Business ProfileforGreen Valley Natural Solutions

BBB promotes truth in advertising by contacting advertisers whose claims conflict with the BBB Code of Advertising. These claims come to our attention from our internal review of advertising, consumer complaints and competitor challenges. BBB asks advertisers to prove their claims, change ads to make offers more clear to consumers, and remove misleading or deceptive statements.

On August 26, 2021, BBB contacted Green Valley Natural Solutions regarding claims on their website. 

In the first claim, their website, www.advancedliving.com/comfortpro, makes the claim of a 30-day risk-free trial with the condition that if the consumer is not satisfied, they must contact the business and return the unused product within 30 days of purchase.  If the consumer fails to do so, they will become enrolled in recurring shipments at full price.

The BBB Code of Advertising, which can be found at www.bbb.org/council/for-businesses/code-of-advertising, explains the Negative Option Plans, Continuity Plans and Automatic Shipments: 

Any advertisement for a product or service that includes an offer to sell or provide consumers with additional goods or services under a negative option feature must include a clear and conspicuous disclosure of all material terms of the negative option feature.

Such material terms include:  the existence of the negative option feature; the cost of the additional goods or services; how consumers can cancel and avoid future shipments and charges; and how consumers can return items that they do not want.

Advertisers must avoid making disclosures that are vague, unnecessarily long or which contain contradictory language.

Advertisers must not interpret the consumer’s silence, failure to take an affirmative action to reject goods or services, or failure to cancel the agreement, as consent to enroll the consumer in the negative option feature. Instead, they must ensure that the consumer affirmatively consents (either online, over the phone, or in person) to the negative option feature before enrolling the consumer in the plan. 

BBB requested they modify the website to fully disclose the Terms & Conditions that explains consumers will be enrolled in a recurring shipment plan on the checkout page. 

In the second claim, their website, www.cancerdefeated.com, makes the claim, “In fact, our commitment to defeating cancer has made us the world’s #1 publisher of information about Alternative Cancer Treatments -- with over 20 books and 700 newsletters on the subject.” 

The BBB Code of Advertising explains Objective Superlative Claims:

Superlative statements in advertisements about the tangible qualities and performance values of a product or service are objective claims for which the advertiser must possess substantiation as they can be based upon accepted standards or tests. As statements of fact, such claims, like “#1 in new car sales in the city,” can be proved or disproved.

BBB requested they provide substantiation of the claim or remove it.

Green Valley responded that they would discuss the suggestions.  To date, the websites remain unchanged.