tldr: Waste of time. Unprofessional, untrained technician experimenting on me, blamed me for my short nail, then asked for payment and tip before my manicure even started.
I came in for a regular gel mani-pedi, but while I was there I saw a glass fruit nail design on their display. It looked cute, so I asked for that instead. Unfortunately, the salon could not deliver anything close to the display design.
While the technician was trying to do the glass fruit effect on my toes, she kept talking to another technician, and then that technician had to come over and show her how to do it. That made me skeptical about whether she was trained to perform the service at all. If a salon advertises a design on display, the technician assigned to the customer should know how to do it. If they cannot perform the service, they should say that upfront instead of experimenting on the customer and wasting their time.
The result looked nothing like the design they had displayed. When it clearly was not working, instead of being honest or taking responsibility, they blamed me. I was told my nails were too short. Then, during my manicure, I was told I needed to stop moving so much and not talk on my phone. I sat still. A salon should not advertise a design and then blame the customer when they cannot recreate it.
I ended up switching to regular gel polish, and even that was poorly done. My mani-pedi looked messy and unprofessional.
If rubbing lotion on my legs and hands is considered the "massage" portion of the service, give your employees a break. It felt minimal than an actual massage.
The tipping situation also felt inappropriate. I was asked to pay and tip before my manicure was even started. A tip is supposed to reflect the quality of service received. I do not think it is reasonable to ask a customer to tip before they have even received the full service or seen the final result. Their explanation was that they did not want me to mess up my nails after the manicure, but I still had to wait for everything to cure anyway. You can get a tip AFTER my service.
In the end, I paid $60 for the mani-pedi and still left a $10 tip, but there was no acknowledgment or compensation for the poor experience or the time wasted. They advertised a glass fruit nail design they could not execute, assigned someone who appeared to need guidance during the service, blamed me for my short nail when it did not work, and still expected a tip before the manicure had even started.
The technician also asked where I was from and what Asian ethnicity I was. That had nothing to do with my nail service and made me uncomfortable. I was there to get my nails done, not to explain my ethnicity. After finding out I was Chinese, there was no real conversation or purpose behind the question, which made it feel unnecessary and inappropriate. read more