January 8th was one of the most horrendous days one could fathom! Here's a little backstory below, Anyone who can attest to my character and conviction on business knows that it is pivotal that as an African American woman I take pride and confidence in patronizing black owned businesses. DISCLAIMER: This synopsis is NOT to tarnish any brand involved. This is solely to provide a solution on certain hinderances on a limitation of black owned business. I have been following @India_arie_ UNIT F for over 5+ years. I've always admired her craft as effortlessly as it appeared. She is very talented but her disposition and dismissive attitude does not match up to the India I viewed from her profile. I booked an appointment for a seamless install on December 9th, 2018 for January 8th, 2019 9:00 AM. I was traveling via standby. All my FA,Ticketing Agent, friends and family of airline staff can attest that at times it could be a toss up. Unfortunately this morning my original flight was over booked. I was forced to leave at 9:00 AM instead. Every step of the way I was vocal about the process. I called, emailed, text and also wrote India when I first found out about the delay. I text her and asked her if it would be okay to still come and I received no reply. I decided to board the plane. I had faith that she would see my messages and there would be no issue. Boy, was I ever wrong. India finally replied at 11:09 AM. Keep in mind I had been at the airport since 5:30 AM my time and 4:30 AM her time. I understand the time difference but I also let her know the exact time I boarded the plan and the time the plane took off. The time stamp on that message was 8:55 AM my time and 7:55 AM her time. Either way being that my hair appointment was at 9:00 AM there was adequate time before leaving Charlotte to get in contact with India. I diligently tried every aspect of communication and got no reply in time. If my appointment is at 9:00 AM then India should have seen my messages at 7:55 AM her time. 11:09 AM India: "Good morning, i had appointments set up after your appointment as i don't even work Monday's but you booked before the new year so i decided to let you stay. I can see after I'm done if I'm able to fit you in but i was going to be done with your hair by noon and had other things planned" 11:31 AM Me: "Whatever works best for you. Again I'm sorry for the inconvenience we are descending now. I guess I'll just stay at the airport until you see if you can fit me into your schedule. I've never been to Texas before so I won't be venturing out especially if you can't fit me in. My messages are green so I called to see if you're getting them. I just landed and walked out of the plane at 10:44 AM I'll be waiting at the airport for your cue if you can at all today. Thanks so much and again I'm sorry for the inconvenience." 12:05 PM India: "When are you flying back?" 12:05 PM Me: "Today, Should I wait at your salon? The airport is like 30 minutes away from your location." 12:08 PM India: "When does your flight leave?" 12:09 PM Me: "Supposed to leave at 3:30 but I was going to see if I could get a later flight depending on if you could fit me into your schedule or not. If not I was just going to go back to Charlotte " 12:31 PM India: "Yea that wouldn't work for me. Sorry. I don't even want you to waste trying to catch another flight. I'll return your deposit." (This is the point where I should have immediately gotten on a flight back to Charlotte. IMMEDIATELY." 12:32 PM Me: "I wouldn't be wasting money. But if there's no way you can get me in then it's okay. If I wait until after your appointments there's no way you can fit me in? Even if I pay extra? Hey I don't mean to be a bother but is there anyway I could pay more and get your service today? I understand you have things to do so definitely after your appointments but I'm flexible and I'm already here so I don't mind waiting I could even wait at the salon if needed til you get there. I'm not that far according to MAPS. This will be my second attempt trying to get to you to get my hair done by you. It honestly seems impossible at this point. I don't know if you remember the first time but I ended up texting or emailing you and telling you I wouldn't be able to make it due to schedule conflict with my new job at the time. I let you know early and you told me to reschedule but I couldn't due to my scheduling conflict so I just let that deposit go. So luckily it wasn't a no call no show because I reached out to you in advance I also scheduled that appointment for January but I had contacted you in December to make sure I didn't get on the block list from booking." India: "Hold on luv I'm in my wax appointment" Me: Oh okay sorry (1 hour and a few posts added to her story later) 2:28 PM Me: "Hey just checking in idk if you're done with your wax and I don't want to bother you but I was just hoping for an update. I understand the level of read more

India Unit F pt. 3 I sent my last messages at 7:46 PM: "Whelp you haven't called back so I'm guessing the final answer is no. But you did say you will refund me my deposit so when will you be refunding me my deposit? As for myself I'm stuck in this airport until 5 tomorrow morning. I didn't get back on my flight home because I had faith that everything would turn around and work in my favor. I was wrong and in result I'm stuck here all night in this airport. There's no more flights to Charlotte or NC in general. So I'm stuck in this airport and in this state I've never been to before. Thanks for at least refunding my deposit. Hopefully I'll get my deposit back today as soon as possible please" THIS WAS THE FASTEST SHE REPLIED ALL DAY! IN 2 MINUTES I GOT A CANCELATION EMAIL AND A TEXT BACK. This was truly remarkable. "I don't know it should be in there within 7 days. Depends on your bank. Some get it right away. Have a safe flight t" I said "Thanks" before I could see that she said "Have a safe flight" That was the straw that broke the camels back. I didn't even reply. I just informed this lady that due to her giving me the run around all day I ended up missing the last flight back home and I'd have to stay until 5 am the next day at the airport(or get a room) The absolute last thing I needed to read or hear was "have a safe flight." First of all she clearly that day showed and told me that 1. My money doesn't matter 2. My time isn't important 3. She doesn't care what I've gone thru to get a service done by her So telling me to have a safe flight home was just a petty, inconsiderate and nasty thing to say at the time. After giving me the run around all day. "Oh let me figure this I'll call you back" not even calling or texting back, being so busy but having time to post on her story EVERY HOUR! I was definitely naive and thought the best would come from this experience instead of receiving the opposite. I learned my lesson NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. There are some key points that I would like my audience to take away from this review of my experience. 1. To some I may of been naive. To some I understand would say I wasted my own time. To some I should have never came or left immediately. 2. I thought that because I had made contact with her prior and we were on speaking terms that it would be different than just a random client booking for the first time. 3. India is a black business woman who is very vocal on her page about her pros and cons of business infrastructure in general as well as being black owned. She's expressed her concern for understanding of why "black people always want a discount when they don't ask other races for discounts and pay full price also adding the fact that she expressed before that she will not doing family's hair for discount either and in fact even her own mother pays something. 4. The best way to avoid any type of drama or give her more exposure would have been to simply not post anything but this is more than just about her. This is an example of some faulty practices that black owned business have. 5. If you have certain stipulations and you do not conduct business on a certain day the best thing to do is to LIST IT. Either list it on your profile, website or even send your clients a message expressing that a certain day is off limits. Better yet, simply block all of a certain day for example. "All Monday's" on the calendar so no one can book that specific day. 6. Also I had been contacting her all morning up until getting on the plane basically at 8:00 AM my time and 7:00 AM her time. When I finally get her on the phone she lets me know " Oh I was sleep at that time, I keep my phone on silent when I'm sleep. Well how is it my fault that she was unable to see my calls and texts 2 hours before my appointment? Idk how far she has to travel from her home to the salon but I would think she would be waking up 2 hours prior to 1. Get ready for the day and 2. Be on time herself. That right there let me know that she was going to be late regardless if I was on time or not. Me being unable to get on the correct flight gave her an excuse to dismiss me like trash which seem to be her real desire. Why is it that on IG these black business are always begging fellow black people to support them when they get to a level of IG popularity and no longer cater to the black community. If you're not making it convenient for your fellow black people to invest in your craft or product then you won't get support. I am fully aware that had I been some IG sensation with 90k followers like her she would have been ecstatic to fit me into her schedule and or let me know a better time to schedule so there's no conflict. More followers mean more exposure so my popularity level canceled any type of effort on her end which I understand completely. read more

India Unit F 3:11 PM Me: "Hey India just checking in I know you said you were getting a wax like almost 2 hours ago. Idk how that goes I don't do waxing but again if you can just please work with me on getting my hair done I would so greatly appreciate it. I know your time Is valuable and if I knew this would happen the way it has I would have planned differently. I just don't know what to do at this point and I don't want to go home empty handed. I've been between airports since 5:30 this morning and Houston time is one hour behind Charlotte time so basically since 4:30 this morning. Again I'm sorry for the inconvenience"3:26 PM Me: (Missed my flight back due to waiting for her response from being "too busy getting her vagina waxed" in which she posted about that too on her IG story) "I just wish I would have known before coming to Houston I would have tried to exchange this flight for a late date and different location. At this point I'm desperate because I've gone thru the most today. It's not your fault of course and hopefully something today gives and my luck turns around." 4:31 PM Me: "Should I wait at your shop for you? Hey India everything okay? Still waiting on your call back? Do you need me to wait at the salon suite? I can be on my way if that's the case. Just waiting for an update. Thank you so much for your time. Hey if you could update me on what's going on I would greatly appreciate it. I'm still waiting on your phone call from earlier. Idk whether to stay at the airport and wait or wait for you at your salon" She finally calls back at 5:59 PM Keep in mind she's been hard to reach all day but had been avidly adding posts to her IG story all day. She lets me know that she has a nail appointment and that she would call to see if she could reschedule the nail appointment and do my hair first. WHHEEWWW! We were getting somewhere at that point! ... well that's what I thought. It's not surprising that I didn't get a call back but I checked IG and of course here I see a post of an Asian lady deligently working to work on India's feet. She posted again 2 hours later complaining about the drive thru at Sonic whilst I her client is still at the airport waiting for any type of acknowledgement. So I call twice got no answer and she calls back. She says "My phone died and when it turned back on you were calling and I guess you were calling the whole time but this my day off I don't even take customers on Monday and if something isn't worth my peace I won't do it. (At that point I was confused because I had done nothing wrong) She continued I did my part and that was the appointment. This is not on me." I respectfully let her know that "I understand about her time and appointments and also the fact that she could have shared with me that she didn't take Monday appointments. I would have been eager to schedule on a different day to avoid all issues. I let her know that I'd been here all day waiting for her to give me a direct answer of it she would or wouldn't do my hair. Even if it was late I didn't want to leave Houston with absolutely nothing done. That's not an option I came here with." India: "My husband is out of town and I have my kids" Me: "Okay??? So bring them." India: "Oh I've have had girls say that and they end up complaining anyway" Me: "At this point how can I complain about anything my flight was late. You are a packaged deal I get it. I don't have a problem with your kids being there I just want my hair done like I came for. I've waited all day and I'm willing to pay more" India: "I've had girls say that too and they don't pay more" Me: "So after all this day there's just no way you can do my hair because you have your kids and because of certain people your unable to work with me even though I've traveled this far. India: "Yeah I did my part the only I can do is defend your deposit. I've had girls say everything you said I've had girl come crying to me on the phone and they end up bashing me. Let me feed my kids and if I feel up to it I'll do it if not I'll send you your refund." I got off the phone and I immediately went to check on the next flight smoking! I had felt so disrespected, and made so small that I decided that I didnt even want this person to even touch my head anymore even tho I didn't want to leave empty handed. Like her personal time was so important my dignity was just as important even tho it was cheapened by the events that took place. Then to hear in my voice how upset I am and mock me is just insensitive and rude. read more