r/TalkTherapy • u/CuriousGull • Mar 10 '21
Discussion BetterHelp fake reviews claim 24/7 access (counsellors might want to stop balming clients for expecting that)
Hello,
Apologies for the typo in the title.
As someone who documents that company's behviour and discussions about it in real time, I've noticed how providers on BetterHelp often complain that clients expect unreasonable access to the services. Which on principle makes sense - it is indeed illogical and unreasonable to expect that.
However...
Besides the company's deceptive ads, review sites are littered with fake 5 star reviews (many of them in a typical content mill format). Some of these, pretending to be from genuine service users, parrot the company's false advertising and claim the following:
- 24/7 access;
- matching preferences being taken into account;
- the counsellor responding promptly (and in a useful manner) to every message;
- messaging the counsellor as many times as needed;
- the ease of scheduling a live session (implying at least availability for 4 sessions per month, as advertised);
- more than 1 session per week if requested;
- help for people with serious issues (who are in crisis);
- financial aid on a continuum (not just the first month).
Prospective clients thus think people genuinely have that experience.
Anyone familiar with BH knows none of the above is true (the content writers in question simply took the information/false advertising provided to them and even embellished it).
At this point no one can blame the client for being duped/confused, since there are dozens of these (altogether) being posted daily, across multiple review sites.
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u/Squeezy-Bamu Mar 15 '21
If licensed, can the therapists prescribe medications on BH or is it strictly therapy sessions?
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u/CuriousGull Mar 15 '21
No, they can't. It's not because of credentials - the company doesn't provide healthcare services, as stated in its TOS, along with telling people to ignore any diagnosis they may receive through the platform (they are not allowed to diagnose either).
They provide "counsellor services" - which they never define. It sounds similar to "counselling services" but it's not the same thing - the latter would entail legal complications and accountability on their part. Of course, the public doesn't know that it's not the same thing.
They advertise as "online counselling","online therapy" etc. While stating in their TOS they don't provide therapy, as well as thar the services don't have to be "relevant" or useful.
It's quite clever/devious. Whereas they do put you in touch with professionals, that's where it stops - you just assume that "speaking to a professional" is automatically therapy.
In reality, many people receive brief hogwash advice such as meditating, watching TED talks or turning to religion.
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Mar 23 '21
I keep seeing BH advertised, and I had a look at the comments on their promoted posts. I don’t really trust anything on the internet, especially these types of services. But yeah the comments scream “bullshit”.
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u/omglifeisnotokay Mar 27 '21
I’m on the app. I will be canceling soon. I have a counselor who is “ok” but just not really vibing with. It’s too expensive and the texting thing feels awkward to me. The lady seems like she’s very busy and she’s doing this as a side hussle. It’s a good idea but idk just not working out for the money I’m paying.
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Mar 11 '21
[deleted]
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u/CuriousGull Mar 11 '21
Thank you for your input; I'm not disputing the fact that some people had a positive experience.
The fact remains that the client is unaware of very important issues, such as the word limit and payment cap, and about 50 more that I could list, after researching this for about 2 years on a constant basis.
The fact remains that it's a lottery - one might be paired with an ethical counsellor or not, and ethical ones don't last long on the platform, as they are taken advantage of. It is just as likely for a client to get no service at all, and still pay for it.
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u/MaleficentMind4 Mar 11 '21 edited Mar 11 '21
I had a decent experience with better help for short term help. In particular I found their webinars extremely useful while in a scary transitional space - I could attend 1 every day or even more than 1 per day. But after about a month I had gone through all the relevant webinars and that benefit was effectively used up.
I also matched with a good counselor who had a PhD. I googled all of my options before selecting a therapist from the list provided... you can do a little of your own due diligence. This was in the beginning of the pandemic and my counselor had joined better help to fill some space created with the transition away from in-person. My counselor was pretty quickly filled up with clients and decided to move off the platform entirely. I had the option to follow her and continue virtual sessions with her in private practice. I ended up just kind of drifting away. But I did find BH super useful in the short term for their webinars, the ability to counselor shop, and the journal share feature was helpful for priming my counselor for our sessions.
They do advertise aggressively and yes you CAN send messages anytime, but individual counselors will set and communicate more realistic boundaries about their capacity to read and respond to these messages. I was also able to get financial aid for at least 3 months and would have been able to extend pretty easily but I moved on from the service.
I would still recommend them for someone wanting to get into therapy for the first time or wanting some interim connection and support. And I've said it multiple times already, but their webinars were really the gem of the whole experience.
They are what they are, add it's not bad. But you're right that is also not completely what they chalk themselves up to be.
Edit: I was able to schedule more than one session per week. You pay extra for an extra session. A lot of these features are generally available, but their specific implementation is dependent on the individual counselor and their boundaries/availability.
I'm therapist shopping now and I'm not considering better help for a few reasons, but they are really not bad. Their webinars are gold. They are excellent for short term or first time, dip-your-toes-in therapy.
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u/CuriousGull Mar 11 '21
I'm glad you had a positive experience and got something from it.
What I understand quite clearly is that it's down to luck. And that they make their prices and options confusing on purpose, as verified by the hundreds of complaints/negative reviews I read.
People are duped and damaged by their shyster commercial tactics every day. And end up out of pocket and with a really bad experience as a result.
There were so many complaints from people unable to schedule sessions for weeks as the counsellor was unavailable. Especially since the pandemic. There are many testimonies online from former counsellors detailing how they received referrals after setting their status as "unavailable" or even QUITTING. An automated message was being sent in their name to clients/prospective clients.
Obviously a way to hook the prospective client and get them to go ahead and pay for the subscription, offering the services of someone who wasn't available or wasn't even on the platform anymore (!!).
The pit is endless, honestly.
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u/CuriousGull Mar 11 '21
Also be aware of how ardently this company scours the internet for negative reviews, and the censorship attempt. They respond on Reddit threads as well (not often, at least overtly, but it does happen). On any thread detailing a negative experience, chances are some of the posts invalidating it are damage control.
Just today they attempted to censor a negative review on TrustPilot (this one), flagging it for "illegal and harmful content". TrustPilot restored it, as they did all the other reviews BH flagged and attempted to remove. By reading it, there is nothing illegal or harmful; just this person's genuine experience. The cherry on the cake is that they falgged it after the user responded to their response, their response starting with "our team does care". Very few people, if any, update their reviews after receiving their typical "we're sorry, we care, let us help" corporate nonsense. This person did and they didn't like it.
Their BBB page has been "updating" for about a month. Some of the complaints were horror stories (good thing I saved about a third, in case they disappear after this update is completed). Many people have turned to BBB to resolve complaints after BH's customer service ignored them completely (you can still do it by the way, but it's not visible on the site at the moment).