Add The California Post on Google A developmentally disabled man is accusing a Southern California skincare store of using aggressive sales tactics to pressure him into spending more than $40,000 during a visit and tipping employees more than $10,000.
Victor Chisolm, 30, told his lawyer, Fred Voigtmann, that he recently visited a Bee & Co. skincare store at the Westfield Topanga Mall, where a salesperson convinced him to spend his savings on products and services, according to CBS News. Store receipts show Chisolm spent $41,747 in several transactions.
The purchases included skincare products and a red-light device, according to Voigtmann.
Chisolm also received a facial and was pressured into sending two female employees $10,120 in “tips” through Cash App, CBS reported.
The money had come from a settlement Chisolm received after he was hit by a car.
“From my understanding, he was taken into a back room in the store, closed off from the rest of the main shopping area and coerced, berated into buying products,” Voigtmann told CBS.
Chisolm told CBS that he didn’t want to spend that much money at the store.
Chisolm also tried to get a refund but was denied, Voigtmann told CBS. His receipt was stamped “NO REFUNDS.”
“He ultimately gave up his debit card to just, you know, be able to get out of the store,” Voigtmann argued in a letter to Bee & Co. “He wasn’t even aware of the amounts he was being charged, what he was being charged for. It was just simply to get out of there.”
Voigtmann said certain store policies should be unenforceable under California law under some circumstances.
Chisolm isn’t the only person who has apparently faced Bee & Co.’s sales tactics.
Consumers have also complained directly to the Better Business Bureau, saying that once inside the store, they faced high-pressure sales pitches and were coerced into purchasing expensive skincare packages.
“I felt like I was in a car dealership,” one customer wrote on the Better Business Bureau’s website after being offered a $20,000 package and repeatedly having to decline.
Another person who commented about the store urged potential customers to stay away and said an 80-year-old woman was also scammed into spending thousands of dollars.
CBS also found that Bee & Co. employees initially quoted one of the station’s reporters $1,200 for an eye cream before making a lower offer.
The TV station also found that the skincare store’s salespeople repeatedly approached shoppers outside their stores.
Bee & Co.’s parent company is Mazal Group, according to the Better Business Bureau.
Steve McFarland, CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, told CBS that Mazal Group informed the organization it would not respond to consumer complaints.
“Mazal is not an accredited business or a member of the Better Business Bureau. Never have been,” McFarland said.
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