My cousin wanted her bridesmaid's to be somewhat tanned for her wedding. My fair skin does not tan easily, I mainly turn red. That is why I wanted to try the spray on Mystic tan. I went to "At the Beach Tanning" after seeing their advertisements to give it a try. I was promised that it would work and it would need very little upkeep, just come in once a week and get in the spray booth. I repeatedly told the receptionist that I was not interested in tanning with bulbs because I just burn and turn back to pale white and she assured me that the mystic tan would not require any actual tanning beds.
She told me how much the contract was going to be per month and then filled out the form and told me to sign it. I fully admit my own adult culpability for not reading it fully, but the actual contract is in tiny print and they tell you that if you leave the store and do not take the offer at that moment, the price per month was going to go up considerably. So i signed the contract because I did not have the time or a magnifying glass to sit and read the fine print.
Mystic Tans do not develop immediately. It takes several hours for your skin to reach the final darkness. Several hours later after I had gotten home I noticed that my skin looked like it was leopard printed. My neck and chest looked horrible and the rest of me didn't look much better. I went back to the store and they told me that some fair skinned people need to tan first to make it work "to open their pores". So the same people who had assured me that I would not have to bake under a tanning bed to get it to work, were now telling me that did indeed have to bake in a tanning bed to get it to work. Despite my reluctance they put me in a tanning bed for 5 minutes, and then i went and did the mystic again.
Later that night, once again i looked like a leopard.in the following days, they had me use body scrubs, tanning lotions, lotions with bronzer's, and more baking in tanning beds. Nothing worked. I still came out looking like a wild animal. At this point It was getting very close to my cousins wedding and I had given it a few weeks of going back and forth and trying everything that they told me to do. Nothing ever worked.
I asked to be let out of my contract because it was obvious at that point that the reason that I was using their services were not going to work. They informed me that I could not get out of the contract. I called their corporate office and they told me that i was basically out of luck. I asked them how they felt about the laws protecting consumers from false advertising, because all of their adds and their staff repeatedly say that Mystic is sunless tanning that does not require any baking in tanning beds and that It does not work on my skin. She informed me that they were not restricted by these false advertising laws because the contract is set up technically as a financial loan.
I was shocked and disgusted that I had never once been informed that I was in any way entering into a financial loan agreement. I also think it is ridiculous because I have received no money or services in advance, and I was under the impression that a loan involved getting some tangible item or service in advance that you had to pay back.
Now I had to expand my tanning package to include the baking type tanning beds to make the service useful in the slightest and that added on to my contract. So despite being promised repeatedly that it would be a simple in and out process, I have to buy additional lotions and actually tan under lights. So much for sunless tanning. The expanded contract is for 3 years, I am 2 years into it at the moment, and can't wait to get out. I haven't actually tanned in almost a year because it is such a hassle. At one point the male receptionist was so busy talking that he didn't set my timer to the time i requested and I got badly burned, all it took was 7 minutes in the bed for me to be roasted.
They lied to my face about their services, they used false advertising, and they omitted their lack of cancellation policy and financial loan policy when i asked them to explain what I was signing up for. I would feel ashamed If i worked there knowing that I was signing people up to a binding contract without telling them the whole truth of the situation.
0 comments