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S'pore woman with S$47,000 in unused credits after sudden spa closure told she can use amount at another spa if she pays S$47,000 more
Summarise
Not related.
Rebecca (not her real name) got a text on the morning of Feb. 28 from Royal Secrets Wellness.
They had to cancel her appointment as there were some "major movements" in the company. They floated up the possibility of transferring to other spa providers, but kept the tone quite breezy. Rebecca didn't think much of it till she got another call.
Her beautician's tone on the call was a bit more flustered than the company's text, telling Rebecca that the situation was "not so simple" and that she should "come down now".
She did. She would not be the only one.
Over S$1 million
By now, the story of Royal Secrets Wellness has been told quite extensively, with the amount owed to customers reaching at least over S$1 million.There have been over 130 complaints, and 50 per cent of the folks affected are aged 46 and above.
In a Facebook post after their announced closure, Royal Secrets Wellness said some spas had stepped up to offer assistance for affected customers.
Screenshot from Royal Secrets WellnessRemember the second-last spa option provided. They'll come up again.
When Rebecca went down that day, she saw an elderly woman with a walking stick being led away by another beautician.
Rebecca remembered a consultant asking the elderly woman to "follow her" to this other spa she would be working at. Rebecca heard the lady agreeing quite casually.
She is unsure if the woman was briefed properly on the terms and conditions of going over to the other spa, and she didn't get a chance to ask her. It's one of her bigger regrets of the whole fiasco.
Goodwill
But let's focus first on the alternative spas offered on the Google form.Mothership managed to talk to a representative from Cosmo Spa, one of the spas mentioned.
She explained why these spas had stepped up to offer some support to the beleaguered customers.
She said the participating businesses were assisting "purely as a goodwill gesture", with no compensation involved, and as a "show of collective responsibility within the industry".
Support would be extended to customers with uncompleted packages purchased between March 2024 and Feb. 28, 2026, capped at a maximum value of S$1,000.
It was an understandable and very welcome initiative, given how some might view the industry in light of these closures and unused packages.
The S$1,000 tallied with Rebecca's experience with what a representative from a spa was touting on the ground during the day Royal Secrets Wellness closed.
There was, however, another offer raised to Rebecca by a former Royal Secrets Wellness consultant.
This would be an offer that would, purportedly, require her to talk to the management at one of the outlets she was touting.
Here are the outlets.
Screenshot courtesy of RebeccaThey are under The Ultimate Group (remember?).
This option was purportedly to pay a top-up fee to "activate" the unused credits.
So, for example, if you want to use S$5,000 of your unused packages, you can pay another S$5,000 to now have S$10,000 in packages.
Double or nothing
Royal Secrets Wellness had been around for a while. Rebecca had been a customer for quite a while as well. She usually buys packages for herself and her mother.The compounding of trust and packages over the years eventually led to the S$47,000 in unused packages by Feb. 28.
Rebecca quickly deduced that the maths was a bit strained.
"If say one session is S$400, every month I go one time, how many years will that take?"
19 and a half years.
And then Rebecca brought up another potential scenario.
"And then the worst thing is, if this company decides to do the same thing... which is why I decided not to go down this path."
Maybe not
Royal Secrets Wellness was not a CaseTrust-accredited spa.Interestingly enough, one of the benefits of using a CaseTrust-accredited spa is that consumers will be quite protected if a spa suddenly goes under.
For example:
So all good, no? As long as the new spa was CaseTrust-accredited, even if Rebecca's worst fears came through, she would be covered.
When I brought up this purported deal, the representative from Cosmo Spa immediately said they are not offering this kind of package to those affected.
Mothership also understands that CASE does not endorse these types of deals.
So is The Ultimate Group CaseTrust-accredited?
This part can get a little confusing, so we will take it step by step.
Here are the six spas listed on their website.
Screenshot from The UltimateOf these six, based on checks on Mar. 28 on CASE, only Spa Rael at Amara is CaseTrust-certified.
Now here's, once again, the list that was given by the aforementioned Royal Secrets staff to Rebecca.
Screenshot courtesy of RebeccaSpa Rael at Amara is not included.
Mothership understands that one reason for this could be that Spa Rael at Amara is a different registered entity, even though they are listed on the same site.
Checks on ACRA show many of the same stakeholders for these six entities.
To be very clear, not being a CaseTrust-accredited spa is not some aberration or a sign of wrongdoing. Loads of spas are not accredited.
However, it means that if something happens to a spa, customers might end up losing a lot of money and packages, with not a lot of means for restitution.
So a hypothetical 19-year package might be quite a leap of faith.
More questions
With that being said, being under the same group, will the other five spas have to adhere to the same standards as their CaseTrust-accredited Amara outlet?Are there any guardrails in place to prevent a potential Groundhog Day scenario of this other spa winding down, and the customers having to then go to another spa where they have to top up 100 per cent to utilise their new unused packages?
These were some of the questions we sent to TUG.
They have not replied.
Calls to their listed number on the TUG website have gone unanswered as well.
When Mothership went down to two of their spas on Tuesday night, Mar. 10, the staff at the first outlet said they did not have a media contact or number they could share, but asked us to leave our number behind, and the management will get back to us.
Ditto for the other outlet.
No one has gotten back to us yet.
We will update the story if they do.
In response to queries from Mothership, CASE president Melvin Yong said that consumers should be "wary of companies that purport to require additional payments to access unused package credits from another company".
Not related
The aforementioned spas are not related to Royal Secrets Wellness, they had just stepped up out of goodwill.Customers might then rightfully wonder, are there any related spas?
As the fallout of Royal Secrets Wellness unfolded, a spa at Peck Seah Street put up an innocuous clarification on their Instagram page.
Here it is if you can't see it.
Image from InstagramIt went relatively under the radar, with two likes, but the message was clear.
They were not related to Royal Secrets Wellness.
You can forgive customers for thinking there was some relation, though, as the name and design are quite similar.
Image from Google MapsRoyal Secrets Beauty Indulgence (henceforth known as RSBI) and Royal Secrets Wellness (RSW), easy mistake.
But visual similarities aren't the only interesting coincidences present.
For the next part, you have to know the name of the RSW Director.
Michael Goh has been the Director of RSW since 1999.
According to checks on ACRA by Mothership, one of the shareholders of RSBI is a company called Skin Preservation, whose primary activity is running beauty salons and spas.
Goh was also Secretary of Skin Preservation from Jan. 8, 2024, to Feb. 4, 2026.
Skin Preservation, as of Mar. 24, is still a shareholder of RSBI.
Goh was also the director of a company called Subtle Wellness from Jul. 3, 2024, to Feb. 4, 2026.
Subtle Wellness is not a salon or spa, but it is listed at the same address as RSBI. Skin Preservation is also similarly located, on paper, at the same address and unit.
Oh, and before we forget, Goh was also the Director of RSBI from Feb. 14, 2008, to Feb. 11, 2026.
That means these two "not related" spas had the same Director up till Feb. 11, 2026. Only a few weeks before RSW closed down abruptly.
When Mothership went down to the outlet to get the contact details of Goh, a manager claimed she did not know of a Michael Goh.
She also double-confirmed with us that RSBI had no relation with RSW.
They even had a nifty tabletop version of their Instagram post.
The manager told Mothership that while there had been customers from RSW who had approached them thinking they were the same company, they had been appeased after being shown the tabletop sign.
Instalments
But all these are relatively broader examinations of the industry. What about Rebecca?Rebecca had effectively lost S$47,000 in unused credits.
But it wasn't just her packages that were in limbo; it was other information she provided, like her personal data.
Despite not signing off on the indemnity form to grant access to her personal details to a new spa, her file was transferred.
A Royal Secrets Wellness staff member, or ex-staff member now, purportedly handed her file, containing personal details, over to a different spa.
So to summarise, Rebecca had lost trust in her long-time spa, S$47,000 in unused packages, and her files with her personal information.
As we sat down for coffee, she told me she has more or less made peace with it, but wryly notes that this has been quite an expensive lesson, one she hopes no one else has to go through.
But losing S$47,000 is not something you get over just like that. In fact, it might be even tougher because Rebecca says she has a monthly reminder of that loss.
At first, I thought it was some abstract metaphor, but it wasn't.
She still has four outstanding packages, one she just bought in February, that she's still paying monthly fees for.
In total, the monthly fee comes up to over S$1,000.
This is despite the very public collapse of the spa.
She has tried reaching out to both Maybank and CASE, but has had no luck cancelling the payments.
In response to queries from Mothership, a spokesperson from Maybank said that they were aware of customers who have been affected by the closure, and "understand the predicament they are facing".
They said they are also "mindful" that their card facilities were used as the payment channel.
The spokesperson said that while the circumstances are "unfortunate", the bank’s position is consistent with "established industry practice".
The spokesperson also clarified that the bank did not have oversight of the merchant's operations or its "ability to continue providing those services", so the instalment payments remain payable in line with the original arrangement.
Basically, they could not determine if the business was no longer operating.
They then suggested matters relating to "unutilised packages" be pursued directly with the merchant, its appointed liquidator, or relevant consumer bodies.
