Today’s colon cleanse review will be focused on the product Colo Flush (not to be confused with ColoFlush by Native Remedies).  Having glanced at the website briefly already, I’m not liking what I’m seeing but I’ll give it a fair shake and review it in full before passing judgment.

We’ll first look at the product itself in terms of ingredients and expected effectiveness and then we’ll move onto checking out the company behind the product and their business practices.

Colo Flush - A Look at the Ingredients

To be frank, after seeing the classic one page website with the free trial offer, I didn’t expect to find much on the ingredients in the product.  But, to Colo Flush’s credit, they actually provided a list of the ingredients.  Nice.

Along with the list are breif descriptions of each ingredient along with it’s function and advantages.  This was nice.  I would have liked to have seen the amounts of each ingredient as well, but this is more than I’ve seen other similar products and websites provide so we’ll take what we can get here.

Colo Flush contains the following ingredients:

• Psyllium
• Activated willow charcoal
• Fennel seed
• Bentonite clay
• Flax seed
• Apple pectin
• Slippery elm bark

The ingredients in Colo Flush look to be pretty commonly used ingredients in colon cleansers.  Mosty fiber, the mix (as long as it has enough of each ingredient) will probably perform as well other similar products.  It’s likely not as effective, however, as other products that include multiple steps and formulas.

Colo Flush’s Marketing

Let’s now turn to their website to point out a few of the interesting tactics used to sell their product.  We don’t see anything revolutionary here, but some things are important to note.

First of all, I always get a little chuckle when I see things like this on these kinds of websites:

Oh please.  It’s unfortunate that such a rediculous lie might actually convince some people to hurry and buy their product as quick as they can.  For anyone that even slightly falls into this category: I assure you that they have all the free trials you could ever possibly ask for. This is a classic sales tactic to get you to hurry your decision process along.  Let me remind you: Haste makes waste.

The Annoying Salespeople

This is certainly a bit of tangent, but please let me vent here.  Does anyone else find the little salespeople (that pop-up and automatically start talking every time I refresh or visit the page) really annoying?

Anyone that was trying to search for colon cleansers secrectly can kiss any privacy goodbye as the lady starts blaring out your speakers about the many benefits of colon cleansing.  I hope you weren’t checking out the site at work with the speakers on.

Also, in case you’re wondering, that lady isn’t from Colo Flush at all.  She’s a model from livefaceonweb.com.  So any credibility that they’re trying to get by having a saleswomen probably only cost them a few hundred dollars.

Totally Fake Testimonials

I never put much stock in testimonials because they can be fabricated so easily.  And Colo Flush, has done just that.

How, you ask, do I know that the testimonials on their website are fake?  They come right out and say so.  Yeah, I was surprised to.

Taken directly from their fine print at the bottom of the webpage:

“The individuals shown providing testimonials are paid models and not actual consumers of the product, and each endorser’s experience and the substance of their testimonials are not typical and have limited applicability to what consumers may generally expect to achieve by using the product.”

Wow.  That’s the first time I’ve seen anyone actually admit something like that.  I’ve bolded and colored the shocking info in case you missed it.  So yes, their testimonials are fake and paid for and you shouldn’t dare expect to have any similar results.

At this point I don’t see how they qualify as “testimonials” at all.  I’ll call them what they are: lies.

Colo Flush’s Free Trial (Autoship Scam)

Does this look familiar?

It did to me too.  This is the way overused free trial form that almost all companies using the autoship scam have on their website.  Having seen this so many times I could probably call it an autoship scam and be done with it.  But I’ll provide the proof just to back up my claims.

Taken from their fine print Terms and Conditions:

“AWR provides a 14-day free trial period (“Free Trial”) for Colo Flush, as described in this Agreement….

If You are satisfied with Colo Flush and wish to continue to receive Colo Flush on a monthly basis, You need do nothing else.  Upon the expiration of the Free Trial Period, You will be automatically enrolled in Our Home Delivery Plan, and Your credit card will be billed for the full cost of Colo Flush that You ordered (i.e., a thirty (30) day supply).  At present, the full cost of a thirty (30) day supply of Colo Flush is $78.88. Florida residents add sales tax.

Unless You cancel Your enrollment in Our Home Delivery Plan, approximately thirty (30) days following Your original order date (and every thirty (30) days thereafter), AWR will send you another thirty (30) day supply of Colo Flush and the credit card You provided to us will be automatically billed $78.88 for delivery of this additional thirty (30) day supply of Colo Flush”

There you have it.  If you don’t cancel the “Home Delivery Plan” within 14 days of your order you will be charged the full amount  ( $78.88 ) and every month thereafter you can expect the same.

Now, to Colo Flush’s credit, they do provide a pretty good opportunity for you to read the details of the autoship before purchasing.  On their payment screen, they provode you with this next to the area where you put your credit card:

Now, I don’t necessarily like that they try to disguise it as their satisfaction guarantee (in big letters with “risk free trial” in small letters).  It sounds like they think their free trial is their satisfaction guarantee.  It’s anything but that.

But they do have the terms of the autoship spelled out here.  I’d lay the bulk of the responsibility on the consumers shoulders in this case to read what they’re getting into.

Of course they are still trying to get you to “Hurry” through the ordering process (in hopes that you don’t read the fine print?) as evidenced by these screen shots:

The Company Behind Colo Flush

After filtering through a bit of the fine print for Colo Flush I found that the company behind the product is called Advanced Wellness Research, Inc.

Checking with the BBB they initially gave me this information:

I had never seen an “Unsatisfactory” rating before and wasn’t exactly sure how it differed from other bad ratings.  The BBB gave this explanation of an unsatisfactory rating:

Regardless of which one of the mentioned problems they’re having, it’s not looking good for Advanced Wellness Research (AWR).

They also provide this information concerning the complaints against the company:

Based on the BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to a pattern of complaints and has failed to correct the underlying reason for the complaints.

Consumer complaints allege having participated in a “FREE” offer to try acai berry diet pills for a price of $4.99 for S&H. Due to allegedly misleading and/or unclear online advertising, the “FREE” offer only refers to a fourteen day trial during which the consumer is to receive a one month’s worth of pills, try them, and return them within fourteen days in order to not be enrolled in a monthly shipment and charge for the product. Consumers allege unauthorized charges to their credit cards, difficulty cancelling the offers and/or reaching company representatives, and request that the company cancel the enrollment and refund the accrued charges.

They also lead me to another record for the company that is held by the BBB of SouthEast Florida (who is now handling complaints filed against AWR).  It provided an actual letter grade:

The BBB stated the business start date at 11/6/2008.  Being that it’s been in business for such a short period of time (6 months at the time of this writing) the number of complaints filed against this company are astounding:

941 is a very large number of complaints filed with the BBB in such a short period of time.  You’ll notice that 777 complaints were “responded” to by agreeing to perform according to their contract.  This might appear good, but keep in mind that the terms of their contract were by no means consumer friendly and were designed to scam people out of their money.

Colo Flush Complaints

A quick search online for “colo flush complaints” brought up more than enough evidence to show that there have been many consumers who are having troubles with this company.  Most of the ones I found complained of not getting any refunds, unauthorized charges, and not being able to get a hold of the company.

Colo Flush Conclusion

I think I’ve provided enough information to paint a pretty good picture of what Colo Flush (by Advanced Wellness Research) is all about.  They’re out to get your money and that’s about it.  The product itself looks to be an average fiber-based cleanser - nothing special.  The BBB gave them horrible ratings, their autoship program is a scam, and their marketing is certainly nothing to be proud of.  I suggest looking elsewhere.