Here’s the catch: Pac Promos, now doing business as Salon Save, promotes packages for discounted hair salon services. Buyers, though, often pressured to purchase, can’t find salons willing to shampoo, style, or otherwise provide what they paid for. They do, though, find themselves in a tangle of seemingly permanent payments they didn’t realize were part of the package. What was supposed to be a stream of bargain tress treatments quickly becomes a lingering bad hair day.
Pac Promos, since late 2009, and Salon Save, since early 2012, solicit students on college campuses in southern California, Arizona, and Nevada, sometimes, clients say, using pressure and harassment, to buy their hair salon discount programs. They typically offer three initial complimentary visits and 50 percent off further services at salons on their list of participants. Those who buy are automatically charged $19.95 a month for a minimum of five months.
New clients, though, soon become complainants. One such client, for example, reports that five out of the seven salons listed for her area did not participate in discount program at all. Both of the remaining two were 20 miles from her. Others make the same complaint.
Many clients also were unaware that company charges are not one-time, but continuing. Although company responses to many complaints remind complainants that their contract requires payments of $19.95 each month for five months before they’re even eligible to cancel, a number of complainants don’t believe they had even entered a contract. Some insist they signed nothing and that they received nothing in the way of a contract, or even a receipt. And some say they were specifically told the charge would be a one-time charge. Even clients who move out of the area must continue to pay, as must clients who are dissatisfied with the services but had been told they could cancel in that case.
Both Pac Promos and Salon Save also point out that clients’ contracts provide for continuing payments after the five months unless the client cancels, although even clients who acknowledge contracting with one of the companies say they were not told about this at the time.
Cancellation, too, is problematic. Some clients who call to cancel say they’re told they must cancel only by email. A number of complainants say they can find no contact information either on the company’s website or in their promotional package. (One got a phone number from information on her credit card statement.)
Even cancelling according to the rules, though, is not necessarily effective. Some complainants say they’re charged for at least one additional month because, the company later tells them, they didn’t cancel at least 30 days before the following month’s charge was to be made. Even if they do, their cancellation is not accepted unless their balance is zero at the time of cancellation. And some charges simply continue, despite several email cancellations and even the company’s acknowledgment of cancellation.
Besides harassment at the time of solicitation, complainants who can reach the company by phone say that company personnel are rude and that they’re yelled at and hung up on.
Pac Promos garnered 98 customer complaints between late 2009 and early June 2012. Now, as Salon Save, it’s located only a few doors from Pac Promos’ Woodland Hills address and uses the same Pac Promos phone number. We received the first of Salon Save’s 11, so far, complaints in March of last year.
Kim’s advice. Don’t get caught. Here are some tips to help you avoid losing money in this kind of promotion:
. First, get a business card or enough information so you can get a Business Consumer Alliance report before you decide whether or not to pay for the package. If the representative insists you buy now or not at all, take the not-at-all option.
. Make sure you get a receipt or something in writing that spells out exactly what you’re paying for and any other terms, such as cancellation requirements, that may be important now or later.
. Read the contract before you pay or give out any credit or debit card information. Remember that you’re not likely to be able to enforce any terms (such as what happens if you move away from where the salons are located) not written in the contract.
. Be aware that under federal law, with few exceptions, any contract you enter into at any place other than the seller’s usual place of business and for $25 or more is considered to be a home solicitation contract and must allow you three business days (business days are Monday through Saturday, except for nine holidays throughout the year) to cancel for any reason. You must be notified of this right at the time of the sale, and the salesperson must give you two copies of a cancellation form (one to send, one to keep) and a copy of your contract or receipt.
California residents whose contract does not comply with California law (for example, by not including the required notice that you may cancel within three days) are not limited to three days but may cancel at any time.
. If you use your credit card, rather than paying by bank account debits, cash, or check, you can and should dispute any charge you feel has been incorrectly made.