Diet Clinic will soften L.A. Weight Loss blow
While Regina Wheeless knows she cannot give L.A. Weight Loss customers the money they lost, she has figured out a way to make the situation hurt less.
Wheeless, the owner of The Diet Clinic in Jacksonville, has decided to honor the contracts L.A. Weight Loss broke when they closed abruptly in July.
"I feel sorry for the people. I feel sorry for them losing so much money," Wheeless said. "I decided if they can bring me their paperwork, show me they're still supposed to be in the program, I will honor the contract."
Wheeless has received phone calls from five former L.A. Weight Loss customers, and has spoken with others in passing. Some of the customers are losing weight for health reasons, while others are shedding pounds in order to regain their confidence, she said.
"When you've got low esteem then someone takes a big chunk of money away from you, it's like double failure. They feel like 'Oh, I failed again,' but that's not true. They can succeed," Wheeless said.
While Wheeless can honor the program, she cannot help those customers get the supplements they already paid for.
"(The program is) usually the biggest expense. Then they'd have to use my supplements, which they'd paid for in advance (at L.A. Weight Loss) but they can't get," she said.
She does offer supplements similar to those at L.A. Weight Loss for $13 for a box of seven.
What customers will not have to worry about, she said, is being put in the same situation.
"I'm local, I'm not a chain, so they don't have to worry about losing any more money," Wheeless said.
AMANDA HICKEY
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