I had the most astoundingly poor, unprofessional experience at this salon. I am still flabbergasted and utterly perplexed by the shoddy treatment.
I normally go to a salon in Tacoma. However, my car was in the shop for a few days, and I desperately needed to get my nails done. So I thought, just this one time, I'd go to this place since it's only a couple miles away.
I'd had a couple pedicures at this salon over the past four years and even though the place is quite large, it is nearly always empty (with only one or two customers at a time when it's "full") because there are only two people who work there--the owner and his sister--so I knew they didn't do walk-ins.
I call them up, ask if they do white powder fills, the man confirms they do, and I go ahead and make an appointment for 4pm, and have my neighbor drop me off at the appointed time.
The sister points me to a seat. She begins by asking how short I want my nails. I tell her "pretty short so I can type on my computer keyboard." I joke with her, "I always know it's time to get into the salon when I can't type anymore."
This whole time, she is being very brusque and has a sort of irritated attitude, as if I'm imposing on her and she'd rather be doing other things. And she's being very rough and rushed. She drills down my pinkie nail very quickly and roughly and jerks my finger up to ask me if that's how short I want. I say just a teeny bit more. Instead of being slow and careful, she drills the rest of the nail below the fingertip!!! I'm like, "Whoa, okay, okay, that's short enough! That's TOO short now. I like it just above the fingertip." She acts exasperated at my alarm and says to me, "You say you want short! I give you short!"
I'm still being patient because I know it's hard for both of you when you go to a new place where they don't know your preferences. But that's even more reason why most places are slow and careful on that first finger--so they can make sure to get it just how you like it before doing the rest of your nails.
I ask her if we can slow down a little bit (because she's rushing through all this). She's also cutting my nails at extremely uneven angles (not straight or evenly across). I try to ask her if she will be fixing that later in the process. She again sort of yells at me, "You tell me you want short!!!" I say, "I'm not talking about the length now. I'm saying these are very crooked. I just want to know if you will be evening them up somewhere in the process."
But she keeps going on about the length. I try to show her how uneven the tops are, but she doesn't seem to grasp what I'm talking about. The brother comes over, they speak in their language, and he finally seems to make her understand.
She grudgingly gets back to things and evens up the tops (somewhat, not really though) and is still being very rough and jerking my hands around and inexplicably rushing through things. I didn't understand why she was in such a big hurry. I made an appointment. I'm a paying customer. I tip well. I like to think I'm pretty friendly and go out of my way to be polite and pleasant with people. I didn't understand why I was being treated so rudely.
As these thoughts are going through my head, she's very oddly now trying to have a "pleasant" conversation with me. However, she's asking me all these rude, personal questions, like where do I work and where do I live. I just say "up the road" because I'm not interested in exchanging pleasantries with her at this point. But that's not informative enough for her, apparently, because then she tries to grill me about where I live e-x-a-c-t-l-y!
At this point, I just want my nails done and to get the hell out of there so I very directly say to her, "Can we please just concentrate on my nails?"
And she jumps out of her seat, throws her hands in the air and shouts, "I can't do! I can't do your nails!" And I'm just sitting there, jaw to the ground, wondering what in the ever-loving hell is wrong with this woman! Once I get my wits back about me, I say, "Are you freaking kidding me with this???!!! You just cut off all my nails. You can't just stop in the middle of the job and leave me with jagged edges!" I look to the brother and say, "Well, I hope you're going to finish my nails?!" And he says he can't because he's got another appointment at 4:30. "No time, no time!"
Which explains why she was so flipping rushed--they didn't give my appointment enough time. You need 45-60 minutes for white tip fills. But how is all that MY problem?! I just can't even believe this! So I'm stranded there with no ride for an appointment they made to do a job they refuse to finish. Utterly unprofessional!
I'd share more, but out of space. All I can say is give your money/business to more deserving establishments. There are a million other salons where you'll get more polished treatment and better work. These are ill-mannered, rank unprofessionals. read more
