What a horrible experience!
I purchased a Groupon for full highlights and got scheduled for an appointment with Lauren. Upon arrival, she wanted to discuss my hair color history, which was totally fine and expected. When I told her that I'd been coloring my hair with permanent color, like most 42 years old women, she told me we had limited options for highlight. So, instead of advising me that the end result color could differ from the color I imagined (like every hair colorist would do), she pulled up a photo from her phone, pointed at a picture of a hair with VERY DIFFERENT base color and asked me if I would be ok with that result. The photo showed a very bad highlight job, so I got scared because Lauren was very young, which made me realize, she was still learning. No problem with that but since she wanted to do the same bad highlight colors on me, we agreed I would be just getting a refund for my Groupon and we will cancel the appointment. I was reassured by her that I can still get a refund for my unused purchase.
I left the place frustrated but it really wasn't the end of the world. When I got to my car, I pulled up the Groupon, reached out for customer service and I was told I could no longer receive a refund (the voucher was purchased the month prior) and I should just try to still redeem it with the merchant in order not to lose the money. So I went back, trying to see what my options were. I started talking to Lauren about what Groupon told me and she was also checking their policy. Then, another hair stylist stepped in and was trying to explain me how Groupon worked and she was telling me that they always lose money on Groupon and other complains about the voucher, not really related to my issue. I just wanted to know, how can we find the middle ground where I don't have to lose the full $120. At this point, a guy, claiming himself as the manager, stepped over (he was next to us working on someone's hair) and started yelling at me that he overheard EVERYTHING and that I needed to deal with Groupon and I had to leave the store otherwise he would call police on me. At this point, he also stepped back to his client he was already working on and started complaining about me and clients who always want their money back. For a service I never received, yeah, very upsetting, indeed! I guess, for this manager, it's ok if someone loses $130, as long as it's not him...and he had the audacity threatening with police. Wow!
Now clearly, Lauren is young and still learning, nothing wrong with that and the issue wasn't really that she couldn't do the hair I wanted. The problem is with this store, their policy, and the manager, or whoever this guys really was, in particular. If Lauren wasn't taught how to express correctly to a client that there's a chance that the client's expectations won't be met without giving her one choice only as a result, that's not her fault. Unfortunately, her communication and customer service skills won't get much improvement while working here, since she's learning from a manager who yells at customers and makes police threats just because someone wants a refund for a service she didn't even get. Just unreal read more