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
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
Typical fly by night set up.
Set up shop, collect money, bye bye.
4,000 customers, paying an average $500 = > $2mil +
report to CPIB lar.