American Laser Skincare review: be aware of american laser centers! 26

I used to work at the corporate office there, the reason it takes so long is because The clinic manager has to inform the regional manager, the regional manager has to inform the next person, then it gets transfered to the legal and accounting departments, and because they are continually opening new clinics and unfortunately are ridiculously busy. So in turn, it takes a bit longer than most places. They will get it to you though. Just keep bugging them. Especially the clinic manager and corporate office. Try even a lawyer, if you have one, and they make a phone call, they may make it first priority.

I wanted to cancel as well, and they completely denied a refund. They told me I could give to someone or freeze my account. I am not a fan.

I went through 10 sessions with no satisfcation of hair removal. I was gauranteed results in 6 treatments, but now I a spending more money with an electroylsis. ALC did not want to refund nor do they take responsibility for their lies. I was told (by former employee) that the consultation is a farce, because they are pressured into making sales, so they tell the consumer everything they want to hear. If anyone knows of a class sction I am ready to participate. This company needs to go down.

I phoned American Laser Center to get some information regarding techniques, equipment used and costs involved. Needless to say they were not forthcoming and did their best "sales pitch" to get me to come in for a "consultation". I am glad I went online and the comments above were available to read. It sickens me that these places continue to bilk consumers out of large amounts of money for services that are dangerous and ineffective. I thank the women who took the time to write the articles.

She got her full refund I use to work at the corporate office in the call center and it does take time for this to go through but yes of course you get your refund if you dont do treatment that is our protocol.

I had 5 treatments and then got another package and was told I could get a refund if I did not do any treatments and I didn't and it has been 6 months and no refund IO have gotten the run around and this is messing up my good credit so can someone help me!

I got really screwed.

This happened to me as well. I have not seen results and incurred scarring on my leg! The manager insulted me when I sent a letter of complaint. I am very angry with ALC and feel that they are unethical and dangerous. I am planning to pursue this with corporate immediately. I don't want this to happen to anyone else!

My wife got conned into doing business with these crooks. We moved out of state after 3 treatments due to jobs. South Dakota does not have a center anywhere. The closest one is in Minneapolis. They have refused to refund the remainder of the visits. She has called four times and no success. Places like this need to be put out of business. Keep up the fight and maybe one day the corporate crooks will get some serious jail time!

I wrote to the Office Manager, Michele Garber and this is what it said...

Per the agreement, I requested a refund minus the ten percent administrative fee to credit my account immediately. I do not want to have to pay for any additional fees or incur any negative marks on my credit, which has already been posted, due to the delay in your communication with me and misguided direction of what your agreement states. Your ethical practices are very questionable and I will be reporting you to the Better Business Bureau and contacting the Alameda County Consumer Fraud Unit with my documented accounts.

I had spoken to you twice in November attempting to refund and credit my account. Both times, at your urging, you asked me to try to discuss and coax my fiancé to still go through with my laser hair removal. To no avail, after many arguments with my fiancé, we decided that crediting the account would be the final decision.

Third time I called in December, either Monday Dec. 3rd or Tuesday Dec. 4th. I left voice mail messages saying I needed my refund asap because Care Credit’s bill would be due on Dec. 8th and I did not want to pay for this bill because I had no services rendered. I called again on Thursday Dec. 6th and I spoke to another representative, Natalie, and she said that she was relatively new and didn’t know how to credit my account. I asked her what the 10% administrative fee would be for cancelling my services and she said you would call me first thing in the morning to answer my questions on Friday, Dec. 7th. I never received a call from you. I spoke to Care Credit on Dec. 10th and asked them if I had any pending refunds and they said no. I told the agent, Adam Goodman SQ2, of my situation and he stated that he would waive the late fee and make sure there would not be a negative mark on my credit. I also contacted the Regional Manager of American Laser Centers. Shelena Boyd, and discussed my situation and she said she would be contacting me pending an investigation.

December 17th I received two calls from Care Credit and they are now attempting to collect a debt. At this point, I am beyond irritated and very disgruntled at this situation because it has now become an unnecessary hassle. I have told them of your hesitation to refund my account and your circumlocution of still having me pay for the bill despite the fact I had no services rendered. Care Credit is sending me dispute forms to document the interactions I have had with you. I have not received a follow-up call since my last message to you Dec. 7th and I am the one consistently trying to get a hold of you to credit my account. This is insane and a waste of my time. I am extremely disappointed with your disregard for customer service and sense of urgency. You have told me on December 17th that you normally don’t credit people’s accounts and that it’s really discretionary. You told me that, “it’s like me purchasing clothes and getting store credit.” When I mentioned the agreement, it states “If no services are performed under this agreement, a refund will be issued at customer’s written request minus a ten percent administrative fee. Otherwise, all fees are non-refu…but before I could finish my sentence you snapped in a very aggressive tone and asked me “Well did I get a written request?”, which is contrary to what you were leading me to believe on the phone. This is very disturbing and very fraudulent. I asked you what you can do to help me with the circumstances of the delay in credit and you told me that with every store purchase with a credit card there will be a waiting period and that these things take time. You told me that you can’t help me and simply won’t because that is none of your business and I’m supposed to pay my credit card bill on time regardless. This doesn’t make any sense, especially with you not attempting to actually help me credit my account or even utter what the process would be without me continuously calling you.

How lazy are you? How anti-customer oriented can you actually be? I understand that making a quota for your month and getting a commission is important, but come on. There has got to be ethical issues with what you are doing with your customers and business. You came at me with your hard sell and now you have been dodging me for weeks. Your superior, Shelena Boyd, has been notified of your unacceptable business practices and I have demanded that disciplinary action be taken against you. Complaint #[protected] is also in effect on the Better Business Bureau’s complaint system. I will also inform Iron Works Rock Climbing Gym about your unsavory business practices and to strongly suggest that they no longer partner with American Laser Services.

I demand the following:

• FULL AND COMPLETE REFUND INCLUDING the 10% ADMINISTRATIVE FEE (because of lack of timeliness you’ve harmed my credit score and made me waste valuable time making numerous phone calls)

• Cooperation with my credit card company to make the full and complete refund immediately (at the very least, before my next billing statement) and clearing the late fee from my credit score.

• If you cannot refund my credit card immediately, I demand that you issue a live check to me and send it to me overnight via courier with signature required for delivery at my business address

I really hope someone gets back to me.
These ### don't know who they're messing with.

If there is a class action law suit against ALC, I would love to be part of it. They are crooks out to steal our money with false claims. I have been going to ALC for 4 years, and have seen no results. They kept telling my I would get 100% resuts and to be patient. Once my 2-year agreement expired, they pushed me into getting another package. I went to the one in Mahattan on Broadyway. I stopped going because 4 years of lasers with no results got me scared... especially since i had a recent health scare and I wonder if all of this lasering caused it. We still don't know the long term effects. In any case, I still had two years to go, and since I'm not seeing results, the manager there (Hilary) told me that they had a refund policy if no results were seen. She took pictures and submitted them with paperwork to ALC headquarters. that was 3 months ago. She keeps tellling me someone will call me back from their "headquarters", but no one has. And now she wont take my phone calls. I would like to join a class action lawsuit if there is one. I have basically flushed thousands of hard earned dollars down the toilet. ALC should be made to honor their promises.

I am experiencing the same difficulties as many of the postings I have read. The hair removal is marginal. But the worst is the wrinkle reduction. I signed up for 4 treatment. After the third I reported no noticeable difference. The comment from the clinic manager Sarah was that the technicians were using the wrong protocol and that a new protocol was being taken and technicians were being trained. If I was willing to undergo a treatment with the new protocol I would see a remarkable difference. I agreed.

Of course, there was no change. At this point I asked for a refund and was informed that there was a no refund policy. They assured me once again if did just one more treatment. Yeah right. This organization if a complete sham. I will be reporting their practices to the Better Business Bureau. I highly doubt that I will get a refund but I am going to persistently hound them.

If anyone has any suggestions I welcome your input.

I have had six treatments with basically zero results as well. I am very, very light skinned with dark, thick hair--I was told I was the perfect candidate. One my sixth visit, the tech said this is why they give the two year guarentee. So what, I can possibly get a few more painful sessions with zero results as well?

I reside in Phoenix, AZ and would love to join a Class Action Settlement against American Laser Centers, if one were to become available. If anyone is interested, you may contact me at quickchekgirl16 at hotmail dot com.

Hello Angela and Posters,

I am sorry to hear about your poor experiences with American Laser Centers and refunds. I represent American Laser Centers and we apologize for the delayed response to your request for assistance. American Laser Centers has recently changed ownership and we would like to ask you to please contact our newly expanded customer service department regarding your issue at [protected]. If you’d like us to contact you instead, please provide your contact information to my email below and we will contact you at a time and day of your convenience.

American Laser Centers’ customer service center will be happy to personally help you with your needs and will provide a swift response to your concern.

Thank you,

Nicole
customerservice@alcpartner.com
www.americanlaser.com

This company is a SCAM! Call to say I won a 3rd prize and to offer a free $300 coupon from when I went to a travel show. FALSE ADVERTISING! Sorry to all those who have been hurt by this.

Just so you all know, I received a refund from ALC with very little difficulty. It is clear that the company is going through a major cultural change with respect to customer service. It will clearly take some time for them to get the goodwill of the customers back after so much negative press. However, the new owner decided to keep the name-ALC, so they must have done some due diligence in investigating the 'state' of the companies image on a USA level.

Some of the things I would do to further improve their image:

Pricing strategy:
a) The false "3rd prize" followup phone calls are clearly questionable in terms of ethical marketing - when from what I read on the blogs- everyone receives this discount.
b) It is clear they are using the illusion of grossly discounting the service to make the customer feel like they are getting value. Said another way, their regular prices are so obscenely high, offering 25%-50% discount --> gives the illusion of value, when customers still end up paying effectively 200-300.00 per hour of service. In my opinion they should cut out all the marketing illusions and goto a time-spent basis. Just looking around at the branch, this is high margin activity, their costs including hardware/labor are probably in the 50-60 per hour range... Just think about other services industries, car repair businesses etc., those places have much higher overhead, and have a business case of providing a service in the 80.00 per hour range. You need to ask yourself, how could a small office in a strip mall have 4-6 times the overhead? It just can't!
c) Better Business Bureau (BBB). I did a quick query and this company isn't a member of the BBB. That's a big one right there, but I knew it before going in - I figured that many of their marketing strategies probably hadn't gone through any 'laugh tests' from a PR perspective.

Overall -- I would do your homework about your particular location -as should have with mine (Ann Arbor). I got the results I was looking for, so that is all I cared about. The company was courteous and followed up on my inquires. The refund took a few weeks, but ended up back on my credit card where I wanted it.

If req'd I would do business with my Ann Arbor location again, I would just do some solid negotiating in terms of price.

Andrew

I am sorry to hear about all of your complaints. I have received treatments at both the Mesa and the Chandler locations in AZ and am 100% satisfied with my treatments. I have received 3-5 treatments on most areas and I have over 50% reduction about 90% in some areas. The girls have always been kind, curteous and very knowledgeable. I attend regularly the Chandler location and am sometimes amazed at the science behind what they are doing. There has at times been a bit of turnover but it always for the best. I believe the reason for this is that management is very concerned about the customer and if an employee does not hold the same value in the customers satisfaction then they are replaced. Wouldn't you do the same thing. I am paying alot of money for the services I receive and it is comforting to know that the manager is as concerned about my results as I am. I have seem amazing things with all of the services American Laser Centers offers. They really have changed my life. I have had major improvement in my facial acne scarring, eliminated the appearance of my stretch marks and have recently lost over 3 inches and dropped a whole pant size with their new VelaShape. I have referred several friends and family members there as well and they are all very happy also. I feel terrible that any of you have had an experience any different than mine and I feel even more terrible that you feel you need to discredit and name bash a company that works so hard to improve the things you hate about yourself. Maybe what you are really expressing is a direct reflection of your internal self. Stop trying to damage their reputation, they are amazing and I love them.

I'm not going to write a 100 page essay. All I can say is document everything you do with ALC. Document the people that sign you up, do the treatment, take your reservation, etc. If everything is documented they have no case. I fought by writing to the Attorney General Office's of Michigan (home of ALC), New York (where I began treatment) and the BBB of New York. They read my 3 page thoroughly detailed letter. It was resolved quickly with a FULL REFUND. Don't waste your time with phone calls and don't waste your vocal chords yelling at them. Go to the people who we voted into office to fight for you. Their job is to protect the little "guy" from the giant companies who really don't give a damn about the people whose money they are taking.

I have been going for treatment for 3 years now, some areas had over 30 sessions with no satisfcation of hair removal. I was gauranteed results now am being told I will have to buy more treatments, it is not just the money how about the time wasted. They too busy & when they cancel your appointments they not flexible. Where is the ethics in this case. I do not plan on let it go unless I get what I was promised or money back.

I also received this bogus $300 prize, and nearly purchased a plan to have most of my entire upper body lasered at an estimated price of $5700 for 5 treatments.

I'm very skeptical of this company after reading all the reviews; however, I would like to have the unwanted body hair that I have removed!

I decided to buy a 5, 000 package and went to all 20 treatments I am so upset because it didn't even work. Now i am here paying for something that was a total rip off. Is there anything we can do about this?

I went to the one in Okemos Michigan

Manger there Is Erica Barry

Hello Everyone,
I used to work at ALC for 4 years, and let me tell you, this company is a SCAM. Worst company you could ever spend money with. They are sales driven company and will do ANYTHING it takes to make a sale, (this includes, lies, deciet, and false information) just to get you to pay! They do NOT have a refund policy! (they didnt for 5 years with Rich Morgan being the founder, and then Gary Graves took over and said YES we do give refunds, but then he resigned and guess what? Rich Morgan is back, and NO REFUND POLICY is back as well! Please be very careful. There hair removal machine is not the newest or most efficent machine out there, ask syneron (the makers of the machine, its the lowest model they have!) no one has EVER seen 100% hair removal. There Velashape machine, IS BOGUS! as well as fotofacials skin tightning! Please do not invest with this company. For those of you who are seeking a refund, take the legal route...because ALC will not give you one

Ahwatukee (Phoenix, AZ) American Laser does a great job of selling packages and then is unable to schedule appointments because they are understaffed. They also do not give reminders for appointments because they charge a $75. fee if you accidently miss the appointment. The technicians give opposing information and when you ask to have it clarified they talk trash about each other. Please be warned ... the only for sure will be your dissatisfaction.

Wow! I just recieved a call from them, saying that I won a $300.00 coupon. Right away, I asked are there any out of pocket exspense? She said yes. That right there made the red flag go up and I began searching the internet to view any news about these coupons. and now I understand it is a scam. I thought so, because I used to work for Fitness USA, and they do the same thing to get people in and sell you a lifetime membership. At least with Fitness USA you usually get two weeks free while they are begging the crap out of you to join the club. I gave that job up, it was too much hassle and begging. So this is a scam with ALC, I thought so. thanks everybody for your help.

Taylor, MI

I got my laser treatment done at American Laser Center and i am not satisfied with this company at all. I bought 2 yrs package and was promised that 100% hair reducation. I constantly went to my appointments and difference i only see the difference my be 30-40% in 2 yrs. i was treated by different nurse at my every appointment and also i have 2 of burn marks on my face now. Now when i called to make another appointment, they advised that my package is now expired and if i still wants to get the services done i need to pay $50 per appointment. Its not just the money, i wasted so much time.

A COMPANY SHOULD NEVER HAVE THESE MANY COMPLAINTS! I WORKED IN CALL CENTER- GREAT STEADY CHECK, GREAT BENEFITS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH NO LIFE! THE GIRLS IN THE CALL CENTER ARE JUST DOING WHAT THEY ARE TOLD, ITS AN ENTRY LEVEL POSITION THAT JUST HELPS FOR TIME BEING! HOWEVER JOB SECURITY IS NOT THE NORM AND MANAGEMENT CAN CARELESS ABOUT PEOPLE, THEY ONLY WANT TO SAVE THEIR OWN A** BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO EDUCATION. AND PLEASE BELIEVE THESE MANAGERS DONT EVEN HAVE THEIR OWN OFFICE SPACE, BEWARE COMPANY WILL CHANGE NAME SOON- NEW SUPERVISOR SHERRY IS SO OUTDATED. ITS THE WORST COMPANY TO WORK FOR

All I can say is ditto ditto ditto. I am getting ready to go to my bank and ask them to fight for my money back, since it has been 8 weeks. I just tried to call the customer service number and was placed on eternal hold. I am also going to go with the advice from Aura Ivonne and cantact all of the agencies she listed. What's really sad is that some people don't know how to fight and get taken.