State orders 'See Clearly Method' to halt sales
Published: 11/02/2006   11:27 AM
By: Associated  Press  -  Associated Press
DES MOINES, IA - A Polk County court has ordered a Fairfield company to halt
sales of a product it claimed allowed for improvement in vision without
surgery and ordered $200,000 in restitution to consumers, Iowa Attorney
General Tom Miller announced today.

The court ordered Vision Improvement Technologies Inc. to stop all sales of
its "See Clearly Method," a kit that included manuals, charts and video and
audio tapes that demonstrated eye exercise methods the company claimed would
improve vision. The company sold "tens of thousands" of the kits at $350
each, Miller said.

Miller filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against the company, claiming "illegal
tactics," including exaggerated claims of effectiveness and bogus claims of
scientific support.

"The company made dramatic claims for its product that it could not
substantiate," Miller said. "They represented that consumers who used the
method could quickly and easily free themselves of having to wear glasses or
contact lenses."

There was a 30-day trial period included in the initial offer, but the
company made it difficult to take advantage of that return policy, Miller
said.

"Many consumers who sought to take advantage of the 30-day 'risk-free' trial
period found that rejecting the product was no easy matter," Miller said.

Under the court order, the company must:

--Stop all sales of the product, effective Wednesday.

--Pay $200,000 into a fund the attorney general's office can use for
restitution, as well as $20,000 into an elderly restitution fund.

--Delete all negative credit reports lodged against consumers since they
began marketing the product roughly six years ago.

--Halt "deceptive practices" alleged in the initial lawsuit last year.

"We are confident this puts an end to this Iowa-based program of consumer
fraud," Miller said. "It prevents there being any more victims and it fences
in the perpetrators so they cannot perpetrate similar consumer fraud in the
future with respect to eye products or any other kind of products."

A telephone message left today at the company's Fairfield office seeking
comment was not immediately returned, but a message on the company's Web
site says that "as of Nov. 1, 2006 The See Clearly Method is no longer
available for sale."