StefanyAppealing offer
While scrolling through my Facebook feed I came across an advertisement for a Danish company Coalsmile which promoted a 29 kr (and free shipping) offer for their organic tooth whitening product. As this was a juicy offer indeed and I am naturally curious about new products and businesses started in Denmark, I had to investigate a little more.
What is Coalsmile
As stated on coalsmile.com, the product sold is activated charcoal and 100% pure natural coconut shell. They claim that the charcoal will whiten your teeth naturally in just 7 days by polishing teeth and removing coffee, cigarette, and other stains. Additionally, the product does not contain any chemicals and is risk-free to use.
The website and what I found to be odd
As somebody who feels comfortable online and can tell a sketchy website once I see it, coalsmile.com definitely ranks as one. From a multimedia designer perspective (which is my educational and professional background) coalsmile.com looks like a website put together in a day with the sole purpose of making money.
The information provided lacks details and the quality of the website overall is poor, although, I understand not everybody has the knowledge or funds to create a functional and well-designed site. Fair enough, but here is where you need to become cautious:
Offers
The full price for Coalsmile product is 399 kr at the time of writing this article, however, from my own experience and reading customer reviews, it seems that the product price varies drastically – from 29 kr to 49 kr and the full price was apparently dropped from 499 kr to the current 399 kr. My question is: How can you drop the product price from the 399 to 29 by almost 93% discount? Seems too good to be true.
Reviews
On their website, you can see that Coalsmile has 537 reviews making up to almost full 5 stars, but although the reviews seem clickable, unfortunately, it is not so and this is just a fake claim. However, if you would like to read actual reviews on the company, you can find them on Trustpilot. Spoiler: They are not pretty.
Terms and Conditions
At the time of my purchase (30/08/2017), the terms and conditions looked completely different to what they look now. If previously it was a full-blown pdf type of a document then now all you get is a drop-down, Q&A-style terms and conditions.
The purchase & membership
Now that we have looked through the general information available and the overall impression, what is it that made me write this post with a warning title? Well, unfortunately, the main income for Coalsmile is its hidden fees that you are automatically enrolled with when making the purchase.
No matter if you purchase the full-priced product (which is not worth it and I will get into that later) or use the offers, once you make the purchase you are enrolled in a so called Coalsmile Plus. This means that you have 4 days of trial period and if you do not cancel this Coalsmile Plus membership in this period, the full price of 399 kr will be deducted from your account every 14 days and you will keep receiving the product on a subscription basis.
When I made my purchase with the intention to cancel right away, it was not possible and I had to wait 24 hours to terminate the membership. At the moment of writing this article my account still says that the cancellation is pending and I will update you if the full amount is deducted from my account, which I hope it won’t.
So the bottom line is – read the terms & conditions and the information available on their website throughout when ordering from Coalsmile and make sure you know what you are signing up for when entering your credit card details. Better to be safe than sorry.
Is the Coalsmile worth it?
No. There is no other way to put it. I was curious enough to try out the product and honestly, even knowing about the possible scam this might be, I found it too amusing not to give it a go and do my own research.
Charcoal products in dental industry is not a new science and there are mixed feelings about this practice. Some say that the charcoal, being of an abrasive nature, might damage the enamel while others swear by the results after using this method.
After trying the Coalsmile once, I can say that it removed some stains from the surface of my teeth, but I do believe that this product should be used extremely sparingly and with a gentle approach. Coalsmile suggests on their website to use it for 7 days to see results and I definitely can’t get behind this as it can damage your teeth.
There is a difference between whitening and stain removing and charcoal does the latter. Do not expect this to be a miracle product and, please, be careful when not only using such product but using Coalsmile services in general. I do not approve such business practice and would not recommend Coalsmile as a whole, therefore, I have not linked their website in this article.
To end the article on a brighter note (see what I did there), I did receive a nice bamboo toothbrush with my order so I have that going for me. If you want to get on the bamboo toothbrush trend in a safe way and without hidden fees, here is a review on a legitimate company. 🙂