Absolute Indigo? Absolute RUBBISH!…read more
My experience of this place was weird, rude, stressful and just plain CRAZY!
I bought a Living Social voucher for a 1 hr. massage at Absolute and called the number to make an appt; it was a mobile. Someone picked up, but it was dead silent. I thought maybe I had the wrong number, so I quickly stated my purpose and asked if this was Absolute Indigo. What followed was a torrent of heavily accented, aggressive gibberish that I could not decipher, save for " dot co uk- dot co uk". I gathered that she wanted me to go to her website, so I asked if she wanted me to book online, to which she replied "book online-book online" and then hung up on me as fast as she possibly could.
The lady's telephone manner was appalling. In an instant, I already felt unwelcome, and I hadn't done anything but try to book an appt.
Whatever, I was still looking forward to my massage. I went to the "dot co uk" and saw that you could book in via a 3rd party appt software called Salonium. This service was easy to use. It showed there were 4 available slots the next day: 10, 11, 2 and 3. I chose 11. My name, mobile number and email were in the system now and my appt was booked. My "specialist" was to be Tatiana Stebel-Nowakowska.
I arrived for my 11am appt at 10:38, so I could have enough time to relax and fill out any consent forms without cutting into my treatment time. When I realised that the dodgy looking store front at 41 Montrose Terrace was Absolute Indigo, I understood why there were no photos of the shop online. I took a few photos myself and uploaded them for your viewing pleasure. The shop was completely closed up, blinds shut. In fact, it was such a dark hole, I actually walked past it on my way to finding the place. I knew that this wasn't going to be a luxury spa, but I did expect that Tatiana or someone would be there to greet me, but no one was.
If it's a one-woman business, and she was going to be with a client, or not there, she could've text'd, emailed or left a note on the door.
As you can see from the photos, there are childish paper signs sellotaped to the windows. My favourite, a handwritten scrawl "Give a job massage therapist" posted on A4 copy paper. I don't expect every salon to be glossy. I don't mind funky or low-key, but I do think a place offering body/beauty/holistic treatments should try to be fresh, tidy and welcoming.
With no sign of Tatiana, I waited on the pavement. No place to sit, so I just paced back and forth from the front of Abs Indigo to the grotty Edi Denture Clinic next door. It was hot, noisy, builder's dust everywhere from construction going on, and now I had to use the toilet.
10:55 I call Tatiana. No answer. 11:01 I call Tatiana, no answer. I never receive the txt msg Salonium promised. I check my email, nothing. I call Tatiana one more time and she HANGS UP THE PHONE WITHOUT ANSWERING! I call L Social and request a refund immediately.
L Social won't issue a refund w/o contacting the merchant. They called Tatiana and magically got through. She tells them that my appt. was for 12, not 11. I KNEW this was not true, because I had to carefully coordinate around a dentist appt. + school run; the 11-12 slot was the only one I could do that day. Besides, 12 pm was not even an option on the booking form when I booked. I told L Social all this, but they said that they could not issue a refund if the merchant was willing to honour the voucher, and they would not take responsibility for what they saw as a dispute between the merchant and the client over scheduling. So, my choices were to take the 12 o'clock appointment Tatiana claimed I made, or lose the money I had already spent on the voucher.
After making arrangements to accommodate this waste of time, I found a café nearby and waited until 12.
At 12, I arrived once again at Absolutely Fabulous, I mean Absolutely Abysmal. The door was now unlocked, but no one in sight. I let myself in, sat down on a dingy sofa in the mess of a knackered front reception area. I wait 5 minutes, then gently call "hello? Hello?" Tatiana's head appears out from the door of the dark room in the back of the shop. She just glares at me, wild eyed. I ask, "Are you ready for the appointment?"
"No!No!Come back next week!" she says as she makes sweeping gestures towards the road outside, shooing me away.
"I have an appointment", I say.
"No!No!No appointment! Come back next week!"
"I've already come back, I have an appointment today", I say.
"You can't have appointment today", she says. "Everybody know you can't make same-day appointment. People book me two weeks in advance".
"I called you yesterday and you told me to go online to book and I did. There were 4 available slots today, I booked in for 1 of them."
Again, she shouts at me to come back next week, all the while never coming out from behind her dark doorway in the back of her grim little shop.
I leave, call L Social and was finally issued a refund.
