Lifestyle Lift: don’t get scammed

The Lifestyle face lift has been extensively hyped as a low downtime mini face lift delivering a lifted, tightened face and neck without the pain of a full face lift.

Launched in 2001 and heavily sold on just about every network news and shopping chanel throughout the US – Lifestyle facelift was marketed as “a minor one hour procedure with major results”.

My mother always told me – if it sounds too good to be true it usually is – and on this occasion in my opinion it seems she was right.

Over 100,000 people since 2001 bought into this unlikely fantasy and quite a few of them found out that the results were not at all what they were expecting. Of around 160 people currently commenting on one internet site 72% reported they did not think the Lifestyle Lift was worth it and many have horrifying stories to tell.

According to experts in plastic surgery techniques – the lifestyle face lift does not offer anything new or revolutionary despite the hype.

Most plastic surgeons offer minimally invasive or limited incisions face lifts to patients where appropriate. What Lifestyle Lift did was to take a procedure – apply a trademark to the name and then sell it on a “one size fits all” basis.

Offering the same cosmetic facial surgery to all – regardless of age, level of skin aging, facial structure or anything else – seems bound to end in tears.  It also seems to fly in the face of accepted good medical practice based as it should be on careful consultation and consideration of individual needs.

It’s not possible to say how many of the 100,000 or so people who have had the Lifestyle face lift are unhappy. What is clear is that blogs and forums have been awash with negative comment and critical stories from Lifestyle Lift customers.

When Lifestyle Lift started in 2001 – consumer forums and blogs were not a feature of the web. Unhappy consumers had nowhere to go to get their views heard.

The response of Lifestyle Lift to the negative criticism was revealing in itself. They tried to make the reality fit the marketing hype. Employees were sent emails ordering them to use their quiet working moments to pose as patients and post good reviews on forums and blogs where negative comment was appearing – a practice known as “astroturfing”

“Friday is going to be a slow day – I need you to devote the day to doing more postings on the web as a satisfied client.”Lifestyle lift internal email

Lifestyle Lift also put up fake websites apparently created by independent satisfied customers to describe positive experiences of the Lifestyle face lift. Blogs and forums on the sites were added with user comment created by Lifestyle Lift. When real members of the public put up their comment Lifestyle Lift altered any negative comment to give a favorable view.

How do we know all this for sure? – because in July 2009 after a lengthy investigation the New York Attorney General fined Lifestyle Lift $300,000 for their actions publishing full details of the scam for the record.

“(Lifestyle Lift’s) attempt to generate business by duping consumers was cynical, manipulative and illegal.” Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General New York

Forget for a moment that Lifestyle Lift was set up by a group of medical professionals supposedly bound by a higher code of ethical conduct.

Think about it just as a commercial deal and ask yourself – would I buy anything from a business that tries to dupe me?

Call me old fashioned but I don’t think I’d buy a used car from this lot – let alone trust them with a serious medical procedure.

After all – if the Lifestyle face lift is as good as the website says – why would they need to lie about the results?   And with all this evidence of bad practice – why on earth would you even consider having a Lifestyle face lift?