I went to the SmileDirectClub in Leeds on Monday and I will say the overall experience was good. HOWEVER, and this is a big HOWEVER, I kept saying to my Smile Guide, "I won’t be charged any money, will I?" I need time to reflect on parting with such a large sum of money. Money is relative, I understand that the whole brand is based on cost-effective dentistry but it’s still a huge chunk of money at $199.99 PER MONTH so a period of consideration is justifiable. My Smile Guide reassured me, "No money will not be taken out of your account until you watch your smile journey movie and approve it. We say it takes around 72 hours before that information is released. Watch the movie, if you approve we’ll take the first installment of £199.99." Cool, I thought, handing over my card details.
It’s now Wednesday. I had a voicemail left yesterday evening from James, who I intended to speak to today. However, I haven’t yet viewed my smile journey movie or approved it but to my astonishment, £199.99 has been taken from my account. I was mortified because I feel I have been lied to.
I phoned the contact 0800 number (dread to think how much it cost) because it was an American lady who answered and the line sounded very distant. They have admitted that the payment shouldn’t have been taken without my approval of the smile journey and that, even though my bank had told me they could cancel the pending transaction so the funds could be released into my account today, they couldn’t do that and would refund me but this will take ex amount of days to hit my account.
I am trying to view this as a blessing in disguise and that I've potentially dodged a bullet, however, because had this not have happened I WOULD have committed, however, after putting in "SmileDirect reviews" into the Google search engine it generated a lot of rather terrifying reviews on YouTube.
Hopefully, I will get the refund and I can just forget this stressful outcome.
The overall feel is very American, very sickly sweet and having had this experience it’s only reinforced some of my deeper instincts that this is purely a mass-market money-making provider and smile guides earn commission, which creates this very over-eager need to "win a sale."
Do your research.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend