I’ve decided I’m going to start my own corporation to operate in competition with Monsanto. I’m going to hire a bunch of scientists and get them to patent dogs and cats. Then when people try to breed them, I’m going to sue their asses off. Of course this will be after I’ve harassed them and terrified them, taking photos of them out walking the puppies and cuddling the kittens. I’ll have a field day with those idiots who are stupid enough to post a video of themselves on YouTube. How dare these people interfere with my right to own life? I’ll also go after anyone who buys the puppies or kittens unaltered. If they think they are going to let those animals breed without my getting paid for it, they have another thing coming.
Business
This is Completely Bizarre
My friend and I were fooling around on Meetup. I would put in a term to search for groups and see what Meetup came up with. I put in the term Sociopath. Meetup came up saying, “There aren’t any sociopath meet ups near Portland just yet.” Meetup then offered some alternatives that are slightly close and might suit me. Note what choices it offered:
It offered Investment Education, Wealth Creation, Business Strategy and Networking, and Professional Networking. Isn’t it ironic that Meetup thinks a sociopath group would fit with these business groups?
Pure Med Spa Again
In spite of the rather large number of comments I received on my posts about Pure Med Spa, not one of the commenters responded to my request to interview them for an article I am doing on the company. I am posting this in an effort to find people who were harmed by Pure Med Spa, employees who would like to tell their story, or even those who had a great experience. If you would like to speak to me, please comment on this post and I will contact you. If you would like to remain anonymous, that request will be honored.
Thanks much.
Original posts:
Good Riddance, Pure Med Spa
See my previous posts on Pure Med Spa here and here.
I am writing an article on Pure Med Spa. For info, please click here.
Last summer, I stopped into a local spa to inquire about Botox treatments. After being told the price, I asked to schedule an appointment. I was informed that I would need to provide a $50 deposit to hold the appointment, and that if I did not cancel within twenty-four hours of the appointment, I would forfeit the deposit. Seeing no problem with this policy, I scheduled an appointment for the following week. The company was Pure Med Spa, also known as GRF Medspa.
That afternoon, I decided I no longer wanted the appointment. I called to cancel the appointment and to request a refund of my deposit. I was informed that Pure Med Spa does not provide refunds. I asked to speak with the manager who was not available. I left a message and waited angrily for her to contact me.
In the meantime, I did a little statutory research and discovered that my state has an act to protect consumers from shady spa practices. Among other things, the act allows for full refunds of any procedures if they are cancelled within 72 hours of making an appointment. To comply with the statute, it is necessary to send a letter stating the intent to cancel and requesting a full refund. I immediately wrote such a letter and sent it to Pure Med Spa.
That afternoon I spoke with the manager. After haggling for twenty minutes, I informed her that I had written her company in compliance with the statute and that if I did not receive a refund, I would be filing suit in small claims court. I also told her I was a writer and would write about my experience on my blog. I did not think Pure Med Spa would like the negative publicity.
The manager said she would try to get me a refund. After another wait, she called me back to tell me the fifty dollars would be refunded to my debit card. I thanked her and hung up. I did not stop payment on my debit card because I thought the matter would be handled and the cost to stop payment would have been twenty-five dollars. It seemed a steep price to pay.
Twenty-five dollars would have been better than the nothing I have ever received from Pure Med Spa. I honestly believe the manager in the store thought her company would refund the money. Every time I spoke to her she was even more apologetic and her apologies were genuine.
The timing of this situation was not great for me. I left to move to Hawaii a month afterwards. I was tracking to see if the refund arrived, and would call to speak to the manager, but because I was not in Portland where the spa was located, I could not go in and work something out in person.
In September, frustrated by the entire situation, I wrote a blog post about my experience. I stated my intent to sue in small claims court. I received a lot of responses from other people who had much worse situations than mine.
Through my blog I am able to track the searches people use to find my blog and to see which posts are read the most. By far the posts on Pure Med Spa get the most attention. Dozens of people read these posts every day. I have gotten several comments from readers whose experiences were terrible. One woman has a droopy face from improperly administered Botox. Another was an employee who spoke of their terrible treatment of her and other employees. A graduate student writing on Pure Med Spa contacted me to see if I would forward her information to people who contacted me. The posts continue to get tons of attention.
I was planning on suing Pure Med Spa in small claims court when I returned to Portland next week. Unfortunately, I heard the company filed for bankruptcy under the name GRF Medspa. I looked up their case. They filed chapter 11 in the district of Georgia. Their case number is 08-85038-crm. Their filing date was December 4, 2008. Also unfortunately, they have not yet filed all the required paperwork. It is not due until December 19, so I could not view the details of their case. If they do not file the necessary paperwork within the alloted time, their case will be dismissed.
If you have a potential claim against Pure Med Spa, I urge you to contact the Bankruptcy Court and ask to be listed as a creditor. When you are notified to file a claim, do so. It is not difficult to file the claim paperwork. In some districts it can even be done online.
Also contact the bankruptcy trustee assigned to the case and tell your story. His name and address are: Thomas Wayne Dworschak, Office of the U. S. Trustee, Room 362, 75 Spring Street, SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, (404) 331-4437 – ext. 145
Email: thomas.w.dworschak@usdoj.gov.
Write clearly and concisely. Be sure to him all the information related to your case including dates and the amounts you paid. Maybe if enough people provide this information, the trustee will pursue a class action claim against these crooks. In this way perhaps the trustee can collect more to distribute to all their creditors.
Pure Med Spa should be put out of business. Its CEO and any other associated with ripping people off should go to jail. I am going to be here writing anything I can to work towards that end. If you have a story you would like me to post for you, I would be happy to. A company like Pure Med Spa does not need to be in business. Let’s do what we can to get rid of them.
A Pox on Advantage Rent A Car and First Hawaiian Bank
Oh we are so small and insignificant. Oh the corporations in this world are so large and monopolistic. They are all the same. There are too many willing to put up with their business practices, too many willing to put up and shut up, that telling them we will not do business with them is meaningless. All I have is this damn blog and any articles I ever manage to publish. I am using this blog and this opportunity to tell anyone who cares or has a choice about my experience with Advantage RentaCar and First Hawaiian Bank.
I have nothing good to say about Advantage RentaCar. I rented a car from them. I paid them for a full tank of gas. They have this deal where you pay them like .30c a gallon less than what is on the street, then you can bring the car back empty and they don’t care. Well, I start out on the road after a LONG flight, made longer by the fact the airplane was broken and we had to sit on it for 2 hours before it went anywhere. Halfway down the freeway to where we were staying I realized the car had less than half a tank. Nice. I rented this car for a week. I brought it back a day early because I purchased a car that gets much better gas mileage. Upon arrival at Advantage, I was informed that the car would cost twice as much because I was returning it early. Excuse me? They have the car available to rent to someone else and they want me to pay them twice as much? They would not make it right. I had to take the car and I will have to bring it back tomorrow if I want to keep the additional $170. The airport is not near my house. The rental company is not easily accessible. I wasted almost two hours there and back today. I will have to waste more time tomorrow. I will never rent an Advantage RentaCar again, even if it costs me ten or twenty or even a hundred dollars more to rent somewhere else. If they wanted to charge me more to bring the car back early, they should have mentioned this would be the case, thereby eliminating my wasting my time going there today. Again, I will never do business with Advantage RentaCar again.
First Hawaiian Bank. Not only do they think I’m a lying terrorist who forged my driver’s license and social security card, not only will they not tell me what is on my credit report that makes them think I’m a lying terrorist (claiming it is a violation of privacy–HAH), now they will not return my forty thousand dollars until it has cleared my bank. Rather than just giving me my check back and returning all documents with my signatures, the greedy bastards took my money and are holding it until my bank clears the check. This could take up to ten days. I will never do business with First Hawaiian Bank. I urge others not to do business with them either.
Citizens, we have to stop putting up with this. The only way we will ever change anything is if enough of us say no. A few here and there will never make a dent. We have to fight for change. Every day our rights are eroded further. Every day we have fewer freedoms. The movement is miniscule on a day by day basis, so we do not notice that over time, we are so far away from anything resembling freedom in any sense of the word. This will only change if we stop putting up with all of the bureaucratic chaos we are forced to endure every day. We will only change corporations if enough of us hit their bottom line. This is important. I urge you to resist requirements pushed on you by businesses who are not interested in customer service. I urge you to stop doing business with companies who treat you poorly and then let them know why. Only then will we ever create real change.
Random Thoughts on Everything and Nothing 