Profil von ravtek

Herbal Inn in Blackpool is a high pressure selling shop, the lady called Lisa there conviently forgets to speak good English when it is convient for the business and her commission.
I found this comment on another forum about a similar business which is rip off too and I’ve pasted it here as my brother in law has been ripped off by them recently. There refund policy takes away your statutory rights.

Here is the info I found from a previous employee. (TCM = Traditional Chinese Medicine)

I’ve received this letter from my former TCM-teacher who lives in UK.
She sent it to the people she knows they are in the TCM.
I don’t know how mucht this is true. I hope that people who lives in UK can tell us more about this.

-----------
Dear Sir:

We’ve been working for Dr.& Herbs (a chain shop of Chinese medicine, there are about 100 branches in the UK) for two years now. We’ve have been sick of what we have been doing. SHOCKING! It is really shocking! We wanted to escape from the HELL where they damage the reputation of Chinese medicine as well as public health. IT IS A SCANDAL! We are forced to reach a target such as £3000.00 a day, otherwise we will be paid very little. Some good days our turnover can be as much as £7000.00 a day, in a bad day we can still make £2000.00-£3000.00.Can you image that this is impossible for us to make that much money if we charge each patient £30.00?(we have to have 100- 200 patients a day to make £3000.00-£6000.00. Must be joking!) How we have done that? It is so simple! We have been told and forced to take as much money as possible from every customer. You would not believe it. It is very normal for us to charge a patient three hundred pounds or more at the first visit, they have to pay up-front. For a very mild problem for example a muscular strain which can be cured by one or two acupuncture sessions but we( our poor sales women who are standing outside our shop and BEGGING the people passing by, they are so nice and patient to them so that they would come into our shop, as soon as they come into our shop the sales woman would try all skills they have been taught such as threatening the patient: the condition would get much worse even you will die if you don’t have it treated now. etc.) would push /force them to have TEN or TWENTY treatments , our normal method is: if you have ten or twenty sessions and pay up-front you will get one or two session free. It is not easy to persuade every single customer who comes into our shop to take our offer however we do believe that there always are some ‘silly’ ones who would take our ‘advices’. Most of them do not come back for second, third or further treatments which had been paid because they realised that we are not professional and we had ripped them off when they went home to tell their husbands or wives what had happened at our shop. Most of them would not come back to get their money back even they did not want to continue their sessions because they knew it would be very difficult for them to have their money back and they did not want to loss their face in front other people( if they came back to say they did not want to curry on their treatments and want to have their rest of money back, we will give them lots lots of hassle or push them to buy many other herbal products instead), so often they paid three or four hundred pounds end up they only had one or two sessions and left us all rest of the money they had paid that means it cost them £250.00 --- £400.00 each session. Yes! We ripped them off. We know that we are not ethical at all but we have to say that is our job as we are employed by our boss and we have been forced to do so! Without this issue, no one would know the huge risk for the public health from what we are doing in every shopping centre in all Britain !

The biggest single deal we have done was £1350.00(that was paid by credit card.). She was a porch lady patient who suffered from digestion problem. We gave her 90 days herb medicine supply and six other different herbal products which were not necessary at all (actually five of them would make her condition worse so she could come to get some other medicines for them . We did not want to do that but we were told to do it otherwise we can only get £20.00 a day instead of £50.00 a day). As soon as we catch a BIG ‘FISH’ (over £300.00from a single patient at the first visit we call it Big Fish) we would phone the head office to report the ‘achievement’. The man in the head office would prise us: ’Well done! Carry on doing it , the bigger fish you catch the better!’ When the patients returned for the following treatments which they had paid, they surpose not need to pay the treatment, but we would do our ‘best’ to sell them these and that and end up to pay another fifty or sixty pounds. Most of them would not come to our shop to get their money back as they were very unhappy. If they came back to want their money back we would give them lots of hassle as we were told not to give them money back too easily and we would push them to buy herbal products to balance the amount they had paid. They complained us often we often agued sometimes they called police.

We are employed by the company called Tian Tian(Dr.& Herbs) but they charged us £6000.00-- £8000.00 for the visa (work permit) before we come to Britain. They have agents in China. They advertise in Newspaper in China. Then every Chinese doctor who wants to come to Britain to work for the company, they have to pay the amount mentioned above. They also help many Chinese students whose visas running out, to get work permits( most of the students just wanted to use this as a bridge, once they got the visas they leave the work), the company charge £3000.00 each.

We often to give patients unnecessary medicine which can cause other problems such liver or kidney problems.

• We cheat people.
• We rip people off.
• We always force every single customer to have ten or twenty sessions and pay up-front. The question is how we can tell if the patient needs ten or twenty sessions. Even for some one might only need one or two sessions we would force him/her to have ten or twenty sessions.
• We do not tell patients how much it is going to cost before they pay. We know that they do not want to be embarrassed so we would just use calculator to add all together it could be four or five hundred pounds but they just take their credit card out of their pocket and pay it
• We give patients unnecessary herbal products( as many as five six different items) in order to make more money.
• We stand outside our shop like beggers to beg customers to come into our shops and we push and force them to have package-deal treatments and pay up-front.
• We are paid basic wages and we get commissions above the targets, the more we can take from the customers the more we are paid.
• We always use such good sales methord ‘ We can cure your problem. Do not worry.’ to patients.
• Most of our doctors can not speak English at all they have to use interpreters who do not have any medical including Chinese medicine knowledge at all. So when they translate what the doctors say they just make up what they can say in English, when they can’t understand what patients say they just make up what they can say in Chinese to the doctors.
• We are not professional. We are not ethical. Our equipments are dirty. Patients complained us we are filphy.
• In order to save time we do not weigh herbs( the weight of each packet of herb can be 60grames different ) that means some packets are much less than the right dosage and some are completely over dosage.
• We sell 999 Chinese STEROID creams over the counter to skin patients.

• We are not the only Chinese chain herbs shop in shopping centres or high streets.

• We feel guilty because we have done such un-ethical business for many many years now. Enough is enough!

• While acupuncture is getting more and more popular we would have more and more chance to cheat and rip people off, more and more people are facing more health damage. And Chinese medicine is receiving more and more bad reputation!!

• Please deter what they have been doing for many years in Britain and protect consumer’s rights and health as more and more naive people are facing risk.

• Please pass this messages to Watchdog, Trading Standard , newspapers, television, people you know if you are a professional practitioner who want to save the reputation of acupuncture /Chinese medicine and don’t want the public be ripped off and face health risks.

Thank you very much for your sincere help!!

Yours truly,
xxxxxxxx

---

End of the note I found, my advice is stay well away, if you need acupuncture and you have a NHS doctor you can ask them to refer you to approved course of treatment.

These Medicine shops kind of work in the same way, they are commission based and an appear to rip you off. My Brother has been ripped off by them, and when I found this extract below on the internet I only felt compelled to post it here.

I’ve spoke to the Herbal Inn in Blackpool, lady called “Lisa” very rude indeed after she’s taken your money - no time for you at all…

Read on about the business model….

I’ve received this letter from my former TCM-teacher who lives in UK.
She sent it to the people she knows they are in the TCM.
I don’t know how mucht this is true. I hope that people who lives in UK can tell us more about this.

-----------
Dear Sir:

We’ve been working for Dr.& Herbs (a chain shop of Chinese medicine, there are about 100 branches in the UK) for two years now. We’ve have been sick of what we have been doing. SHOCKING! It is really shocking! We wanted to escape from the HELL where they damage the reputation of Chinese medicine as well as public health. IT IS A SCANDAL! We are forced to reach a target such as £3000.00 a day, otherwise we will be paid very little. Some good days our turnover can be as much as £7000.00 a day, in a bad day we can still make £2000.00-£3000.00.Can you image that this is impossible for us to make that much money if we charge each patient £30.00?(we have to have 100- 200 patients a day to make £3000.00-£6000.00. Must be joking!) How we have done that? It is so simple! We have been told and forced to take as much money as possible from every customer. You would not believe it. It is very normal for us to charge a patient three hundred pounds or more at the first visit, they have to pay up-front. For a very mild problem for example a muscular strain which can be cured by one or two acupuncture sessions but we( our poor sales women who are standing outside our shop and BEGGING the people passing by, they are so nice and patient to them so that they would come into our shop, as soon as they come into our shop the sales woman would try all skills they have been taught such as threatening the patient: the condition would get much worse even you will die if you don’t have it treated now. etc.) would push /force them to have TEN or TWENTY treatments , our normal method is: if you have ten or twenty sessions and pay up-front you will get one or two session free. It is not easy to persuade every single customer who comes into our shop to take our offer however we do believe that there always are some ‘silly’ ones who would take our ‘advices’. Most of them do not come back for second, third or further treatments which had been paid because they realised that we are not professional and we had ripped them off when they went home to tell their husbands or wives what had happened at our shop. Most of them would not come back to get their money back even they did not want to continue their sessions because they knew it would be very difficult for them to have their money back and they did not want to loss their face in front other people( if they came back to say they did not want to curry on their treatments and want to have their rest of money back, we will give them lots lots of hassle or push them to buy many other herbal products instead), so often they paid three or four hundred pounds end up they only had one or two sessions and left us all rest of the money they had paid that means it cost them £250.00 --- £400.00 each session. Yes! We ripped them off. We know that we are not ethical at all but we have to say that is our job as we are employed by our boss and we have been forced to do so! Without this issue, no one would know the huge risk for the public health from what we are doing in every shopping centre in all Britain !

The biggest single deal we have done was £1350.00(that was paid by credit card.). She was a porch lady patient who suffered from digestion problem. We gave her 90 days herb medicine supply and six other different herbal products which were not necessary at all (actually five of them would make her condition worse so she could come to get some other medicines for them . We did not want to do that but we were told to do it otherwise we can only get £20.00 a day instead of £50.00 a day). As soon as we catch a BIG ‘FISH’ (over £300.00from a single patient at the first visit we call it Big Fish) we would phone the head office to report the ‘achievement’. The man in the head office would prise us: ’Well done! Carry on doing it , the bigger fish you catch the better!’ When the patients returned for the following treatments which they had paid, they surpose not need to pay the treatment, but we would do our ‘best’ to sell them these and that and end up to pay another fifty or sixty pounds. Most of them would not come to our shop to get their money back as they were very unhappy. If they came back to want their money back we would give them lots of hassle as we were told not to give them money back too easily and we would push them to buy herbal products to balance the amount they had paid. They complained us often we often agued sometimes they called police.

We are employed by the company called Tian Tian(Dr.& Herbs) but they charged us £6000.00-- £8000.00 for the visa (work permit) before we come to Britain. They have agents in China. They advertise in Newspaper in China. Then every Chinese doctor who wants to come to Britain to work for the company, they have to pay the amount mentioned above. They also help many Chinese students whose visas running out, to get work permits( most of the students just wanted to use this as a bridge, once they got the visas they leave the work), the company charge £3000.00 each.

We often to give patients unnecessary medicine which can cause other problems such liver or kidney problems.

• We cheat people.
• We rip people off.
• We always force every single customer to have ten or twenty sessions and pay up-front. The question is how we can tell if the patient needs ten or twenty sessions. Even for some one might only need one or two sessions we would force him/her to have ten or twenty sessions.
• We do not tell patients how much it is going to cost before they pay. We know that they do not want to be embarrassed so we would just use calculator to add all together it could be four or five hundred pounds but they just take their credit card out of their pocket and pay it
• We give patients unnecessary herbal products( as many as five six different items) in order to make more money.
• We stand outside our shop like beggers to beg customers to come into our shops and we push and force them to have package-deal treatments and pay up-front.
• We are paid basic wages and we get commissions above the targets, the more we can take from the customers the more we are paid.
• We always use such good sales methord ‘ We can cure your problem. Do not worry.’ to patients.
• Most of our doctors can not speak English at all they have to use interpreters who do not have any medical including Chinese medicine knowledge at all. So when they translate what the doctors say they just make up what they can say in English, when they can’t understand what patients say they just make up what they can say in Chinese to the doctors.
• We are not professional. We are not ethical. Our equipments are dirty. Patients complained us we are filphy.
• In order to save time we do not weigh herbs( the weight of each packet of herb can be 60grames different ) that means some packets are much less than the right dosage and some are completely over dosage.
• We sell 999 Chinese STEROID creams over the counter to skin patients.

• We are not the only Chinese chain herbs shop in shopping centres or high streets.

• We feel guilty because we have done such un-ethical business for many many years now. Enough is enough!

• While acupuncture is getting more and more popular we would have more and more chance to cheat and rip people off, more and more people are facing more health damage. And Chinese medicine is receiving more and more bad reputation!!

• Please deter what they have been doing for many years in Britain and protect consumer’s rights and health as more and more naive people are facing risk.

• Please pass this messages to Watchdog, Trading Standard , newspapers, television, people you know if you are a professional practitioner who want to save the reputation of acupuncture /Chinese medicine and don’t want the public be ripped off and face health risks.

Thank you very much for your sincere help!!

Yours truly,
Lao Zhang, XiaoLi