Y'all... I tried, really. The benefit of the doubt can only go so far though…read more
I recently sought out a new barbershop, because my previous barber went crazy with three price increases in the span of just over one year. I did some research, and found Traditions on Main, which was listed in the SQUIRE app. I booked an appointment.
My first haircut was pretty good, and everything seemed OK in terms of how the business was run, and the quality of the haircut I received from Daniel.
I told my husband to go check them out, and he booked an appointment, also with Daniel. When he showed up for his appointment, my husband was told Daniel wasn't there, and was set up with a female barber that absolutely butchered his hair.
When I arrived for my second appointment, I was told that, despite having scheduled a haircut with the same barber from the first time, Daniel was not available. Having learned from my husband's experience, I declined allowing one of the other ladies to cut my hair. AJ, the owner seemed somewhat apologetic, and offered a discount off the haircut when I came back in a couple days.
I returned for the rescheduled haircut and it was disappointing from a service perspective. Daniel sat me down in the chair, put on the barber cape, and then immediately apologized and said he needed to go to one of the female barber's stations to do someone's straight razor shave/neck cleanup. Why can't she handle that herself, I wondered. Daniel returned after nearly 10 minutes and began my haircut, and then I watched as all of the female barbers slowly trickled into the break room in the back as they finished their haircuts. Over the next hour, Daniel juggled my haircut, answering phones, greeting customers, and struggled to find clean towels. I could hear the ladies carrying on in the back, talking about what they wanted to do later, and talking about what they were going to eat. Daniel, nor any barber in the shop should be put in the situation where they are basically running the entire front of house, while also performing services. I went home after the haircut and noticed some long hairs above my ear that Daniel had totally missed. Understandable given all that he was doing, but unacceptable.
My third appointment, Daniel was off the schedule in the SQUIRE app, so I booked with AJ the owner. I showed up promptly for my appointment time, and as I'm taking off my jacket, AJ helps a child into his barber chair, and begins to cut his hair. AJ greeted me and apologized. Guess what? Again, there is a scheduling error, only this time Daniel's absence caused my haircut with AJ to be delayed so he could take care of the kid that had an appointment with Daniel.
I sat around for about 10 mins as AJ cut the child's hair, chatted with the boy's dad, and had some side convos with people in the shop. I felt no sense of urgency to get to my haircut, which stung particularly bad given there had been multiple timing issues over multiple visits.
I had never felt like my time was so disrespected by a barber shop, and it ultimately ended up being too much. I asked AJ to cancel my haircut, refund me, and decided I would not be back. How you can run a business that allows scheduling and not have problems figured out well over a month into your "transition" to another system is beyond me.
The most ridiculous part about all of this? Prior to my scheduled appointments, I got this lovely threat texted from the shop:
"Cancellations, rescheduling and no shows within 4 hours of scheduled appt time will be charged a 25% of service charge fee. Thank you for respecting our barbers time & your own!"
Get out of here. Until y'all learn to respect your customers time, you have no business waving 25% service charge fees in their faces. I hope the business can learn from this and provide better, more attentive services to others in the future.
