ComplaintsforPremier Cosmetic Surgery & Medispa

• Initial Complaint

  08/16/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had a lipo surgery on May 4th 2023 with ************************ and paid $20K to remove fat in my abdomen and inner thighs. I'm now almost 4 months post op and the results are terrible, the before and after look pretty much the same! The doctor barely removed any fat from my core area as requested. I have contacted them several times to request a refund and sent pictures of my before and after. The doctor responded after 3weeks stating that I would need to wait 7 months and she will need to redo the surgery but I have to pay again for anesthesia. this seems like a complete scam and I have specifically stated in my emails that I will never redo my surgery at her practice! I do not trust to do anymore procedures with this doctor and have requested to get a refund. The doctor has been completely ignoring my requests. This is a scam, I paid over $20K and got horrible botched results and the doctor was very misleading on the outcomes stating that she will remove all the fat around my core and inner thighs. she also mentioned that she uses a less invasive tool and should be back to normal within 2-4weeks! this was all a lie and after 4 months i'm still in a lot of pain and my results pretty much look like my before picture. I wanted to state this on BBB to make others aware when researching this doctor. please see the before (top pictures) and after (below pictures)

  Business response

  09/22/2023

  These claims are completely false. Overall,7.3L of fat was removed from this patients abdomen, back, and legs, which is much more than other surgeons are able to achieve, and she lost 13 lbs which is consistent with the amount of fat removed. This patient has dramatic results as seen from her Before & After photos done in the office at 10 weeks that are always taken with the same distance, lighting, garments worn, and body positioning, so that the difference can be objectively assessed. While she posted the Before photo taken in the office, the After photos she sent to the BBB, as well as the photos she posted on Yelp and Real Self are her own and taken at a different angle & zoom. Interestingly, she is not sharing, and is refusing consent for us to publicly share the Before & After photos taken in the office which clearly show a huge difference. She states that there is no change in the back and inner thighs, but is not posting photos of these areas, and again, the office photos show a dramatic change. Additionally, on exam, there is no residual fat on the inner thighs, supporting that the liposuction was performed to completion, and not barely done as she claims.
  

  To address the other false claims she has made to the BBB, and on Yelp and Real Self:

  1) We would never state that liposuction (no matter what technique) is non-invasive as there is no way to remove fat (especially 7.3L) without getting instruments into the fat plane. This information is provided to all patients at the initial consultation. As our patients can confirm, we take a lot of time to go over an abundant amount of preop and postop information so that they know what to expect.
  
  2) As for pain after liposuction, the majority of our patients take either just Tylenol and some also take the prescribed pain medications for 1-3 days. Most are back to work within several days. For this patient to state that she is in a lot of pain after four months is questionable, especially considering that she never mentioned this at her appointments.
  
  3) She claimed that her incisions are much longer than a grain of rice as we discuss with our patients at the consultation. However, if she posted the office photos that show the incisions, one would be able to see that her incisions are, in fact, tiny, as expected.
  
  4) She claimed that we did not respond to her request for a refund. We did respond to her initial request by email on 8/10/23, which was 5 days prior to her posting her first negative review about us on Yelp, claiming that we hadnt responded.
  

  Overall, this patient has excellent results that could be viewed by others if only she would post her professionally taken photos where the difference can be objectively assessed.We agreed with her that her abdomen should be flatter, but at the time of her postop appointment (10 weeks), it is impossible to determine if there is actually residual fat in this area that could be removed, as there is still slight swelling and scar tissue present, which both resolve with time and self-massage.Furthermore, it is unfeasible to reoperate at that point in time to try to take more fat out as the swelling/scar tissue will make this surgically difficult and ultimately unsuccessful. The solution we offered was to wait 3 months (the time it takes for the scar tissue to soften) to reassess and perform an additional procedure at no cost to her, except for a small anesthesia fee. This fee would be quite minimal as the time of this procedure would be much less than her original procedure which took almost 5 hours. While infrequent in our practice, revision procedures are sometimes necessary in plastic surgery, and all of our patients (including her) sign consent forms prior to their procedure, acknowledging this fact. It is unfortunate that this patient is refusing to come for a postop appointment at this point, as her results will be even better, now that the swelling and scar tissue have resolved.
  

  We take pride in the excellent care and results we have provided to our patients for the past 14 years. We take our patients satisfaction very seriously, and we strive for excellence in all aspects of our practice at Premier Cosmetic Surgery. 

  Business response

  09/22/2023

  Hello,

  Attached are the Before & After photos taken in our office. The patient refused consenting to allow us to publicly post these, so I am sending them to you privately here. Also attached is the content of the email I sent to her on 8/10/23 responding to her request for a refund. A refund is unreasonable as 5 hours of surgery was performed, including the costs of the anesthesia, nursing, and surgeon fees, as well as supplies/medications, especially when she has overall excellent results. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this issue, as I am looking forward to a successful resolution.

  Sincerely,

  ************************, M.D.
  ************

  Customer response

  10/02/2023

  At this point the doctor has been extremely uncooperative and refusing to respond to my last email on 8/19/23 where I am requesting a refund. she mentions to BBB that a refund is unreasonable but It's also very unreasonable to expect a client to pay $20K for undelivered results. This is a breach of contract. I have already submitted my before and after pictures of the abdomen showing the results which look very similar to the before. out of the 20K paid the doctor charge over 14K just for the abdomen area and that's what I am requesting a refund for. That is not unreasonable given the poor results and not doing what I asked and paid for. Overall her customer service and results of ********************** have been terrible and do not recommend for anyone to do their surgery there. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩