This post will be updated throughout the year as new information surfaces regarding the McDonald’s of therapy (a generous comparison as at least you walk away from McDonald’s with something).
19.09.2022
BetterHelp is being investigated by the US Senate regarding personal data sharing/selling.
22.04.2022
BetterHelp treats therapy like cable subscription, not understanding how it works
Please read this client’s struggle to recover their $520 for an absolutely useless service, after paying for two months and only getting two sessions out of eight, each with a different therapist. This company fails to understand that therapy is not cable subscription or another commercial service allowing them to “send someone else tomorrow to finish the job”.
The first session is always an intake session, allowing the client and therapist to meet and become familiarised; it may actually take longer to build a rapport. Bottom line? Nothing is accomplished during the first session. The client doesn’t magically get better after 45 minutes. Providing 2 or 5 intake sessions in a row does absolutely nothing to help the client.
The company, however, can tick its boxes, that it has indeed provided several sessions with a counsellor, even if they are useless and a therapeutic relationship never develops, as therapists quit in droves due to poor remuneration or are not available for more sessions.
22.04.2022
BetterHelp steals from former clients whose payment details remain in the system
This is different than “forgetting” to deactivate someone’s account, letting the subscription continue, which happens all the time. It begs the question of how they can justify helping themselves to people’s cards, randomly, months after a subscription was successfully terminated.
06.04.2022
“We’ll give you an extension”
When someone has received a poor service/no service and wants a refund, a common tactic is for BetterHelp to offer a free extension, as if that changed the quality of the service the client would receive in the immediate future.
If I sell you a very expensive shit sandwich and you ask for your money back, how about I offer you a free shit sandwich for your trouble and keep your payment?
Extensions won’t solve the fact that therapists continue to be unavailable or fail to show up. Or that the platform fails technically all the time. Or that the service is organised in such a way that few clients get proper attention from therapists.
22.03.2022
BetterHelp responds with more bullshit on the issue of clients being unable to stop their paid subscription; “cancellation” vs “deactivation”
Apologies for forgetting to post this. Based on numerous complaints, I posted this thread on Reddit:
Here is their prompt response, ignoring all of the above (as they quickly respond on social media, while ignoring their actual clients):
According to stacks of complaints, that is absolute nonsense.
How would they explain the many people (some of whom have been refunded by BetterHelp, as their complaints are listed as resolved), who continued to be unable to stop their paid subscription,with customer service not even recognising they had even had an account there in the first place?
If further billing after deactivation weren’t possible, it wouldn’t take place. And yet it does.
Also, it appears the “we can’t find your account” caper is not limited to deflecting responses to BBB complaints. Customer service seems to be using this tactic directly, even with clients who had been promised a refund:
Customer service may ignore you until you complain on a different platform
In this case, it went on for 22 days, while the client was requesting information on terminating their account, as well as a refund for services not received. They were dangerously close to being billed again (over 200$) while waiting for customer services to respond.
29.01.2022
BetterHelp uses content mills for mental health articles. No psychology background required.
A few days ago, BetterHelp’s offer to Upwork freelancers was leaked on Reddit:
Edit: Unfortunately, the post embedded above was later deleted. I will post screenshots when I find them.
It was long known they used content mills for their reviews and potentially for sponsored articles. As the disclosure above shows, the content on their website is not written by professionals, but freelance writers.
It is merely an SEO technique (posting as much original, keyword-laden content as possible), and not a means to provide expert information to the public. The OP in the Reddit thread happened to be both a therapist and freelancer; the stark reality is these articles can be written by just about anybody, who can research their given topics just about anywhere, as their sources needn’t be vetted or even mentioned.
With an output of 5-20 articles per week, as the company requires, just imagine the depth of that research, hence the accuracy of those articles, from people who are excellent at writing but have no psychology background whatsoever.
An increase in complaints from people being charged fraudulently right after emailing customer service to cancel/get a refund
This isn’t new; however, most complaints used to relate to former clients being charged the monthly subscription as if they hadn’t cancelled at all. There have been a few lately detailing how shortly after emailing customer service to cancel/get a refund, the client was suddenly charged again, at times a random amount.
As the review below shows, this charge was not part of a subscription that hadn’t been cancelled yet, as it occurred merely 2 days after the initial one.
The long road to a refund ends with the Better Business Bureau
You might’ve read somewhere they usually respond within 24 hours/ one business day. The emphasis should be on the usually, typically, or any such word their PR team uses. The complaints speak for themselves. If this were a reputable, well-functioning company, why would this be necessary?
The Artistry Of Glorified Bullshit 