Perhaps my experience with this place will help you decide if you want to go here, or take your business elsewhere.
I hate leaving negative reviews, but some stories need to be told. Iwas a customer here for years. I went here for pedicures, and was always happy with them. Then, last year, I began getting dip nails. That's about when things started getting really weird, unorthodox, literally intolerable, to the point that it's no longer acceptable.
My boyfriend bought his mom a gift certificate for a mani/pedi for her birthday. I went with her while she redeemed her GC, and she was getting her pedicure in the chair, when a group of 4 young adult women walked in wanting pedicures. They made my boyfriend's 77 YO MOTHER give up her seat, and finished painting her toenails WHILE SHE STOOD on the DIRTY floor, so they could quickly seat the 4 young women together right away.
My friend that introduced me to Magic Nails in the first place quit going over a year ago. She said the service was getting worse, they disregarded her requests, and she contracted a fungus on her skin near the nail bed that has yet to go away. She has started enjoying the better quality service of one of their competitors.
They accept credit cards, but insist that you pay in cash when it's time to pay. They will say their machine is not working, but if you absolutely have no other way to pay, they will go ahead and charge your credit card (alas.... the machine works after all!), but it will be for more than the service.
I began getting dip nails last year. The first service was $35 and included tips. It was a no UV light dip. By about the 4th time I returned for a dip, the price started gradually going up each time by another $5, while the service was getting worse. They began curing my dip nails with the UV light and gel topcoat, instead of the no-UV hardener that goes with the dip, which causes discoloration and nicotine colored staining by the second week, and my French manicure would become embarrassingly yellow (I don't smoke!). With the no-UV hardener, my nails would stay clean looking and beautiful until time for the next manicure.
On 3 occasions, the tech working on my nails got up and left in the middle of my manicure, leaving me guessing what I was to do, next. On one occasion, the tech was very ill, and should not have been there to begin with, and left me for 45 minutes while I sat there with my unfinished nails. On my last (and final) visit, the tech took a trimmer out of a dirty package, used it on me, and returned it to the same dirty package, and put it in the drawer to be used on the next person...ugh. She then picked up her purse midway through my manicure and left for the day, without ever saying a word! Someone else eventually came around to finish my manicure after a long wait, that time.
The last time I went, I made sure I asked John (owner) how much my service would be, and he said $45. Wendy (John's wife, co-owner) did my nails. I don't know what she did, but several nails appeared to have bubbles underneath the polished surface, and they looked awful. She tried to get me to approve of the way my nails looked, and when I didn't, she attempted getting away with only repeating the last step over again, before it was obvious that she had to soak off and re-do the nails that looked bad. 2 hours, 15 minutes later, she told me that the total was $55! I was not only getting a BAD manicure, but now, I'm paying for the time she had to spend correcting her own mistakes? When she said the price was $55, I questioned her, and she insisted that it had always been $55, which I knew to be a lie. I usually tipped them well, but when I did not tip for this terrible, overpriced service, she actually groused, and pulled a face (like, "where's my tip?") as if she expected more on top of that. That was the final straw, for me.
If, after reading this, you still want to go here, I have a list of recommendations:
Don't tip TOO generously, if at all. You will be taken advantage of every time after that.
Bring plenty of cash, or expect an awkward situation when you're ready to leave.
Expect the price to go up every time, once you've become an established customer.
Expect them to browbeat you into services you don't want, and when you say no, expect an attitude and a less than stellar experience.
Pretty much everything is an argument, from getting the service you want, to paying how you want, to paying what is fair, to getting the nail tech you want. A "relaxing treat" suddenly escalates into an ordeal. read more
