Stunningly unprofessional operation. On all four of my visits including a botox revision (because they didn't listen to me the first time), they kept me waiting up to an hour past my appointment time.
Yesterday my appointment was at 4:15pm, and they told us to come early to fill in forms, despite knowing they always run very late. Naively imagining they'd solved their scheduling issue I arrived early, so by the time I was seen 40 minutes past my appointment time, I'd been there almost an hour. My treatment took 35 minutes, so I left 90 minutes after I arrived. I waited so long that by the time I was injected, the numbing cream they’d put on 25 minutes after my appointment time had worn off.
During my wait I overheard staff saying models are booked in for 15-minute slots. This is nowhere near enough: mine took 35. They do this to avoid redundancies on their end, no matter the inconvenience it causes participants. It's an abuse of our time. When I told one of the staff this, a young man who described himself unprompted as 'one of the most senior trainers here' (he looked 25), he refused to take the feedback in good faith and actually argued with me in front of the students (their real clients) calling it "an overstatement" to say the excessive wait was an abuse of my time. Buddy: don't argue with the experience of the people underwriting your business model. At no point did he apologise, instead saying their trainings routinely run overtime (I know! Book longer slots! Call models ahead of time to say you’re running late!)
He then snidely mumbled that a training setting wasn't right for me, which I made him repeat aloud. I've been a model at many aesthetic trainings, and it's actually not common to show such gross disregard. One clinic has never kept me waiting once. Imagine refusing to take valid feedback and instead doubling down on disrespect by saying, 'you're in the wrong place, pay more if you don’t want to be treated like crap, long waits are part of the deal’. They're not, but it's quite the self-own, and I agree Derma is the wrong place for me. To this man: you can either be a crass profiteer, over-scheduling at models' expense to protect your bottom line, OR you can be a baby who can't handle legitimate criticism, but you can't be both. Responding to a complaint about time with your medical credentials? Pathetic.
Derma treats models like stock instead of clients, apparently comfortable alienating us because they're confident in an infinite fresh supply. Without us the business model they profit from couldn't exist. We cover the cost of the products, and they even get to use our image in marketing, standing to profit from us in perpetuity, but they don’t have to take any responsibility for the treatment outcome. Nice little racket! No wonder dozens of trashy storefront outfits like this have sprung up.
Though they send models 10 nuisance reminder texts and emails, one of which demanded reply, they didn't think it necessary to respond to the email I'd sent two days earlier asking that students and staff wear face masks when I had to take mine off for treatment, because I'm recovering from a 3-week illness and can't afford to get sick again. Since no one replied I had to ask when I arrived, and was told it had been ‘noted’. During cold and flu season, everyone involved should be wearing masks when the models can’t. They're training people to inject professionally, and clients in their later careers won't want these students breathing onto their puncture wounds either.
Earlier this year I'd made the same request, because a relative was doing chemo and I couldn't afford to give her even a cold. I was told they ‘couldn't compel students to wear masks’. I said maybe not, but you can ask. No one did, because I had to explain to training staff from scratch when I got there. A terrible impression, and they've never made a better one since.
Everything about Derma Medical is grubby, trashy, amateurish and grim. London has no shortage of better training facilities. I truly hope these people go out business. Zero stars.
