Weight Watchers International
Reviews and Complaints

On feb 22 o cxl ww on line
I have the text on my phone
Today (3/3/17) I saw that ww took 19 dollars out of my account
I call ww and they said my account was still active I said it's not
I asked to speak to someone and lie after lie and after 35 minutes a lot in silence I never was able to speak to any one yet someone was telling her what to say
Her name was Camilla Forest
19 dollars is not a lot of money but when I read how many people had this done to them it's a fortune and illegals
SHAME ON U Weight Watchers

I was a Weight Watchers for several years on and off. I used the online platform. They had me create a new user name and password each time I reactivated my account and it got to the point where I had several user names and passwords. Only by accident (because I changed credit cards and needed to update my billing info) did I receive an email about an online account that I wasn't even using and hadn't used for 4 years! They had been charging me for this account for 4 years even when I had other account open concurrently. The total was $988.50.

I have tried repeatedly to contact Weight Watchers to address the issue. I have spent hours on hold in the Philippines because that's where their call center is.

My advice is similar to our colleagues here - listen to any former members and/or employees who want to explain unethical practices at WW, and do NOT provide your credit card information to this organization. Note that I do not typically write reviews, yet feel the need to do so to help anyone who wants to listen as I would have personally appreciated that.

Upon review of all the negative comments about WW both directly and across the internet, it is not difficult to understand why the company is not doing well. Please read the comments and recommendations from current and former members before signing up for membership. If you do not, you will make the same mistake we all here have made by providing credit card information and losing money to WW. If you discuss these issues with members who remain WW advocates, please help them with reminders to closely monitor their credit card statements.

Along with other folks here, I am truly embarrassed that I did not believe either former members and/or current WW employees who personally warned me. Not only did WW add monthly unethical charges to my credit card, they took advantage of most of my 19 friends who I helped become members. In my specific case, my credit card continued to be charged monthly fees, even though I was in the new program that required voucher code input for free use of their eTools.

If we all look at the big picture, there are reasons that the company is not doing well. It is very disappointing that Ms. Winfrey has decided to improve her company’s revenue by promoting an aligned recipe book, rather than focus on discontinuing the process of holding current members hostage with unethical business practices. Not only do store employees warn folks, it is obvious that the WW Customer Service Representatives and their “supervisors” in the Philippines know about these issues when you talk to them. This experience demonstrates that they only care about staying on their phone script by keeping your money in order to maintain what minimal revenue is still being generated. They will do so even to the point of allowing you to very easily cancel your membership. When you do cancel, please make sure you receive a documented receipt for this.

This company does not care about you, your referrals, and only wants to maintain an unethical business model. No amount of recipe books and promotion will help this company out of its ditch, unless they dramatically improve their business processes immediately. Given my recent experience, this cultural transformation will not happen anytime soon.

A very special “thanks” goes to my credit card company for helping me dispute most of the charges and get many of the refund(s) I should have originally received through the WW Customer Service Department! My friends and I are excited about our next journey by already evaluating and promoting programs recommended by former-WW colleagues!

Hope I helped in some way. Wishing you all the best of health!

Hello, This morning I went with my daughter to join WW at this facility 10220 W.Markham, Suite 216 LR, AT 72205. We walked in around 9: 33 am and the lady didn't greet us, just said with a very rude attitude "the meeting is over and you have to leave " I was shocked my daughter and looked at each other. I asked for the hours . Response was : Look there pointing the finger. I was apeachless. I felt very unwelcomed, probably because I look Hispanic and my daughter is mix with black. I don't know what to think. They should not have kranky old people working there or who can't deal with people. Please do something about it.

Several weeks ago I purchased the Stainless Steel Tea Tumbler with the box teas as set. I only began to use the tumbler last week. The first time I used it I washed it prior to using it. I only poured hot tea in it. During the day of using it I noticed my fingers had black in on them that came from the outside of the tumbler. I am hoping this is not normal and shouldn't be happening. At this point, just about all of the writing on the tumbler is gone. I have to say I am not very happy with this, and never expected this to happen. I carefully read the package to see it there was a warning that this was possible and did not find any such warning.

Thank you.
Alicia West
Member # M28019977

Re: Complaint Wire Fraud – Complaint against Weight Watchers – Pervasive and Systemic.
Creating fraudulent monthly accounts for customers and engaging in wire fraud by submitting charges to customer bank accounts on monthly basis, four months after customer paid in full, upfront & in advance for services.
Customer: MaryEllen & John
WW Account number [protected]
M&T Bank claim number [protected]

Dear Sirs/Madam
During the period of January 21, 2016 through April 20, 2016, Weight Watchers Inc made unauthorized and unlawful withdrawals from my M&T Bank account totaling $359.60.

Hi, we signed up and paid in full for a 3 month membership to Weight Watchers, on or about October 1, 2015. We paid for these service in full, up front and in advance. The sales rep at the Columbia gateway WW store attempted to sell us a one year membership, which we firmly declined.
Four months after we made full payment to WW upfront and in advance for our three month contract, WW started billing our M&T bank account, without our knowledge,
In February I noticed two additional charges on the account statement for 44.95. I called Weight Watchers who kept me on phone hold for 3hours, after which time I went to the Weight Watchers location where I originally made the purchase 5 months earlier. Karen the sales rep said we could only cancel our account over the phone. After an additional 2 hours on the phone, the weight watchers representative in addition to a field sales director informed me the account would be cancelled and I would receive full credit for the transactions. – This was on or about February 20, 2016. I informed WW there was no contract and they had no authorization to be accessing my bank account, or storing my personal bank account information

In May of 2016, I noticed that WW was continuing to bill my bank account for these felonious charges for a contract that did not exist. Furthermore, an additional third contract was created and was also being charged to my account, on a monthly basis.

Creating a monthly service agreement, and submitting invoices/charges to my bank 4 months after I paid for WW services, up front, and in advance, is no billing error. – A quick review of the large number of WW complaints online, one can readily determine that this unlawful practice is both pervasive and systemic. It is no billing error. It is criminal fraud. If I were to be forging someone else name on a check I would be hearing from the authorities. However, if a company, as in this case Weight Watchers, facilitates fraudulent transactions, it is not really a criminal act.
It is a criminal act, and I want it prosecuted. What is even more disturbing here is my bank, M&T, appears to be condoning this behavior. M&T bank, which is managing the accounts of millions of customers, knows and/or should know of unlawful billing practices and transactions they are processing to the detriment of their own customers. M&T bank views their main customers to be fellow corporations. M&T bank also has a conflict of interest as they also manage the credit/debit card which the merchant Weight Watchers was processing these felonious charges.

What needs to happen:
1) Weight Watchers needs to return the $359.60, plus interest in unlawful charges to my bank account. Weight Watchers needs to destroy any record of my personal financial information, bank account numbers etc. – Retention or sharing of such information (as in felonious charges!) is also violation of the Privacy Act
2) M&T bank needs to return funds fraudulently taken out of my account, regardless of Weight Watchers actions.
3) Weight Watchers needs to inform its board of directors on this practice of creating monthly service contracts without customer’s knowledge, and creating unlawful wire transfers in order to charge unsuspecting customers bank accounts.
4) Weight Watchers needs to conduct both a financial and cultural audit on these unlawful practices of creating fraudulent monthly contracts, and processing fraudulent charges through wire transactions to financial institutions.
5) Weight Watchers needs to contact authorities as well as their auditors to report illegal activity. Weight Watchers needs to not only return funds to customers, they need to take action against all executives aware of unlawful activity, including the initiation of salary/bonus compensation claw-back provisions.
6) The wire transfers (Wire fraud) made against my M&T bank account 4 months after services were paid for, up front and in advance (effectively cash) were no billing errors, they were they were clear and deliberate violations of federal law. There is no difference between WW processing of fraudulent wire transactions and the fiasco at Wells Fargo, where employees were left no alternative but to create 2.5 million false accounts. These fraudulent Sales practices at Weight Watchers are pervasive and systemic.
7) M&T bank needs to conduct varied financial audits concerning creation and processing of false bank instruments by merchants. M&T bank already has in place card member relationship management systems that can identify, highlight, and run matrixes on patterns and practices of activities that customers view as fraudulent, and merit further investigation. – This information needs to be turned over to the authorities.
8) M&T bank also needs to conduct cultural audits, and needs to take action, including the exercising claw-back provisions against any bank executives who knew, or should have known about these unlawful wire transfers.

I will be making a criminal referral on this matter to the Justice department.

Sincerely

They used to make a great ice cream bar. Now, apparently to decrease the item by 30 calories, the chocolate is thinner and doesn't even cover the whole bar. Guess what? It sucks! Who approved this change? You should be fired... No more weight watchers bars for us!

I have been requesting my account be closed for the past 3 months. I have provided the information requested as they claim I have two accounts and they don't know which one is associated with the current account. My initial cancellation was requested through the current account and I provided my account number. I then provided my DOB as requested. I have an email trail documenting of my requests to cancel my account. I have had a similar problem with Weight Watchers before. I feel this is part of their business practice; to make it difficult to close account in order to continue to collect funds. I have had to place a stop payment on my bank account.

I joined Weight Watchers via walk-in registration at a meeting center in Cromwell, CT on 04/16/2016. I took advantage of a current offer that included paying $122.14 in advance for 3 months, and that membership plan included my ability to use WW E-Tools online application to calculate food value points as well as online points tracking in lieu of keeping a paper journal. I was told at the center that, based on my height and weight, that my daily points allowance (excluding any bonus points, etc.) was 40. When I created my online account, I was required to input my height and weight in order for the site to correctly calculate and track my points, but the website was in metric as opposed to the USA standard English measurements. The site was asking for my weight in kilograms and my height in centimeters. I was able to communicate with a WW technician online. I had thought that I was in the wrong website- perhaps a Canadian, Australian or UK WW site, but I was assued that I was in the American website. The technician told me that the technicians were aware of the problem and were working to resolve it and that they would fix it for me soon. In the meantime, the tech provided me with my height and weight in metric so that I could input the data into my account in the site so that I could begin using the online points tracking. The conversion did not work out correct- the site was calculating 39 daily points allowance per metric when the Cromwell, CT walk in center rep had told me it was 40. After a few weeks, the online E-Tools was still in metric. I contacted WW tech online, but for some reason I had to re-explain my issue all over gain. After being passed around by a few online technicians, one tech told me that they were aware of the metric issue and that the engineers were still working on the problem. By the way, I found out that the WW techs I was communicating with were in the Phillipines and not the USA. I found this situation to be getting increasingly absurd, so I asked for a refund. I was told that, because I had registered as a walk0in, then I would have to go back to the Cromwell, CT walk-in center to cancel membership and get refund. I go to the walk-in center, and a few of the WW reps had not heard of any issue regarding the WW site being in metric. A 3rd WW rep there said that she had heard of this before...but her reaction did not portray that this metric issue was being widely experienced. I asked for a refund for my membership as well as for the WW scale and WW books that I ha purchased at the WW center. I was told that no refunds were given at the center and that I would have to go through corporate. As for the $42 WW scale and $20 in WW books, there was no refund available- just a store credit (even though 30 days had not even passed yet since Being irate with this situation, I was told there that they were just the messenger. Then the WW rep allowed me to return the scale and books, and the WW rep took tham back. I was given a refund voucher for the scale, books, and cancelled membership. I was told to call a customer service number of [protected] and to make arrangements to get refund. Icalled that number on May 9 and spoke with Alvin. He kept me on hold for a long time, He was "looking" for a supervisor to approve the refund. Also, they were researching my issue. After being on the phone for over an hour, Alvin said that the full amount of my cancelled membership as well as the amounts for the scale and books would be refunded for a total of $184 and change. Even though I had paid for these items via bank card, I was told that I could only receive a refund via paper check. Alvin provided a confirmation number. I got the check on 05/16/16, but the check was only for $122.14, which was for the amount of the membership only. I called the 800 number on 05/17/16 and spoke with Andrew, who said that Alvin had given me erroneous information. Andrew said that the Cromwell, CT walk-in center was supposed to refund me for the cost of the scale and books. Also, Andrew I ndicated that I was supposed to mail in then refund voucher hat had been issued to me by the walk-in center. I pointed out to Andrew that Alvin had not required that I mal that refund voucher in, because at the time I had called Alvin and was kept on hold for a long time, Alvin and/or a supervisor had done the research and determined I would get a refund for everything. Again, Andrew said that Alving had provided incorrect info. I couldn't find the voucher at this point but thought it was not needed anymore- Alvin had all the information needed, but Andrew disagreed. I demanded to speak with a supervisor and was put through to Makayla. She said the same thing Andrew said and would not issue me a refund for the products. I wanted to speak with Alvin or his supervisor, but Makayla said that would not be allowed. I demanded to speak to someone higher up, and was put throught o a man named Chris. He asked for the bank card number I had used to make the purchases and quickly saw the purchases in WW database. Chris said in effect that what Alvin had done was incorrect and that Alvin should have advised me to mail in the refund voucher, but because Chris found the purchases associated with my bank card in WW database, Chris would be able to issue refund for then purchases via crediting back my debit card. It will take 7 to 10 business days. And oh, by the way, the dollar amount on the refund voucher was not legible in the first place, now that I think of it...the first digit looked like an incomplete "2" or "7", but neither of those number would've made sense, because the amount of the 3-month membership, scale and books was $184 and change...none of the digits for the refund amount on the refund voucher made sense...I don't know why it was written that way. Chris turned out to be sympathetic and helpful. Andrew and Makayla had kept giving me a lot of "I'm sorrys". Neither Andrew nor Makayla asked me for the confirmation number provided by Alvin back on May 9th, which must have linkedto information about my prior conversation with Alvin as well as his research into my issue. Except for Chris, I am very disappointed with the WW organization. And as of the time I had spoken wih Andrew, Makayla and Chris, Andrew had said that the technicians were still working on resolving the metric issue with the E-Tools website. I hope that I domget the rest of my refund without further issue...I guess I have to wait and see. I don't understand why WW put me through this hassle.

WW recently changed the quality of the English Toffee Crunch Ice Cream Bars. My husband and myself used to each eat one every night, and we loved them. They have decreased the amount of chocolate coating by half -- literally only dipping them maybe 2/3 of the way into chocolate, leaving bare ice cream on the bottom portion, and seemed to have decreased the thickness of this chocolate coating. AND there are fewer English Toffee crunchies, thereby ruining the perfect proportions they used to have! I will not buy these ice cream bars again!

I joined a three month subscription for Weightwatchers Online. At the end of the three months, it was automatically renewed. I called and spoke to a gentleman that said it would be cancelled, that I would receive an email with the information. The next month, my bank statement showed yet another monthly subscription charge. I called all the numbers available on the website as well as the one showing on my bank charge ( it just rang until it finally disconnected ). I did finally reach a person at [protected]. I am hopeful that this time I have succeeded, as the person ( Kate ) was very professional and helpful, and I will no longer be charged.
Bottom line though, is that it was very difficult to find a contact person, and this also happened to me in 2007 when trying to cancel, so it's not the first time. This is truly unfortunate since I have had success in the past with losing weight using their old format. The new one simply did not work for me.

I've been on the Weight Watchers Smart Points Plan for several months, and I can say at this point that the diet sets up you to fail. If you are not careful, the diet can be unhealthily low in calories if you strictly stick to the number of points that they tell you to consume (it can be about 900 calories if you strictly stick to the points assigned). When I strictly stuck to the number of points I was assigned, I was constantly hungry, and I ended up overeating. I kept thinking it was me, until someone in class pointed out that the amount of weight he was losing on the diet per week, was not healthy. He mentioned that he started eating more than the points assigned to him to stabilize his weight loss. I went home, and reviewed how many calories I would had eaten, had I stuck strictly to the points I'd been assigned. I found out that I would have consumed about 900 to 1, 200 calories per day. You don't have to be a nutritionist to know that 900 calories a day is not a healthy way to lose weight. In addition 1, 200 calories a day is still too restrictive for many people --- especially those of us whose life styles and physical makeup would not be supported by such a caloric restriction. I have to consume at least 2/3 more calories, be able to live with a diet and lose weight. So, I started to count calories and completely ignored the points assign to me. Counting calories has been my saving grace. I am no longer hungry, and I am losing weight steadily at a healthy rate. My advice is that if you find that you are not doing well on this diet and/or feel like a failure, that you figure out how many calories you have to consume in order to lose weight and not feel constantly hungry, and then do it that way. I also want to point out that the Smart Points diet is too much like those no-no high protein diets. Those high protein diets don't work because they are too restrictive and require a lot of capital to be able to follow them. Also, the Smart Points diet doesn't teach you how to handle yourself in a variety of eating establishments and situations. In fact, the diet seems to cater more to an elite group of people who can consume a lot of meat, fowl, fish, fruits and vegetables. The diet does NOT cater to the common folk who may be financially restricted to eating pasta with a bit of meat or who may only be able to afford a simple fast food place for their night out on the town. Let's face it, a simple two ounce burger in a bun is not going to break the calorie bank or adversely affect most people's health if they have it once a week. Yet from the number of points assigned to such a simple hamburger meal, you would think that there is something heinous about consuming it. Its clear to me that this diet was not properly vetted...and we know how badly things can turn out when a situation is not properly vetted don't we? It seems that the diet is really geared to an elite group of people that wouldn't even bother showing up at a local WW meeting, and not us common pasta-loving-on-a-financial-budget folk. Yes, we common folk are the ones financing WW, and the ones whose lives and weight loss dreams WW should be catering to. Hopefully, WW will get with the program. Ultimately, WW needs to get some new ideas in (yes, fire people), and revamp this whole program. Perhaps, they can start by surveying their customers. Yes, asking their customers what they want (not the elite) would be a nice start.

Please don't join the online acct with weight watchers they will charge your acct and when you call on go on line to cx it will not cx it and then they will have a rude person on the phone and only give you half of your money back and when you ask for there name they will not give it to and tell you there is no manager avabile to talk to and hang up on this is very un professional to have a big company as big as they are to have such rude people working for them and not wanting to help the customer cause with out the costumer they would not have a business I'm very disappointed in there way of handing things . So I hope they will look into who they have working for them and made teach them better phone voices and not to be so rude /

I signed up initially as a member in 2012, using the online service. In 2014, I wanted to sign up again, and when I attempted to, a duplicate account was somehow created using all of the same information as the first account including the banking information. How I missed this I don't know, but I have been billed twice monthly for the past fifteen months. When I spoke with a representative, I was asked a ton of questions about when I created the account, and when I asked to speak with a supervisor, I was put on hold for over thirty minutes and was never put in touch with a supervisor. Instead, Christian relayed the information from his supervisor named Dalton. To make maters worse, I was only refunded for the past three transactions. I don't understand how a system can't detect a duplicate account, using all of the same information. Oh, I was told my user name was different, which was the reason why they system did not detect the two accounts. At any rate, I paid an extra $300.00 to Weight Watchers, which for them is not even a drop in the bucket. For me, its gas and groceries for a month for a family of six. Needless to say, I will never join Weight Watchers again, and this is just another example of corporate greed.

As a Canadian spending the winter in the United States I wanted to join WW. Last winter while in the States I was unable to register monthly because my US visa was not associated with a US address. I did not know this or was told prior to joining. It took several hours of frustrating calls to find this out and get my money back. I then joined weekly and was not able to use etools. Before joining monthly this winter I called WW and they assured me if I used PayPal I would not have the same issue as last year. This is NOT true as I was not able to join online with PayPal. Yesterday I once again spent hours on the phone with a WW representative that had to always put me on hold to speak to her supervisor about my situation. I still cannot join monthly and have no idea how I will get my money back. The incompetence and lack of knowledge of the phone " help" makes me question joining this winter.

Don't bother joining Weight Watchers. The new electronic food tracking system is not working and just a complete disaster. Since they don't provide a way to manually record your points, you pretty much have to struggle to record your points with this new system, and you spend an inordinate amount of time doing so. In fact, it very much looks like they did minimal testing before the system went live. So, they have our money, but they aren't providing the services. Members were told that all the information from our old system would be transferred, and that hasn't happened. The old food tracking system was presented in a professional compact manner on the screen, that eased navigation and recording of the points. This new food tracking system is so magnified that it looks like it was made for a kindergarten student or for someone who is close to being legally blind. So, on top of the difficulties with recording your food intake (and not having access to your old information like they promised)The magnification makes it difficult to see all your information at one shot (like you could do in the old system). Save your money. Go elsewhere for your weight loss needs. These folks don't give a hoot for their customers.

I purchased a monthly pass at my local meeting and was told to activate this pass at home. I began this process on that very day and was unable to activate this pass using the access code I was given. I continued trying to activate this access code for three days using different computers and was unable to do so. I was constantly in touch with weight watchers using email and was unable to get an agent that understood the problem. Finally on the 4th day of being unable to activate this code and use my monthly pass I called weight watchers (WW). I was told I could mail the pass and receive a refund. I mailed to NY as directed and have a tracking number proving WW received this defective pass along with a letter explaining my situation and a copy of my receipt and I have been totally ignored. WW used to have excellent customer service. Not sure what the problem is, but I will probably not deal with a company again that in my opinion has unresponsive customer service.

Weight watchers is a scam! Do not sign up for online plus. You can't see what you are getting before they take your money (No free trial or way to view pages). Once you do pay and have access to site... It stinks, and you will never see your $ again due to fine print they have included (I tried getting a refund thru paypal with no success). That is $50 I will never see again. Run away from these scammers! Also, I have yet to receive my requested refund (They indicate I will receive $9.99 of my initial $50 payment if I cancel early. Still no $9.99!)

I joined Weight Watchers in 2014 hoping to lose weight. I attended meetings every week and followed their program religiously. However losing weight has not been the problem because the program does work and I did lose weight. It was the leader at a specific location I was going to that was the major problem. She was rude to me at every meeting, calling me out specifically about things she did not agree with and as most people who attend these meeting know this time is for sharing ideas and give helpful information that has worked for some but this leader would not let me speak without being rude or interrupting. She would let others share their ideas, but, not me. Furthermore, she was allowing one member in particular to self promote and take 20 minutes of the meeting to teach about the affects of yoga and how she was going to be a yoga instructor in 9 months. Is this what we pay for here at Weight Watchers? It is definitely poor judgement and behavior on the leaders part and Weight Watchers needs to screen their leaders a little better.