Spa Lady: Be Cautious
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free skin care · Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:52 pm

Wow, I was suckered.

Last summer at Capital X in Edmonton AB (this is our big summer festival/fair) I went through the exhibition rooms and stopped at the Spa Lady booth.

I was told I could sign up for a promotional deal there, go and check out the facility and then decide to keep or cancel the plan. I was also told I'd have to call a number to register.

So I signed up, foolish me.

I went and checked out the facility, discovered I didn't really care for it, and told them I wanted to cancel. Then I did not call the number to register.

I just noticed that they have been charging me every month since. I called to find out what was going on and was told that they have a signed agreement from me so tough.

I'm calling the locations where the girls I spoke to work, and am going to try and resolve it from the bottom up.

I'm not even too worried about getting the other money back, that's my fault for not noticing but no way are they going to charge me for the next 2 years.

I am SO. SO. angry right now.

Stay away from Spa Lady.

free skin care · Wed Feb 16, 2011 9:39 pm

I am glad that you acknowledged your mistake and will now continue to check your CC every month. It is a "must do" in this day and age.

I hope you do get this straightened out and they decide to credit you all the charges.

free skin care · Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:53 pm

I take a quick peek and it was never really over what I expected. $30 a month can sneak past.

I'm afraid that's the only defense I have Confused

Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:42 pm

wow, that's awful... Mad

free skin care · Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:41 am

pustekuchen wrote:

Wow, I was suckered.

Last summer at Capital X in Edmonton AB (this is our big summer festival/fair) I went through the exhibition rooms and stopped at the Spa Lady booth.

I was told I could sign up for a promotional deal there, go and check out the facility and then decide to keep or cancel the plan. I was also told I'd have to call a number to register.

So I signed up, foolish me.

I went and checked out the facility, discovered I didn't really care for it, and told them I wanted to cancel. Then I did not call the number to register.

I just noticed that they have been charging me every month since. I called to find out what was going on and was told that they have a signed agreement from me so tough shit.

I'm calling the locations where the girls I spoke to work, and am going to try and resolve it from the bottom up.

I'm not even too worried about getting the other money back, that's my fault for not noticing but no way are they going to charge me for the next 2 years.

I am SO. SO. angry right now.

Stay away from Spa Lady.

You should call consumer protection. My husband has dealt with cases like this in the past (he's a lawyer) and you have what is called vitiated consent. You were not explained the consent properly (even if it was written)so the consent is not valid.

Also tell them to fax you the contract you signed and call your CC company to let them know what's going on.

free skin care · Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:50 am

- I am not sure if there is much to do here .Yes they are soooooo bad . My friend came in and she was on the fence about it . They asked her to sign and and not to provide the credit card number .In case that she will want to join the club she can give them the card number over the phone or just to cancel the contract .She called them to cancel and they said sorry - you signed it ... Probably you can win if you have energy to fight with them and to be very persistent but most of people are just giving up .
On the other hand - I am in Calgary and I am a member of SPA LAdy for 6 years and really enjoy it Smile

. Is cheep and clean and all the classes are included and the instructors are great . They are not making any money with me as I am going there 4 times a week ( at least ) constantly Smile

. So if you already paid for it I would say : take advantage - the Zumba classes are fantastic Smile

Roxana

free skin care · Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:52 am

Thanks for the supportive comments and suggestions.

As an update, I phoned back and asked for this issue to be escalated to a manager.
By the way, the phone calls are made to a parent company that runs both World Health Gym and SpaLady.

I remained calm and pleasant but made it clear that I'm frustrated and disappointed.

The woman I spoke to said that she could see that I'd only been there the once. But since there was nothing on my contract about signing up at a fair she could not help me.
However, she said that if I contacted the SpaLady manager that signed me up and she confirmed that I was signed up at a fair she might be able to do more to help me.

That has been done, I contacted the girl, she apologized for sending in the form and sent an email to head office.

So. There's hope? I'm not mentioning anything about lawyering up yet, I'll wait and see what happens.

Josee, the good thing about being a paperwork packrat is that I still have my copy of the contract and the envelope she gave the paperwork to me in. This same envelope has written on it, Call 1-800 -xxxxxxx to register.

If they back-pedal I will definitely call consumer protection and my CC. I will also talk to them about vitiated consent.

I think I'm fortunate in that I have the original paperwork and my friend was with me at the time.

However, even if this works out I would still recommend that people approach dealings with them with caution. I found another review where a woman thought she was signing up for a year, but they filled out a 2 year contract form. She noticed within days but was told - too bad, you signed it.

free skin care · Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:26 pm

Thank you for all of the advice, ladies!

I'm not sure if any of you are interested in the results, but I figure I ought to set it straight.

In the end, SpaLady has canceled my account. It took almost a month, lots of phone calls and lots of go-betweens and following up, but they have canceled it.

Also, the woman I spoke to is going to look into reimbursement. She is not making any promises but will try to see what she can do.

I am hopeful they will refund my money right now.

My recommendation: Be very careful with contracts "you can cancel". Read EVERYTHING twice and yes, check your credit card statement thoroughly every month, even if it's approximately what you expect it to be.

These are the lessons I'm taking away.

I thought about trying to change the title, but even though it's been cleared up, I had to fight to do it. I think they would have been very happy if I had been less forceful about this issue.

free skin care · Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:53 am

Glad to hear they are working with you. PLEASE, however, check your CC statement. I had a similar situation in the States with Bally's. Took forever to stop autopay. Then, apparently, I was sent something that was a special where they automatically start the autopay again unless you call to say you don't want it. I never received the letter where this supposed offer was made, where I would have to call if I DIDN'T want! So they started autopay without my authorization! Fortunately, my CC company was good about stopping all charges from them and I got the autopays back via the fradulent charges clause.

Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:35 am

I signed a 1 year contract for my 17 year old daughter at the heritage spa lady. She went for about 1 1/2 years and then moved back home to B.C. We contacted spa lady by phone, email and regular mail to cancel contract. They continued to charge my credit card for 1 year because my daughter couldn't show a hydro bill of proof that she now lived 30 km from spa lady. I finally had to cancel my credit card. They have now 3 years later sent a credit agency after my daughter and ruined her credit standing. They state she owes $780. There contract was with me not her because she was under age. I am now in the process of suing them if anyone wants to join

free skin care · Sat Aug 11, 2012 7:49 am

An easy way around it, is contact your cc company, explain whats happening, and get a new cc number, ie. cancel that card get a new one. They can't charge a card that no longer exists. My DH made this same mistake, only way to fix it was that according to cc company.

Then in meantime call them and try to resolve this, but it stops the charges immediately

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