News

My wife paid in advance for a treatment package with an aesthetic clinic. Three-quarters of the way through the package, she could no longer make appointments with the clinic. The clinic made excuses such as renovations and staff getting Covid-19. Recently, the clinic stopped responding to calls and text messages, and we found that the clinic is closed. We made a police report against it. When we checked on social media, we found a handful of victims like us. Some had signed up with the clinic in September, and did not get to receive even their first treatment. This happens too often, with cases involving places like gyms and spas making the news regularly. Evidently, many business owners who plan to close their companies are still actively selling packages with no intention of delivering. The advice given by the police and the Consumers Association of Singapore is that these are commercial agreements between merchants and consumers. Therefore, consumers’ only recourse is to go to the Small Claims Tribunals or pursue other legal actions. This means that victims will have to spend time and more money to recover their losses. And there is a possibility that the company’s bank account would already have been emptied, leaving nothing for the consumers even if they win their cases. The current laws are inadequate for protecting customers who make advance payments and do not get what they paid for. It is high time that companies that collect payment in advance were required to put up a security deposit, or deposit the money into a project account, like property developers are required to do. And cases of companies collecting payment in advance and failing to deliver the products or services should be classified as scams.