Former employees are without pay and clients are left with prepaid packages not refunded.
The abrupt closure of the La Jolla location of Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center on Fay Avenue means staff has not been paid and clients are not being refunded for prepaid packages, according to former employees.
Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center, a medical spa offering anti-aging treatments, closed Jan 28; the La Jolla office is one of seven California locations (22 nationwide) listed on its website.
Esthetician Olivia Borges, who had worked at BHRC for two years, was not working Jan 28 but said she received an email from her area manager telling her the La Jolla office was closing, effective immediately.
Another employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said she was in the office when the area manager came in and held a video call with BHRC corporate employees saying they were closing without warning. The employee was then given five minutes to clear out personal belongings and leave.
Two days later, Borges and other staff members received “a very generic email stating [we] can apply for unemployment and that they were unable to pay us at this time,” she said.
The usual paycheck for the two weeks prior should have been delivered Jan 31 but wasn’t, Borges said.
Borges has also been trying to reach patients, who have thousands of dollars on prepaid treatment packages with no word yet on refund.
An employee of the still-operating Los Angeles BHRC office told lajolla.ca the LA office is run by different owners and did not have owner information for the La Jolla office.
Other attempts to reach BHRC went unanswered.
“There was no warning,” said Chelsea Hengstebeck, a nurse injector provider at the La Jolla clinic since May. “There was no time to find alternative employment. … I don’t have a job to go to.”
Noting several prepaid packages were sold right up until the office closed, Hengstebeck is alarmed that there were no steps taken by the company to notify anyone of an impending closure.
BHRC continued “to collect money and then close the business out,” she said. “They’re thieves.”
© lajolla.ca
