The final verdict on my request for a refund from American Laser Centers is...denied. The office took several pictures of the areas that I was disputing, and submitted them to the "medial team" or whatever. Taking the pictures was the most unprofessional experience ever. This is nothing against the technician who took them, but unfortunately, they did not provide her training with how to best use the camera. If you don't know how to work a digital camera inside, you can get very bad photographs. And for something like this, when you need to capture visual details of your skin, and how many hair follicles are empty, this will not cut it.
The digital camera was tiny, and much less sophisticated than my basic Canon Powershot A610. I had to help the girl figure it out, and ended up taking pictures myself. I took them to the front desk, and politely insisted that the manager download them into her computer so that I could be sure it had happened. When I got home, I took more pictures with my camera, which turned out better and revealed more stubble detail, and emailed them to her.
After about two weeks, she responded with the news that the medical team advised me to continue getting treatments. Mind you, I've had 15 treatments. I'm no scientist, but I don't know the total effects of laser hair removal, and I already have one mystery freckle that wasn't there before, so doing more treatments is not an option for me. She also offered free treatments in other areas, which of course I did not take.
The next step would be to file a claim against them with the Better Business Bureau. My treatment was $2000 and I want half of it back. At this time, I am building and managing two businesses (and a few blogs!), so it's hard to dedicate the time to do this. I have seen and appreciate the comments on this blog from people who want to organize. I am an organizer at heart, but I'm not feeling like I can lead the charge on this one. I do feel that American Laser Center is a total scam and is ineffective for most people. It seems that their training of office people is extremely inconsistent, based on the different stories this blog has gotten regarding customer service.
So at this time, I think my roll in all of this is to be an outlet to people as they do online research, to warn them not to go with American Laser Centers. That everyone wins that stupid $300 prize, and that most likely, you will NOT be done in 6 appointments. If I suddenly learn more about how to file a claim, I may do it. Hopefully there is not a time issue, but there probably is. So...I may be googling it... ;)