Allevare Hair Clinic Allevare Hair Salon scalps my large advanced down-payment for 1/3 of a year of service, after just 2-3 weeks of service and a breach their own contract Internet

Allevare Hair Clinic promised thicker fuller hair using low heat or cold (maybe?) laser technology in what looks like a salon hair dryer, and using additonal things like a special low or no-suds shampoo (probably minus the harmful sodium laurel or laureth sulfates) and adding a water filter to my shower head, which they gave to me as part of this protocol that I was paying for.

The protocol was supposed to take one year, for which they charged $3,000.00.  I didn't have $3,000.00, so they "allowed"/ "approved me" to pay it in thirds.  I paid $1,000.00 down using my credit card (that cash was already in my bank & was immediately transferred to their account).  I was only 2-3 weeks into their new regimen, which included switching exclusively to their special shampoo line, and receiving these laser light treatments so many times per week for about an hour or so.  Into the 3rd week, they called me & informed me that they could no longer help me, and told me to bring the left-over shampoo & conditioner products back to the 'salon' that afternoon, and they would refund my money.  When I brought the products back, they refunded only $400.00 of the $1,000.00 for just 2 weeks or a so of this shampoo and laser routine, and the pure water filtering shower head.  I may have asked them about returning that, too, but its been so long, now, that I forget every detail.  I think I'd totally forgotten about the shower head when I first returned the shampoo products, because it was such a shock to me that they were breaching their own contract & claiming that they could no longer help me and that they were done with me.  By the time I remembered the shower head back in my shower, they'd alread scalped me for the $600.00 that same night.  I was shocked.

I called them when I got home after being rooked for $600.00, and no one picked up, so I left a voice mail (several, actually, as I thought of other things that I needed to say).  I told them that I would report this to every agency available, and that they would not get away with this.  (I was thinking about the Ohio Attorney General's office, the BetterBusinessBureay, anything & anyone that might help turn this travesty right side up.)  The following morning, the local police (one policeman and one patrol car) were at MY door, saying that Allevare Hair Clinic had reported to them that they'd been "threatened" by me, and he gave me a warning to find an attorney or whatever & leave them alone.  I clearly never threatened them, but it is obvious who gets the backing of law enforcement around here...its usually the criminal and the businesses, not the law abiding citizen and the little guy without money for attorneys' fees.

I called the Attorney General, no help.  I called the other agency in Columbus, OH, I forget it's name...Fair Trade Commision, or something? (I forget), no help.  They just took down the info over the phone and never did a thing to help get my money back.  This was in June & July of 2002, when I was also being seriously illegally harassed at work, (that's a subject for another report, later) and was under a ton of stress already, which may be why no alarm bells went off when I was debating whether to give this hair thing a try.  I eventually, (soon after hair thing occurred), couldn't take the horrendous harrassment at work, and finally quit, because the owner & management there were siding with it the harassers, and covering it up deceptively, and Civil Rights would not help, so I quit in my job in the middle of August. This $600.00 really would have been a major blessing in my bank account, both then, and now. 

I am currently undergoing some more (probably illegal) wrongful employment issues, again, with a different employer, and, right now today, I don't even know where I will find enough money just to pay just my normal bills, by next week.  So, this money which is owed to me would be a major blessing right about now. 

Back to the company.  This Allevare Hair Clinic is owned by Beachwood Hair Clinic in Beachwood, OH., which offers the same hair restoration with laser light, etc. 

There are or were 2 women in this Canton salon.  The one wanted to take scissors to my hair without my approval or request, and to cut my hair...cutting off way more than I would ever be comfortable with or request, and I would not let her touch me with the scissors.  My whole goal was and still is beautiful long hair.  This may have been one of the reasons that they were 'unhappy' with me...and breached their own one year contract.  Another may be that I stood out in the rain once, thinking rain water would be good for your hair, all natural, etc., and this made them crazy, because they said that I had to follow their specific protocols to the letter.  (they were upset about acid rain, & toxins in the rainwater, I believe)  The shampoo they gave me was hard to use because it didn't lather, and it was hard to comb my hair out afterward.  I was not liking their prescribed protocol.  I bellieve that, in fact, I began to experience hair coming out during the comb-out after using this shampoo, which it never had done in my life.  I don't recall at the moment whether this was as a result of the tangles & difficulty combing through for the lack of conditioner which makes hair silky & easy to comb , or because the non-sudsing was creating tangle & hard to comb-out problems, I believe.  It was a mess.  I eventually had to call their Beachwood Clinic and ask them if there were any better options in this shampoo product line that would leave my hair tangle free and easy to comb thru, & without all of this extra hassle, & the hair loss in the comb-out that I was suddenly experiencing, too, (because of the excess tangling, I guess?).  Funny that they would give me a shampoo that actually caused hair loss, when they were supposed to be going in the opposite direction, but that's what seemed to be happening.  After I called the Beachwood Clinic & they recommended another shampoo with conditioner in the same line, this is when this local Canton Hair Clinic called me to inform me that they could no longer help me, and that I was out of the program.  Funny how they wanted to force me to endure unusual hair loss due to the shampoo & comb-out, but now that I wanted to switch to a diff. product in the same product line, they could not longer keep me in the program.  Sounds to me more like a scientific experiment at my own expense than a real, already proven, effective & successful, treatment program.

My own segue...I have since, years later, (after searching the net), found all natural shampoo bars from Mehandi.com (in Ohio) that do not contain the harmful sodium l_ sulfates, and which, (it just so happens), do not need a follow-up conditioner (I love conditioner, so, I'm not against conditioners at all...but my hair looks fabulous using just this shampoo bar, so, I'm going with what looks great, I'm not trying on purpose to avoid a conditioner for any reason at all) and my hair is gorgeous with this.  All natural, healthy hair, healthy scalp, & no toxic chemicals.  It sudses nicely, too.

Their whole process seemed to me almost like we were conducting a scientific experiment, using me as the guinea pig...isolating just the one shampoo, keeping track of every detail on a special calendar that they gave me, etc. 

That evening, when I went back for the second time that day, to return one of the products that I'd missed or forgotten to grab from home earlier, & turn in that afternoon, so that they would give me my refund, this guy was arriving (who worked there, or the owner, something) he was coming in with this hefty new piece of equipment that he'd just brought in through customs and had flown in from somewhere, maybe Europe.  This was the highest tech hair magnification equipment available, which could display live photos of each strand of hair on a large television or computer screen.  It seemed to me like he thought he needed my $600.00 to help him pay for his expensive piece of equipment which he'd just bought, when he traded places with the girl who was there giving me my refund, and was arguing with her.  I'm sure that seemed like a perfectly good deal to him...to breach my contract and also to steal my $600 & help him out with his expensive new piece of equipment.  But my hair doesn't need his expensive equipment or his experimentation.  And my hair didn't appreciate the sudden little hair losses, which had never ever happened to me before, under normal circumstances.  I also didn't appreciate the intimidation by the police, and these people falsely reporting to the police that I had "threatened them" in my voice mails.  I was upset when I called, but I was calling to get this thing resolved & turned right side up, not to threaten them.  But I never threatened them with anything other than, "you won't get away with this.  this is my hard earned money.  this will be turned around in my favor because I am in the right and you are in the wrong, and you breached your own contract, which is unethical, too.  And the $1,000.00 was to be for 1/3 of a year...divide that out, & 2 weeks would not cost $600.00....I'm going to contact every govt. agencies about this"...that type of thing. 

Seeing that policeman pull up to my house & knock on my door the day after they stole my $600 is something I will never forget, either.  I think I deserve compensation for the emotional stress that they created, too.  Talk about evil, and zero business ethics.

I just now found Ripoff Report.  Until now, I knew of no other way to report this or to get any meaningful help with (or for) this.  This is the only reason for the time delay in reporting this...I did not have internet access when this happened.