The Institute of Hair Regrowth & Beauty (IHRB) was Sanctioned a second time by the Complaints Resolution Panel, due to 12 breaches, including misleading advertising.

The Complaints Resolution Panel released a 16-page Determination after finding IHRB in breach of 12 Sections of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code & Act. This is the second such finding. You can download the Determination here.

The Determination calls on IHRB to: withdraw its advertising; withdraw the representations; publish retractions in all its print vehicles; and display a retraction for 180 days on IHRB’s website.

Earlier this year, after a Police raid that gathered evidence for a six-month investigation by the Health Care Complaints Commission, IHRB was served a Permanent Prohibition Order for endangering the health and safety of its clients. In separate action, NSW Fair Trading successfully prosecuted IHRB’s Managing Director, Mr Sam Cohen, for lying to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT).

One of the complainants was Mr Jonar Nader who said, ‘IHRB lures customers to pay thousands of dollars for a hair regrowth treatment that I am convinced is nothing more than a scam. I launched a dedicated website (www.IHRB-Story.com) to expose IHRB and to support other victims who are often too embarrassed to admit to being scammed out of $10,000 and $15,000.

‘IHRB makes wild claims that it cannot verify, while using misleading and deceptive advertising that plays on people’s ignorance about hair-loss treatments. Its Managing Director, Mr Sam Cohen, was given every opportunity by the Complaints Resolution Panel to verify his many statements, yet he was unable to prove a single one. The alleged scam revolves around Mr Cohen’s claims that he uses his own secret formula comprising 13 natural extracts that allegedly have never failed to help every client to regrow their hair. Mr Cohen offers a money-back-guaranty that he cunningly voids before his clients leave his office. His contract is so deceptive that clients find it impossible to receive a refund without taking legal action. In my case, while using the IHRB treatment, I lost more hair than ever before, suffered rashes and bruises, and was refused a refund. The matter went to CTTT, where it took 383 days of legal battles that ended unjustly, due to Mr Cohen fabricating evidence and lying to the Tribunal; as I have witnessed him doing to other victims as well.’

Mr Nader was one of the victims who pursued Mr Cohen for medical malpractice and for misleading and deceptive conduct. Mr Nader added, ‘Sam Cohen’s practices are so diabolical, that I felt it my duty to report him. I spent two years trying to unravel his scheme — for which I received death threats.

‘Mr Cohen is quick to point to some of his clients whose hair did grow back. However, those clients were either illegally sold non-approved and dangerous medications, or were lucky that they responded well to readily-available medications such as Minoxidil and Finasteride. If someone is predisposed to a positive response to these medications, then why go to IHRB and pay thousands of dollars, when Minoxidil retails for $20 per bottle that lasts a month.’

Mr Nader said, ‘The problem is that Mr Cohen’s starting price is $4,900, plus on-going product purchases. For example, one topical solution that Sam Cohen sells at $900, retails elsewhere at $70. When asked how he justifies these exorbitant prices, Mr Cohen says that his solution contains his own secret extracts. These secret extracts do not exist. His own pharmacists have confirmed that the extracts were never used. After my two-year investigation, I am convinced that his unlawful ads simply reflect his unlawful business.

‘In 2008, IHRB was Sanctioned for similar breaches, but Mr Cohen ignored those Sanctions for 18 months. I now wonder how long it will be before he pulls his ads and publishes the retractions.’

I have a friend who berates anyone who so much as discards a usable piece of paper. Indeed, many of us try to be green. Yet, despite my personal efforts, I feel guilty when I am lumbered with the White and Yellow Pages because I feel responsible in some way. I do not want them, yet they come into my possession. Of course I recycle them, but that is a silly thing to say. No amount of recycling can undo the damage in terms of the wasted resources that were consumed in the production and distribution process.

The main photo above shows the left side of the foyer of a city apartment block. The photo below shows the right side. Hundreds of books that will remain orphaned. Is there no smarter way to handle this? Indeed there is, but in whose interest will it be? The publishers want to assure the advertisers that a certain amount of books are printed and distributed. It’s all about money. Yet, the official website of the publishers, being Sensis (a subsidiary of Telstra) says that the company is carbon neutral. This is another distracting statement. Here is what I think of when people tell me that their organisation is carbon-neutral: I think of someone killing the neighbourhood children, and absolving themselves of the crime by saying that they had paid 200 couples in china to have another child each. 200 kids slaughtered, and 200 kids born, that makes it Murder-Neutral!

The better way would be for everyone with a phone number to be called by an electronic system, with the following announcement: ‘Hello, this is an automated call from Telstra. We are about to print next year’s phone books. Would you like us to send a copy to your home address? Press one for yes, and 2 for no.’

Additionally, phone bills, along with a general awareness campaign, can provide a website where people can log-in and opt-in to receive a copy.

If this method were adopted, we might learn that half the number of books need to be printed. Oh and by the way, those who pressed ‘one’ to request a copy to be sent to their home, they should also be asked if they would prefer the books to be on CD-ROM versus in paper format. Think of the savings!

Sam Cohen of IHRB

If you have anything to do with Sam Cohen or IHRB, you need to read all about the trickery and deceit at a special site I constructed called www.IHRB-Story.com. This site explains the amazing misleading contract that is used to con people into handing over their money to buy silly products which are supposed to contain herbal ingredients that IHRB and Sam Cohen says are his magical formula. I have heard of people selling things that don’t work, but Sam Cohen’s hair regrowth treatment is empty. It does not contain the supposed Indian Curries. So if they are not in the bottle, how can we say that they do not work? Is the hole in the doughnut just as tasty as the rest of the doughnut? How can it be? In the absence of these Indian Curries, how can we still even discuss the treatment offered by the Institute of Hair Regrowth and Beauty? How can we even keep calling it a treatment? It is nothing. Nil, Ziltch. Non existent. So Sam Cohen and IHRB of Pitt Street will take thousands of dollars, all on the basis of a lie. Wow, that’s a few million-percent profit, on top of a scam. All pretty bad news. Read all about this rip off at www.IHRB-Story.com and let me know what you think.

If you know of any students studying contract law, they might find this amazing. You see, a contract is not just about words. One has to understand the beast behind the magic trick. When you know the environment that surrounds the contract, you will note that each word takes on a whole new meaning. You have to know how and why a contract is prepared, before you can effectively assess the merits of the words. The intent is more poisonous than the words alone. When combined, the contract by Sam Cohen and IHRB will sting you like a scorpion. Deadly.

Right under your nose, you will sign a lovely contract, thinking that you are in control. Sadly, down the track when you need to rely on the contract to assist you, it becomes apparent that it was all smoke and mirrors, at your expense.

Until we can find a sure-fire treatment to cure baldness, perhaps at the pre-birth genetic level, we will have to go with snake oil, charlatans, scammers, con artists, and liars, amidst a few good treatments that can work for some people, some of the time.

Sadly, my hair is thinning, so I thought to try out the treatments offered by Sam Cohen of IHRB (Institute of Hair Regrowth & Beauty). I regret ever having anything to do with IHRB and Sam Cohen. He promised a money back guarantee that was nothing more than a lie. Anyway, he did us all a favour by not refunding my money. It caused me to investigate his operation. After almost two years, I have collected enough data to expose this man and his company. If you have anything to do with hair loss or baldness, or if you have anything to do with Samuel/Sam Cohen or IHRB of 105 Pitt Street Sydney, you can read my dedicated blog at IHRB-Story.com.

Dear Mr Greene

May I please protest at the ways in which the M2 roadworks are impacting on the service that your company delivers.

I understand that roadworks are necessary. However, it seems to me that 90% of the time that I use the M2, there are roadworks in progress. This forces me to travel at 40 km per hour. Yet you still charge me full toll fees. This cannot be right. I spend thousands in tolls each year.

May I please ask you to review my e-tag charges and match this up to the dozens of times that these coincide with road closures and detours, and refund the tolls. The whole purpose of the M2 is to provide a benefit over Epping Road. Pray tell, what is the benefit of crawling at 40 km per hour? At one time, the detours were so confusing, I ended up in Windsor and had to double back and pay more tolls!

I believe that you ought to place an early sign to advise motorists of these roadworks, well before the entry point so that we can decide to use Epping Road instead. I urge you not to place an all encompassing sign on the M2, but one before the M2, on each and every day, so that we can make an informed decision. And please do not place a sign that says, ‘Roadworks from January to April’. This wide sweep will not work, because we motorists cannot remember every sign and every instruction. We need to be told of your roadworks prior to entering the M2 so that we can detour, rather than be trapped. It just is not fair. And it seems unethical to charge for a roadway that promises time-saving, when there are none!

Tonight 11 January 2010, I entered the M2 at Ryde, heading towards the Hills, and it was roadworks ALL THE WAY to the Pennant Hills exit, and all this time, there was only one truck to the side of the road. Why are you slowing us all down, charging hefty tolls, and making us crawl kilometre after kilometre, with the threats of RTA cameras. How excruciating.

I would appreciate your response. If you need additional information, I would welcome your call.

Mr Greene responded thus:

Dear Jonar,

Thank you for taking the time to write to us about your recent experience with travel delays during essential maintenance works on the Motorway. I can appreciate that roadworks can be frustrating and often require what seem to be extensive work zones, however it remains our absolute priority that we protect people undertaking essential works on the motorway.

The works schedules are advertised on the M2 website and are aimed to minimise traffic impacts during day time peak travel. For information about M2 road works to plan your travel ahead of time, please visit the Work Alert page on our website. If you would like to register for email alerts about upcoming works, please respond by return email.

We acknowledge your comments about additional signage to advise motorists about planned works that may cause delays and can confirm that we do use variable message signs to alert motorists of upcoming works. Ultimately the decision to use the motorway is then one for motorists themselves to make.

We are working hard to deliver improvements to our customers. You may be aware that on 13 October 2009 the NSW Government announced that it had reached an ‘In Principle’ Agreement on the scope and funding for a proposed upgrade of the M2 Motorway.

For further information about the Hills M2 Upgrade please visit www.hillsm2upgrade.com.au where you can also register for email updates about the project progress.

Regards,

I was completely dissatisfied with this reply. I could not believe that this was any response whatsoever. For this reason, I thought to check that this, indeed, was the official position of Transurban. So I sent a note to the CEO, Mr Chris Lynch. This was the response, from Mr Darren Moy, General Manager, NSW Assets:

Dear Mr Nader

Thank you for your recent letter to Chris Lynch regarding maintenance works on the M2. He has asked me to respond on his behalf.

Both Mr Lynch and myself concur with the advice you received from the Head of Hills M2 Motorway dated 14 January.

It is a core responsibility of motorway management to ensure essential maintenance works are undertaken in the interests of safe and efficient travel on M2 for all Motorists. Works programs are developed in such a way that minimises impact on the greatest number of motorists. This includes programming work outside peak hours and compressing work periods to reduce the overall number of days on which it occurs.

It is essential to ensure safe working sites are in place when this work is done, both for workers and passing motorists.

It is my understanding that on 11 January, maintenance was being carried out in the tunnel, which perhaps explains why you saw only one truck.

Hills M2 has responded comprehensively regarding signage and other means of maintenance works notification to motorists such as the website.

Ultimately use of the motorway is a matter of free choice. Transurban considers that the M2 does offer motorists time savings and value for money. The proposed widening of the motorway will further improve customer experience and I trust regular users will welcome this development.

Yours sincerely. Darren Moy. General Manager NSW Assets.

Here are my observations about this absurd response.

Transurban has refused to face the question. The company must tell its users about the roadworks, BEFORE a user enters the motorway. Mr Moy says that the use of the motorway ‘is a matter of choice’. NO! I am given no choice! I am lured onto the motorway, with a promise of a motorway, expecting a motorway, only to be then, later, after the entry, told that I have to slow down to 40 km per hour AND to prepare to stop. That is not a matter of choice, because once I am on the motorway, I am trapped. I cannot turn back. I cannot get off without paying the toll.

One simple sign, if it were erected just before the entry point, would enable motorists to decide to use the M2 or to use Epping Road. This argument would apply to each and every toll road in the country. One young engineer, Mr J Bennett, said that another option would be to have an audio message into which motorists could tune, via their car radio, so that they can know about the condition of the M2 (and all major roads) several kilometres before they have to make the decision about which road to use. The radio broadcast would be short, sharp, and constant, so that motorists can know what is going on.

Allow me to slow this down and respond to Mr Moy’s letter, line by line.

TRANSURBAN: Both Mr Lynch and myself concur with the advice you received from the Head of Hills M2 Motorway dated 14 January.

JONAR: This confirms that at least three senior people at Transurban have missed the point, and are refusing to answer the question, and are disregarding their duty to operate within the Values of their company.

TRANSURBAN: It is a core responsibility of motorway management to ensure essential maintenance works are undertaken in the interests of safe and efficient travel on M2 for all Motorists.

JONAR: The sentence above is as useless and as pointless as any statement can get. Why are they telling the bleeding obvious. Of course it is their responsibility to undertake maintenance. Did my letter protest about the maintenance? No. Did I say that they ought let the road degrade and stuff public safety? No. So this point might well have been something just as useless, along the lines of, ‘We at McDonald’s must ensure that our deep fryers are in working order, and are kept clean.’ What’s that’s got to do with anything?

TRANSURBAN: Works programs are developed in such a way that minimises impact on the greatest number of motorists.

JONAR: Was I urging you to schedule your work so as to inconvenience every user? Who in their right mind would not try to minimise the impact? Work has to be done. Of course maintenance must be undertaken — at the best possible time, taking into account a multitude of factors. I am not dictating when you should schedule your work. However, given that you have raised this point, has it occurred to you that a person with an excruciating toothache does not care how many other people do not have one? If you have to conduct a works program, and your only option is to either impact 30,000 people or 20,000 people, what benevolence are you boasting about to the 20,000 whom you have inconvenienced? I was merely suggesting that you fore-warn the 20,000 people so that they can make an informed decision. I was not asking you to cease work or to put your workers at risk. I was saying that the 20,000 drivers ought to be told that the long stretch of road is not what it seems to be. Drivers are told that they are about to enter a motorway. This word ‘motorway’ means something. It means a long uninterrupted road. So if your works schedule is going to contravene the meaning of the word ‘motorway’, tell people before you trap them and take their money, so that they can indeed have a ‘free choice’.

TRANSURBAN: This includes programming work outside peak hours and compressing work periods to reduce the overall number of days on which it occurs.

JONAR: I guess that only an emergency or catastrophe would necessitate work to be performed during peak hour. This photo from your website shows only too well the hideous nature of the M2. It would be unbearable to conduct work during busy periods. So why are you stating the obvious once again? Besides, I wonder how your company can promise a motorway, when, during peak hour, the M2 resembles a car park. How can you take money for a service that is not delivered to the ‘greatest number of motorists’, and then take money for a service that is again not delivered to the off-peak motorists who are forced to slow down and still pay for the privilege?

TRANSURBAN: It is essential to ensure safe working sites are in place when this work is done, both for workers and passing motorists.

JONAR: My letter to you did not hint at a desire to speed-up and injure people. Safety is paramount. I was not asking you to compromise on safety. I was saying that when your motorway is temporarily NOT a motorway, that you give me a sign. Of all the signs you and the RTA flash at me, how hard would it be to place one that ‘honestly’ states the ‘conditions ahead’. But you must do this before I am trapped inside a motorway that now is guilty of false advertising. It is dishonest to make an offer, and not provide the service. Please ask ten senior managers and ten junior staff to write 100 words on the meaning and application of ‘integrity’ within Transurban? If you all do not define it in the same way, who shall be the arbiter? If you ask me, and in essence you are asking everyone, because you are publicising your values for all to see (and why are you?), then I would say that integrity requires you to do what you know in your heart is the correct thing to do, even if this might mean that you miss out on a toll fare. You see, if you do not like to miss out on a fare, what makes you think that the customer is happy to miss out on the service? Where integrity is ignored, we had better know the definition of ‘theft’.

TRANSURBAN: Hills M2 has responded comprehensively regarding signage and other means of maintenance works notification to motorists such as the website.

JONAR: First, this is incorrect and does not address my question. You can have a million neon signs, and that’s up to you. I was asking for a sign that forewarns a customer that the motorway is temporarily not a motorway, and that the customer would be expected to STOP (which is hardly what a customer expects when entering a toll road). Your fancy Values pie speaks of ‘Corporate reputation’ and ‘relationships’ and ‘excellent’. What a load of noble words. What do they mean?

And now for the clanger: you all gloat about having a website. And you seem to exonerate yourselves by flicking aside my complaint, justifying your actions by saying that you post all your works programs on the web. Mr Greene had said, ‘The works schedules are advertised on the M2 website and are aimed to minimise traffic impacts during day time peak travel.’

Why are day-time users more important than night-time users? If there is this major difference, why don’t you reflect this discrimination in your tolls, and make it cheaper to travel when the service is obviously degraded for the night-time travellers?

Mr Greene then says, ‘For information about M2 road works to plan your travel ahead of time, please visit the Work Alert page on our website.’

Would I be right in assuming that this statement, had it been written twenty years ago, would have said, ‘To plan your travel ahead of time, please review the Notices section of the Sydney Morning Herald.’ You see, it might as well say that now. As a corporate-type driver from the Hills, you can believe that I can easily travel 200 km per day. We Hill-billies are not all farmers you know. My day does not constitute a train-track style of commuting from A to B. Rather, I move about, enjoying the wonders of dozens of major roads and dozens of smaller streets, all changing daily in their ebb and flow of traffic. And you expect me to log onto your website and plan my trip? This would be advisable to those about to climb Mt Kilimanjaro whose highland tracks are opened and closed seasonally.

The M2 is a major fixture. It is not like the road to Gundagai, or some arbitrary war zone bordering India and Pakistan. It is a major arterial. It is not the responsibility of the traveller to check the daily whims of every road. We live in a city. The M2 is a permanent motorway. The whole concept of road-signage addresses the otherwise impossible driving burden. If someone is merely going to the airport, isn’t it insane that a driver has to check the websites for Pennant Hills Road, then the M2, then the Lane Cove Tunnel, then the Harbour Tunnel, then the Eastern Distributor, and then maybe the City of Sydney and dozens of other roads (and back again). Please answer this question in accordance with your Values. By the way, the RTA requires all motorists to check the website to determine when their permeant warning of ‘School Zones’ apply. Now that is for another argument, at another time.

In any case, I did visit your website and noticed that your Road works alert has not changed in over one week. So do I go there every day like a bunny and read it carefully, in case some minor date did change? Is this like a game of spot the different? I know that you suggested that I subscribe to your email alerts, so now is a driver supposed to remember all this during 1000 km of travel, until an email arrives? And now we have to check our inboxes every day before we head off to work each day? What a lot of effort that is! Exhausting really. What’s wrong with one sign?

Incidentally, those who live in North Sydney are about the only people who might understand any a broadcast that says, ‘Heavy traffic South Bound’. Anyone else who has been twisting and turning for two hours can hardly know the time day, let alone the bearing to would the jolly that warns of delays east bound. Most people, and I am willing to bet on this for charity if you would care to take the wager, would not have a clue which way to point if you stand them in a street and ask them to indicate what is meant by westbound. This would require a compass, and I have never met anyone, outside of the Scouts, who has one. Furthermore, your website speaks of ‘Geotech and cut sampling’. Must a carry a packed lunch for day? What do you want me to do with that information? It makes as much sense as when the weather presenter tells us that the barometric pressure is 1024 and rising. Batten down the hatches!

WHEN TIME IS MONEY

I am not sure what your CEO earns. No doubt it’s no great secret for a public company boasting toll revenues in exccess of $770 million. Bellow we see a Transurban management report that shows one-off adjustments whereby a CEO transition is shown to have cost $16.1 million. The 2009 Annual Report outlines the current CEO’s remuneration and incentives exceeding $6 million. Good luck to him. I have no problems with this.



I point out the CEO’s income so that I can work out what his time is worth. This is so that we can plug in the figures into the Transurban calculator that acknowledges that our time is money. Transurban very well knows that people use a motorway and a tollway to save time, because time is valuable. This proves my point completely. We use the M2 so that we can get there sooner. We want to save time. The Hills M2 website shows this calculator as an example of why people ought to use the M2 — to save time. So my dear people, why do you want us to prepare to stop? If you know that we use the M2 to arrive at an advantge, for which we pay handsomely, then why would you still take our money when you do not deliver on this very promise?

TRANSURBAN: Ultimately use of the motorway is a matter of free choice. Transurban considers that the M2 does offer motorists time savings and value for money. The proposed widening of the motorway will further improve customer experience and I trust regular users will welcome this development.

JONAR: I wonder how many people know that this problem will only become worse as the widening program continues for two years! And I wonder how many people know that after this widening, the tolls will be jacked up! They will, dear reader, because the company has struck a deal with the NSW State Government. I shall write to the Premier to see if we can change the contract to rectify this stubborn negligence. Transurban wants to inconvenience drivers, take their money, slow them down, not deliver on the service, not warn anyone about the road-works, and then, at the end, raise the price! Well you can knock me down with a boom gate. And I say yet again, we have no choice to avoid your road-works, if you do not tell us about them in a reasonable way. Fudging the whole thing by saying that the details are on the web is an insult to your own intelligence. Why don’t you do the right thing? You take our money and you justify it on the basis that we are receiving value for money. You are making millions in profit. You are the people who find this great value for money. So just do the decent, ethical, honest, honourable thing.

Dear Transurban executives. Next time you touch your annual report or see your values statement, please ponder if these values are still valid? But in reviewing them, please be sure to do so with Honesty, Integrity, Humanity, and Accountability.