I wanted to share a recent experience with David Sinclair’s Tally Health that might be of concern to anyone here who’s subscribed or considering subscribing to their services.
When I initially signed up for Tally Health, it was under a year-long plan, which already had pretty restrictive cancellation policies. These terms included hefty penalties if you decided to cancel before the 12-month mark. However, upon checking my account recently, I was surprised to find that my subscription is set to charge me again next month. This was unexpected as my original understanding was that my commitment was only for 12 months.
Digging deeper, I’ve noticed that Tally Health has quietly updated their Terms and Conditions. The plan, which was initially a fixed 12-month term, is now apparently set to automatically renew on a month-to-month basis. This major change seems to have been made without clear communication, effectively burying significant policy shift.
Moreover, the process to cancel the subscription is unnecessarily complicated, further complicating the situation for consumers looking to opt out.
I wanted to raise a flag here for anyone who might be in a similar boat or considering Tally Health for their wellness journey. It’s important to be aware of these changes and the potential for unexpected charges due to the shift to a month-to-month subscription model post the initial term.
Always read the fine print and stay vigilant about any changes to terms you’ve agreed to, especially when it comes to subscriptions that impact your financial health and wellness journey.
I just subscribed to Peter Attia’s premium service because I wanted to read an article they wrote on statins.
I cancelled it now just because I don’t think I’ll need it going forward. It took about 30 seconds to cancel and easy to find. Sorry to hear Tally is not using good business practices.
When I joined, I was expecting the company to venture beyond selling overpriced resveratrol. 12 months into the subscription, the only notable “innovation” has been the introduction of an add-on supplement (Glycine, Berberine, Urolithin A).
I am just progressively more disappointed in Dr Sinclair. I defended him online for quite awhile but when Tally launched, I had to stop and question whether I had been duped.
He talked so much on his podcast about how they had developed an epigenetic test that could be done for $10 each. Amazing! But then they packaged it in a subscription that is $129 a month and includes mandatory bottles of “longetivity supplememts” which all have super limited evidence behind them, all swirled up into a single capsule but presented as groundbreaking science.
I don’t agree with some of David Sinclair’s statements that to me are excessively optimistic and veer into “hype”. And I take his statements now with a strong dose of skepticism but I also think he’s probably doing some good and interesting work… like the work on the optical nerve regeneration. We’ll see where it goes, and I look forward to other labs duplicating the work.
But I don’t consider him a fraud or a con… those are too harsh a judgement in my opinion, at least from the evidence I’ve seen (you may have seen other evidence).
I think Karl Pfleger is a reasonable voice on the matter (with regard to the Brad Stanfield video). I think part of the issue is that in Youtube world it probably helps to be extreme in your videos as it gets attention, thus views and subscribers (and thus money).
I agree with Karl… David Sinclair’s behavior (while not something I would do) is nothing like the Theranos / Elizabeth Holmes type of fraud… which I think was was real fraud.
I agree with @RapAdmin Sinclair is doing some revolutionary work which, if it pans out, will be a huge benefit for humanity. However, I’m not going to be buying any more Resveratrol. I will probably buy his newest LifeSpan book when it is released as I view it as a good outlook on the current state of the field of longevity science and it’s possible future.
I don’t think he’s a con man although I do think he wants to make money. I won’t be signing up for Tally Health.
You’re right, subscriptions are becoming increasingly common. However, there’s a crucial distinction in Tally Health’s case.
While most subscriptions allow cancellation anytime and simply stop future charges, Tally Health enforces a cancellation fee, a penalty equal to the remaining subscription cost.
If you decided to cancel after the first month, you’d incur a cancellation fee of $129 multiplied by the remaining 11 months in the subscription. This translates to a total fee of $1419.
This hefty fee applies because Tally Health’s policy treats cancellation as a termination of the pre-paid 12-month agreement. So, even though you wouldn’t use the service for the full year, you’d still be responsible for the remaining balance. I’ve never seen anything so anti-consumer, especially in the longevity space.
What is the rationale for this? … it seems outrageous.
And while I think (from what you conveyed) its a ridiculous approach to business (and bound for bad PR), having worked in many startup companies, I would think that type of operational decision is much more likely to be made by the president / CEO and senior management team, than a non-operational Academic co-founder like David Sinclair. (In situations where there is an academic co-founder the scientist frequently serves more as an advisor on the science aspects of the business, and typically doesn’t get involved in the operational / business decisions like a refund/cancellation policy.
Other companies will do this. I’ve been ‘gotten’ by signing a 2-year contract, trying something out for a month, realizing it’s not for me, and then canceling. I still had to pay the whole amount of the 2-year contract even though I didn’t use the service after the first month. It happens. Read a contract well before you sign it.
I understand that Sinclair may not be personally involved in every detail of the company’s operations, but given that he was a prominent figure in the initial marketing, and considering that the company sells his Resveratrol product and references his research, his association with the company is quite strong.
Other companies will do this.
I see the logic in applying a subscription model with cancellation fees in industries like solar panel installations, where there’s a significant initial cost to be offset, applying such a model in the longevity space feels VERY different.
I agree, a huge cancellation fee comes across as very anti-consumer and abusive.
I’ve not looked at their business in general or specifically (I think from a quick glance that they are priced too high for my perceived value in what they offer), but in a scenario like this I have to wonder if there is some sort of unusual situation that may explain their unusual cancelation fee; for example if upfront costs of bringing on a new customer (i.e. I wonder do they create customized supplements for people who are on their program - because in that case there may be a substantial cost to the company to create the customized formulation of vitamins, and so if a person cancels shortly after initiation the company could lose a lot of money. I’m not rationalizing their policy, just trying to understand what their thinking would have been in creating such a policy that seems so outrageous at first glance.
