Proactiv sells acne treatment products primarily through a subscription model on Proactiv.com. This page aggregates verified customer ratings and reviews to help you understand shopper experiences with the store's service, product quality, and policies before making a purchase.
Proactiv Reviews
What Shoppers Say About Proactiv
Proactiv is rated 1.2 out of 5 by 18 shoppers, with the vast majority expressing serious dissatisfaction. The dominant complaints center on subscription management and customer service failures: shoppers report difficulty canceling subscriptions, unexpected recurring charges, unresponsive support (contact forms go unanswered, customer service requests ignored), and refusal to help with order corrections or unauthorized shipments. Several reviewers mention having to dispute charges with their credit card companies to resolve issues. Beyond service concerns, some customers report the products themselves did not effectively treat acne.
A small number of shoppers gave positive ratings, though specific details about what they praised are not present in available reviews. The overwhelming pattern across reviews suggests systemic problems with subscription transparency, cancellation processes, and customer support responsiveness. Many shoppers characterize their experiences as scam-like, and several indicate they plan to escalate complaints to external authorities or media outlets.
Customer Reviews (18)
Sorted by: Most recentMy daughter had a subscription with Proactiv and I needed to ask them some questions. I filled out their form twice completely and got confirmation both times that it was received. Nobody ever got back to me with answers. Either the contact form doesn't work or they simply ignore customer requests. From what I've read, this seems to be a pattern where people try to reach out and get ignored while the company keeps sending and charging them. You need to step up and actually listen to your customers. This whole experience has been really disappointing.
They say you can cancel whenever you want, but it's way harder than it should be. This is a scam. I had to call my credit card company to report them. If you're thinking about buying, be careful. I'm planning to reach out to the news about my experience too.
We bought straight from Proactiv without realizing it was automatically renewing every month. Getting the subscription stopped turned out to be a nightmare because they kept shipping stuff and charging our card. On top of all that, the actual product didn't help my teen's acne at all, which was disappointing.
I recently placed an order and immediately noticed I'd accidentally used a credit card attached to an old address. I sent them a message within minutes asking to fix it, but they refused to help. I tried reaching out a couple more times and just got the same unhelpful response both times. I've never experienced worse customer service than this.
Back in October 2023 I tried to cancel my order and was shocked to see additional charges pop up on my card without any shipment arriving. They claimed the subscription was cancelled separately from the order, which seemed like a real ripoff. Since it had been over 60 days, they refused to refund me for the product I never got, insisting there was nothing they could do about it. I explained multiple times that I never received anything but got nowhere. I won't be going back to this company ever again.
The customer service here is absolutely terrible. I didn't realize this was a subscription service and ended up disputing the charges. That's when they told me I'd have to pay extra to ship everything back if I wanted a refund, even after I'd already made 3 payments. I'm not getting money back for the return shipping and honestly the stuff didn't work anyway. The customer service reps seem confused about what they're doing and some could barely communicate, which made it really hard to even get a correct address to send the items back to.
Customer service is absolutely the worst. On the phone or through email, you have to repeat yourself constantly and still only get back generic templated responses that don't address your actual problem. There's nowhere to escalate because the only contact option is with those same unhelpful people. To their credit, the phone staff is always polite, but that doesn't change how maddening it is to waste hours just trying to get a single answer or task completed. I've been dealing with this for over a decade.
This company has the absolute worst customer service. Whether you call or email, you end up repeating the same thing multiple times and still just get a generic scripted response that has nothing to do with your actual question. There's no way to escalate to management since the only people you can reach about the terrible service are the ones providing it in the first place. The phone representatives are nice enough, but that doesn't make up for how frustrating it is to spend hours just trying to get one simple thing done, which has been my experience over the last ten years.
Even AFTER I officially cancelled my account with confirmation and a zero balance showing, they charged my card again and sent another shipment just to squeeze more money out of me. This is straight up fraud and illegal activity. They billed me for something I never authorized and won't issue a refund or cancel even though the shipment hasn't left their warehouse. I'm not the only one experiencing this either. I had a recorded call with their rep confirming the cancellation, plus the cancellation email and phone logs, which I sent to prove my case. I hoped they'd admit their mistake and refund me like a professional company would, but they still insisted I pay for that shipment they were shipping without my consent. How is that even legal AFTER cancellation?
I will never purchase from this company again because of their awful customer service. I ordered it for my teenage son and after the second shipment realized he wasn't using it every day, so I called and asked to pause the subscription until he got through more of what he already had. The guy on the phone was incredibly mean and insulting, basically saying my son and I weren't trying hard enough with his daily routine. Thanks a lot, I already know I'm not perfect at managing a teenager's habits and definitely don't need you making me feel worse about it. I cancelled right then and there and won't be back.
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