These people are clueless as to how to run a business. I asked for a 10 minute massage, and I felt…read morelike even that was too long.
When you first walk in you'll see the usual massage chairs and sofas to wait at. But then they have an old sofa along the back that looks like it belongs in someone's living room. It has an older coffee table in front of it with food and papers and magazines stacked on top and underneath it. There was an old man just sitting there. I'm guessing he was a relative of the business owner. I felt like I was visiting grandpa's house and grandma hadn't straighten up the house yet for company.
I sat at one of the massage chairs and set my stuff down. My first clue that this was going to be a bad experience was when I asked if there was a clip to hold my hair up. The main said no, but handed me a dirty rubber band. I looked at him like he was crazy and shook my head. I should've ran right then, but once I'm in I have feel obligated to do finish the service requested.
I don't even think this guy had a massage license. He started with my neck and kept rubbing it the wrong way. And my hair kept falling into his arm rubbing my neck so that was bothering me too. I finally had to say stop, please move on to another area. He didn't understand me at first and he stopped and started again on the same spot. I sat up and had to wave my hands back and forth to demonstrate the words, "No more. You're hurting me there." He finally got the idea.
He went back to work this time on my shoulders, I was trying to relax and get into the massage but he kept talking really loud in whatever native tongue language he knew with the guy sitting up front and the old man in the back. I was getting really annoyed so I asked, "Do you mind turning on some music?" I don't mind people talking so much if I have some relaxing music to focus on. You get what you pay for, so you can't expect complete silence from one of these walk in massage places.
However the language barrier was horrible. It took several minutes of back and forth repeating myself until they finally understood what I meant. The guy goes, "Oh you like Chinese music! I will put some on for you." He then puts the music on so loud, I can hardly think of anything except that this is the worse massage experience ever. The women's voice was really annoying, and my massage person said, "Do you like it? She's the first lady. And she can sing!" Normally, I'd be able to open to new cultural experiences. But this felt like an attack on my ears, I was feeling my muscles tense up even more. Plus this guys massage techniques were not helping the situation at all. The men started talking again but now even louder to be heard over the music.
I was trying to get through the last of my precious relaxing time but I couldn't take it. "Could you please turn down the music a little?" I asked. He said, "What?" I had to repeat myself several times and again use hand motions to give them an idea of what I was saying. The front desk guy said, "Oh sure!". He then went to the back and turned down the music so low that it just sounded like a mumble in the background. Plus, the men were still talking loudly! I was like, geez. Can we just get this over with? Finally, the guy finished and I was free to go. I paid him only for the services. I didn't give him a tip. He took the money and put it directly into his wallet. Shouldn't that money be going into a cash register somewhere?
I was actually really upset with the whole experience so I went to complain to the front desk guy. I asked where he went and the other guy told me he was in the back. So I went in the back to find him. He was putting water from the sink in the bathroom into the coffee maker with a hose that was connected to the faucet. The bathroom was really old and very gross looking. I don't know what compelled me to stay even a moment longer, but I felt compelled to say something. This felt like the part in a bad movie when the girl gets sucked away by a monster somewhere.
I said, "There's a lot you need to improve if you want to get more business here. Do you mind if I give you some suggestions?" The guy said, "Oh, I don't own this place. The owner is not here today." I asked, "What is the name of this place?" He said, "Its called the Massage Store." Yeah right. I grabbed a business card on the way out, and decided to warn you all out there before you even think about coming into this place. I left there feeling like I was lucky I wasn't kidnapped or something. It was a very bizarre experience. Needless to say, I will not be coming back.
