ComplaintsforErchonia Corporation

• Initial Complaint

  03/01/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I am a weight-loss physician in Wylie Texas. I own the clinic Vivify Wellness Center. I purchased the VERJU Laser device from Erchonia in the 2015. The price tag for the device was about $75,000.00 Unfortunately, this device worked for only 3 years and 1 month and broke down. I had the bulky equipment shipped to Melbourne Florida for repairs in 2019. The device was fixed and returned to me. Before I could provide a single service with the device it broke down again. It is cost prohibitive to be shipping this bulky and irregular shaped device. In November 2023, I reached out to the CEO of Erchonia Corporation, *** ***** ***** with a formal letter of complaint detailing my less than acceptable experience with their VERJU Laser equipment. He stated, he could help with the repairs and asked that I ship my device to their current location, Fountain Inn in South Carolina. I shipped the device in December 2023 and Erchonia repair dept. has been calling me to collect the cost of repair for $3,303.09 stating that I already got a discount of $930.00. I emailed *** ****** on January 3rd 2024 with a request to use the "Marketing Dollars" awarded to my business which is funds due to my Practice totaling $3272.96 to repair this device that has a recurring problem. I am asking to use my funds in his possession. I followed up again on February 16th 2024 but he has ignored my request. In a prior email he stated he would not respond to me. I took out a loan with interest to purchase this device in 2015, and have been paying on my loan without recouping on this business investment. Rather, he tells me to go and market my device. I cannot market a device that does not work. This very expensive equipment has been DEAD for more months than it has worked. I had referred fellow doctors to purchase this device as well and I have contacted them and their experience is just like mine. Having to incur cost to repair device and shipping bulky equipment to distant location for repairs.

  Business response

  03/12/2024

  This compliant is not valid or accurate.  The Doctor purchased the Verju Laser from Erchonia, and upon purchase was provided with not only the standard support that comes with a purchase (training, access to marketing materials, a website listing & open house assistance), she was give additional support because at the time we were located in close proximity to her (the device delivered to her to save shipping costs, assistance with a 2nd open house, and marketing materials provided by our company - all above & beyond normal support - ).

  After 3 years & 1 month of using the device (past the 2-year warranty period), basic service was needed.  This is not uncommon for a medical device that is being constantly used in a practice.  We received the machine, diagnosed it & sent these diagnoses to the Doctor.  She did not follow the recommended service plan suggested by our Service Department.  She then got the machine back and stated it did not work.  We informed her this was due to the fact that she did not follow the recommended service plan.

  Several years later the Doctor wrote to our Owner.  He promptly responded & informed her if she sent the Verju into the Service Department we would diagnose it, recommend a service plan, and discount the services needed to help her.  This was all completed in short order.  Now the device has been sitting at our facility for over a month, and the Doctor refuses to pay for the needed services (which have been discounted per our Owner) or respond to the Service Department's emails & phone calls.

  The Doctors has acted unprofessionally and asked us to break long standing company policies & procedures.  The Service Team, Sales Representatives, and the Owner have gone above & help her, and yet she is still never satisfied.  

  Customer response

  03/12/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this DOES NOT resolve my complaint. 

  Rather it's an attempt to malign my person and character.

  The VERJU laser device has an engineering defect which Erchonia Corporation had under seal as a well kept secret from all their client owners (or should I say victim) until now. My device did not get constant use as the responder wants to portray. Rather device was under used as doctors struggle to get clients to purchase the service which I now know was over hyped by Erchonia. If the device does not get turned on for 2 weeks it malfunctions, DIES. Imagine you travel for 2 weeks and your $65-75,000K automible no longer starts. Plain ridiculous!

  The doctors I referred to Erchonia who purchased same exact device had the exact same experience as I did. Equipment dies or malfunctions at the "click purchase feature". Erchonia ask you to ship device to distant location for repair. You are burdened with shipping and repair cost. Then RINSE AND REPEAT.

  This company has ZERO customer service. The Responder needed to have stated their name and designation.

  How did I act unprofessionally? I made a comment on facebook where people were asked to state the age of their device and use. Your CEO is very unprofessional not me. You have a CEO who declined to meet with me, refused to take my phone call, refused to address a written concern and finally has ignored my emails. What is more unprofessional than that.

  I suffered loss of use on a very expensive device for years. My device has been DEAD for more years than it has worked. Erchonia Laser device has been a major stress in my business. Who would like to purchase an automobile for $65-75,000K and write it off after 3 years because it is no longer under the manufacturers warranty?. Erchonia staff lied to me that the problem that occurred with my device was rare except it happened twice to the same device and to other doctors who have the VERJU also, and we all continue to suffer loss of use. I am paying on a bank loan with interest but Erchonia does not care because they got full payment upfront. Can Erchonia please tell the Bank that I no longer need to pay on the loan because the equipment is now out of warranty after 2 years and DEAD for 5 years. 

  Erchonia has been on a harrassment trail and now threatening to dispose of my laser device that cost so much and NEVER really worked. It is interesting that your company believes the device is due to be recycled because I didn't buy into a trade-in for your new device the Emerald laser and get myself deeper into debt. Let truth be told. The VERJU laser had an inherent engineering defect which was a well kept secret by Erchonia and they bullied doctors into shipping and repair of the device repeatedly until they launched the new Emerald laser. 

  Do not make generic statement that proper process of use was not followed. State the exact process which was not followed by me. Erchonia device requires one to purchase clicks to be able to use the device. The lifetime clicks sent to my device will prove that we were not able to use this device for business as intended. The last set of clicks were purchased in 2018/2019 which the device deleted from its memory and we never could use the clicks we paid for. If for any reason, one did not baby-sit the on-off button of this very expensive VERJU Laser device, IT DIES. But Erchonia want to blame the client for a bug in their engineering.
  
  I will attach additional emails from this business. My business suffer from LOSS OF USE due to no fault of ours. I continue to suffer from the harrassment from this company because I spoke up about my experience. A company with intergrity would have made an attempt to make it right but NOT Erchonia that used deceptive sale tactis and bogus promises to advance their sale.

  When I first reach out to your CEO, I wanted to have a conversation but he turned down every request. Tell me how that is representative of good customer service. The entire situation has denegerated to vindictiveness and threats daily. Erchonia and its staff are who lack professionalism.

  Regards,
  
  **** ******** ****

  Business response

  03/13/2024

  I will take the emotion out of our response, that the Doctor could not.  There are no lies, and there is nothing under seal by Erchonia.  We are a family owned & operated business, one of our founders is a retired Navy Veteran, and we have remained a privately owned company so we can offer the best products & customer service possible.  For 27 years we have continued to grow & expand, and have become the world-wide entity, that is been given the privileged to help people with safe, effective, pain free & noninvasive technologies.  This kind of growth & continued success does not happen by doing the things this Doctor is claiming.  As originally stated, we have gone above & beyond to help this Doctor, and even now we are ready to service the device (at a discounted rate), and the Doctor refuses to pay for this service, or return correspondence from the Service Department.

  Furthermore, if the device did not work & we were the company this Doctor claims us to be, why then would she have referred so many of her colleagues to us & told them to purchase the device?!  Also, recently a colleague that she referred to us, who has had great success with the device, just traded it in & upgraded to the newest version of the technology.  This Doctor's story simply does not add up.

  Once again, we would prefer to help this Doctor... All that needs to be done is to pay for a simple service on the device, and then it will be back up & running, helping people and generating a good ROI for the Doctor.  This could have been done years ago, and the device could have been in service continually, since the original purchase of it.  

  Customer response

  03/15/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. 
  
  Since you have decided to make false reference of my referrals, I will set the records straight now.
  I referred 2 doctors to your company prior to my device breaking down in November 2018. I can assure you that my 2 physician colleagues were referred before 2019 prior to me finding out that the VERJU laser was malfunction prone and breaks down if it was not turned on or used for a mere 2 weeks only. This engineering flaw has been covered up by Erchonia until now.
  Both of my Physician Colleagues have shipped their devices to Erchonia for repairs in the past due to it breaking down. You cannot dispute that.
  The doctor who traded in his device recently and picked up your newest device, did so because it had broken down and it was not working. I can assure you his device was faulty when Erchonia took it back in December 2023. He traded it in out of frustration, as he informed me in my recent conversation with him just less than a week ago and he had shipped and repaired it twice for the same exact reason as mine and never recouped on his investment either. I am unsure where you are getting the story of a happy client from. Erchonia called me to trade in my device last year as well, but I refused because I didn't want to worsen my debt by picking up another device that I do not know if it will live up to the hype like I had experienced with the VERJU device. I would be picking up a debt of another $100K+ when I had practically no return on my VERJU investment. Also, the fact that your company has little to no customer service was also a deterrent. The fact that you are family owned also means that the tendency to cover up failures is very high.
  Erchonia Responder is speaking without supporting their claims. Please show some proof of return on investment by these physicians. How much clicks were they purchasing on their VERJU device to show that the device is getting used and equating to ROI. One can have ROI only by using the device, right? You also speak in anonymity because you know that there is no validity to your statement.
  You claimed in previous response that my device was being used constantly. We know that Erchonia VERJU laser cannot be used without purchasing clicks. Please state for the records the last time clicks were added to my device. I want you to show proof by uploading the most recent click purchase receipt for my device on this platform. Failure to do so is proof that your statement is false.
  I can assure you that not a single one of the doctors that I referred to Erchonia can boost of a ROI. I am actually sad that I referred them to have such a negative financial exposure. If need be, they will corroborate this Erchonia Corporation's well-kept secret of the VERJU laser being malfunction prone. Erchonia blames the doctors that they are not marketing their device but the device is very unreliable and lacks dependability. I want the anonymous author of Erchonia response to come out and tell me that both *** ******* and *** ***** have never shipped their VERJU device for repairs from the date they purchased and I will be happy to notify them of your response. If you cannot make this proclamation then it is very clear that your current responses lack validity as well. Please take this challenge and prove me wrong.
  Doctors are very busy people so often times we choose to not pursue things which waste our time. It's time for truth to be told about the VERJU laser which you are trying to phase out to tuck away this secret. I am responsible for 2 doctors suffering a business loss and that is why I have chosen to speak up about this problem.
  The fact that Erchonia is family owned has nothing to do with the fact that the VERJU laser didn't live up to any of the promises your Reps portrayed and the cover up continues at this time until someone is willing to take things up. We need to be talking about solution to an expensive problem for your clients or victims and how your clients or victims can recoup on their business investment not telling tales. Yes, your company is growing but are your clients growing with your device or are you just stringing people out?
  Regards,
  
  **** ******** ****

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