Waterloo, Ont. senior off the hook for $6K skincare contract she claimed she was coerced into signing

A woman from Waterloo will not have to pay the $6,000 owing on her skincare contract, but not because the store has closed. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte explains.

A senior who said she was coerced into signing a $6,000 skincare contract no longer has to pay up, but not because the store, Resveralife, was evicted from Conestoga Mall in Waterloo, Ont.

Brenda Lampman, 73, is still taking it as a win.

“I got a response from LendCare,” read an email from a litigation lawyer at the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly. The centre connected with Lampman’s daughter after shared her story with CTV News. “They have closed the loan for your mother, which means she does not owe them any money.”

Lampman and her daughter, Kimmie Guelck, high-fived each other after re-reading that email to CTV News on Wednesday.

The news came just a couple of weeks ago, when Lampman was still getting her bi-weekly payment notices from Resveralife.

“I saw the name come up and I saw the text underneath – a reminder of the $45 that I owed,” Lampman said. “Now, I can walk in the mall without them looking at me or feeling guilty.”

It was also a relief knowing that Resveralife never got a penny from her after she claimed they used aggressive sales tactics to get her to unknowingly sign a contract in the first place.

“[The employee] looked at my neck and said, ‘I can get rid of that turkey neck,’” Lampman told CTV News after the incident.

Now, just weeks after she got out of the contract, Resveralife’s storefront in Conestoga Mall looks much different. The lights are off, the doors are locked, and an eviction notice has been posted on the doors.

The notice confirmed Resveralife’s lease was terminated on Nov. 8, and all inventory had to be removed by Nov. 23 due to “nonpayment of rent.”

But Guelck, who helped her mother get out of the contract and shared the situation on social media, received messages from other victims.

“Ten days ago, a woman’s mother with dementia also signed a new agreement with them,” Guelck said, referring to one recent message.

So, are other customers still required to pay up?

Multiple attempts were made by CTV News to get answers from Resveralife and the store’s manager. All messages went unanswered.

Brad Davis, a former associate professor of marketing at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., weighed in on the situation.

“As long as the company continues to exist, I think the financial obligations that customers have via contracts are still in place,” he said.

Resveralife still has several locations in southern Ontario. According to Davis, there is nothing stopping them from opening a shop nearby and signing up new customers.

“These people are embarrassed, or they don’t want confrontation, so they will continue to pay,” Davis suggested.

Lampman, however, won’t be one of them. She gets the last word – specifically for the employee who, she said, told her she had a turkey neck.

“Get better glasses.”