In a promotional video one of the owners of the laser hair and tattoo removal company Body Details shows followers how he got his tattoo removed at his Pembroke Pines location.
That office is now closed along with the company’s headquarters in Boca Raton, their location in Fort Lauderdale and the three other offices they operated in south and central Florida.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
WATCH HERE“How I found out what happened was my appointments kept getting canceled… so I said, well, let me call them and see, you know, see what's happening. And when I couldn't get through to the location that I usually go to, I called another location and I was trying, well, I tried to call them. I went to Google maps and it said that the location was closed,” says Sherri Ahern, one of Body Details’ clients.
Customers' biggest complaint? No warning.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
SIGN UP
Some say they showed up to their appointment to find the business closed. Not even a sign on the door.
Dozens took to social media pages like Reddit to complain about the closure.
The Florida attorney general's office told us they’ve “received 30 complaints regarding Body Details, LLC since January 2024” adding “these complaints are under active review by our Consumer Protection Division.”
Investigations
NBC 6 Investigates gets results
Among those who filed those complaints with the attorney general's office is Ahern, who says she paid $2,000 to get tattoos removed.
“It's really heartbreaking that they're still there even though I paid for them to be removed. And I was excited to, you know, to just have that part of me gone,” she says.
In a statement, Claudio Sorrentino and Bryan Ballejo, the owners of Body Details, told us the company "was suddenly shut down last Christmas after spending the prior five months in bankruptcy.”
Jesus Marcano says that’s terrible news for clients like him who took out external financing packages because Body Details offered them unlimited lifetime sessions.
“Whenever they say like, 'unlimited lifetime,' you must know that, you know, companies can like, do this bankruptcy thing now. So, there's actually no guarantees that you're going to get it,” Marcano says.
According to court records, Body Details was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy for months and that was converted to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Dec. 23 of last year.
Sean Cordero, a bankruptcy attorney who is not connected to the case, explains the difference.
“A chapter 11 bankruptcy is not to close the business. A chapter 11 bankruptcy is to reorganize. And what does that mean? That means that the court is going to look at all your statements. They're going to see all your creditors, and they're going to try to negotiate with each creditor,” Cordero says.
Cordero explains the company can keep operating during that reorganization period, but that all changes when it becomes a chapter 7 bankruptcy as the owners of Body Details explained in a statement.
"When the bankruptcy case was converted to liquidation, we were fired immediately, along with all other employees. We asked several times to be allowed to contact our customers… but the bankruptcy lawyers denied us, saying that we could no longer speak for the company,” Sorrentino and Ballejo said.
They added: “An independent investor group is now trying to buy the assets…out of bankruptcy, with the goal of reopening locations to continue treating customers.”
In the meantime, some clients like Marcano, who were still paying off loans for the laser hair and tattoo removal packages, have reached out to their lenders, with some success.
“They canceled the rest of my debt,” Marcano says.
