Debbie Thomas said she started going to Rock 'N Bronze Spray Tan in Rosedale earlier this year.
"The prices were reasonable and so I decided to go and give them a try," said Thomas.
She said she went a handful of times and never had a bad experience. She even decided to refer the salon to a friend. She said she liked it so much, she decided to pre-purchase future tanning sessions.
"I noticed they were offering a packaged deal where if I did three tans it would be a packaged deal for a reasonable price, so I decided to purchase this packaged deal," said Thomas.
She bought that package at the end of July. A week and a half ago Thomas decided to schedule another appointment so she said she called the salon and left several messages, which went unreturned.
Thomas decided to go to the salon and schedule an appointment in person.
"The doors were locked, it didn't seem like there was anybody there or any activity going on inside of the salon," said Thomas.
The shops that surround the tanning salon told 23ABC off camera that they also hadn't seen the salon open in a couple weeks.
The package Thomas bought has to be used within 60 days, but with no way to schedule an appointment she's worried she's going to lose out on the money she spent.
"I'm a little concerned, what happened? When are we going to see our money coming back to us? Are we out of this money and just out of luck?" said Thomas.
23ABC investigated and talked to the business owner. She said she was out of town and declined a phone interview, but sent 23ABC this statement:
"I spoke to Debbie Thomas and she understands the situation completely. She'll be receiving a refund this week and/or services if she'd like. Spray tan appts. are done by appt only so I was unable to book any appts for 10 days (open 5 days a week) due to my dr. appts out of town (personal). As for the future of the business, I'll be making a decision on that shortly and if necessary a refund will be given to the possible 2 clients that have a spray tan credit pending from months ago as we do not sell packages and we are not a membership based business so there aren't numerous refunds to be given, just that to a friend and a client aside from Debbie.
Thank you for your time and attention to my rebuttal on this matter."
Thomas said she's calling this a learning experience.
"From now on, I will not pre-buy something. I won't give my money in advance. I think lesson learned here. I'll kind of be cautious on what I do in the future," said Thomas.
