ATLANTA — A new agreement means that thousands of Smile Direct Club customers are eligible for refunds after the company suddenly shut down a year ago.
Many were required to still pay for services they never received.
Lakeysha Rawlings turned to Smile Direct Club last year.
“It was really three small little teeth. If you saw pictures from before you’d be like what did you fix but for me, it was something I wanted to do,” Rawlings said.
She told Channel 2’s Candace McCowan that she was determined to find a way to fix the imperfections in her smile.
“The price wasn’t expensive. It was $2,600. It was $79.98 with the monthly payments,” Rawlings said.
But like many customers, she was dismayed to find last December Smile Direct Club shut down.
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“The website was gone and then we got an email afterward saying they were no longer in business,” Rawlings said.
There are many Smile Direct Club customers, when the company shut down they were required to still pay even for services that were no longer available.
But now there is some relief.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced an agreement with the company’s lenders to give $4.8 million back to customers -- some who’ve been continuously paying over the past year.
“It was frustrating when I kept seeing them trying to take the money out of my account because I was like you got to be kidding me, you don’t even exist anymore,” Rawlings said.
The refunds and compensation will go to those who entered payment plans, and never started services or never completed them.
For Rawlings, she said she’s now having to turn elsewhere to get what she needs and she’s warning others to learn from her and go through an orthodontist, so you don’t end up like her.
“If they could just stop hitting people’s credit that’s going to be the biggest thing,” Rawlings said.
For more information on the settlement, CLICK HERE.
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