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Two new Power Balance tests from skeptics

These power bands have been on sale in South Africa for quite a while now.

The shops buy them for 60ZAR and sell them for 500ZAR.

A fool and his money are welcome anywhere :D
 
For those out there that would like to actually DO something about Power Balance bracelets, our LA IIG member Dave Richard has released detailed instructions on how to contact someone about the bracelet.

I followed the instructions and it took me about 6 minutes to file a complaint with both of the agencies that Dave mentions here.
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The two organizations best suited to deal with complaints about a company employing deceptive business practices are the California State Attorney General, and the Federal Trade Commission. Both of these organizations have online forms available for submitting a complaint. I’ll walk you through them below.

Before walking you through the complaint procedure I’ll provide an outline of the main points to address in your complaint statement, since you’ll use the same statement for both organization’s form:

Main points:
Power Balance is a device, either a wristband or a pendant that sells in many stores for approximately $30 each.
The Power Balance company claims: “Power Balance is Performance Technology designed to work with your body’s natural energy field. Founded by athletes, Power Balance is a favorite among elite athletes for whom balance, strength and flexibility are important.” “Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body.”

I/we contend:
Modern medical science doesn’t recognize an “energy field” for the human body.
A hologram is merely a form of photographic image, and doesn’t “resonate” in an energy field.
The Power Balance company is making misleading advertising claims about the product. It’s said to enhance athletic performance, specifically balance, strength, and flexibility. Yet it’s merely a plastic bracelet with a decorative emblem that has no apparent means of accomplishing these claims.
Two independent tests have shown that the product does nothing, i.e., it's placebo effect. Links to reports by ESPN and the Independent Investigations Group : http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5660039
http://www.iigwest.org/investigations/powerbalance/index.html

The product has no clinical or scientific evidence supporting it, it’s marketed to potential buyers using testimonials by users (including people paid to endorse the product according to the ESPN report)
The product is demonstrated in person using Applied Kinesiology, a technique well-known among doctors and psychologists as being highly-subjective and therefore worthless for evaluating any device or product.

Notes:
I suggest putting the points above into your own words, but I’d refrain from going too far off-script. Specifically, you shouldn’t use words like “fraud” or “con artist”, “scam”. etc, since those could be actionable words that could come back to haunt you – the complaint may end up in the hands of the Power Balance company at some point, you wouldn’t want to be sued for making statements you can’t support. Remember that your complaint isn’t that the product doesn’t work because you say so, or because you don’t personally understand how it might work, the complaint is primarily based on the tests showing it doesn’t work. Also bear in mind that the most we could hope for is to stop the company from making false claims in advertising the product. It’s fairly unlikely that we’d be able to shut the company down or stop sales of the product. So I’d refrain from making any demands along those lines, which will merely make you sound like a crank.

Here’s the information on the company you’ll need:
Power Balance, LLC
30012 Ivy Glenn, Suite 180
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

20512 Crescent Bay, Suite 108
Lake Forest, CA 92630

www.powerbalance.com

phone: (949) 272-7300 (neither form below will allow you to cut and paste the phone number, you have to transcribe it).


OK, so here are the sites:
I California Attorney General form:
http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL


Filling out the form is straightforward. There are some fields that are required, such as your name. You can elect whether to provide an email address or not. If you want to receive a copy of your complaint, you have to provide your email, and provide it a second time in the ‘confirm email’ field.

Take note that you’re asked at the bottom if you wish to allow a copy of your complaint, with your personal information, to be delivered to the company you’re complaining about. You may decline if you wish, this is up to you (it’s a required field but you’re only required to select Yes or No).


II. FTC:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en


There are some preliminary questions, with my proposed answers as follows:

Is it regarding ID theft? No
Is your complaint most closely related to: Dissatisfaction with other business practices
You will then be asked for the category of business. The most pertinent ones for this complaint would be Health Care / Health related products, and then the subgroup, “Other products and Supplies”
You then move onto the 5 steps of submitting the complaint:

Step 1: Other
Step 2: Did you order an item and have yet to receive it? No
Skip Step 3 (unless you want to fill in the cost of the product, $30)
In Step 4 you will have to give them personal information about yourself. I put in just my name and an email address, which was accepted with no problem.
In Step 5 you can describe the product using the same text you wrote previously.


That’s it. You can fill out both forms in less than 5 minutes once you’ve compiled your statement.

Here’s some more background on this, if you want to keep reading.
If you’ve been following the progress of the IIG investigation, you know that no one was more willing to be open-minded about the product than myself. Several times I objected to language used at meetings that suggested the product was useless or fraudulent, those arguments being based on assumptions and conjecture. The tests by Richard Saunders several months ago provided a little ammunition against the product, but even those weren’t solid because they used Applied Kinesiology also, so they weren’t any more scientific than the companies’ own demos.

My stance changed with the results of the IIG test of the product, and also the ESPN test. Neither test showed any effect from using the bracelets. So I now have no qualms about raising the alarm far and wide.

I kind of had misgivings about involving the Attorney General’s office right now just because of the timing – the current AG is Jerry Brown, and I suspect he’s already focused his attention on taking over the duties as Governor next month. But then I figured that’s not a good reason to hold this up, we need to strike while the iron is hot. Presumably these complaints go into a folder somewhere and will have to be acted on by someone at some point. If we don’t get any response from his office in several weeks, we can submit complaints again once the new AG has settled in.
 
sgf8 said:
For those out there that would like to actually DO something about Power Balance bracelets, our LA IIG member Dave Richard has released detailed instructions on how to contact someone about the bracelet.

I followed the instructions and it took me about 6 minutes to file a complaint with both of the agencies that Dave mentions here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The two organizations best suited to deal with complaints about a company employing deceptive business practices are the California State Attorney General, and the Federal Trade Commission. Both of these organizations have online forms available for submitting a complaint. I’ll walk you through them below.

Before walking you through the complaint procedure I’ll provide an outline of the main points to address in your complaint statement, since you’ll use the same statement for both organization’s form:

Main points:
Power Balance is a device, either a wristband or a pendant that sells in many stores for approximately $30 each.
The Power Balance company claims: “Power Balance is Performance Technology designed to work with your body’s natural energy field. Founded by athletes, Power Balance is a favorite among elite athletes for whom balance, strength and flexibility are important.” “Power Balance is based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies. The hologram in Power Balance is designed to resonate with and respond to the natural energy field of the body.”

I/we contend:
Modern medical science doesn’t recognize an “energy field” for the human body.
A hologram is merely a form of photographic image, and doesn’t “resonate” in an energy field.
The Power Balance company is making misleading advertising claims about the product. It’s said to enhance athletic performance, specifically balance, strength, and flexibility. Yet it’s merely a plastic bracelet with a decorative emblem that has no apparent means of accomplishing these claims.
Two independent tests have shown that the product does nothing, i.e., it's placebo effect. Links to reports by ESPN and the Independent Investigations Group : http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5660039
http://www.iigwest.org/investigations/powerbalance/index.html

The product has no clinical or scientific evidence supporting it, it’s marketed to potential buyers using testimonials by users (including people paid to endorse the product according to the ESPN report)
The product is demonstrated in person using Applied Kinesiology, a technique well-known among doctors and psychologists as being highly-subjective and therefore worthless for evaluating any device or product.

Notes:
I suggest putting the points above into your own words, but I’d refrain from going too far off-script. Specifically, you shouldn’t use words like “fraud” or “con artist”, “scam”. etc, since those could be actionable words that could come back to haunt you – the complaint may end up in the hands of the Power Balance company at some point, you wouldn’t want to be sued for making statements you can’t support. Remember that your complaint isn’t that the product doesn’t work because you say so, or because you don’t personally understand how it might work, the complaint is primarily based on the tests showing it doesn’t work. Also bear in mind that the most we could hope for is to stop the company from making false claims in advertising the product. It’s fairly unlikely that we’d be able to shut the company down or stop sales of the product. So I’d refrain from making any demands along those lines, which will merely make you sound like a crank.

Here’s the information on the company you’ll need:
Power Balance, LLC
30012 Ivy Glenn, Suite 180
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

20512 Crescent Bay, Suite 108
Lake Forest, CA 92630

www.powerbalance.com

phone: (949) 272-7300 (neither form below will allow you to cut and paste the phone number, you have to transcribe it).


OK, so here are the sites:
I California Attorney General form:
http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL


Filling out the form is straightforward. There are some fields that are required, such as your name. You can elect whether to provide an email address or not. If you want to receive a copy of your complaint, you have to provide your email, and provide it a second time in the ‘confirm email’ field.

Take note that you’re asked at the bottom if you wish to allow a copy of your complaint, with your personal information, to be delivered to the company you’re complaining about. You may decline if you wish, this is up to you (it’s a required field but you’re only required to select Yes or No).


II. FTC:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en


There are some preliminary questions, with my proposed answers as follows:

Is it regarding ID theft? No
Is your complaint most closely related to: Dissatisfaction with other business practices
You will then be asked for the category of business. The most pertinent ones for this complaint would be Health Care / Health related products, and then the subgroup, “Other products and Supplies”
You then move onto the 5 steps of submitting the complaint:

Step 1: Other
Step 2: Did you order an item and have yet to receive it? No
Skip Step 3 (unless you want to fill in the cost of the product, $30)
In Step 4 you will have to give them personal information about yourself. I put in just my name and an email address, which was accepted with no problem.
In Step 5 you can describe the product using the same text you wrote previously.


That’s it. You can fill out both forms in less than 5 minutes once you’ve compiled your statement.

Here’s some more background on this, if you want to keep reading.
If you’ve been following the progress of the IIG investigation, you know that no one was more willing to be open-minded about the product than myself. Several times I objected to language used at meetings that suggested the product was useless or fraudulent, those arguments being based on assumptions and conjecture. The tests by Richard Saunders several months ago provided a little ammunition against the product, but even those weren’t solid because they used Applied Kinesiology also, so they weren’t any more scientific than the companies’ own demos.

My stance changed with the results of the IIG test of the product, and also the ESPN test. Neither test showed any effect from using the bracelets. So I now have no qualms about raising the alarm far and wide.

I kind of had misgivings about involving the Attorney General’s office right now just because of the timing – the current AG is Jerry Brown, and I suspect he’s already focused his attention on taking over the duties as Governor next month. But then I figured that’s not a good reason to hold this up, we need to strike while the iron is hot. Presumably these complaints go into a folder somewhere and will have to be acted on by someone at some point. If we don’t get any response from his office in several weeks, we can submit complaints again once the new AG has settled in.
Click to expand...

I actually did this and it was pretty easy. I get a sense that these instructions were written before the new Australian developments, so I made sure that I included Power Balance's admission that they had no proof that any of their claims of improved strength, flexibility or balance were accurate.

Ward
 
Hey I just got a letter from Jerry Brown today!

He said thanks "for bringing your consumer information to their attention" He said they will retain the information in their files.
 
I suppose CNBC thought that Bernie Madoff was the best investor ever as long as he didn't get caught cheating everyone.

Ward
 
I just got my letter from Jerry Brown (Attorney General and once and future Governor of the State of California) today, too.

Ward
 
I wonder what the new packaging will be.

I actually have no problem with people buying this crap so long as the company is being straight up about it's effectiveness or claims.

Looks like they'll have to rely on celebrity endorsement and complete market penetration. I think they'll be fine because as we all know, there's folks that'll always buy into woo.
 
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