The Iowa Attorney General is suing a Fairfield company that sells a kit that claims to improve your eyesight using a series of exercises. A-G Tom Miller says the “See Clearly Method” kits are sold by Vision Improvement Technologies. He says, “According to our lawsuit, they represent to consumers by using this technique, consumers have a very high likelihood of being able to have their vision corrected and throwing away their glasses or contacts.” Miller says the cost of the kit is 350-dollars per person. Miller says companies that make claims such as improving a person’s eyesight need to have a substantial base of scientific evidence backing up that claim. Miller says they’re alleging in the lawsuit that the company doesn’t have that base. He says they’ve done one unscientific study with a doctor that’s a large investor in the company. He says they also found people who testified the product worked had returned to using their glasses or contacts. Miller says the company advertises nationwide and sells between five and 10-thousand of the kits per month. He says at that rate that’s somewhere between one-and-three quarters of a million dollars and three-and-a-half million dollars per month. He says if you just took the midpoint of 75-hundred says per month, that’s approximately 31-million dollars the company makes in one year. Miller says the company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. He says they believe about 575 Iowans have bought the “See Clearly Method.” Miller says about half the people who’ve ordered the See Clearly Method have successfully returned it.He says successful is an important word as he says the lawsuit alleges the company set up numerous obstacles to make it difficult for people to successfully return the kit. He says the biggest obstacle is that people need an I.D. number to return the product. Miller says customers complained they’d be left on the phone for a long time and sometimes delayed beyond the 30-day return period as they tried to get a return. Miller says they found less than a handful of Iowans who were satisfied with the results of the program. He says five out of the 575 in Iowa were satisfied and he says, “There can be a placebo effect.” Miller says half of the Iowans were able to return the product. Miller says the lawsuit asks for a restraining order against the company and seeks restitution for the people who bought the product and weren’t satisfied, and seeks penalties against the company for violation of the Consumer Fraud Act.
