Some spas in very shaky financial shape: CASE

MOST Spas in Singapore are foreign owners in one way or another.
This is true. NOT intended to critizie foreigns.
Check it out.
It is a "get rich quick" scheme. You pay them in advance to do business.
So, they do business without much capital. If make it, they continue, if
fail, they wraped up and go. Capital taken from you in advance.
In fact, CASE should STOP this MALpractice.

I never like to sign up package price for spa nor facial treatment. I become wary especially if the salon is too pushy and aggressive. I do not mind to pay slightly more for each treatment rather than to be tied down.

BE CAREFUL OF ASIAN SKIN SOLUTION, NOT GENUINE IN GIVING GOOD QUALITY SERVICE. THE STAFF IS ONLY INTERESTED TO PESTER CUSTOMERS TO UPGRADE!!!

This is not the only industry we have to be careful, others too. Last week I responded to a TV program - SMS. Bad encounter I had after visiting the Beauty center. A promotion for $X for Y no. of sessions. Unfortunately the promise cannot be fullfilled unless I take up a cleansing session which cost $160 (at a promotional price) and subsequent 5 more sessions at a cost of $1600(less $160). The $X for Y no. of sessions will only be given after I complete the 6 cleansing sessions. When I refused to take up the program, I was confronted with the signature which I had signed on a Question-air with small print. Of course I walked out but they never let me off cos my handphone continues to ring for the next hour. Think this is a rip off so be careful too.

maybe we can start a blog to share which spa is in a bad shape.

Why not CASE have all these companies published on their site and also companies with bad reputation etc so people can take precautions and being pro-active about it rather than filing a case with CASE and waste everybody's time. Don't understand why Singaporeans are always so reactive.

Once you make a payment for a package, most business vendors will not care so much whether you complete the number of sessions or not.

just hop on a budget airline to Thailand and get a nice foot massage for 10 bucks! And you can do some sightseeing. It probably works out cheaper and it's much less stressful than worrying about your money going down the drain...

to me, any spa operating on a system of pre-payment is not worth partronizing because why on earth would one want to depart their hard-earned money in advance for a service to be administered at a later date. You will be gulliable if you think that the standard ofservice given later on is of high standard or that at worst you may not receive the service at all due to the spa fnancial problems. In effect, these spa operators who have financial problems are usually the ones who never keep their part of the bargain and nine out of ten cases, they spend away money collected NOW and then slowly dispense their services or would they? For those customers who have lost significant amount of their money due to unfortunate financial arrangements for services, like this type, they really have to wake up in the way they spend their money though they may have plenty to spare.

in '95 i signed up for a $800 car-polishing "package", cpmy "closed" soon after. in '98 i signed up for one $500 video-rental "package", cmpy also "closed" after 3 months. i hv learnt my lesson. hope ppl wl wake up soon enough.

Not only SPA ...renovation industry also not controlled! I paid alot of money for contractor to start renovation, he carried out alot of illegal hacking, removed all my old air-cons and sold them off and then totally disappeared and was uncontactable!

I reported to police but police said the contractor DID NOT BREAK THE LAW, he asked me to sue him MYSELF, which in other words, the POLICE ask me to SPEND another tens of thousands of dollars (after losing tens of thousands of dolloars) to seek justice for myself! If I am as RICH as LKY, I can sue anybody I LIKE until they got POK, but I am only a little fry with no extra CASH!

When NTUC got conned by scammers...police took action almost so quickly that they nabbed 2 fellas BUT when the average singaporean gets conned....CASE steps up to speak as if it was totally our fault that we got conned because we never checked up on the companies we pay to....

GO CHECK our LEGAL website...which tells us somthing like not to pay out large sums of money without seeing or getting the product first! LET me ask anyone out there....is there any reno that do not require you to pay a deposit FIRST???

DIRECTORS borrowing from the company??? Is that legal?

Best is dun buy package, when u feel like going for spa just walk in, no worries of spa shop closed and $ is stuck

when u see a spa or a hair salon with fewer and fewer customers, their branches slowly winding up and the staff keep urging u to take up expensive packages, say no and leave.

seriously and these spas keeping doing the hard sell. I hate it, stopped going to such places already. not point wasting money. Kudos to CASE for highlighting such issues to the public.

one of the best self-control habits of a consumer is not to commit too much in beauty packages. I usually limit to not more than $1500 and make sure i use the package on a regular basis to use up my credits with the salon before it shuts down for good. Nobody knows how long a business will last. so far I've never had problems with the salons i frequent. I once went to a trial at B**skin and was told to sign a package at $4000 for facial. ridiculous package. consumers ourselves must act smart too.

Only a handful of those Spas are genuine but for the rest, they are more interested in selling their packages to you and most of the time, after you signed the package and start booking your appointment, thats where you would face hell . . . . . my first appointment booking took almost 3 months to get my first treatment with a certain spa. My second experience is almost similar to the first one, it took me more than 5 weeks to get my appointment fixed, and worst, during my first appointment instead of giving me a good treatment, we, my wife and me were so irritated by the so called spa adviser to do a conversion and take up another higher packages, this is absured!

To some irresponsible company owners, their private limited companies are treated like personal ATMs. Surreptitipos transfer of company fund are very common and unless one is a director of the company concerned nothing can be down even if it is brought to the attention of the relevant authorities.
There must be an avenue under the law for whistle blower to alert the authorities to such wrong activities.

I bought a Jamu body massage package at Turf City. When I called to book for 2nd appt...number not available. So I went there personally and found the company no longer there, and no where to be contacted. At the same place I also got the pedi-manicure. The company expanded and decided to go to TanjongPagar. The one at TurfCity, they sold or hand over to another company, I got no idea about their business transactions. But according to them, I can still continue at the new company at TurfCity, because for me it's nearby. But each time I go there the shop is close. Eventually that company also disappeared.

Most spas & beauty salons are using future monies through the sales of their pre-paid packages. Some may declared that they dun sell pre-paid packages but who is going to check? If you do a simple calculation of their package offer, it is a money losing deals for them but the plus point is that they got a lump sum of money to "jiam si tong" so as to fight another day.

Actually are those being accredited are losing big money, cos they are restrict by many rule.