The rudeness, lack of professionalism, and complete lack of respect for clients and their time is appalling. I've never seen anything like it. Having been a "bottle" blonde for over 25 years and lived in 6 major cities, I'm used to various salon experiences. Never in my life have I encountered staff like I have at salon swank. My review is two-sided, yes I did purchase a Groupon but I also had scheduled a pricey non-groupon keratin treatment, so please don't write this review off as based on a groupon experience.
Originally I purchased a groupon in October for a haircut. Take note, it is now May 1 and they have yet to honor this groupon. After purchasing the groupon I called to make an appointment. After 4 attempted calls and over a week later, I received a callback and was told that they only see a limited number of groupons and that it would be several months before they could fit me in. While that is certainly inconvenient, I made my appointment and got my hair cut elsewhere. The appointment was later rescheduled due to unknown reasons. Finally in late winter/early spring I decided I wanted a keratin treatment and called to update my Groupon haircut appointment to add an expensive, non groupon service. I was treated quite differently.
Now ladies, I don't know about you but I am one busy mama. I'm a full time grad student with two under two and a registered nurse. It gets tough! As women we try to fit so much into our schedule and our time is valuable to us ALL. Whether we are mothers, students, or professionals, hair salons and their services are meant to make us feel pampered and relaxed, not stressed out and screwed over. I was finally looking forward to my hair appointment when I received a text that morning from the stylist, stating she was sick and couldn't come in. Extraordinarily last minute! I had already altered my crazy schedule and prepaid for a babysitter. It was such a disappointment. Moreover, I had an exciting date planned that weekend and needed a cut ASAP. So once again, I rescheduled and went elsewhere. The stylist was extremely unapologetic, stating "well there's nothing I can do, I was sick". I didn't get so much as an apology for a last minute cancellation that I had shuffled my life around for.
The icing on the cake occurred between yesterday and today. I received my email confirmation for my once again rescheduled haircut, April 30 at 1pm. I dropped everything, got a sitter, put off schoolwork and made my way to the appointment where I waited around for 45 minutes like a complete idiot, at one point having to ask the dentist in the office downtstairs to use their bathroom. My stylist was a complete no-show. I finally received a call back about an hour ago today from an extremely unapologetic stylist who again stated it wasn't her fault because she tried to reschedule last week but called the wrong Lauren. She didn't hear back from this other person so why would you assume the confirmed cancellation happened? Her idea of "making it right" was offering me a haircut that I already paid for. I said that's just not going to cut it and her response was a very whiny "well I DID apologize, ugh!" Further, there was no cancellation in the system and I was sent my email reminder and she did acknowledge all of the above, verbally.
The bottom line is this: my groupon is long expired so there's $20 gone, I've spent $64 on babysitters for absolutely nothing, gas money, and probably 5 extraordinarily frustrating hours attempting to reach staff or waiting outside the salon. NO WAY is what I just went through worth anyone's time and I'm still stressed out and upset by this treatment. To the readers, do yourself a big favor... there are so many hair salons out there, why ever bother with one that treats their customers in this way? Lets support each other and show businesses like this that this treatment is unacceptable! Shame on you, Salon Stank.
Management had every opportunity to address this situation. I left pleasant voicemails asking to talk with someone, I called...nothing. Seems they could care less about getting in touch with an unsatisfied customer.
I encourage anyone with questions or concerns to reach out to me personally and I will provide further details on my experience, everything is documented and they are being reported to the Better Business Bureau. I considered pursuing small claims to compensate for all the time and money wasted but decided it's best to just leave it alone. Seems like a very toxic and negative environment.
Looking forward to trying a new salon somewhere else :) read more
