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Several customers of an at-home orthodontic treatment are doing anything but smile after the company pulled out of New Zealand.
Fair Go has received multiple complaints about Smile Direct Club, with many customers unable to get hold of the company and fearing for their future dental care.
The US-based business set up shop here in New Zealand in 2019, offering an alternative to traditional braces. It had two stores in Auckland and Christchurch but the entire process could be completed at home – with no visits to an orthodontist or dentist.
Laurence Boyd signed up for a four month plan to straighten his teeth, which included getting a full set of clear aligners delivered to his door.
He says he’s gone from “a promise of four months of having straight teeth to now… 15 months. Plus another two months of another correction”.
As part of Smile Direct’s ‘Lifetime Guarantee’, customers can call up a health professional remotely to see if they need new aligners. Laurence ended up requesting two more sets after having further difficulties getting the braces to fit his teeth – and during that time, he suddenly couldn’t get through to customer service on the phone.
Smile Direct Club stopped operating in New Zealand and seven other countries in January this year to help it save money.
In a statement to Fair Go, Smile Direct Club said that its current customer service levels were “below the high expectations we have set for ourselves and our customers have come to expect”.
It says that staff numbers have been increased and the response time is now about three days.
However, now that the company has pulled out of New Zealand, parts of its ‘Lifetime Guarantee’ have been cut short.
“Club members who have completed treatment will no longer have the ability to request lifetime touch-ups after their current treatment has concluded.”
It says its claims that treatment takes as little as four to six months is based on the length of typical plans and that “all advertisements for this claim clearly note that ‘Individual results may vary’”.
Customers having difficulty getting in touch with Smile Direct Club can email: customercare@smiledirectclub.co.nz
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