I rarely get on yelp to complain about a business and its services, preferring to tout the amazing businesses I've encountered and deny the less than stellar one's my repeat business is generally enough for me, in fact, I've only posted 1 slightly negative review in my years on Yelp; however, after many months of wrangling with myself and the way I still feel these many months later about Allyu I couldn't in good conscious not post a review about treatment I received.
For my 30th birthday my husband planned a fantastic weekend for me. A girlfriend flew out from NYC, there was brunch at my favorite restaurant, he bought tickets and willing volunteered to attend a Shakespeare play, and he scheduled time at my then favorite day spa - Allyu. The kink in my 30th birthday weekend was Allyu unfortunately.
We found out March 4th that I was pregnant, 3 days before our 1 yr anniversary. Mike being very thoughtful, saw that Allyu had a pregnancy massage available and booked it. Unfortunately pregnancy nausea really exists and mine in the first trimester didn't wane nearly as quickly as expected and definitely not by my birthday. My nausea was severe - I was the random woman you saw vomiting on the street in broad daylight at noon and 6pm and any time I smelled gasoline, humid air, fast food, or B.O. - it goes without saying I was quite the joy to be around. As a city girl, Chicago and NYC suddenly became my least favorite places in the universe and I planned to create a commune in the wilds of Montana to enjoy fresh air.
Allyu has a 24 hour cancellation policy, which I absolutely respect. They are a business and have to have a policy that ensures their interest are cared for. I get that and I've never in life cancelled a service with them and have in fact referred and bought friends services there as thank you's to them, and my husband and I had couples massa ge there as well. So long story short - years of patronage and nary a cancellation.
I woke up the morning of my birthday and felt nausea to the degree described above, immediately called Allyu, and asked for a RESCHEDULE. Not a cancellation, but a reschedule for when I might possibly feel better and was told no.
Imagine my upset. It was my 30th birthday, I was pregnant, nauseous, and the only place I'd ever enjoyed a massage told me I couldn't even reschedule. After explaining the pregnancy, the nausea, my patronage, that I was adverse to smells - nothing, they couldn't help. (and let me explain, my aversion to smells was so severe that I had dreadlocks and had my husband shave my hair off because tea tree shampoo upset my stomach). So in the end I was charged $110 for a service I never received and I haven't been back.
I'm 29 weeks along in my pregnancy and would love a massage and am fully out of nausea state (though that took longer than I expected), but don't know where I'd trust to go for services. I would have loved for that place to be Allyu, but for all the talk of The Art of Healing, they sure couldn't have cared less about my pain.
Sidenote: Why offer a pregnancy massage, when you aren't willing to deal with the issues inherent to it? That seems like a faulty model on their part and a big screw you to any woman who might be suffering through pregnancy difficulties.
BTW, we're having a girl and are very excited! read more