are many people who have had their credit ruined simply because they accepted some free hoodia samples. They were unable to cancel their trials because they couldn’t get in touch with representatives of the company, or their requests to cancel were ignored. But, charges were made like clockwork to their credit cards for the hoodia they were automatically being shipped.

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.

If you are given an email address, you can do the same. Send an email to see if you get a response. Do they respond in a timely fashion and do they answer all your questions? If you can’t get through to a live person or if they don’t respond to your emails, then don’t accept the free hoodia trial!

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.