I came here for a while and I actually LOVED it, and used to be very fond of Anita and her son. Their Clearlight saunas are the best rated for low emf's and the place is clean and is affordable.
I am basing this review solely on the customer service and poor treatment I unfairly received at the end.
As first time owners people learn a lot by making mistakes. I hope this actually taught them something.
My father had three different business growing up and the reason for his success was his ability to connect and care for people over profit.
The miscommunication I experienced was bizarre and ended in a very weird unprofessional way.
At the time, pre covid19, I had a job that involved traveling.
Soon after I joined, I left for a job in Vegas, NV October 28-Nov 4 and Anita agreed to put my membership on hold, I was experiencing horrible autoimmune symptoms and I was on a very heavy detox program.
When I came back in town, I soon booked another job from Nov 11-21 and Anita agreed to put my membership on hold again, she was not very happy about it but that was the only way I could do it. She really had genuine compassion for my health, or so I thought
She runs the place with her son Derek and I totally assumed she will write the notes about the frozen membership on my account and he will see them. WRONG.
I was paying a monthly membership, so the two holds extended the membership further since I was not in town a lot.
One afternoon when I went back after my last job, Anita's husband walked by mistake in my cubicle without knocking and of course I was naked .
I assumed It was a mistake but I was still pretty upset because when I was leaving he kept trying to explain to me why and I was too embarrassed and upset to talk to him at that particular moment since it just happened.
The following day, Anita's son Derek approached me apologizing about his step dad, and said he discussed it with his mom and they wanted to give me a free unlimited month because of the incident.
I was like, great, fair enough. I never asked for it but why not?
I still had time left from the previous paid month (which was on hold twice) so between that and the free month I was good for a while.
I don't quite remember the exact date, but I rememberer I came back to the Studio the day I finally was done with the extended membership and the free month and told Derek I was going to pay just for one class because I had just lost my job.
He looked at me in an odd way as he charged me, but later that day I saw the charge for a WHOLE month membership instead for a single session. Wait what?
I called Haute immediately but he wouldn't let me speak, infuriated and rude he said I was using their saunas for free and he was not going to give me the money back and abruptly hung up on me.
In disbelief, immediately called Anita, who btw, used to be so sweet to me, and she said, please, don't mind my son, he gets upset when people take advantage of me. HU?
I felt SO lost in translation, I never, ever had such an experience in my life, I tried to remind her of the two times I traveled & she froze my account and the free month they gave me because of her husband incident, (she seemed not to know about that) ...and when I told her that her son was rude and hanged up on me she texted: "I don't care what you have to say". I mean I guess I am not used to this kind of toxic dynamic in communication I was pretty shocked.
I realized then that all this time they probably never communicated to each other about the two times she froze my account and the free month Derek said he will give me due to his dad walking on me while in the sauna.
I realized then that those agreements were verbal and I trusted them.
I am not saying this was maliciously done, I hardly think that, yet based on this whole drama, I know they obviously didn't communicate, and all the arrangements they did verbally with me, were never shared with each other, or written in my account notes, like most business do.
That is the same reason why the father walked into my room, because he said: NOBODY TOLD HIM or wrote on their desk chart that there was someone in my cubicle . Go figure.
Later on that week, Derek got on my Facebook account and left a comment on my feed saying I used them for free and never paid them.
I mean, this is another level of awful; I had to report his account and block him.
I am still pretty disheartened, on top of dealing with hard health issues, I was being accused of taking advantage of a business and robbery basically.
I really liked the place and I needed it for my health, I also liked them, very kind people at the beginning. Other than this, the place is a small gem, and honestly I hope you go, but make sure that when you agree on something or freeze your account, you see them adding the notes to your chart, and the following day, tell the other person at the desk to check the notes, to avoid this kind of misunderstanding and drama. read more