Healthy Wage BBB Complaints

As of February 7, 2020, there are 27 complaints for Healthy Wage on their Better Business Bureau complaint page. (Their main BBB page is here.)

Here are the assigned statuses:

• 12 are Resolved
• 15 are Answered
• 0 are Unresolved
• 0 are Unanswered

Resolved means the customer is happy now, or at least satisfied with the way Healthy Wage addressed their issues. Answered means that the customer is still not satisfied or had abandoned the complaint resolution process—but Healthy Wage did their part in trying to resolve it.

Unresolved means the business responded to the complaint but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it. Unanswered means the business fails to respond to the complaint. Both of these statuses should damage the company rating.

Here is the description of the rating system. There are positive and negative factors that go into the final score, but having a history of Resolved and Answered complaints with zero Unresolved and Unanswered seems to be a big part of having an excellent score.

So Healthy Wage is 27 for 27 on complaint engagement right now. As you will see below, they are on solid ground for most of these complaints. I have no issue with how BBB assigned status to any of them. But see the end of this post for what is on the horizon, in the aftermath of the “yo-yo” fiasco that I have posted about recently.

Here is my analysis of the complaints. CS is Customer Service, MGT is Management). My commentary is in italics.

Resolved complaints (12)

• 8/14/19: Player could not see his dashboard. It was eventually fixed, but lots of emails were required to fix the issue. Player filed with BBB out of frustration; asked for the IT issue to be fixed or his HealthyWager to be refunded. Ultimately he was satisfied but would have preferred better communication from CS.
  • Honestly, I am not surprised by stories about the IT not working and it taking a long time to resolve it. Healthy Wage IT is about on par with Iowa caucus vote counting software. But they always fix things eventually. It’s best to be tactful but persistent when issues of this sort come up.
• 6/13/19: Player requested cancellation and refund for medical reasons (Hashimoto disease), sent in documentation from the doctor.
  • She had a 10-month HealthyWager for $1,000, starting 9/26/18. So the deadline for this would be late July of 2019
  • CS told her to send the docs in to start the process of getting a pause, which she did on 5/30/19—with about 2 months to go. The next day CS gives her the next steps for the pause.
  • They say after that—6/1—she changes her mind and says she wants to continue. But on 6/6 she tells CS she wanted a refund. CS tells her to contact MGT to discuss.
  • She keeps calling CS instead of MGT, so MGT tried to reach out. Eventually player and MGT came to an agreement (not sure what that was).
  • So I’m not sure how legitimate the medical issue was, but it appears that management will work to resolve such problems and will respect when legitimate medical issues interfere with a weight loss campaign.
• 3/14/19: Player asking for a refund after signing up and getting medical advice not to do weight loss gambling due to the stress it causes, plus taking medicine that promote weight gain. She did a 6-month wager for $330 in monthly installments, starting 11/1/18.
  • She requested the cancellation at the 3-month point, and sent in medical documentation. They offered her the choice of (a) pause and restart at a later point, (b) pause and resume at a later point, and (c) abort challenge and cancel the 3 remaining payments. They were not willing to refund the first 3 months per the no-refunds policy.
  • She claims they failed to respond to a pre-January inquiry.
  • I gotta say, tough titties to this player—the no refunds policy is clear. HW acted reasonably here.
• 7/12/18: Player wanted a refund for medical reasons. Didn’t like being asked for medical documentation.
  • She was pregnant. HW told her she needs a short letter from the doctor to confirm it, or a medical chart or ultrasound or other “minimal” documentation. This would suspend the challenge. Once the doc gives her clearance, she would have the full 6 months to lose the weight. The issue was resolved.
  • Sounds good to me!
• 7/6/18: Player signed up for a 6% team challenge and the team lost, even though she lost 6% herself. Her teammates were randomly assigned. CS told her she could lose more weight to compensate for her teammates, but ultimately the team needed a 6% minimum average weight loss or they wouldn’t get any winnings.
  • Tough titties! I captained a 6% team and we all had to cover for a teammate who was struggling. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and that’s a risk you have to take. HW told her she should have done an individual jackpot challenge.
• 6/5/18: Player won a $60 Jackpot challenge but the app appeared to fail, and asked for a refund The complaint was resolved.
  • Probably an IT glitch. Not clear how much interaction there was between player and CS, and whether CS made some mistakes that caused the player to launch a BBB complaint.
• 4/13/18: Player wants a refund because they cannot afford the payments. The complaint was resolved.
  • Probably a tough-titties / no refunds situation.
• 12/15/17: Wanted a refund after signing up. Ending weight would have been 100 lb. Resolved, no details.
  • I’d guess HW cancelled it because the wager was unhealthy.
• 8/28/17: Player did $100/month for 12 months. Thought they could cancel at any time. Had back problems and was bedridden. In the end she agreed to pay the rest of the payments.
  • Tough titties.
• 3/15/17: Player did a $350 stake for a $700 prize, deadline 3/1/17. On 2/2/17 she contacted CS with news of pregnancy. CS asked for a doctors note. She got a nurses note at first but held out for a doctors note. That finally arrived 2/28/17–the day before deadline. HW refused the suspension.
  • There was a lot of back and forth between CS and player, including and escalation move, but eventually she got a refund. Part of the problem was that a certain CS person was on vacation.
  • My takeaway from this is to remain tactful and patient and fall back on your evidence, and most likely you will get a favorable outcome. Healthy Wage seems to be a reasonable company.
• 2/13/17: Player did a $10,000 team challenge through her employer. She didn’t get a top prize, so she tried for the refund for losing 10%, for which would weigh out 6 months after the 12-week contest portion of the challenge ended. She got pregnant during that second phase of the challenge, and demanded a refund. She felt she should be under no obligation to continue her weight loss challenge after the pregnancy. This got resolved somehow.
  • Not sure what they did here, maybe they were kind and refunded her. Read the rules, people.
• 2/19/19: billing issue, no details but resolved.

Answered complaints (15)

Go to the complaints page and filter on Answered Complaints and read some of these for yourself. Some are very entertaining. I wrote Smh in a lot of my comments on these, because I have no other words.

• 1/15/20: billing complaint, no detail
• 12/2/19: player wanted refund of $300 HealthyWager stake due to PCOS.
  • According to Healthy Wage, she won a 6-month HealthyWager from 3/19 to 9/19—her prize exceeded $1,800 and her ROI exceeded 200%. Throughout this one, she repeatedly demanded a refund and threatened legal action.
  • On the second wager, she tried to pull the same crap. She played the PCOS card this time—also stated her uncle was murdered during her first challenge, and that she had to starve herself to get paid on that one.
  • Healthy Wage agreed to cancel the second challenge and stop the payments on it. But she still wanted a full refund. She threatened to tag Healthy Wage on her social media account with nearly 1 million followers.
  • Bless her heart.
• 11/25/19: Player wanted $594 refunded due to knee surgery. They told her she could quit or pause or restart the wager.
  • The stake was actually $225–$25/month for 9 months, with a $594.44 prize. It started 2/15/19. The medical event was communicated to CS on 9/7/19. CS asked for documentation but player never responded.
  • Player was pissed but never could understand that no refund was possible. Nor did she seem to understand that her stake was $225, not $594.
  • Smh
• 8/22/19: Player wanted a refund. She was 97 pounds at the time she filed this one.
  • This wager was a $240 stake, $20 per month for 12 months, started on 5/4/19. On 6/5/19 she demanded a refund and CS referred her to Accounting. On 6/22/19 she contacted CS again, and again on 8/2/19 (not Accounting as directed). Accounting was to reach out to her directly.
  • Smh
• 8/21/19: App problems. Wanted a refund.
  • She signed up for a 6-month HealthyWager on 3/20/19 but never weighed in. She never reached out to CS. MGT is attempting to reach her for help.
  • Smh
• 5/2/19: Player demanded refund due to medical issue. Did not want to submit medical verification due to HIPAA rules. Also claimed Healthy Wage was illegal gambling.
  • it was a 12-month, $240 stake wager with a $1,266.88 prize (!). CS told her to contact Accounting as CS are not authorized to refund money, and that medical evidence was required. She got angry and asked for a supervisor. Management called her and refunded her money.
  • Smh
• 4/15/19: Player wanted refund due to app issues and lousy customer service.
  • This one started both a 9-month HealthyWager and an employer-sponsored team challenge on 8/11/18. She never weighed in for any of these, claiming app problems. CS tried to reach out and help but it never worked. A lot of butthurt ensued, including false statements and legal action.
  • Smh
• 4/15/19: wants to cancel after inadvertently signing up
  • CS told her to contact Accounting but she never did. Management is reaching out to her
  • Smh
• 9/24/18: wanted a refund. Asked for last name of CS rep
  • Login problems due to incorrect Emilio address. Butthurt
  • Smh
• 9/13/18: wanted Refund and claimed to have fibromyalgia and bad spinal discs.
• 8/3/18; app issues, doing a team challenge. Had trouble talking to CS.
• 3/14/18: wanted refund due to Health issues requiring surgery. Player was offered a pause or a restart after medical documentation was submitted. She is in the service and played the “veteran” card in the complaint.
  • Thank you for your service, but smh
• 12/10/17; wanted a refund due to pregnancy. Going out of country so it is tough to get a doctor note in English.
  • CS told her to send the note in whatever language it is and they wpile handle it.
  • There are online translation services. It’s no big deal, really.
• 12/7/17: wants a refund. She was in a 9 month healthy wager and a $10,000 team challenge, both started in August 2017. In May 2018, she will get paid $500 on the HealthyWager for dropping 13 pounds and $75 on the team challenge for dropping 10%.
  • It was just too early to get paid out in December. She’s gotta maintain that weight loss and weigh out in May.
  • Smh
• 12/17/19: (no details)

Summary of history

Overall, it’s a good record that I am proud to link to, when I respond to people on Facebook as a Healthy Wage ambassador.

The staff there are very accommodating when it comes to dealing with medical issues and other hardships during your wager. With sufficient evidence, they will put a pause on your challenge, or allow you to start it over. But refunds are generally unavailable, as is clear in the service agreement and FAQ.

There are some IT issues from time to time but they do get resolved favorably, if you honestly work with them to do it.

The yo-yo annulments—a test for Healthy Wage

The decision by Healthy Wage to cancel some wagers made during the yo-yo rule lifting promotion offered during the week of New Year’s Eve/Day 2019-20 is going to be a test for the company, and may put the A+ rating at BBB in jeopardy.

All complaints so far have been by people who want refunds for various reasons of varying legitimacy. But for the first time, there will be the exact reverse of this: people who got an involuntary refund, complaining that they didn’t get a chance to stay in and complete their HealthyWager.

The complainants are veteran players who knew the rules going in—or at least understood that they entered an agreement that they could not get out of easily, due to the no-refunds policy.

The e-mail these players got has no detail about what part of their weight history was problematic for Healthy Wage, nor did it offer the players a legitimate path to appeal—assuming they even wanted to appeal. It did not identify the part of the service agreement Healthy Wage is hanging its hat on legally.

I personally am looking forward to seeing these complaints get resolved and documented on the BBB web page. I want to believe that Healthy Wage acted reasonably in these cases. But I need to see the evidence of this, which at this point has not been available either officially or anecdotally.

If these complaints get resolved or answered with sufficient detail provided, we can judge what happened in these cases and stop speculating wildly on motives. And Healthy Wage will grow stronger.

If you were cancelled, and you wish to go the BBB complaint route, click here. And drop me a line if you wish—I’m interested in your story. (Be sure to read the guidelines for submitting a complaint, as well as understand the entire process, before you take that step.)

You can do a customer review here, but it will not affect the rating of the company.