Spa customers say beauty promise cost them big
Their online ads promise to plump lips, smooth wrinkles, and take ten years off your appearance. And Pure Med customers say they wanted to believe those promises.
A woman from Bellingham who asked to remain anonymous told us Pure Med, “just made me feel like I was really special,” and that, “I could be beautiful”.
Verlyn Gosney said the women at the Alderwood Mall location of Pure Med were very nice to her and told her, “You’re very beautiful.”
Both women insist they never bought Pure Med’s services, but still wound up paying thousands.
Gosney says it was a shock when, “I got this bill, I opened it up and $7,000. And I just about fell through the floor.”
The first woman says she was embarrased “I feel like an idiot.”
The Problem Solvers visited several local Pure Med Spa outlets and found they all offer special deals so customers can save big money on cosmetic procedures. But Pure Med is in big trouble with the Better Business Bureau, the state Attorney General and its own creditors.
And Gosney asks, “what happened to honesty and integrity?” Both Gosney and the other woman showed us the paperwork they admit they signed. But they insist, they believed they were just getting estimates for procedures like Botox and dermabrasion, not signing contracts.
But both found themselves owing Pure Med thousands for services they never even received.
The woman from Bellingham says she never even left Bellis Fair Mall before realizing she was in trouble. “She says, ‘oh no, you bought the whole package’ and I said ‘I did not buy the whole package I didn’t buy anything’, and she says ‘well yes you did it’s right here you signed absolutely everything.'”
And in spite of both women telling the company immediately they weren’t interested, Pure Med refused to refund the money.
“I have just been sick with this,” said Gosney, “I really have because it’s just – it’s not right.”
And the first woman, “It hurt me, it made me angry and I knew it was going to really upset my husband.”
These women are not alone.
Gosney’s husband Beryl started a Web site and found dozens of customers across the country complaining about Pure Med. When they turned to the Problem Solvers, we uncovered even more problems.
The Attorney General’s office won’t confirm an investigation, but does tell us they have 29 complaints on file. All six Western Washington Pure Med spas have a history, with 46 complaints to the Better Business Bureau in the past three years.
And five out of six have a huge black eye: an “unsatisfactory” rating from the BBB.
When asked if that’s a red flag for a consumer, Shannon Barney with the BBB replied, “Yes I would definitely say a consumer should take that into consideration.” And the BBB reports that four of those six spas are in bankruptcy.
The Gosney’s finally got their account wiped clean, but only after appealing to the credit company — not Pure Med.
“Why would they not come to the phone and answer it,” wonders Beryl Gosney, “after repeated phone calls?”
We left messages for Pure Med’s regional manager. When we got no response, we confronted the manager of the Southcenter Pure Med Spa, which has the highest number of complaints — 20 for everything from contract and service issues to problems with refunds.
That manager directed us to Pure Med’s corporate office in Toronto Canada. Still, no response.
The two women say as bad as the damage to their credit, what’s worse is they’ve lost their self-confidence.
Gosney: “I’m just so upset about the whole thing, I mean I’ve been sick since August with this.”
And the other woman told us tearfully, “I just feel broken because somebody treated me that way.”
GE CareCredit, the financing company that lent money through Pure Med now tells us they have severed their relationship with the Canadian company. And they add they are in the process of researching and resolving any complaints associated with Pure Med contracts.
