I have never had a worse customer service experience in my entire life. Of all the vendors I worked with for my Martha's Vineyard wedding, none came close to treating me as horribly as Sea Spa.
I hired Salisa's bridal team in February for my October wedding hair and makeup. I sent a deposit and was told I had 3 months prior to my wedding to cancel and receive a refund of my deposit. The scheduling of my trial was extremely difficult and confusing. There were no clear direction as to whom I should contact to schedule the trial. I tried the salon directly, tried the artists directly, tried the artists' respective salons directly, etc. After multiple attempts and a direct call to Salisa, the owner, the makeup artist - who refused to contact me via anything other than text message - finally scheduled a trial for herself and the hair person. At that point, the three month mark had already passed. As someone who has had hair and makeup done a number of times for weddings and events, I gave both the makeup artist and hair stylist the benefit of the doubt (figuring there wouldn't be an issue with their work), and set off on my trial.
I arrived at the salon and the hairstylist, Franco, had only scheduled enough time to curl my hair (i.e. less than 45 min). By the time he had to start on his next client, I ended up with a ponytail and lots of hairspray - nothing else. He encouraged me to come back for a second trial at no cost, however, I still paid the full trial amount. I felt as though he was unprepared, but was still hopeful that he'd be able to create a bridal hairstyle.
I then moved on to the make-up artist. She was extraordinarily pushy and before I had expressed any desire whatsoever about how I would like to look on my wedding day, she was already demanding that my mother and I have eyelash extensions put on (at an additional cost of over $200), rather than just regular strip lashes. She started by doing half of my face - when I finally looked in the mirror I had glitter eye liner and a style that was completely opposite of the picture (of me - with professional makeup) that I had shown as inspiration! When I expressed my dissatisfaction, she told me she would make up the other side of my face with a different look. When she got to my eyes, she remarked that she had NO BLACK EYE LINER! I don't generally wear a lot of makeup, but I'm pretty sure that black eye liner is a staple in a makeup artist's bag. With no black eye liner and two different, unmatched faces, neither how I wanted them, I paid over $300 for the hair and makeup trial.
I tabled the makeup issue, however, I let Salisa know that both her stylists were unprepared for the full price bridal trial.
I returned TWICE more for hair trials - the second trial resulted in hours worth of twisting and pulling and ultimately, again, a pony tail. At the point that I had to pull up YouTube videos to show Franco to create a classic chignon, I knew something was very, very wrong. However, I thought I was locked in to the deposit, so I kept trying to make it work. I returned for the third and final trial and he ultimately mustered an extremely messy chignon. When I told him that it was lopsided, messy, and had too many visable bobypins, he told me I was too picky. My mother and I collected our things and left. VERY FRUSTRATED.
I immediately called Salisa AGAIN and explained the situation. At first she apologized for her stylists, and even claimed that she had never used Franco for a bride before. She offered for me to come back and have another trial with a different stylist (which would have resulted in even more cost and time on my behalf). When I told her I had lost confidence in her team and their capabilities and asked for a refund of the deposit and the trial cost she got defensive and only a refund of my deposit (and 20% off any future Sea Spa services - laughable!). She confirmed my deposit amount both verbally and in writing and told me it would be sent shortly.
Weeks later, when my check finally arrived, it wasn't even for my full deposit (it was shy $28.28). I called the spa, spoke to Salisa once again - she told me it was a mistake and that it was "only bleep-ing $28 dollars" - when I declined to give her my credit card (she had never had my credit card number up until this point - I had paid, and been reimbursed, via check), she screamed at me and HUNG UP ON ME!!
The absolute least the salon could do is reimburse my deposit - but I strongly believe that further compensation is owed. This is by far, the most unprofessional experience I have ever had in my entire life - from the artists themselves, to the owner, to scheduling and everything in between. I have never dealt with such incompetence and then outright rudeness. Brides - beware. Don't waste your time or money. read more