Today I’m going to dig into the Colotox product.  It’s marketed quite heavily, so naturally I’d like to see what Colotox is all about.

What’s In Colotox?

Unfortunately, I really can’t say.  The main site, www.colotox.com gives you very little information about the actual product contents.  They offer you this fancy logo:

And yet I don’t see how they received that special designation.  My gut tells me they had a graphic designer create it.

Scratch that about not knowing what’s in it.  I did end up finding what’s in Colotox.  They had a link in the footer of their website listing their label.  It contains a proprietary 800 mg blend of:

• Psyllium
• Fennel
• Buckhorn
• Goldenseal
• Cascara sagrada
• Rhubarb
• Licorice
• Ginger

It appears to be a very standard cleanse/detox product.  I do wish they would disclose exactly how much they’re including of each ingredient instead of hiding behind their “proprietary blend”.

What’s Colotox Marketing Angle?

They really want you to “try Colotox Now Risk Free for only $1″…

I filled out the initial order form and was presented with this:

The fine print is the important part of that order page.  I’ve pulled a few excerpts:

If you are happy with the product do nothing and your credit card will be charged an additional $38.95 approximately 21 days after your initial trial shipment. In addition, approximately 30 days after you order your risk-free trial and about every 30 days thereafter, we will automatically send you an additional 1 month supply. The credit card you provide today will be billed the low price of $39.95 plus $4.95 shipping & handling for a total of $44.90 when each new product ships.

This is autoship, my friends, in all its glory.  And think about this ridiculous little fact:  You have 14 days to find out if it works for you, even though they state in the same fine print to:

Remember, most customers see noticeable results by using Colotox consistently for 3 months.

Ha!  So they’re saying you get noticeable results after three months of consistent use…yet they’re only giving you 14 to try it out.

Colotox Pours Salt in Your Wallet Wound

To add insult to injury, when you do return the product, just in case you’re not satisfied, they charge a 15% restocking fee.  So either way you cut it, they’re making sure they get their cut.

With practices as consumer unfriendly as these are, I was curious to see if the Better Business Bureau had seen any action from Colotox.

The Company Behind Colotox

I did a simple WHOIS search on the colotox.com domain and found they were privately registered under Godaddy.  What this means is that they don’t make their contact information readily available.  Why? You do the math.

Sometimes there are ways around this.  Very rarely does a company name itself after their product, mainly because they want to be able to start new products and market those as well… you can sometimes find the actually company name in their legalese.

Their Terms & Conditions didn’t give away a company name.  I did find a return address for refunds:

Fulfillment Center
Attn: CCN Returns
12399 Belcher Road South
Suite 140
Largo, FL 33773

So that’s in Florida, but that’s just where the fulfillment center is.  The actual company could be based anywhere.  I did notice the acronym CCN.

Then I noticed on our order page from earlier:

So it’s likely that the name of the company behind Colotox is CCN.  I did some more digging…

I was coming up dry when I realized that the checkout page had a different url — not Colotox.com, but rather secure.centralcoastnutra.net.  Bingo.

In case you’re wondering, this company also pushes:

• Avela
• Cholestapro
• Hoodiastar
• Hoodiacore
• Cordiaburn
• Colopure
• Hoodiawater
• Green Tea Extreme

Knowing they’re based out of Arizona, I tried to go to the specific BBB for AZ.  Yikes.  The story only gets worse from here folks:

And I also found a complaint filed against CCN through the Arizona Attorney General’s office.  This was recent.  Filed on December 29, 2008.  An exercpt below:

The State alleges that CCN uses deceptive and misleading advertising and sales practices that have resulted in thousands of consumers being charged for products and services that they did not request or agree to pay for…CCN [has failed] to provide consumers with any meaningful customer service so they can obtain refunds or credits to their accounts, or to cancel future shipments of unwanted products.  CCN’s deceptive practices violate the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act, Arizona Revised Statutes 4-1521.

Wow.

Now granted the case is still ongoing, but to see legal action taken against a company is not exactly comforting when considering where you’ll find a colon cleanser.

At this point, I just say we let this review be.

Colotox Review Conclusion

I’ve presented enough evidence to let you know how I feel. Colotox should be avoided — unless you’re very confident you can navigate the waters of their autoship/free trial/15% restocking fee operation they have going on down in Phoenix.