Herbal Inn

I would avoid this business. I went to the Gloucester Rd branch for their £45 massage promotion as I wanted to try and find a new massage place. It was dirty and did not seem really a legitimate place. The multi-​use room was not clean and you laid on a table without a towel or anything. There was an old dirty pillow it looked like had been used without ever having been cleaned. There was also a disposal bin for the acupuncture needles where the needles were sitting on the top.
The massage itself was just barely acceptable. The person who did it did not seem experienced.
The positive thing was the staff was very nice and polite.

These Medicine shops kind of work in the same way, they are commission based and an appear to rip you off. My Brother has been ripped off by them, and when I found this extract below on the internet I only felt compelled to post it here. I’ve spoke to the Herbal Inn in Blackpool, lady called Lisa very rude indeed after she’s taken your money — no time for you at all Read on about the business model. I’ve received this letter from my former TCM-​teacher who lives in UK. She sent it to the people she knows they are in the TCM. I don’t know how mucht this is true. I hope that people who lives in UK can tell us more about this. — — — –Dear Sir: We’ve been working for Dr.& Herbs (a chain shop of Chinese medicine, there are about 100 branches in the UK) for two years now. We’ve have been sick of what we have been doing. SHOCKING! It is really shocking! We wanted to escape from the HELL where they damage the reputation of Chinese medicine as well as public health. IT IS A SCANDAL! We are forced to reach a target such as £3000.00 a day, otherwise we will be paid very little. Some good days our turnover can be as much as £7000.00 a day, in a bad day we can still make £2000.00-£3000.00.Can you image that this is impossible for us to make that much money if we charge each patient £30.00?(we have to have 100– 200 patients a day to make £3000.00-£6000.00. Must be joking!) How we have done that? It is so simple! We have been told and forced to take as much money as possible from every customer. You would not believe it. It is very normal for us to charge a patient three hundred pounds or more at the first visit, they have to pay up-​front. For a very mild problem for example a muscular strain which can be cured by one or two acupuncture sessions but we (our poor sales women who are standing outside our shop and BEGGING the people passing by, they are so nice and patient to them so that they would come into our shop, as soon as they come into our shop the sales woman would try all skills they have been taught such as threatening the patient: the condition would get much worse even you will die if you don’t have it treated now. etc.) would push /​force them to have TEN or TWENTY treatments, our normal method is: if you have ten or twenty sessions and pay up-​front you will get one or two session free. It is not easy to persuade every single customer who comes into our shop to take our offer however we do believe that there always are some ‘silly’ ones who would take our ‘advices’. Most of them do not come back for second, third or further treatments which had been paid because they realised that we are not professional and we had ripped them off when they went home to tell their husbands or wives what had happened at our shop. Most of them would not come back to get their money back even they did not want to continue their sessions because they knew it would be very difficult for them to have their money back and they did not want to loss their face in front other people (if they came back to say they did not want to curry on their treatments and want to have their rest of money back, we will give them lots lots of hassle or push them to buy many other herbal products instead), so often they paid three or four hundred pounds end up they only had one or two sessions and left us all rest of the money they had paid that means it cost them £250.00 — £400.00 each session. Yes! We ripped them off. We know that we are not ethical at all but we have to say that is our job as we are employed by our boss and we have been forced to do so! Without this issue, no one would know the huge risk for the public health from what we are doing in every shopping centre in all Britain ! The biggest single deal we have done was £1350.00(that was paid by credit card.). She was a porch lady patient who suffered from digestion problem. We gave her 90 days herb medicine supply and six other different herbal products which were not necessary at all (actually five of them would make her condition worse so she could come to get some other medicines for them. We did not want to do that but we were told to do it otherwise we can only get £20.00 a day instead of £50.00 a day). As soon as we catch a BIG ‘FISH’ (over £300.00from a single patient at the first visit we call it Big Fish) we would phone the head office to report the ‘achievement’. The man in the head office would prise us: ‘Well done! Carry on doing it, the bigger fish you catch the better!’ When the patients returned for the following treatments which they had paid, they surpose not need to pay the treatment, but we would do our ‘best’ to sell them these and that and end up to pay another fifty or sixty pounds. Most of them would not come to our shop to get their money back as they were very unhappy. If they came back to want their money back we would give them lots of hassle as we were told not to give them money back too easily and we would push them to buy herbal products to balance

don’t let the term alternative medicine, put you off! the store has been on coney street for 4 years now,
it never looks busy?
they do therapeutic massage, quit smoking acupuncher courses etc and a range in chinese medicines.
my story starts with my man, years and years ago he hurt his knee at work. he had countless visits to the GP, hospitial, physio etc but no matter how he did the knee exercises, took it easy, rested etc. the dam knee would swell and basically cause him pain in simple every day activities! like walking, standing etc this had been going on for over 3 years!
was chatting to my mother and mentioned it to her, and after a long berating of not taking care of my man etc?
there are acupuncher doctors in manchester etc
chinese medicine has been proven effective etc
why don’t i do the chinese medicine thing blah blah blah!
(i was seriously thinking of lighting up a cig, but mother would have known, even though we were on the phone, and she was 60 miles away!)
so i thought, ok mother i’d give this place a try, told my mother and she said it a chain, the herbal inn’s and she’s not had any bad reports!
like she would have told me anyway? she was just happy i was returning to the old ways!
so i took my man in for a consultation, and the doctor who spoke through a translater informed us of a course of acupuncher and chinese medicine, total cost of just over £300.00
(what sprung to mind was, if this don’t work i’m billing my mother!) the consultation took part in a small curtained off area. where my mans knee was pushed and prodded.
the doctor seemed really professional, questioned my man about a knarly bit on his knee, and said he could do nothing for that! but could help with the swelling and the pain it caused.
i think he had 10 acupuncher treatments in total, needles places around offending knee area with little heated bulb shaped glass bottles, where he sat in the consultaion rooms for up to an hour!
the medicine was another matter, 1 was in a wax capsule and had tiny little rabbit droppings in it, (though not rabbit droppings, they just looked like them)
he was to take these half the amount in capsule day and night, the second medicine, was a black golf balled size thing he had to chew through! eeew!
luckily i didn’t have to brew any,
as from childhood experience it was something that was put on tea time ish, to be taken before bed time!
stunk out the whole house and tasted, there is no polite way of saying how it tastes! but i’m sure you can catch my drift! so i was one extremely healthy child! you only fall ill the once and you learn never to say your not feeling well!
this was over 3 years ago, he has never had a problem with his knee, has since taken up fencing with a sabre not foil.
desparation can lead people to seeking out alternative medicines. it can be costly as you hear so many horror stories of how people have been fleeced of there money and there remaining health! but this method of medicine has been going for thousands of years, so can’t be all bad!
the chinese did invent the Seismograph, gun powder, built that very long wall, the arched bridges etc so some of the medicine and acupuncher must work?
(NOTE chinese medicine, though made up of dried plants etc is NOT to be taken lightly, as some of these plants have very potent effects! and some can be toxic in the wrong amounts! or if prepeared other then how instructed have no effect! you cannot mix sugar into the medicine, infact you could be told not to eat certain foods during a course of medicines, all to do with the ying yang thing)