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Call Kurtis: Laser Hair Removal Didn't Remove My Hair

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) -- Laser hair removal is getting more and more popular, but does it always work? A Roseville man says it didn't work for him. He called Kurtis when the company wouldn't give him a full refund.

American Laser Skincare, says "no result is guaranteed." But Brian Carr says when he signed up, he was told he would be "virtually hairless."

Brian says the treatments were painful, "The tattoo was a walk in the park compared to what this felt like." He says he endured 14 laser hair removal treatments, lasting up to two hours each time, over the course of two years. But Brian still has a chest and back full of hair.

"Would you be paying $2,200 for this?" he asks.

That's how much he paid American Laser Skincare for laser hair removal on his chest, stomach and back after their sales pitch.

"I asked several questions about it, said 'Is it guaranteed?' and she says 'You'll be virtually hairless,'" Brian recalls.

But right in the middle of the contract Brian signed, it says "I clearly understand that my payment is for the procedure performed..." and in capital letters it says, "NO RESULT IS GUARANTEED."

"Normally we see things like that really buried in fine print," says Consumer Lawyer Stuart Talley of Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff.

Talley says the "no result is guaranteed" clause does work in the company's favor, but he says companies can't make oral promises that say otherwise.

"In California we have really good consumer protection laws that specifically prohibit companies from making guarantees and then taking those guarantees away in the fine print of their contracts," says Talley.

So far, American Laser has offered Brian $1,100 back and more treatments.

"You provided a service, it didn't work I should get my full refund," says Brian.

So we called American Laser, and asked if Brian was misled about being "virtually hairless." they told us:

No he was not mislead. At the time that Brian signed his contract, we shared with him the expected end results that we have experienced in working with our other clients. Since only 2% of the population does not respond to laser hair removal, we had every reason to be optimistic.

We do believe Brian has begun to see results, however, we want all of our clients to be completely satisfied. Typically our other clients see better results after a number of treatments, but everyone's physical traits are different and they affect the average length of time it takes to see results.

After consulting with Brian , we believe that the continued treatments we have offered Brian will get him closer to his expected results. His satisfaction is our ultimate objective. We've also offered a partial refund which he has refused.

Hair removal is our business, we take it very seriously and we have treated millions successfully. Our clinic managers across the country take great pride in our services.

We make every attempt to partner with our clients and to be very clear about our shared objectives. It is always our intent to do a thorough screening and be very clear about our objective and attempt in every case to achieve the very best result for our clients.

Eva M. McLeese
Customer Service Department Manager
American Laser Skincare

After we got involved American Laser upped their refund offer to $1,600. Brian is reluctantly accepting.

"I certainly won't say a good advertisement for them. Anybody asks me, I'll tell them what I had to go through," says Brian.

American Laser Skincare says they have a picture showing Brian's results. They wouldn't give the picture to us. They said Brian has to submit a written request for it.

As for their offer to give Brian more treatments, he says he doesn't want to do any more.

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