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After being burned by their laser on 4/13/07, I have contacted their corporate office dozens of times with no response . The procedure was so painful, I had to stop stop the treatment. It left burns on my legs.
I had paid over $2,700 for a service package, but will no longer return to their clinic. It was the most painful, unprofessional experience I've gone through. I have demanded a refund on services not rendered but cannot get anyone to address my complaint. The customer service department has transferred my case to the "appropriate department," but I am still waiting to hear from them. I have called almost every day since 4/13/07 (today is 5/16/07), and am always transferred to an unidentified voicemail box. I have left a message every time.
Beware people!
Update on my original post on 5/16/07 - With no success after letters to my state's AG, the BBB, and ALC corporate headquarters, I was contacted by ALC on 10/15/08, after they saw my posting. Here is an excerpt from their email to me, "I was notified by our marketing department for American Laser Centers about your blog, and am currently a member of the Customer Service Team. As a result, of course I am familiar with the refunding policy changes and am responsible for screening eligible clients for refund. I notice in your case you had started treatments, and I am guessing that is why you were denied refund. It used to be only clients that had not received any treatments could be refunded. However, ALC has reviewed their policies under new ownership and are refunding treated clients the unused portions of their contracts if they still wish to cancel services. Since yours was the first posting that I saw online I thought I would contact you first in the hopes that you would want to work with me to get your matter resolved. "
On 10/21/08, the representative asked me for my Care Credit information so they could process a partial refund.
On 1/6/09, I asked for a status of my refund. On 1/23/09, their response was, "I apologize but this still has not been completed." Also, "Accounting has given us 12-16 weeks as timeframes but I know that those are only estimates and that we truly do apologize for this delay."
I checked in again on 6/10/09 - EIGHT months after they said they were issuing a refund. Their response was a request for photos of the injuries I suffered! I'm back to square one.
I'm not holding my breath; it's obvious they never started the refund process at all. The only recourse I have is to keep you all updated on this blog.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
OMG! I do not know what to do! I received an e-mail to enter a contest to win laser hair removal from American Laser Centers. Guess what - I won - 2 days after entering the contest. $300 off of a package. Okay - so I saw what the package was, and I got the financing. I have not had any treatments yet. SO ~ Now - I don't know what to do. After looking for BBB complaints - I found this. HELP! Is there any help for me?
I am currently working on registering complaints against American Laser Centers in Maryland. I plan to send my letter to anyone who will listen - the State Attonery General, the medical board, even local news outlets.
The predominant complaint against ALC is their no refund policy. I find this to be the least of their awful business and medical practices. Below I've outlined my complaints against them.
Unethical Marketing. There is no such thing as permanent hair removal. Google laser hair removal and you will find many ethical government and physician organizations that will tell you as much.
ALC also claims that their unique treatment methodologies make the treatment safe and effective for everyone. It is fact that darker skin tones and lighter hair colors probably will not achieve the same results as someone with light skin and dark hair. In fact, darker skin tones are at a much higher risk of burns.
Unsafe medical practices. ALC prescribes topical Emla cream to ease the discomfort of its procedures. However, the large-scale application that they promote can lead to serious allergic reactions and even cardiac events.
I have been burne during a procedure, and the nurse treating me refused to stop or to turn down the intensity of the machine.
I was advised to apply Bacitracin cream even though I insisted that patch testing indicated I have an allergy to it.
A nurse was unfamiliar with a new medication I had started before one of my treatments. Though she noted it in my chart, she proceeded in treating me wihtout contacting a doctor or looking up the medication.
There is no oversight by a doctor. No physician is available to address clinet's concerns nor does a doctor review the appropriateness of the treatments given a person's medical history.
I once witnessed a nurse cleaning the machine after one of my treatments. She quickly rubbed a Clorox towelette over the machine, missing much of the area that had made contact with my skin. Considering that the procedure risks burns, it is quite possible that bodily fluids are on the treatment machine. It is also possible that someone with a skin infection has been treated. I do not believe that the quick wipe-down cleaning practice is enough to prevent transmission of infection.
Unethical sales practices.
I believe that ALC advises clients to take on more debt than they can afford through he GE Money Bank Care Credit card. I also think that claims of a "discount" are false. With no published pricing, coupon recipients and drawing "winners" can never know if they are getting a discount or the amount of the stated discount.
I also really disagree with pressuring clients to sign up for a full treatment package to receive a discount. How can you obligate yourself to thousands of dollars of expense if you don't know what amount of pain you will be in? Would a doctor's office ever force you to continue a painful procedure against your will or risk losing your money?
Many people who have used ALC have found the experience to be expensive, dangerous, and upsetting. Please do not make that mistake yourself.
Unfortunately, I used to work for this company and everything above is true. ALC only cared about $$. They promoted doing anything possible to get the sale. We had to sell at least 2000 a day or we would get in trouble from management. The technician training was only 2 days! People who never held a laser before had to learn quickly or else! The schedule was overbooked, and clients do not get what they pay for. I felt guilty selling laser hair removal to clients because i knew it hardly worked. So sorry!
Hi ALL due to the extremely high volume of people responding to my posts I want to post my standard answer I am now sending in reply to everyone:
TO ALL:
OK first of all, I want to give you a number and tell you what you can do ASAP to help start things to go in your favor, First and foremost call 248.426-8250 and press 0 for operator and ask if you are speaking to Jeanette. If she says she is Jeanette tell her that you want to leave a message for Kevin Pieruch that he MUST call you back and you are demanding your refund or you will be joining the class action lawsuit being organized by Alexis and done with several lawyers across the country.
He will already know about this! Do not give him any more details than that, if he calls you discuss YOUR individual case ONLY and tell him that you are in touch with me and that you know of MANY more people including former staff who are all getting ready to stand up to ALC unless they start to actually reverse their "no refund policy" they claim not to have!
IF all fails then the next step is to email attorney Quat at ken@quatlaw.com. He is trying to organize a class action suit from his Massachusetts law firm regarding the "no refunds policy" ALC denies it has.
I know how frustrating this is but when they see we are organizing (and you should see my in-box!) then they may actually start to try and refund those who contact them to stop us!
I wish you luck and let me know how things go!
Alexis.
In addition I want you all to know that this is growing and we do in fact have former employees from all over that are also contacting us about their unfair and deceptive practices as well as their lies, their no refund policy etc. WE NEED TO BAN TOGETHER THOUGH--the more calls this guy gets the more he will want to shut us all up because we are literally just the TIP of the iceberg as I had a tech who treated me on one of my few appointments who told me, and may be willing to testify as she is getting ready to leave them, that:
A) MOST people never get permanent results after two years and then are charged again to continue treating as the guarantee is not hairfree for two years but hairfree within two years!
B) They push sales even when they are understaffed and under-equipped and know they will have to move and cancel appointments;
C) Everyone there is trained as to how to avoid letting requests for refunds go forward and;
D) ALL REFUNDS ARE DENIED UNLESS THEY FEEL VERY THREATENED AND AS IF THEY ARE IN IMMEDIATE DANGER OF BEING SUED! Even then they fight most of the claims.
SO let's get them and OUR hard earned money they stole back!
Please note, a class action suit does NOT cost you money but can end up getting you your money back!
American Laser Centers uses deceptive business practices and fraudulent pricing arrangements. The salesperson I experienced, Crystal Morena in West Palm Beach, FL, dressed in a lab coat to give you the impression of a medical professional, and then uses aggressive, shady, used-car salesman tactics to get you to spend more money. They offer you huge discounts on multiple services, as if they are cutting you a huge break. And when I went to pay with $1000 in gift certificates that I had won at a fundraiser, Crystal Morena wouldn't allow me to use them because she had supposedly given me such a big discount already. My argument was that I was using gift certificates, and it shouldn't matter. I later learned that ALS hands out these so called "gift certificates" like candy to anyone, but ALS considers them as discount coupons. They also try to get you to open a Care Credit card account, so they must be incentived to do so. What a scam this company is. Bogus gift certificates, aggressive sales tactics, deceptive business practices. I would love to see this company burn in front of someone like Eliot Spitzer. I'm filing complaints with the attorney general in Florida and the Federal Trade Commission. I think it wouldn't hurt to call my local police station either.
Update*******
I now understand Kevin Pieruch is CEO and also that there are a growing number of employees confirming they have a "no refund" policy and only ever give refunds if you get a lawyer involved... PLEASE anyone reading this contact me at the above address and I will let you know how to get them as I am going to organize a nationwide lawsuit with tons of help from employees (if you are a former or current employee you may also feel free to contact me!).
If we speak with ONE voice they will hear us!
American Laser Centers should be closed down. Anyone interested in joining a class action lawsuit please feel free to email me at lex2006rico@yahoo.com They are without a doubt the most unprofessional and sleazy laser company on the market. They lie, they steal your money, and they NEVER give refunds and also never get results. PLEASE heed my warning! I was stupid and naïve to have gone there and lost 3,000 dollars---I also have gotten no reply. If you would like to protest send them a certified letter to:
Att Kevin Pieruch/Legal Department
American Laser Centers
2455 Hollwood Court
Farmington MI 48335
Feel free to say you will be joining Alexis' class action law suit!
Kevin is the vice president!
Regarding the previous comment, the only thing that I can say to that, is that had you read what you were signing, you wouldn't have been "manipulated". There is a specific piece of paper that looks very different from the rest, with a body and what services you are getting and how much your total is... if you missed that, she really can't be completely to blame. She may have went about it the wrong way...but in dealing with them before, I say try to just enjoy the treatments and pay for it. The results are good, you can always switch it to another service though. The new policy is that you can get your money back if you don't have any treatments. So, if you haven't had one yet... they legally have to give it back.
This company has hurt me as well. I went in on November 29, 2006 for a "free" consultation at the Pittsburgh, PA office. Dawn Stellabotte, the clinic manager, manipulated and tricked me into signing paperwork. She said I was signing privacy and medical paperwork regarding the free consultation. She also offered me a free credit check to see if I could afford any of the procedures. Instead, she opened up an $8300 line of credit in my name. I never received any treatments, and ALC refuses to refund the money because of their "No Refund" policy. So I feel your pain, so to speak. I am already up to $100,000 in debt from student loans (I'm a recent graduate), and I can't afford this $8300 charge. Especially since I never knew I was signing up for it! They have also already sent the debt to a collection agency. I can't afford legal fees, so I am going to try other options. There are a number of consumer advocacy agencies (Better Business Bureau, Attorney General) I will be contacting. I suggest you do so as well. I will also be contacting the media and exploring other outlets so I can get some attention to this. You should look into this. I know there are more people like us out there, but they are embarrassed and ashamed to come forward. If I put my self out there, I know they will also come forward. This company operates on manipulation of women with low self-esteem and they continually subscribe to fraudulent and deceptive practices, and should be forced to stop. I know what you are going through. Please contact me so we can discuss this further.