Allied Skin Institute

Becky is awesome she isn’t the problem. Problem is there are alway new faces never the same nurses. I have been a patient for awhile. I go in for tattoo removal. Some of the areas come out decent. My wrist does have a scar tho. Depending on what nurse is doing. They sometimes forget to put gauze over the area or ointment. I recently went in on monday for my laser treatment. The nurse decided to it on a higher setting (new nurse again). Seems they set it to whatever they feel, it was like that w wvery single nurse. Afterwards it was hurting so bad that i went back and got some ice for the area. The pain was so bad that i wanted to cry. Don’t get me wrong the nurse was nice but maybe they need to be trained better. I received 2^nd degree burn and was told it was normal to have blisters. I doubt that’s normal. I sent emails and pictures but they didnt seem to concern. I was in so much pain i couldnt walk or sit. I ended up seeing my PCP doctor just to be safe and i was given silver sulfadiazine. Wish they didnt keep changing stuff all the time. Im still in pain now n cant lay on my back to sleep n driving sucks. They need to put more efforts into patient care and the managers, doctors, etc needs to over see all the complaints. I know there was a bunch of complaints under the old name «Allied Skin institute». I dnt know if the problem maybe higher up since all the nurses keep quitting. Every few months there is a new face.

I’ve been here twice already — and was referred by a friend. I didn’t know what to expect when coming in here and have heard a lot of mixed reviews regarding this place. The staff was very friendly and helped me with my first appointment for my laser hair removal. I bought a package of 3 sessions and was told that I should do the numbing cream (which I recommend for the bikini area). I was in and out of my session within 45 minutes (included numbing time) and definitely would go back. I can tell a difference between the hair growth in the areas I got treated and would recommend coming back if you get the special/​package they have.

I originally started coming to Allied Skin Institute a few years ago after purchasing a Living Social deal for a hair removal package. While the facilities are nice, the service has been inconsistent bordering on unprofessional. I’ve been in the waiting area with one of the younger receptionists and witnessed her using the work phone to make personal calls. When a patient called in, she picked up and said «Can you please hold?» and continued on with her personal call.
Moving onto the doctors, I had so many attend to me that I’ve lost count. It seems the turnover rate may be pretty high here. They don’t explain what they are doing, and they all use different settings so that my treatments are not consistent. I don’t know if their equipment is a little older, but I’ve been to another hair removal clinic that was virtually pain free. I have a pretty high pain tolerance but the laser at Allied would actually hurt me enough that I came to dread my sessions.
I didn’t get the results that I wanted after the first time, and I was dumb enough to buy a second series of packages since they are always advertising their «specials.» I saw better results after the second series of treatments, but who wants to buy 2 series of treatments to see results when one package is already so costly? I got two different areas done here, and for the area that I only purchased a single package for, I am already seeing my original hair growth come back.
Not coming back here, found another place that is much better.

I was right! A business who truly cares about their customers and are 100% passion about their career will not go and change their business name to Silicon Valley Aesthetic. This is a typical business who charges upfront for services and walk away with it. Customers are left without a notice and lose all their money! Same workers, same owner, same services, just under a different name.

I don’t know why everybody’s tripping – this place is awesome!
Girls in the front and the nurses have always been nice to me and I’ve never had an issue scheduling my appointments. Then again I always kept my appointments and never had to reschedule on them. I would always arrive on time as well and never had to wait for more than ten minutes except for one time.
The treatments on my underarms have been wonderful and have drastically reduced hair and hair growth. I saw such great results that I bought nine sessions for another body part. And THAT area saw dramatic results even after one session!
These treatments have worked really well for my sisters too and I was able to persuade my best friend to buy them (initially skeptical because of the reviews on here) who was amazed at how well it worked for her. We’re Asian so maybe the light skin + dark hair combination works very well?
Yes, it will hurt (no pain, no gain I always say) but it’s bearable with numbing cream and popping some ibuprofen beforehand. Prices are AWESOME when they’ve got specials every once in a while… Even beats Groupon and Living Social deals I’ve seen.
I’ve spoken highly of this place before to my friends. Now I’m thinking of what to laser next!

I would give this place one star, but I had promised Becky that I would give it an extra star just for her. She started working there later and she has to endure everyone’s complaints that have to do nothing with her and she does her best to satisfy you as much as possible.
Now why the one star?
SEVERAL REASONS:
1. First appointment there they wanted to charge me MORE for buying two groupons… I’m sorry for giving you guys money, let me pay you more so u can forgive me? They decided not to do that since I had called FIVE times confirming if it is possible for me to do all my legs and bikini since I lived in Davis.
2. Alllllllll my appointments would get rescheduled or cancelled. ONE of my appointments got cancelled after they had me sit in their office for an hour. They say I was late and they can’t take me… Maybe cuz u had me sitting there for an hour?
3. SCARY: The nurses here are so bad and inconsiderate. I went in once and kept telling the nurse how hot the machine was. She would say «hmmm» and nothing else. I said it once every 3 minutes with no response. The next time I went in there was a note on the machine that said «careful! Machine gets hot»…gee thanks for not being careful when I TOLD YOU IT WAS HOT!
4. All the nurses quit. Good and bad ones. One bad one left me with scars for the longest time. The ONLY good nurse that left me with some results left. It was pointless after she was gone.
5. I had like 4 different nurses work on me. 3 out of 4 nurses complained about the place. RED FLAG!
6. VERYA INCONSIDERATE frond desk employees. I called them several hours before my appointment to tell them I wouldn’t make it because I was puking all last night and that day due to stomach flu. They threatened me with cancelling all future appointments and making me pay more because I was a groupon costumer… oh groupon costumers get treated VERY badly
So my appointment was rescheduled to Memorial Day weekend ONCE again. When they were making that appointment I specifically said «ARE U SURE??? ITS LONG WEEKEND»…they said yes and then called me a week before to reschedule cuz it was memorial weekend.
I was over it and I called groupon, groupon immediately refunded my money because they had received MANY complaints about this company. Stay away, there is no such thing as a Stanford doctor there, and they are expensive, rude and liars.

I am only giving one star for the ladies at the front that are always so nice and helpful.
Minus 4 for the laser hair REMOVAL that didn’t work. You see, after buying a livingsocial deal for 6 treatments over the course of a few months — the hair was never removed. Only once in the middle of the 6 treatments — maybe a week or two — was the hair not growing. (Got it for my underarms as did my other 2 sisters). I kept thinking, ok by the 6^th, for sure the hair will stop growing. On the 6^th treatment I told the technician I was still having normal hair growth and she said, well of course it’s not laser hair removal, it’s laser hair REDUCTION.
Ha! No it was ‘removal’ I paid for. Nor did I deal with the pain of a laser 6x and a fairly long and annoying drive (yes half an hour drive one way is pushing it for me).
So needless to say I am not happy with this salon overall as I think that they screwed my sisters and I over with a deal for nothing.

DO NOT COME HERE!!! such a waste of time and money! I came here for six sessions of laser hair removal and my hair is growing back as if I never went through treatment. I don’t have a ton of hair so I shouldn’t need more than the average number of sessions… Their beauticians are inconsistent and all used different intensities.
They also have issues with scheduling. Their availability is limited so you have to book way in advance but don’t be surprised if they call to cancel your appointment because of «broken machinery» or whatever bull. This happened to my friend a number of times too.
Don’t come here and put yourself through unnecessary pain and stress.

Since my previous review, I’ve gotten great service from this place so I want to retract alot of what I said.
The front desk ladies are very sweet and they never hesitate to call me to come in earlier for an appt when they have a cancellation. I completed my 6 sessions of laser hair removal. On the last session, they asked me whether I thought the treatments worked. I told them that i felt that the turnout wasn’t as great as expected because the appointments were too far apart. They were truly concerned and offer me a complimentary 7^th session. Kudos for customer service!
I do admit now, that 80% of my hair is completely gone. I’ve gone to a different laser hair removal clinic who has newer lasers which opened my eyes to what laser hair removal should feel like. it should feel like a quick rubberband snap to the skin; not an iron to the skin.
Allied seems to have older equipment that extremely hurts but it gets the job done. If Allied ever has another great Groupon or promo, I may consider coming back for hair removal on a less sensitive part of the body.

A zero star rating would be more appropriate. I was waiting for my last appointment to write a review, turns out they had me down for the wrong month and it’s $ 50 to reschedule — my point exactly. It’s taken almost A YEAR to complete my treatments based off their availability.
Unprofessional from scheduling a simple appointment to the aesthetician’s attention to detail and totally forget about being treated like a person and not a $…
LADIES (and MEN), PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND PAY A FEW BUCKS MORE SOMEWHERE ELSE.

I’m a little shocked to see so many bad reviews…
Like many others, I purchased a groupon for six bikini treatments back in March and now that my treatments are complete, I’m very satisfied with the results. So satisfied, I purchased another package for a different area (a lady’s got to keep some mystery, eh?!)
With that said, I’m happy with the prices I’ve paid (both were specials). I’m happy with the service I’ve received. I’ve had four different technicians work on me and don’t have a complaint about any of them.
I do agree that making appointments and rescheduling has been a hassle. But over the past few months, they’ve extended their hours and have tried to accommodate the extra business. So I’m not going to knock them for that. Here’s a tip: I’ve started scheduling my appointments in bunches, not just for the next appointment. And if you should have to reschedule, Godspeed. They will try to fit you in, but they’re busy– so I can’t be the only one who is happy with their service.

Decided to wait until after my procedures were done to rant about this place. On my first visit the receptionist was crazy rude. Not to mention she looked like she abused her employee discount one too many times, more of a disservice to the reputation of this company. The lady kept mispronouncing my name, LOTS of attitude and just didn’t seem like a friendly face for the front. The girls up front just gossiped the whole time I was waiting for my appointment, awkward.
For Tattoo Removal… I was told to come in a half hour prior to my appointment for numbing. Only to find out they charge extra and it doesn’t do much. So glad they told me that before I took the extra time off work, oh, wait, they didn’t. PLUS when I walked in a good 40 minutes early, the dim wits up front couldn’t figure out I had come for numbing so 15 minutes later it was too late to even get the numbing, nice one ladies.
Okay 2^nd visit, JUST as bad w/​the front desk ladies. I get there 5 minutes late, ended up waiting an HOUR to be seen! The actual laser removal only took 1minute, just wow. Also there was an issue because that same jerk who gave me grief about my name last time put my name in wrong so they didn’t have me listed, ugh.
The next few visits went fine, I GUESS. Still had a long wait every visit. Was even stuck in traffic getting there, called and the lady at the front desk said I «might as well turn around because the appointment will be missed». Seriously? Rude. I went anyway because after driving all the way out there I figured I might as well try to make the appointment. The lady at the front desk gave me attitude and while she was on her break the actual doctor treated me anyway. Thank heavens for her customer service!
I called the day of my last appointment to try to reschedule due to a canceled flight and inability to make the appointment. In most cases, extenuating circumstances allow the client to reschedule. The ‘manager’ said I would have to forfeit all future appointments if I cancelled this less that 24hrs ahead of time. For one thing, I had no idea 24hrs prior that my flight would be cancelled, and another, to cancel ALL future appointments due to a situation I can’t control seems unreasonable. As disappointed as I am, I said fine and am happy I will never see these jerks again.
In terms of my actual treatments, I went through ⁵⁄₆ tattoo removal appointments and saw very little improvement. My tattoo is small so I would have expected more. Either their doctors are under qualified or machinery is inadequate.
Don’t waste your money here. Even a groupon, NOT WORTH IT!

THAO, the ONLY good thing about this place, NO LONGER WORKS THERE.
Let me say that I rarely write reviews. I just don’t have the time. But this place is so bad I feel like I need to spend my time giving a public service announcement for this place. Man these sites really should let you at least give zero stars. this place really needs it.
My first experience with this business from hell, was getting a groupon for laser tattoo removal. I bought 3 of them, 3 sessions each, because it was a great deal and I had 3 small light tattoos I wanted to remove. They were going to refuse to honor the groupons because of some fine print that you can only buy one; the others could be friends.
WTF? Like I’m going to buy my friends tattoo removal groupons? After dealing with the witchy Anitra, finally I got my groupons honored. Every time I came in this place I waited anywhere from 30 – 90 minutes. Still, Thao, the technician who did the laser removal, was the one shining star here, and the fact that after kicking up a fuss they did honor my groupons.
So I decided to try botox with Thao; she did a great job so I came back. After she left I was told I could receive the same quality service with other technicians. They did the botox differently and it did nothing at all!
I was told that they would correct the issue by giving me more botox; was not told until afterward they were charging me to fix their lack of results! Most of the clerks there, and especially the manager Anitra, are terrible and rude! They refused to work with me on the price. I was livid!
I asked to speak to the owner and was told repeatedly I would receive a call but never heard back from them. Called several times and was told owner would call me, and people who answered the phone always said owner was not there. I have reported these folks to the BBB. something I haven’t done in 12 years. Be warned. please spare yourself. Lots of other places to go.
They have to sell tons of cheap groupons to stay in business their service and reviews are so bad. People get hooked into the cheap sell and continue to go there. Then get comfortable with a technician and don’t want to leave, despite the wait times, ridiculous overbooked schedules and rude customer service!

I purchased the Groupon deal for 6 laser hair removal treatments back in March.
Unfortunately, after 6 treatments I really have not seen much of a difference in the hair growth. I just had my last session recently and am not expecting much.
The service is pretty bad, and my experience has been similar to many of the unhappy Unilocalers.
1. It was extremely difficult to make an appointment.
2. The receptionist with a ton of makeup on was so fake and unappreciative of my business.
3. The wait time got longer and longer (5 to 15 to 20 to 30 mins…). I always arrive on time and I’m definitely understanding if I have to wait a bit, but the delays were just getting ridiculous. In July, I waited 30 minutes without an explanation. At the 20 minute mark I asked if I would be seen soon as my appointment was 20 minutes ago. The receptionist (see above) said that the technician was currently helping another customer… and that was it. No apology, no sympathizing whatsoever.
There are some good things about this place. The technicians are nice and they have free water and tea. That’s about it…

If I could I would give this salon zero or negative stars!
I bought a groupon for laser hair removal like many other reviewers. At my first appointment I arrived 5 mins before and waited another 30 mins to be seen.
I was having laser hair removal for my upper lip and the technician burned my lip! I ended up with a blister right away. The technician had the audacity to blame me for burning my lip! All I was given was some antibiotic cream for the burn. Now I have a wonderful scar on my lip :-/​Thanks Allied!

I had a living social laser hair removal coupon and previously had a hard time getting appointments to work with my busy schedule (working mom). But now they have a new admin — BECKY, who schedules apointments and takes care of front office etc. She is super nice, really does care about the customers and makes every effort to make you feel valued.
The spa is modern, glamourous and new. The laser equipment appears new as well and the services were painless.
I would have given the spa a 3 due to the limited appointment slots but Becky now earns the spa a 5.

Sigh. What can I say about Allied? I came here for laser hair removal and so I give it 1 star for seeing at least some progress, but that’s about all I can do.
Like so many others on Unilocal,I found this place through a Groupon. Little did I know that they – like so many others have mentioned – do so many promotions that they can’t fit everybody in. Trying to get an appointment here is nearly impossible because of all the deals they run.
I also just have to say that whoever runs this office is horrible with management. The entire office is so inefficiently run. First of all, the appointments never start on time. For some reason, they’re always running behind, and most of the time I’ve been here, they’ve seen people without appointments or people who showed up late to their appointments before me.
Secondly, the ratio of appointments to nurses to receptionists is completely disproportional. The last visit I had there was really the last straw. I showed up early to see if I could be seen more quickly – I was coming from work 45 mins away and needed to get back asap. The receptionists were nice, but there were three of them for some reason. THREE receptionists, 5 – 6 patients, and 2 nurses. And to top it off, one of the nurses left for her lunch break in the middle of all this, even though they were already backed up! I get that you need to eat lunch, but if your nurses are going to be out, don’t schedule people during that time. So 3 receptionists, 5 – 6 patients, and 1 nurse. ??? Wait time was 40 minutes.
On one occasion, Allied canceled one of my appointments the DAY BEFORE because they were getting a laser replaced and it hadn’t come in yet. I asked them since when it had been out, and they said since 4 days ago. If you know your laser is not going to be available, maybe you can try to give your patients a better head’s up? I don’t have a car and need to rent one to get down there on days I have appointments. I had already rented my car for that day, so that was more wasted money.
In terms of laser quality, I definitely see a reduction, but not nearly as much as I would have expected. I’m going to another med spa in SF for laser hair removal and have only been there twice – I’m already seeing more of a reduction than I have at Allied. Perhaps it’s different for different areas of the body, but they do use a different type of laser and it seems to be more effective.
I still had one more appointment, but after my last visit, I’ve just canceled it. I just really don’t want to think about dealing with the stress of this place anymore. Between the distance, appointment messes, late start times and inefficient operations, it’s just not worth it. Maybe if you live in SJ and have nothing to do all day, it might be worth it to come here, as a majority of your time here would just be spent waiting.

Of over 300 reviews I’ve written, I have only given nine 1-​star reviews and unfortunately, Allied is definitely one of them. There’s something to say about a business that gets continually declining reviews from me from 5 stars, to 3 stars to 1 star. That speaks volumes in itself and you can read my reviews to see why.
Overall, the service is terrible. I thought maybe I was just being too picky at first, comparing Allied to more superior medspas I’ve been to, but after reading other reviews with people having similar issues with the staff, I know it’s not just me. I’ve left messages that were never returned, spoke to a receptionist twice who promised to follow up with me because they ran out of a product and she never did. Got a call from one of the Managers over 10 months ago promising me another complimentary procedure for my last review in January and when I called in, no one knew what I was talking about. I even saved the voicemail so I can prove it to them if I needed to, but I’m not even interested in getting another crappy procedure done to be quite frank.
I purchased the 6-​visit laser hair removal from here and let me just say, my light skin and dark hair is perfect for this procedure. The first few visits were good and then they switched machines and ever since, my hair has been growing back as if I never got laser hair removal done. The business knows you should be coming back every 4 — 6 weeks to make it really effective, yet they are so consumed with making money that they keep advertising through daily deals sites like Groupon to get more customers that now, they are fully booked for MONTHS on out with new clients that they can’t take care of their current clients! It doesn’t make sense to do laser hair removal here if you can’t get any appt for months down the road, which makes the whole procedure ineffective. I pay good money, money that I work very hard to earn AND I didn’t even mention I drive from San Francisco to the far side of San Jose, a 1 hour drive, to get this done. This honestly makes me livid.
What’s worse is I am the type of person when I really like a business, I will tell everyone about it and people listen; I’ve had people who don’t even know me buy the laser hair removal package from Allied and it’s my fault that they wasted hundreds of dollars on a procedure that doesn’t work. I feel terrible.
…Just got a message from another unhappy customer who went to Allied for a different procedure. I think I’ll contact Groupon to see if I can get a refund unless the business will admit they were wrong and contact me to give me additional laser hair removal treatments until my hair is gone. Very unhappy
UPDATE: If you purchased a Groupon for this place and unhappy with the services, you can write to Groupon and they will credit you what you paid for the Groupon. I am getting $ 200 back in Groupon credit.

Let me just start by saying that the only reason why I’m still receiving service from this place is because I bought a deal off Groupon and because of Thao.
So far I’ve have 3 laser tattoo removals and so far my process has been successful. After each session, my tattoo fades more and more and I couldn’t be happier.
Now lets begin with all the cons within this place.
First of all, I find all the receptionist rude as hell. They all have a tendency to blow off clients and give attitude. I can always see it on their face and hear it in the tone of their voice. The part that irritates me the most is when I walk through the door, they’re all, «Hi :D, How are you today?» then two seconds later they put on that attitude.
Secondly, their waiting area is tiny and only has two couches and two individual chairs. One couch is full of pillows and you can hardly get your ass to fit comfortably. It would be helpful if they removed those pillows and other decorative items to give more room. It’s nice that the seats are comfortable, but that’s not necessary if you can only fit so many.
Third, I understand that they are trying to make money by promoting their services all over Groupon and Living Social, but appointment setting is getting ridiculous. I came in for a consultation and tried to set an appointment for my tattoo removal, but got hit with a wait of about 3 – 4 months. Being a new customer I was like, «Wtf, really?» They need to relax with all the promotion because it’s difficult to please the customers that they already have, like me.
Fourth, During my consultation they told me it’s $ 1,500 for 6 sessions retail. With the Groupon it would be $ 500, so as she says, ‘They aren’t making any money.’ That’s probably not the best thing to tell their new clients. And maybe that’s right, but I have three separate tattoos for removal. I got the Groupon deal for only one, but for the other two I would have to pay $ 2,500 for 6 sessions up front. I honestly don’t like how they price their services just because if at anytime I wanted to stop receiving services, I wouldn’t be able too and just be wasting money by not continuing. I would have began my sessions with my other tattoos if they priced by session instead. So for that, I’m removing my other tattoos at another place. In the end I’m actually saving money because they’re cheaper and charge by session. Also the other office is WAY, WAY more professional than this office.
Finally, The part that pisses me off the most is that they charge for numbing cream. They didn’t tell me that they charged, when I came in for my first session, they asked if I would like to numb and after I was done, charged me out of the blue. They do however have a sign posted on top of their desk, but it’s easily missed. Talk about cheap, if they have all these clients coming in for services that they’re so backed up, the least they could do is offer free numbing. I think they’re just trying to squeeze as much out of us as possible. The other office I’m at doesn’t charge for numbing and I’ve had hair removal from yet ANOTHER office and numbing was still free.
The only thing I love about this office is Thao! She’s the sweetest woman ever and really answers all my questions and has so much patience. She’s the best person for the job and I’m so glad she’s the one removing my tattoos. I would love to pay her directly for the services because she totally deserves it. If it wasn’t for her, I would be so miserable with this office.
2 stars for the office and 5 stars for Thao

Don’t waste your time. I was so excited when I bought the Living Social deal, but now it’s just a disappointment and a hassle. For one, they always schedule your follow up WAY further than it should be. They keep saying the follow up should be within about 4 – 6 weeks but they always schedule you out about 7 or 8 weeks. That’s probably why the treatment isn’t even working. What’s even more appalling is even when they knew they were getting way too busy to even schedule people from the original Living Social deal, THEY COME OUT WITH ANOTHER DEAL! Now there’s NEVER any availability.
Also, their machine keeps «breaking down» forcing them to reschedule me (and other people) which is so inconvenient. I wouldn’t mind if it happened once, but it has happened to others I know on several different occasions.
Lastly, the wait time can be horrendous. I’ve gone in and had to wait close to an hour after my scheduled appointment because they were «running behind»
Luckily the place is very clean and the ladies I’ve encountered there are fairly friendly, but it certainly doesn’t make up for everything else the place is lacking.