Spa 151 gift certificates will be refunded

Spa 151 on the River customers left holding gift cards or gift certificates will be able to receive cash refunds beginning next week, spa owner Ashli Rowland said today.

The details are still be settled, Rowland said. Customers are being asked to hold on to their gift certificates or gift cards until the procedures can be announced. she said.

To obtain the refund, customers will be asked to send in their certificates or cards to a post office box, she said. Within a short period of time, a check will be sent for the remaining value of the gift certificate or card.

Spa 151 on the River, 151 S. Spanish St., closed last week as a result of a dispute over ownership between Rowland and her estranged husband, Scott Rowland. No notice of the closing was given and employees have complained that they are owed back pay and were asked to work for tips when Scott Rowland said he would not accept the gift certificates or cards after taking over the spa.

The refunds will be made, Rowland said, after she can dispose of her interest in property housing the Cape Girardeau location of Check Please, a business formerly owned by Ashli and Scott Rowland and Brent and Lori Wills. Check Please, a check cashing and payday loan business, was sold in early October to Grisham-DeBusk Management of Columbia, Mo.

"I will have an account set up and a P.O. Box by early next week," Rowland said.

For updates, check back at www.semissourian.com or read Thursday's Southeast Missourian.