I found a wonderful therapist but ultimately left because of their terrible customer service, pricing, and billing policies that make using their platform a huge pain in the behind.
Some details that are not disclosed until after you sign up and start working with your therapist (and getting billed in advance):
• BetterHelp will bill you every four weeks, regardless of how many sessions you are able to schedule during that 4-week period.
• It is then your responsibility every month to reconcile your BetterHelp invoice against the number of sessions you were able to book.
• It is also your responsibility to identify any discrepancies (if, for example, I or my therapist take a vacation and are unable to meet one week) and to then reach out to BetterHelp to explicitly request a “credit” for the sessions(s) that I was erroneously charged for.
• If you do not perform this reconciliation and also manually follow up in email with BetterHelp, you will continue to be overcharged for any sessions you are not able to schedule in a given month.
• While you will be charged in advance for four sessions per month, regardless of how many you are actually able to schedule, BetterHelp will not refund you for any sessions for which you are charged but unable to schedule. Instead, BetterHelp will issue a credit that pushes out the date on which you will then be charged, again, in advance for the next four monthly sessions.
Additionally, if you have any further issues regarding BetterHelp’s billing practices, your only recourse is to communicate via email. There is no telephone number listed anywhere that I could find on BetterHelp’s website, and the phone number that is listed on my invoice from BetterHelp (only available after I have signed up and incurred my first month’s bill) only routes to an offshore contact center. Calling this number connects you to an answering service where I am advised that they can only take a message and that I should expect to hear back in “1 to 2 business days”.
BetterHelp also raised my rates 25% after the first two months. When I reached out to their customer service (again, only through email — they will no speak with any subscribers), I was informed that my initial pricing apparently reflected some "discount" that was never disclosed, so the price increase was just the realignment to their "standard" pricing.
Length of Use: 3–6 months
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend