Herbal Inn

attached letter I wrote to their head office March 2010 still no reply or refund!!! (was sent recorded delivery!)
NO FURTHER COMMENT NECESSARY I THINK
Re.: Request of part —
refund of course of acupuncture To whom it may
concern, I entered one of your
branches 129a Queensway on 2÷3÷2010 to have some acupuncture for a sore
right thumb base joint for what I thought was tendinitis. I received some
acupuncture and massage. When coming out of the
session your ‘receptionist’, after conversing with the doctor (in Chinese),
told me the doctor recommended 4 session. If I were not to take the 4 session
’I’d have wasted the GBP 35.00′ that day, as one session would not really do
anything! To sweeten the deal 4
sessions would only cost me GBP 100.00 including some Winter Green Massage Oil
(@ GBP 10.00 (pretty expensive oil I find in retrospect, plus very smelly).
Being kind of desperate at the time I had not worked for 3 weeks already, as
am a self empolyed masseur and was not able to use my hands and ‘falling’ for
the sales talk I agreed, paid and left. That evening and night
I reconsidered though. The next day I went back and tried to get a refund of
GBP 55.00 (GBP 100.00 minus the one session and the oil), but was informed that
no refund would be issued, if anything a voucher only. I am not interested in a
voucher though! Let me explain why, as I did with your shop staff too, but to
no avail: —
I am a
Masseur and Spiritual Healer and have had dealings with alternative and complementary
therapies for over 15 years now, plus did 7 years of medical studies. In my
experience healing in any shape and form should be build on trust to ones
therapist. I did not have that anymore though after my first session and a bit of cooling down (see below for
reasons). Therefore I am not interested in a voucher, as I do not plan to visit
your Queensway branch again. You should understand that especially when
receiving acupuncture (NEEDELS) one wants to trust ones therapist. I have tried
several Chinese herbal remedies in the past and never found them very effective
for me, so that is no option either. -
Not having
worked (and being selfemployed not having earned any money in 3 weeks by then)
I was keen on receiving the refund. You receptionist presumed to tell me that
GBP 55.00 could not be a substantial amount of money for me. In a way she
seemed to say I was making too much of a fuss. I find it quite impertinent for
her to make judgments about my financial situation. -
My thumb
hurt even more the next day! This was claimed to be a healing crisis, due to increased
blood flow in the area. This might have been so, but did not really feel like
it to me, more like it was more bruised than before and I am quite sensitive
with these things. -
Turns out
now that the aches seem to have been due to side effects from some medication I
had been taking for a while. I have changed this now and lo and behold it’s
starting to resolve! Your doc did not seem to deem it necessary to plus
diagnose or view my tongue though, so she ‘just’ acupunctured around my thumb,
i.e. even the full 4 sessions would most likely no have done much good anyways. -
When
telling me I should not panic and just do the next 3 sessions and what are
GBP 55.00 I did counter that I did not
have the funds and time to play around and certainly they would not guarantee
me success anyways, no?! Your staff confirmed there would be no guarantee, but your
doc was very confident, she’d see this kind of thing all the time! Funnily your
receptionist seemed to have been able to ‘guarantee’ me the day before though,
that I would not heal without the 4 sessions! Again very presumptuous she had
no idea of knowing if I would not heal without Herbal Inns help. This is my
main point of discontent! I was sold the 4 sessions with the tool of FEAR. Your
sales assistances seem to be quite happy to use patients’ desperation and fear,
being unwell, to push their sales. Regardless your shops then do not seem to go
by the usual consumer protection standard and release them out of agreed
contracts (minus cost incurred) after a reasonable ‘cooling off’ period. -
You may
believe this or not, but when being treated in your booth, the energies there
were most unpleasant and even ‘attacked’ me when clearing them spiritually. I’d
recommend you do some space clearing form time to time. Not sure what TCM uses,
smudging with dried sage works well. I hope you can
understand why I am not planning on cashing in the left three acupuncture
sessions. I am not saying that I
don’t believe in the healing potential of acupuncture anymore, but prefer to
seek this therapy elsewhere, should I require it in future. I’d be grateful if you
could therefore forward me a cheque for the outstanding GBP 55.00. Kind regards,