I have been going to this salon for a few years and have recommended several friends and family members. I will NEVER return. First of all, I had been noticing a decline in the quality of service, but sort of "let it go" as I'd been going there- I realized that, their practice is to send the more experience staff to new locations (to establish a reputation, I suppose) and, as a result, the "established" locations (like Conshohocken) get a bunch of trainees. I figured this out after asking the store manager, Zin, about several different people over a few months that I no longer saw and was told "oh, she's at Blue Bell now"
I want to qualify my previous 5 star rating- while I would have rated them higher at that time, I would not have given them a 5 star rating if it wasn't for the store manager walking around as we were getting our nails, telling us that if we gave a 5 star Yelp, we would get a discount ($5 off I think?) pretty sure that's an FTC violation on the business's end, but, I'm just a girl getting her nails done who is a sucker for a discount. And, so are many others, I wasn't the only person to pull out my phone after my nails had dried, so, when reading other reviews, I'd keep this in mind...
In any event, quality of service had been declining, but, didn't hit rock bottom- hard- until a couple of weeks ago. I went in for a manicure and brought my own polish (always do, I know what I like). I got there about 45 minutes before closing? And had to wait a few minutes for someone to become available, so, there I was- ready with polish.
I got my manicure and it was a terrible, streaky mess (not to mention the manicurist was damn rude) I noticed this when it was drying (which was near closing time) so looked around for my manicurist who was LITERALLY RUNNING out the door with the rest of the staff. Maybe they were carpooling and the ride was leaving? I have no idea, but there were three customers there (one who didn't even get her tiny back massage while drying (not that mine was given with TLC, but it's the principle)) including myself and we got to chatting about how bizarre and terrible it was, initially we just looked at one another like "WTF?" answer is, no idea, but I can't make this stuff up.
I asked the manager working (forget her name- she has glasses- maybe Hannah?) if she could fix it and she told me that it was supposed to look that way. I told her that it was not and that I was familiar with the polish as I used it several times before and BROUGHT MY OWN BOTTLE! Then she said she didn't have time to fix it and said I could come back the next day- actually, I couldn't- I didn't have time, not to mention I was just over the whole thing. I've worked in a lot of restaurants, and, it sucks when you get a table and you want to leave shortly and then there is an issue or they want dessert or to look at pictures with their friends- whatever. Point being, you're stuck there until your customer leaves because they PAID YOU for a service- you don't get to run away, you get to pout about it.
The following day, I called the regular manager, Zin (who I've always liked, I have to say, I don't believe that it's her fault/ has much power) and told her what happened and that I didn't plan to return HOWEVER I had a $60 gift certificate my husband had gotten me (as I said, I've been going here for a while- I had previously used a gift certificate that my mom gave me for Mother's Day) and just wanted to return it for the money paid (btw- it doesn't say anywhere on the gift certificate that this is against policy). Zin told me that she would have to talk to her manager (Coco?) and get back to me. I asked if I could contact her directly (makes sense- "connect me to your supervisor" kind of thing) and she said no and asked me how I would like it if someone shared my personal information? (Woooooah Zin, bit snarky, but I digress...) I told her that, as a business person, I would expect to be reachable and, that I am reachable - directly- where I work. It's called a work phone- if you're out there, you need a work phone, Coco! Or, you need to give your managers decision making power.
In any event, "Coco" was supposed to get back to me the next day- I insisted. It's been about a week now, no response.
In sum, if you get a gift certificate to this place from me for your birthday or Christmas, know that it's re-gifted and I don't really like you ;) read more