Warning About Barton Publishing Company and Others

I blame my parents for it. When you name a girl "Patsy," she feels obligated to live up to expectations and act like one from time to time.

One thing in my favor, though---I usually learn from my mistakes. This is one I want to share in hopes it might spare someone else from making the same mistake. The lesson I learned is this:

Before you order anything from an unknown company, Google in the name of that company and look for complaints against it.

Yesterday afternoon I accidentally ran across a supposed blog site, which I didn't feel like reading, but which caught my eye. It was supposedly run by a girl named Amy who had found a natural cure for urinary tract infections, and wanted to use this knowledge to help others. She was even nice enough to supply a link to the site so readers could share in her good fortune.

I knew it looked fishy, but considering what I've been through in recent months because of taking an antibiotic for a UTI, I thought I'd check it out. (UTI, Cipro prescribed for UTI, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome caused by Cipro, steroids for Stevens-Johnson, and now Avascular Necrosis of the hip caused by the steroids.) I could, after all, back out of actually making an order if I didn't like the sound of it. I thought.

The link took me to Barton Publishing Company's site, where they advertised "The UTI Report," which could be downloaded for $19.95, guaranteed money back for 365 days if you weren't happy with it. Sounded safe enough.

I went so far as to go to the supposedly secure page to enter my Visa card number, and did so. The next step took me to a page where I was confronted with offers of a free $25 shopping card (for a $20 purchase?), a month's free newsletters from WellnessWatchers MD (which would cost you an arm and half a leg after the free time ran out), and several other equally suspicious things.

That kind of thing always makes me nervous and infuriates me as well. I see it as coercive manipulation to buy something you have no use for. I had not clicked on any "place order" button or anything at the time, so started trying to back out of the order. It wouldn't let me.

There was a "yes" button and a "no" button, indicating whether or not you would accept their free offers and place your order. I clicked on "no" and continued to try to back out, erased the information I had entered, and went to check my email. The order receipt was already there.

It gave an email address to contact the company, which I immediately did, and told them I had tried to cancel out and was not allowed to. I asked them to immediately refund my $19.95 and cancel anything they had any intention of sending.

Then my husband called Visa and found a charge for $19.95 was "processing." I immediately wrote another email, this time from my own account so I would have a record of it, and repeated my request for a refund. This was after calling the phone numbers provided, where of course I was told by a recorded voice to send an email instead.

After that I did what I should have done in the first place, and will do in the future before I order anything online from a place with which I'm not familiar. I Googled in "Barton Publishing Company" and went to a site that listed numerous complaints against the company. I decided I might have gotten off easy compared to what some of the complainants had been through.

Of course I'm not off the hook yet. It seems that IF Barton Publishing will actually give a refund, they don't get in any hurry to do so. It sure didn't take them long to charge my Visa account, but crediting it back is obviously another matter.

It seems it's almost impossible to order a simple little book from this company and pay for only that. Barton Publishing is aligned with Wellness Watchers MD, and unless you're extremely careful, you will start finding charges on your credit card from them. One complainant said Barton passes your credit card number on to the Wellness Watchers people, and they start charging your card for a subscription in spite of your instructions not to.

I returned to "Amy's" site and left a comment about how the company operates. It should have posted immediately if this were on the level, but when it came up it was with the note "Your comment is awaiting moderation." I went in through my husband's account and checked it again, and there is no mention of my having left a comment. This only reinforces my conviction that "Amy" is a front for the Barton Publishing Company, and another part of their scam.

At this point I'm just waiting to see what happens next week. It makes me mad enough that people will charge others to learn about anything to improve their health. I don't mind paying a bit for information that's actually worth something, but some people, especially in these hard financial times, might find it a hardship. I would like to share anything I can learn about natural remedies for physical conditions, and wouldn't think of taking pay for it.

Incidentally, since the Barton people sent the book for me to download against my wishes, and since there is a money back guarantee, I did pull it up and do a quick scan of it and saw nothing there that I could use. The 12-hour cure regimen looked pretty extreme to me. As I recall, it involved drinking a lot of cranberry juice, apple cider vinegar, Alka-Seltzer, and baking soda water. It had a different remedy for each hour for 12 hours, some repeats, some not. One was a concoction made of carrot and potato PEELINGS, hot peppers, beets, and a lot of other stuff boiled in a gallon of water for two hours. Then you were to strain it and drink it, with the comment that it was OKAY if you couldn't drink it all in one hour. There was a lot more to it than that, but by the time I had scanned over that much I already had a stomach ache, so decided I had seen enough of it.

When I feel up to sitting at the computer long enough, I may do an article sharing whatever I can learn in the meantime about natural cures for UTI's. I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what I'm still going through as a result of taking an antibiotic, if there is a natural way to avoid it.

In any case, should you run across a book on natural cures for any condition and find it being sold by Barton Publishing Company, I would urge you first to check out the following site:

www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/barton-publishing-c88060.html

Post Script: A few minutes ago my husband was directed from an online weather report to a site advertising a big "Bottom Line" book on wonderful cures. It sounded like a good deal, but I suggested he Google in Bottom Line.

He did, and found numerous complaints against that company as well, especially for sending books you didn't order, then threatening to ruin your credit if you didn't pay up. As I said, it pays to check any seller out before getting involved with them.