Disgruntled customers take action

QX179R SG

Anger against a beauty chain which went bust last month is escalating.

Some 20 customers of the now-defunct beauty shop, Wax In The City, banded together to seek compensation.

They turned up at another similar outlet, Silky Temptation, at Circular Road, suspecting that it is run by the same company which owned Wax In the City.

The angry women marched up to the shop located near Boat Quay.

They wanted their money back - and most of them had spent more than $1,000 each for packages at Wax In The City.

One of them, Joylyn Ho claimed that its general manager Alexis Zhou had once assured her that the shop will not go bust.

"There is one sentence he said to me, my company is so big, there are three outlets. We are having renovations at Boat Quay. If our company Wax in the City ever closes down, my head- chop off, I give you my head."

And she was shocked when she found out about the store's closure.

She learnt that another shop had taken over Wax in the City's Circular Road branch.

And she suspected that the new store is linked to a woman identified as Monica Lee - believed to be Mr Zhou's girlfriend.

"Why do I think? Because number one, they are at the same location, same address and even if they want to transfer, I don't think it will be an immediate effect. And number two, all the staff that used to work at Wax in the City, including the tele-marketers are all now working in this new shop."

Ms Lee met the women, but explained to reporters later that she is a shareholder of Silky Temptation and that her company is not linked in any way to Wax in the City.

She also said that she broke up with Mr Zhou about two months ago and has no more contact with him.

"I hired my ex-colleagues because I could not find therapists."

Ms Lee said Silky Temptation merely took over the space vacated by her ex-boyfriend's company.

Wax in the City used to have two other outlets - one in Orchard Central shopping mall and another at Craig Road in the Chinatown area.

MediaCorp understands its closure left more than 3,000 customers high and dry.
And more than 100 have complained to the Consumers Association of Singapore or CASE.

Its Executive Director Seah Seng Choon has this advice.

"We urge consumers to file their claims with the Small Claims tribunal to get the judgement first. If need be the judgement can be used as a proof for them to claim against the company."

It's believed some 300 affected customers have filed reports with the Tribunal.

-- 938Live

QX179R SG

Defunct spa sparks spat

TWENTY disgruntled customers of defunct nail spa Wax in the City (WITC) on Friday marched down to a new spa - Silky Temptation - demanding compensation for packages they had bought.

The women claimed that the owner of the two-day-old spa, which has taken over WITC's Circular Road premises, was in cahoots with WITC owner Alexis Zhuo.

They said that Silky Temptation's owner Monica Lee and Mr Zhuo are in a relationship. And given that Ms Lee used to work at WITC as a manicurist, it was too much of a coincidence that Ms Lee was setting up shop at WITC's old location.

The women - who said they represented some 4,000 people who have bought packages worth between $535 and $1,999 - shouted and demanded that Ms Lee come out of her shop.

Police were called in to defuse the situation.

'We want a refund, and we want to find Alexis,' said Ms Joylyn Ho, 32, who bought a package for $1,800 on March 4.

-- ST

mancha SG

Typical fly by night set up.

Set up shop, collect money, bye bye.

4,000 customers, paying an average $500 = > $2mil +

Rooney9 SG

report to CPIB lar.