Purity 12 is a colon cleanser that has recently been marketed fairly heavily on the internet.  Today I’ll take a look at Purity 12 to see exactly what consumers can expect from the product as well as the company.  I’ll follow my usual pattern of  checking out the ingredients first and then I’ll spend the majority of the review with a focus on the company behind the product.

The “12 Most Powerful Super Ingredients”

First off, I have to give it to Purity 12 for at least listing each ingredient in the product.  Many one page websites like this provide very little information about the product at all. Purity 12 also has little snippets of information about each ingredient, which is a welcomed thing.  The ingredients as they list them are as follows:

• Pro-Biotics Bacterium
• Bromelain
• Mangosteen
• Green Tea Extract
• Papaya Extract
• Grape Seed Extract
• Blue Berry Extract
• Ginger Root
• Citrus Bioflavinoids

I’m assuming that the Pro-Biotics Bacterium contains a couple different products (to make the number be 12).  To be honest, this ingredient profile was  a bit of a surprise for me.  Most colon cleansers are very high in fibers and are designed to really “flush you out” if you know what I mean.  Purity 12, however, looks like more of a diet pill than it does a colon cleanser.  The majority of the ingredients have little to do with colon cleansing.

Their website says that it cleans you out using the ingredient bromelain. While bromelain has been used as a digestive aid, I’m not so sure how effective it will be at really cleaning out the colon.  Purity 12 does state that their formula is “desgined to clean you out safely and gently over time so you don’t have to worry about embarassing bathroom visits.”  So it appears that this is an intentional move.  I just don’t know if it will be as effective as other colon cleansers on the market.

The Company Behind Purity 12

The review started to go south when I started researching the company the produces Purity 12.  One of the first places I always check is with the Better Business Bureau.  Apparently they don’t think to highly of Purity 12.  Here’s a screen shot of the rating they gave them from their report:

An F rating is never a good sign.  They’ve given them this rating based on complaints that they’ve received about the company.  The BBB also supplies a listing of the types of complaints that have been filed:

You’ll see that the complaints were mostly due to billing and sales practice issues.  This is likely due to their autoship (more on that later).

Now, to Purity 12’s credit, you’ll also see that those 10 complaints that the BBB had received were resolved.  This is a good sign.  Also, the fact that only 10 complaints had been filed is a plus (unless it is a very new company).  Having said that, there is a reason that the BBB gave them an F rating.

The 30 Day Sample

This is where Purity 12 gets a little shady.  The only option that they give you to buy Purity 12 is by accepting their “30 day sample.”  The fact that they don’t give you an option to just buy the product outright is your first red flag.  After inputting your personal information (more on the dangers of this in a bit), you are taken to a screen to enter your credit card info and click “Process My Order.”

Below that button, however, is very fine print that most people either won’t see or won’t read.  Let’s be honest, who reads the fine print?  Well Purity 12 is planning (or at least hoping) that you don’t.  I’ve highlighted the important parts in the following excerpt:

Customers who order this product will automatically be enrolled in a 12-day free trial of Purity12 and receive in the mail a full 30 day supply bottle of Purity12. Your 12 day trial begins 3 days from today to allow time for shipping. After the 12 day free trial, Customers will be charged $74.95. Customers will be billed $74.95 again 30 days and each month thereafter to replenish customers supply on the same credit card the Customer used for the shipping and handling.

And there you have it. Your classic autoship scam.   So the bottom line is if you don’t cancel your membership in the program within 15 days of ordering the product, you’ll start seeing those large charges (the amount of which isn’t mentioned anywhere on their site in any kind of clear of obvious manner) on your credit card.

The autoship itself isn’t the evil part, it’s the fact that they company hides it’s details in the fine print that takes advantage of consumers.  For this reason, I’m calling Purity 12 a scam.  If they were to make the autoship enrollment agreement more obvious, then that’s another story.

Purity 12’s [poor excuse for a] Privacy Policy

While digging through their fine printed terms and conditions I also came across their privacy policy.  There are two parts that you may find particularly interesting:

By registering as a member, you unconditionally and irrevocably accept, agree, and assign all your rights to your information to www.trypurity12.com and warrant and represent that you have voluntarily submitted your information to www.trypurity12.com.

In other words, they own your information and there’s nothing that you can do about it.  I’m assuming that when they say “registering as a member” they mean entering your information and ordering the product.

In addition, by registering as a member, you unconditionally and irrevocably accept and agree that you are, at your own initiative, providing your affirmative consent to www.trypurity12.com selling, transferring, renting, giving, sharing, (online, offline, or telephone) marketing, or trading your information to advertisers, merchants, or any third parties, for any lawful purpose, which application shall remain in the sole discretion of www.trypurity12.com and shall be final and binding upon you in all respects.

Pay particular attention to sections that I bolded. That’s right.  They can sell your information to whoever they want and again, there’s nothing you can do about it.  So unless you enjoy being bothered at every hour of the day by telemarketers or love to have an inbox overflowing with junk email, don’t give them one bit of your personal info.

Customer Complaints

While there has only been 10 complaints officially filed with the BBB for Purity 12, I did find a number of complaints on ComplaintsBoard.com.  The majority of these complaints were regarding the unexpected charges on their account after they received their “30 day sample.”

Also, a surprisingly large number of complaints mentioned that they were either unable to even contact the company or were given the run around by the company representatives and never given a refund.  That my friends, is how companies like this make their money.

Purity 12’s “Limited Supply”

Every once in a while you’ll see this tacky marketing tactic.  I surely hope that no one is still falling for it:

I assure you that they have plenty of the product to go around.  If you check back next month, you’ll still see that they have a “limited supply.”  This is to try to get you to act quickly before you can change your mind.  Why not? It’s free right? Wrong!

You’ll also see this old trick of posting logos of credible media to infer that the product has been featured on or is indorsed by these stations:

Don’t fall for it.

Conclusion

The only way in which Purity 12 stands out from the other autoship scams is in their product itself.  They do tell us the ingredients of the product, which is a great thing.  But being that the ingredient profile looks more like it’s trying to be a diet pill than a colon cleanser, I’m not sure how effective it will be at doing it’s supposed job.

The BBB gave it an F rating, and the many complaints online about the company are certainly enough for me to give this company a thumbs down.  If they were more upfront with their customers about the autoship and provided better customer service, then things might be different.  But until we see those changes, I suggest looking at a different colon cleansing product from a more reputable company.