I never write reviews but after my experience at Bitz & Pieces I feel it my duty to inform other cancer patients before they select this salon.
On March 18, 2015 , I finished 18 weeks of chemotherapy for Stage 2 Ovarian Cancer. I was elated.
On March 19th I phoned Bitz & Pieces where I had my human hair wig made to wear during treatment. Athena, the manager answered the phone in a very flustered tone of voice. She asked if she could phone me back in 10 minutes and told me she was having "staffing issues", and generally not a great day. To this point in time, she had been nothing but courteous and helpful to me. More like 20 minutes passed without a call back and I needed to leave for an appointment so I phoned back. I told Athena I wanted to bring my piece in to have it washed and styled and also to have it examined as I had recently noticed that the hair was falling out and you could see through to the netting. She told me to come by and they would take care of everything.
I arrived at the shop and buzzed for entry, it took numerous trys for the door to get opened and when I opened the door, Athena was walking toward the reception desk with and EXTREMELY annoyed look on her face, huffing and puffing in dismay. She immediately spoke to me in a sharp tone, looking impatient before I had an opportunity to speak. I went to the restroom to take off my wig, came out and she called over the technician to look at the wig.
I have fortunately until this point in time, never had cancer, never had chemotheapy and never lost my hair and had to wear a wig so EVERYTHING in this process and journey was new and unfamiliar to me. I came to Bitz & Pieces for expertise, guidance, quality and superior work, support, and ongoing help during my treatment. On March 19th, Athena and her technician literally shattered my beautiful day and left me in tears by their unproffesional, callous and rude behavior towards me.
I explained that I was confused as to why the wig was falling apart since i had rarely styled it beyond an occasional brushing with my fingers. It was more confusion than complaint, having paid $1800 for the piece I was confident that Bitz & Pieces would stand behind their work and take care of my problem.
The technician told me my piece looked 5 years old and that it needed to be rewoven. I agreed. She then explained that it would cost $450 to do so and I should "just go get a synthetic piece" to wear until my hair grew back for 2-3 months. I was shocked that she would make such a suggestion since I was very clear that I would be wearing the piece over the next months while my own hair started to grow. Just because I am bald does not mean I have lost my sense of style, it was extremely disturbing that the staff would brush off my needs as a client. At this point it went from bad to worse.
I explained I was unaware of the questions to ask on hair care, etc, and that I was in a vulnerable condition, focused on my health and had come to the salon for the high quality of service, to which Athena screamed at me, "All our clients are vulnerable".
I eventually left the salon and called the next day to speak with Barry, the owner. Athena screamed at me that she did not have his personal mobile number & did not know his whereabouts. I merely asked if she could get him a message, she then hung up on me!
I phoned back, shocked that Athena hung up on me. She told me that Barry said it was ok to hang up on clients. INSANE!
Barry did call, he did agree that when clients had "chemo brain" he told his staff. Again, I was shocked, "chemo brain", I have no idea what that even is. I was simply asking for the service I was promised.
I complained about the technician, Barry said, "we don't pay attention to her, she's on meds, but does good work". Again, insane!
Barry agree to fix my wig at a reduced price, I was so upset by all these truncations I wrote a review on yelp, Barry phoned and said "we have a problem". I can't have that review online, you're going to get your wig & be happy, so i should be happy to", take down the review.
Since the salon had my wig, I was forced to remove the review fearing that they would ruin my pierce or not give it back.
Now that my hair is growing back, I felt it vital to share my experience so no one else should suffer as I did.
In addition, when i first got the wig, it looked NOTHING like my haircut or color and had to have it redone. read more