I should start with thanking for great info you all shared here. I read a lot here and finally went today to a clinic to have consultation. I asked some of the question that advised in this forum and they helped me to clear my head. The only thing that i am concerned that it is a bit pricy. I signed the contract which has 2 years guarantee up to 12 sessions and I will be having all upper body removed. (I am pretty hairy man comes with being greek and skin type 4) And whole thing i signed for 5800$ It sounds ridicilous but i didnt have a lot of options in San Jose area. Company is American Laser Center. Please share your comments with me ! thanks!
Are you sure you read this forum? To me, it sounds like you did what we don’t recommend!
There is only negative feedback about that chain clinic here. That’s also a very expensive rate. And San Jose has dozens of clinics as does the entire Bay Area. You have a gazillion better options.
Since you haven’t started your treatments, I would actually attempt to cancel them and get your money back. Then do proper research and consultations. You haven’t done that yet.
yeah i searched san jose and didnt really found a lot honestly. They gave me 2 years guarantee with the refund option , and rate is not cheap yeah but i think it is around that price, isnt it? But you are right about that i didnt do enough research , do you think i will be able to cancel it? i already paid half of it 
American Laser Centers is so poorly-reviewed, it’s a joke. They are the used car-salesmen of the laser world (high employee turnover, terrible training, and their employees are forced to pressure customers). That guarantee means nothing, you will never see a refund. The owner of the company recently changed, and as far as I know, the standing policy is NOT to honor refunds, and to fight it (based on what consumers are saying at many business review sites). They often use IPL which isn’t even a real laser and doesn’t work as well. So if you are stuck with them, insist they use their AmeriLase LASER and not their AmeriLight IPL.
I can’t tell you what to do, but if I were you, I would try very hard to cancel and find a clinic with good reviews.
i asked a question about what kind of laser they use, and i asked about yag and she said it is a type of yag that they are using.
edit: ok guys you scared me I made deeper research and this is a very big company which is all around california. If that would be a scam company, it wouldnt be possible to be open. And reviews about San jose clinic is out of date but new ones looking good. still dont know what to think though, because obviously it is very expensive and i wanna make the right decision
It is a huge company. That’s a big reason WHY it has so many problems. Would you rather have laser from a highly trained individual who has a personal appreciation for the technology and years of experience, or would you rather have laser from a McDonald’s-type of corporation (a big chain corporation who hires kids off the street, gives them a few hours training, and then sets them to work until they quit and are replaced with new kids off the street). That’s what we mean by high turn-over and minimal training. American Laser Centers treat this medical procedure like it’s a crappy entry-level job where the goal is to sell products, not provide a service.
NOBODY said they are a scam. We said they get terrible reviews (you can’t count the good reviews that they post about themselves, you need to look up actual real people with experiences). That doesn’t mean you’ll get bad treatments, but it does mean you will probably have to work hard for good treatments.
A yag in general is a good laser, provided you are the correct skin type and the settings are good. A diode is great too for medium skin tones. Since their staff only have a couple hours training, their laser settings don’t go that high, and this could be a problem.
Here is a link to a website that compiles consumer complaints to help you read up in case you want more info. It showcases complaints that are typical of this company, as well as responses from managers and owners, so hopefully it will give you a balanced place to start from: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/american-laser-centers-c20853.html
P.S.- I don’t mean to be discouraging to you. Even if you don’t cancel your contract with them, you can be as informed as possible and be proactive in your treatments and hopefully still get good results. You didn’t necessarily throw your money away or anything. We never recommend starting with a contract, since you are committing before you even know how well of a job they do yet. This is our advice no matter WHAT the laser company, so it’s not something personal, I promise. So yeah, sorry if I made you really nervous with my long-winded rant. We get a little upset by the ALC sob stories here, and our mission is pretty much to prevent our fellow hairy people from suffering any more than they already do or getting taken advantage of.
Either way, please stick around and let us know if it was a permanent success or not (at least 6 months after your final treatment). More information and consumer experiences are always better. 
They don’t have Yag lasers. They just tell consumers whatever they want to hear to get the money. After that, you usually see customer service go downhill.
They also don’t have good lasers. They could get you decent results if you encounter an educated person at your treatment who knows how to use the machine in the best way possible(not a given since the turnover is high).
Bottom line is that in my opinion, you should be getting the best possible for your money. And you’re getting below average and at an expensive price. (Btw, we tell people to go visit several clinics before committing to any one primarily because you can’t know if something is a good deal if you don’t get other quotes).
Guarantees are worthless if you’re not getting results in the first place. All that means is that at some point you will give up.
Either way, legally, they can’t keep any money for treatments not performed. So you can demand it back. They’ll probably try to fight it, so you need to be persistent and know what to say. If you’re not that type of person who can do this, you may want to ask someone you know who can to help.
If you stick with them, have low expectations, ask for the most experienced tech each time, and ask to use Amerilase machine (basically the Comet with a propriatary name, i.e. diode+ RF). You should be seeing all treated hair shed within 3 weeks of each treatment. If you don’t, get a touch up and ask for higher settings. You may have to fight to get what you want with this clinic.
Online reviews are not necessarily legit. Glowing reviews are often posted by the clinic themselves.
You should really read the FAQs at the link below. The other link provides links to provider searches. There are tons of clinics in San Jose. I’m not sure where you where looking.
LAgirl thanks so much , i have my first appointment today but i will go early to clear my head and talk to her one more time. If i see that she was lying (no yag laser ) then the deal is off for me. I will try to cancel it. ok so far i talk to the customer service and i can fill out refund form if i didnt start the treatment.
LAgirl, i searched through laser type search and all i could find were clinics in san francisco, and citysearch show some clinics but rewievs were not about laser hair removal , they were about botox or something. But you know after I read all about this ALC , it was the same thing , when i said i will go talk to another place, i have another appointment she was like stay a while and i will talk to my manager, and she came back with 50% off. So i am going to shave and get ready for my treatment right now but as i said, if i see they she lied to me, i will get a refund.
Thanks to you all for your help.
If they lied about the laser type, you have your excuse to get a refund. You won’t even need their cooperation because they breached their agreement with you and your credit card company will automatically refund you if you file a complaint.
I thought it was odd they had a yag since when I spoke with them they only had a diode and IPL, but I figured maybe it’s new or unique to this one location or something.
Good luck today! Let us know how it goes.
MagicalPrincessKitty thank you again for your reply. The only concern is that she will tell me a name or brand that i probably wont know and she will say it is a yag then i will not know that. pff, i shouldnt have signed the contract that was a mistake. when i will have time today i will open a thread about ALC cos when i searched them there was not a lot in this forum but when you google them, tons of unsatisfied costumers. I thought it is a good idea to go for a big company but i guess private clinics offers better and cheaper service. well my appointment is about an hour and of course i will let you know about how it was when i return!
Peace
You can print our list of laser names and types. It’s a sticky on the forum
Also, click the last link below. You will see links to provider searches where you type in your zip code and lots of places in your area pop up (if you need a Yag, click the Candela link and search for GentleYAG or GentleMAX for example).
There is a place called Zoolaser in Palo Alto that was recommended in the past. Also, Aura Spa in SF has been recommended in the past. But there are hundreds of other options too. My friend in SF was doing research for a month and checked out at least 10 clinics easily, all with good lasers.
How did you pay? If it was with a credit card, you can threaten to do a charge back.
LAgirl yes i paid with credit card half of it and other half i did financing. Your suggestion is exactly what i did , now i have the list so i will check. SF is far away but i will check that zoolaser palo alto is closer to me.
I talked to bank as well , they actually charged more than my creditcard limit i dont even know how is that possible but if i claim bank said it is more likely they will refund me full amount but i dont know aboutthe financing program.
ok so i am back. Here is the bad news, i am stuck with them. And yes she lied about yag laser, there is ipl and one laser made by company sanoya or something like that, i remember reading how shitty that is. So i talked to her to clear my head, i said what i read about them, and told my concerns, that this machine has been set to low setting so it doesnt work. And she said they have a lot of costumers with my skin type and it is working on them, and i saw a guy walking out with my skin type as soon as she said that and this was at least a bit of a relief for me. So I told them to use laser not to ipl and the nurse is 5 years experienced about this. She said for the first treatment she ll put laser to mild setting for me to get used to it.
And the process was good she put cooling gel and machine has some kind of fan on it so it cools down the area, but i can say it still did hurt!
I asked about hairless time after like 3 weeks and she said you wont be hairless right away it will be like 10 percent i tried to explain that i dont mean that but we were never in the same page ( might be my english) .
So after the treatment she gave me a cream for free to put on and made another appointment with same nurse after 8 weeks.
Please share with me what do you think
You never ever have to “get used to” laser. It either burns you, or it doesn’t. You always want to start with the highest settings possible (that don’t physically burn you) no matter how much it hurts, that’s what numbing cream is for! The weak settings could cause the hair to get lighter/finer instead of killing it, and this is bad because future treatments won’t work on light/fine hair. The trick is to kill the hair in the first shot, not “work up to” the kill-setting. In fact, weak settings can sometimes stimulate MORE hair growth, depending on the area.
You should have 100% shedding by about 3 weeks, and should remain hair free anywhere from 2 weeks to 8 weeks depending on hair cycles and your body. If you only get 10% shedding, then there is a severe problem and you need to force them to resolve it.
Please post the settings they used on you, I am very worried you are getting taken advantage of. Also, reread the FAQs. You should have known to make them start with the highest setting that is safe for you, or at least do a test patch at a high setting.
Remember what I said earlier? They don’t care about giving effective treatment, they only care about not burning you. They don’t want a lawsuit. For them it’s better to give you weak treatments because there’s less chance that their untrained techs will mess it up, and also it means you won’t know how poor the treatments were until the contract is over. Clients can’t tell if their treatments are permanent until 6 months or more after the LAST session, which is years after they’ve paid sometimes. The only way to GUESS if the treatment is working, is to make sure you always have 100% shedding after using sufficiently high settings (though even that is not a guarantee).
The fact that it hurt definitely is good but that’s not really everything. Soprano XL doesn’t hurt at all for example, and on the other side when I did IPL treatments they hurt a lot as well yet the general consensus is that IPL doesn’t work very well. Really I think one of your bed judges as to how effective it was will come in 3 weeks or so when you see how much hair sheds.
Princess Kitty what you are saying is making a lot of sense to me. Thank you for following this thread. If i dont see %100 i will definitely make them re-do it. I still feel it like a sunburn. And how do i make sure that they use laser on me not IPL well i said to use ipl but how i will know they are not lying (since they did once) . By the way it was pretty funny when i said to her, so you have yag laser? and she is like yag is a brand but we have the same =) and i was saying yag is not a brand it is a type =)
Also PrincessKitty, i will definitely share your comment about there is no getting used to laser, hairs will be fine thus will cause not very effective treatment.
edit: ok i found the laser, they used eMax on me, any comments about that machine?
I’ve not personally heard of the eMax, sorry. I’ll let someone else answer that. The settings are just as important, so please ask them the settings. You need to tell us the Joules, the spot size, and the pulse width used during your session. Call and ask them to give you exact numbers, not something vague like “medium settings”.
It’s normal to feel like you were sunburned. It may start itching later as well. Aloe will help, so will ice.
This is the Syneron Elos machine. It’s an IPL/RF. It’s not a true laser. Can you ask if they have Amerilase? That’s the diode laser machine that these chain clinics usually carry.
Kitty already covered all my other points well, so nothing more to add here
The eMax features proprietary elos™ combined energy technology of Bi-Polar Radio Frequency (RF) with both light and Diode Laser energies. eMax gives you the power to successfully treat a wider range of hair colors and all skin tones with many proven applications.
LAgirl i think this has diode laser in it too. This is from their website
well ok thanks everyone for their help , i dont wanna worry about this anymore we ll see how the process goes, i will keep here updated as treatment goes!