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Okay so starting mid August until last week I've been going to a skin care clinic to get my acne treated. It cost $1000 every month for weekly visits, totalling $3000 plus another 600-700 for extras I had to pay for. My problem is that my acne has gotten worse. I know that a lot of people go through a purging period but I had already completed 3.5 months of a 6-month plan they created for me. My acne should have slowly started improving, not getting worse. It got really bad when they did a laser treatment on me and I broke out in pustules all over my cheek and chin. The thing is, they never warned me that this might happen. They did the laser without getting approval from me first and then asked for payment after. I thought this was included in the $1000 bill that I paid at the start of every month.
Anyway the lower half of my face is horrible right now. My skin looks like its on flames because it's SO. RED. I could attach a picture that I just took. This will scar because I have keloidal skin. They never even apologized and tried to spin this to blame it on ME.
They also did something called Kobayashi treatment which I now know is not FDA approved and has never been indicated for treating acne. It's also not supposed to be used on keloidal skin.
So what did I waste $3500 these past 3.5 months for? Oh, 2 sessions of laser hair removal, manual blackhead/whitehead extraction, steroid shots, and 4 sessions of kobayashi. Which all just made my acne worse. I might just accept it and move on if they didn't have such a shitty attitude about it. There's 2 people there who see me on a regular basis and they've made contradicting statements. A receptionist and a nurse. The doctor never treated me and I saw him twice during my whole time there.
They always spin stuff to put the blame on me (they said it was because I stopped using retin-a after I ran out...but when they first gave me the prescription they said it was OPTIONAL and I bought it from their clinic so when I ran out I told them and they said it was out of stock and NEVER followed up with it so that I could get it filled at an outside pharmacy or something). Then when I broke out badly from that laser they forced on me they said it was my fault because I wasn't using retin-a! If that was such a crucial element to the treatment then a) why did they tell me it was optional 2) why didn't they say anything when I told them I ran out 3) why am I paying thousands of dollars if I can just apply retin-a at home etc etc.
I'm so mad over the money I wasted that I just want to die thinking about it. Someone told me that I should file a complaint for the nurse and Doctor. I live in California. Is there anything I can do?? Thanks for reading all of this..it's ok if no one answers I just had to let this out. Peace
P.S. I'm 21 and I had horrible acne when I was much younger but it was mild-moderate when I got 'treated' here then I got like 30 new pimples on my chin. I can't remember the last time I had such a severe breakout! I'm worried about the scarring! I'm hoping they can refund me for the laser at least since they did it w/o my consent. Lmk if I'm being reasonable
If you aren't happy then you should speak up. Insist on meeting with the doctor and show up calmly with notes with your concerns. I agree at a minimum you should not be charged for the laser. But talk to the doctor and if you are willing to stay there for treatment work up a plan together and stick to it.
They did the laser without getting approval from me first and then asked for payment after. I thought this was included in the $1000 bill that I paid at the start of every month.
They never even apologized and tried to spin this to blame it on ME.
Really? Any invasive, potentially dangerous surgery or treatment generally can only continue unless consent is given i.e written informed consent that you sign. Even if you gave verbal consent (which i doubt they used) it means that you agree to the procedures. This is a safety measure and helps them from getting sued. So, I am not sure I believe this whole story...
They are not obligated to say anything so why are you expecting them too? They have a job to do and it sounds like they did it. Blame is placed on no one. You asked for this procedure obviously because you are willing to pay that much for the treatment and kept coming back which means things were explained to you.. they had to be otherwise why would you keep coming back? I don't know.. Your story doesn't add up and is biased. This is what I get from reading your account. I do not try to be mean.
The receptionist and nurse.. yes it would have been nice and more appropriate for them to be more comforting, to show sympathy, empathy, and caring towards you. The nurse should be on the same page of the doctor and if unsure clearified with him with whatever you say is contradicting as this is medically relevant. The caring part comes with the career; not everyone is that way unfortunately (but then you must figure in whether you just interpreted that way, whether they were having a bad day, ect etc). In a perfect world...