Thanks Andrea.
Are you the owner of this?
I’d really really appreciate any advice you can give me in my particular situation.
The woman that has been treating me is a Jamaican woman named Beverly.
Her compay name is “Nails Tanning Etc.”
I cant believe I put myself in this situation.
Im so dumb.
I was so depressed all day at work this evening about losing all of my money.
Im supposed to have another appointment on Monday morning for the treatment so I have no idea what I can do.
What should I say?
I’m pretty sure the woman will refuse to give me my money back.
Please give me some advice, if you know any rights I have because I’m completely clueless.
Heres the whole story:
I met the woman last year at the flee market (October 2001).
She approached a friend of mine with bumps on his face.
She said she could remove all of his hair permanently.
I was interested for my own face, and got her phone number.
I called her, and asked her about it.
She told me it was about $100 per treatment.
She told me it was permanent, mentioning stories about current customers that come to her after they tried other methods that were not working.
She said she was the only person that does this kind of treatment.
I began saving my money.
Seven months later, I visited her salon (May 2002).
It was pretty messy, and her machine didn’t have a label on it.
She said it was because she didn’t want others to copy her, so she removed it.
I never gave it a second thought.
Her instruments were very sterile.
She told me a little bit about how it works.
She told me that it was about 10 sessions, and she could do my beard/neck/upper-lip for about $100 per session.
I told her I wasn’t interested because I wanted my entire face from my beard/neck/upper-lip and also my nose, forehead, and the rest of the tiny hairs that grow all over my face. (my entire face)
She said that it was 2 totally different treatments, and I could start with the bear/neck/upper-lip first, and continue with the rest.
I told her if I was going to do it, it would have to be all at the same time.
So she told me she would give me a break at $120 per treatment for 10-12 sessions.
I started saving and saving all the money I could.
I make $5.08 per hour at my job (that’s my hourly wage after taxes).
I get about $200 per week.
After paying rent and all my bills and starving myself, I am able to put a little bit away each week.
Soon I had about $1000 saved up, and if I needed more, I could sell my TV or something.
So a few days ago (this past Wednesday 12/4/02) I visited her.
She told about Microdermabrasion.
Microdermabrasion eliminates all of the spots and bumps on my skin because I suffer from severe acne.
That is about 10 treatments every 7-10 days.
She said she could do the entire hair removal procedure plus the Microdermabrasion.
After the end of the treatment, all of the hair on my face would be gone.
Plus I would have clear skin, what she called, Nu Skin from the Microdermabrasion treatment.
All for $1200.
I could give her $900 initially, and pay the remaining $300 balance over the course of the treatment.
So I gave her the $900, and she said they were real busy so she would have my receipt printed up after my session.
That was my dumb mistake because on the way there I kept telling myself not to give her any money until I saw everything correctly in writing.
I don’t know what it was that made me forget to do that.
She went ahead and started my treatment right away.
I laid on the bed thing, and she did the Transdermal electrolysis procedure.
Then she wasn’t able to pull my hairs out with the tweezers.
Then she did the Microdermabrasion.
She rubbed some kind of thing around my entire face that released all these tiny crystals.
She kept on mentioning how she was giving me such a huge break and not really making any money.
She said she was giving me such a huge discount because she knew I didn’t make that much and I really wanted my hair removed.
After it was all over, she made me sign 2 identical printouts.
One copy for her, and one for me.
The printouts I signed showed my total to be $900.
On it, she handwrote: Balance of $300 for hair removal package.
Then I signed.
Then later, I saw something weird on the printout.
It said on top in print:
Permanent Hair Remov - $200
Microdermabrasion - $700
Then at the bottom was my total - $900.
At first when she explained it to me she told me it would be one whole package for one whole price.
Now on the receipt, two different things appeared.
I am now afraid that she might say that she doesn’t have to pay me back anything.
And if she does, the $700 doesn’t count because it’s not part of the hair removal.
The first time she mentioned it to me, she said it was all one fee.
Not two separate fees.
After my second treatment friday morning that still didnt work, and visiting the hairfacts site, and the response here, I finally realized it was a scam.
All I want to do is get my money back so I can go to a real specialist.
If I were rich, I wouldn’t even care about going through all this trouble to retrieve my $900, but I’m not, and it’s going to take me forever to save it up again.
Im sure many of you can relate.
Please let me know if there is any possible hope for me.
This whole situation is killing me.
I can’t stop thinking about how long it took me to save this and how fast it was thrown away.
I promise if you can lead me to get my money back, your kitties will be well fed.
