I paid $2,800 for a local hair removal clinic to remove my back hair. Well, they told me it’s an average of 5 treatments to work. HAHA, well I actually caught them in a lie, when I said to them on the phone, “How come a friend of mine was treated at another place and was successfully treated in 3 treatments!?” Then they responded, “That’s impossible, you can’t be treated in under 5 treatments!!!” After I heard that I became very pissed, because they told me all along that it is an “AVERAGE” of 5 treatments, and not a “MINIMUM” which is what they should have said. Anyway, the only bad thing I did was sign a contract which stated things along the lines of “not guaranteed to be permenent, etc, etc”. That doesn’t matter to me though, because the fact of the matter is…I would not have signed on to their service if they were honest with me, and didn’t lie about the average number of treatments being 5. That is the minimum, and I think everyone who reads this post knows that laser hair removal requires a hell of a lot more than 5 treatments. I mean I had 5 treatments done and it did absolutely nothing for me. I gave almost $3,000 to these scumbags for what? So they could go out and add a jacuzzi to their home, or go on a cruise? I could have given that money to charity if anything else. These people need to be stopped. My court date is May 4th, 2004. If anyone can help me in any way, please, please e-mail me: celuckrules@hotmail.com
If the color of your hair is blonde or white…you were DOOMED at the start. If they advertise they are CERTIFIED LASER TECHNICIANS that is a LIE because there is no nationaly recognized certifying agency nor is there any state that issues a license to laser wielders (notice I did not use the word technician). There are no published standards or criteria (published by any accredited organization) to be a laser technician in any state. Only physicians have published standards and no doctor wants to spend the rest of his/her life removing hair as it is BORING when compared to the other tasks they are trained to do.
Laser treatments are really SURGERY, therefore, they are practicing medicine without a license and this is illegal in all states unless your treatment was performed by a doctor. FDA states only a DOCTOR can use these prescription devices or non-professional under the direct supervision, control and responsibility of an ON SITE physician (their wording).
Treatments are surgery because the goal is to destroy LIVE TISSUE, namely the growing hair root. Medical docs treat you with pills but surgeons treat you by cutting off, removing or destroying LIVE tissue (like hair roots) with an assortment of devices. Laser treatments are described in medical text books because they are medical procedures. They put recipies in cook books and describe surgical procedures in medical texts.
The lack of efficacy can be due to poor training of the operator, lack of skill of the operator, misuse of the equipment, using the wrong equipment for the job, and negligence. In this case you should get as much PRINTED INFORMATION (ads, circulars or yellow pages and their web site) from this company to see the wording of their claims to discern if you have a claim for false advertising too. FDA posts on the internet under the heading “laser facts” the statement that “lasers do NOT remove hair PERMANENTLY” and the process is NOT PAINLESS (they are specifically ordered NOT to advertise PAINLESS). If this is what you were promised…YOU GOT THEM.
Also…the verbal contract as to the length of time it takes to do the job is what seduced you to undertake treatment but they “low balled” you to get you “sucked in” to their web when they knew it would take longer as it is ineffective. All this information is available on the FDA site at FDA.gov.
If the work was done in a doctors office but he did not supervise…YOU GOT HIM. Let him know you will report it to the state medical licensing board unless he returns the money. He/she broke the law and violated medical ETHICS.
Good luck.
I can be reached at < lefty.gg@verizon.net >
You will need to gather as much written evidence as possible. Unless you have some sort of guaranteed results in writing, you may have a difficult case to prove. Any receipts, dates of treatment, and before and after photos will help. Do not remove any hair in the treated areas between now and your court date.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
NEW information… The state of Conn. CLOSED a doctor’s office in Greenwich because he was there only 4-5 times in 5 years. Dr. Goldberg is a well known Dermatologist who originally thought laser hair removal could be done by nurses and trained technicians. He received a lot of heat from his colleagues but has since reversed his position after seeing pictures and reading about all the scarring and other side effects of lasers when performed by non-physicians.
There is a principle in law called “industry precedence”. This means if one company pays they ALL have to pay (in this instance insurance co. or “medical industry”… as this is an industry that in this case is NOT treating an illness. Dr.s who want to become entrepenures have to face the fact they are also bound by laws involving ethics and other state and local laws regarding false advertising besides their malpractice coverage… MEDICINE IS A BUSINESS and THEY WILL BE TREATED AS A BUSINESS)
what about suing for burns? I was treated a few times and had no problems. On the last visit I received second degree burns (i.e. blistering - hunks of skin falling off, pain beyond belief, etc) This was NEVER explained as a risk and in fact the ONLY risk they said was that my skin might hyperpigment - - - well it sure will now!!! I am not a litigious person - but this is crazy!!! any suggestions?
Hi GCobalt–
the same exact thing happened to me and I am also not litigious but want my money back and some compensatory return for all the scarring…by any chance, were you able to get help in any way?
These posts are from 2004. There are more recent ones around if you run a search. You can read people’s stories and send them a private message.