Skin-care products cost unaware seniors thousands of dollars

Lampman is 75 and lives month-to-month, mostly on senior government supports. After learning of the full cost of the agreement, she says she can’t afford the payments for the Resveralife products and is now in a battle to cancel the purchase.

The store manager — who has a no refund policy — has offered to remove the interest, but still wants at least some of the principle, despite Lampman returning the same day for the cancellation.

“She told me my wrinkles would be all gone, my face would be cleared, and my turkey neck would be gone,” Lampman said, recounting her experience sitting in the chair as she sampled the different products. “I didn’t really think I had all that many wrinkles on my forehead and I didn’t think I had a turkey neck, but she more or less convinced me.”

The salesperson told Lampman she “liked” her and offered a discounted monthly price. Lampman said she told her she lived month to month and couldn’t afford it, and the salesperson offered a second reduced price, and then a third.

“The third time she told me she would knock it down to $45 every two weeks. But in the meantime, she didn’t tell me what the complete cost of it was, or how many months it was.”

She added three free facials in the offer, and then doubled the number of products, and Lampman eventually agreed.

“I had told her ‘no,’ over and over again, but she was badgering me that I needed it,” she said.

When she got home, she called her daughter, Kimberly Guelck, to come look at the products she had purchased. She also sent a text message to the salesperson thanking her.

But when Guelck arrived and saw the products, she had some concerns when her mother couldn’t answer certain questions about the purchase. Guelck asked to review the contract agreement and learned that she wasn’t provided one. Instead, it was sent to an email Lampman was asked for, one that hasn’t been active in 10 years.

“I just had a gut feeling that something was wrong. She didn’t even know how many years the contract was for, and she couldn’t answer how much it was for,” Guelck said.

Later that day, they packed up the products and returned to the store, where she learned there was a no refund policy — visible at the cash register — and the purchase had been financed through a third party, arranged in store. When she finally reviewed the contract, the financing was set at 24.7 per cent, turning a $3,300 purchase to about $6,000 over five years.

“My mom is a senior and her mind isn’t as sharp as it once was. When we got to the mall, she couldn’t even remember what store it was,” she said. “We passed it three times.”

After a series of back and forth, the operations manager eventually agreed to cancel the financial plan, but they would still be on the hook for the principal payment, about $3,000.

“They opened the products. Look, I can’t resell these products,” said Alex Minevich, the operations manager. “But I wanted to help Brenda, so I told them that I can void the interest charges, but they’ll need to do a one-time payment for the product.”

He said he has since dropped that down to $1,500, or about 50 per cent off, and they can keep the products.

“I am a reasonable person, I understand. I am willing to go to them and help them resolve the situation, but this has to be a solution that works for both sides.”

In Ontario, the Consumer Protection Act provides a cooling-off period for certain types of purchases, which gives a window for customers to cancel their purchase.

This includes home purchases, but also other areas like door-to-door sales.

However, purchases made in a store are not covered in this scenario, said Cynthia Iheanacho, a lawyer with Waterloo Region Community Legal Services.

“The truth is this is a business, and they are allowed to apply legal incentives to attract customers,” she said. “They are also able to issue a refund, which would stop this whole situation from getting to this point.”

Small claims court is a possible avenue, she said, which will require proof that if Lampman had more information, she wouldn’t have signed the agreement.

“My advice in these scenarios is always the same, get a second opinion whenever you are signing a contract,” she Iheanacho. “And if the sales people try to pressure you saying you need to sign now, that’s usually a good sign to have it reviewed.”

She said they can also make a report to Consumer Protection Ontario or the Better Business Bureau. The Waterloo store doesn’t have an account with the Better Business Bureau, but the Guelph location has an “F rating,” with two complaints about the store, and no response from company officials.

Lampman has since acquired a lawyer through the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and are hopeful the entire payment can be voided.

Last week, Guelck eventually posted a video on social media detailing the situation, gathering hundreds of comments, and several people reaching out to her with similar stories.

Minevich said some people showed up at their Waterloo store over the weekend, calling the workers “scammers,” and filming them.

He said two of his sales team quit after their weekend shifts.

In April, Sarah Thatcher returned to Guelph after the death of her father and was reviewing her mother’s finances when she came across a payment for $5,000.

Her mother has early onset dementia, and Thatcher is now her power of attorney. She doesn’t have an official dementia diagnosis, but doctors are actively tracking her progress, and she remains able to lead a mostly normal life. This was the first moment her daughter said she realized her mother may not always be making the best decisions.

After confronting her mother, she learned the purchase was for facials at the Resveralife store in Guelph’s Stone Road Mall.

When Thatcher’s daughter was at her grandmother’s a few days later, she discovered a box of products, including an anti-aging machine and three different skin care products from Resveralife, tucked behind her couch.

When Thatcher returned and took her mother to the bank, she began to see the full story of what happened.

“They maxed out her debit card, then they maxed out her credit card, and then the next day she returned with a cheque for $7,600,” she said. 

In total, her mother has spent about $16,000 at the store, including the major purchase for the NUNA LUX, an at-home anti-aging device that uses “808nm near-infrared light and 630nm red & infrared LEDs with micro-vibration and thermal energy to rejuvenate the skin, reduce the appearance of deep wrinkles, and support skin recovery.”

It is sold on their website for $20,250, but was sold to Thatcher’s mom on sale for $13,540, plus tax.

“If you met my mother, you would have no idea that she has dementia, she’s still mostly cognitively there,” said Thatcher. “But if you meet her five minutes later, she is probably not going to remember meeting you.”

Thatcher called the operations manager, also Minevich, and was told that her mom has been a customer since at least 2022, wanted the products, and purchased them.

He told The Record he had no way of knowing she had dementia, and without a doctor’s diagnosis, does not see any issue with the purchase.

“I told them then: prove it and she will get a refund,” he said. “This isn’t our business practice to take advantage of weak people and trying to sell them something.”

Since Thatcher first went public with the story in May, Minevich said the store has struggled, with sales dropping by 50 per cent.

Now, after the incident in Waterloo, he said he has instructed his sales team not to approach seniors.

“I don’t want to have the headache anymore,” he said. “It’s better to just not deal with this.”