Narconon Fresh Start

Review: We paid $33,000 dollar to Freshstart for my son's rehab. Freshstart was to keep him safe and get him better from his drug addiction. Freshstart not only let him leave their facility with all of his belongings and get into a vehicle that was outside waiting for him. On his way back to Sacramento where he lives he was involved in a car accident that almost took his life. He is now confined to a bed for the next six to nine months and after two major surgeries and a long struggle to also not only get his health back from drugs he now has to cope with his leg being broken. Freshstart has failed everything they said they would not allow him to do. Leave their facility, and allow him to leave with another person that was using drugs.Desired Settlement: We want our refund.

Business

Response:

I spoke to [redacted] on 9/5/14 to gather information from her on her request for a refund for her

son, [redacted] program fees and I let her know that although she signed an agreement regarding our no

refund policy but that I would see if we could make an exception in this case. [redacted] told me to call

her daughter, [redacted], as she had more information about the refund.

I spoke to [redacted] and she verified that her brother left the program early by having his

girlfriend pick him up in the middle of the night. I informed [redacted] that [redacted] and his girlfriend

planned his unauthorized exit from our program by deceptive means, which bypassed our ability to

properly address the situation. [redacted] left in violation of our rules and policies. I reminded [redacted] of

our no refund policy and that we would be happy to provide rehabilitation services to her brother. She

was more interested in a refund and agreed that she would be willing to have her mother inform the

Revdex.com that the matter was resolved to her satisfaction, if we were able to make an exception to our no

refund policy and settle the matter.

On Wednesday, Oct 1, 2014, I sent out an email outlining a refund offer. Later that evening, I received

an email from [redacted] acknowledging that her and her mother will accept our offer. We are

now drafting a confidential settlement agreement which will be signed by all parties. \

Your assistance with closing this Revdex.com complaint is very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Narconon Fresh Start

President

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

To whom it may concern:

I would like to thank all of the staff at Sunshine Summit Lodge.

They saved my sons life! There isn't a day that goes by that

I don't thank God for the help that he received there.

He is now happy and healthy again and I have my wonderful son back.

Review: I admitted my daughter to the Narconon program at Sunshine Summit Lodge with the understanding that she would go through a detox program under the care and observation of licensed therapists and physician supervision. I was also told this was a non-denominational program and that she would be taken to her church of choice on Sundays. After signing a contract and given brochures, I discovered that this program was tied to Scientology. When I asked this question of [redacted] and [redacted] at the facility and also [redacted] who was the intake counselor, I was assured there were no ties to the Church of Scientology. My daughter was told after she began the sauna treatments that she had her choice to attend Sunday services at a Catholic Church or Scientology Church. They did not offer to take her to a Christian Church. They misrepresented the program and the fact that the counselors were all recovered or recovering addicts who had no formal training in Rehab or counselling. I chose to remove my daughter from the facility after 10 days there and was told that if I contacted their customer service number that they would be able to assist me in getting a refund. I have tried to no avail to reach them and also [redacted]. They do not return calls. I gave them $31,000. up front in good faith and have been scammed out of that money through fraudulent statements and misrepresentation. I understand that there are numerous suits against this facility and program. They also did not disclose that high toxic doses of niacin, potassium and other medications were dispensed to the patients (known as students), and that they would be required to sit in the sauna for 5-6 hours a day to sweat the toxins from their body. She was not given her blood pressure medication in a timely manner and felt dizzy and had rapid heart rate. Due to her medical symptoms from irregular administration of her blood pressure medicines, she was not cleared for sauna therapy but taken into a nearby town to see a physician or to a clinic for "blood work and tb tests" of which no one knew the results of. After pressuring [redacted] for several days I was told the TB test was "ok". I feel that this was totally misrepresented and that I was cheated out of my money by them taking advantage of a highly stressful and frightening situation. I was told if I didn't check her in immediately that she could die. They engaged me in conversation after conversation about the program and it always wound back up to money and how I could pay for it with post-dated checks until I was able to transfer money from my retirement fund. In the contract that I had to sign in order to admit my daughter there was a no refund clause but I was told by a counselor that if she left before beginning sauna therapy that a refund would be arranged.Desired Settlement: I want a refund of my $31,000. I am willing to pay a reasonable amount for the 10 days she was in their facility. I want the refund check to be either a cashiers check or cash.

Business

Response:

We received the request for a refund from the consumer on 5/30/14. We are in the process of addressing her request and will be in contact with her to resolve the matter. Any questions regarding the process for addressing the consumer's request should be directed to [redacted]