7/10. This review was made after the visit, as my experience here still bothers me to this day.
Service was great, customer service experience was not.
I was spoken badly about in their Native tongue and I'll explain.
The lady who did my pedicure was very sweet, very gentle. The regular polish on my toes lasted about 2.5 weeks but I'm also not a sandal or flip-flop girl so that might've helped! They scrubbed my legs and the soak was pleasant... She also offered me refreshments... Cảm ơn nhiều Chi!
I also bought their manicure (polish) service, but since the salon just opened they were offering a 20% off on everything so they were understaffed and overwhelmed with walk-ins; I waited about 10-15 minutes to get off the pedicure chair for my manicure.
When I had gotten up, I forgot the bottle of polish was in my lap, it fell and shattered on the floor - honest and genuine mistake, I felt terrible. I didn't want anyone else to clean it up for me but the other ladies there insisted I stayed away from the mess as the glass could cut me. Very thoughtful.
But to make me feel worse, the lady who was doing my manicure (which I assumed was also the owner / co-owner since she was running around and delegating everyone) was speaking about me in Vietnamese**...
(**Little did she know, I am too Vietnamese, it is my native tongue)
She said (translated into English) that I "had broke the whole nail polish bottle and made a mess, and that they were so busy they didn't have anyone or the time to clean it" (which I understood, that's why I wanted to clean it myself). She kept repeating this to everyone else, who stayed silent while she expressed her irritation with me.
When she started my manicure, it was very rushed. I don't get my nails done often, but my mother was a Nail Technician so I'm more than familiar with the process.
She took my cuticles off by scraping them horizontally across my nail with the cuticle cutter instead of pushing them back with the cuticle pusher and trimming off the dead cells. It left my nail bed scratched/uneven and I had hang nails the following days after. The water for my hands was also cold. She did not buff my nails, nor did she cut away at the dead skin surrounding them. The most she did was file them down and get the stuff from under my nails.
Throughout the manicure, she tried starting typical conversation of "Where are you from; how old are you?" And I answered back to her in Vietnamese: "Em hai mươi ba tuổi, sinh ra ở Annapolis" (I am 23 years old and I was born in Annapolis).
After realizing I understood her language, she changed her attitude with me; becoming very accommodating, patient, and friendly... I'm a car mechanic so the sides and corners of nails are always dirty with grime and oil. She then tried extra hard to clean them up but I told her not to worry about it at that point... I was very uncomfortable.
I also told her I no longer wanted my nails polish after seeing her demeanor and attitude change when she realized I spoke Vietnamese but she kept trying to get me to pick another color, which I did not want to touch another polish bottle.
I didn't mind waiting for my manicure - like I said they were busy and understaffed.. but before you charge someone for a lack-luster manicure service and talking about them behind their back, maybe try to understand we're all human... mistakes happen...
All the other ladies and gentlemen in there were great. I wish I had gotten the name of the lady who spoke about me, but I'm sure if you visit this store, you'll know exactly who I'm talking about.
I don't normally post reviews like this, because not everyone who works at a nail salon are likely to talk about you, because you know, they shouldn't.
And I'm sure they perform great manicure services! That day just wasn't to expectation, which is upsetting because as stated before, I don't get my nails done often... and the one time I did, I had an awful customer service experience. I won't be coming back here for that. read more