My wife and daughter went in to meet with Gabriel to discuss options for her very curly/frizzy hair. My daughter is 15 years old and very unhappy with her current look, and Gabriel said that there were many options for her. When my daughter went in the next week for her styling, however, he never discussed styling options with my daughter, but instead said, "let's do a trim", and preceded to do a small cut, and then put her hair in a wet braid. My daughter, who is very shy didn't say anything during the process, but upon picking her up we were appalled, not only by the fact that Gabriel didn't even attempt a style, but that he charged her $79 for basically nothing. We called immediately to say we wanted to take her back in to get the kind of styling we had discussed previously, but they could not fit her in on that day, so we asked for a new appointment, but for no additional charge since we had not got the type of styling we had been promised. Engima flat out refused to make good on their satisfaction claims, refusing to give her a styling for the amount we already paid. The most upsetting part that the excuse they gave why they couldn't give her a new style without paying all over again was that she "deviated from what they had discussed when she was in the chair." The entire process has been traumatic for my daughter who was looking forward to a great new hair style, and now feels awful because she didn't feel confident speak up for herself as Gabriel proceeded to work on her hair.
... Now that Gabriel has responded, my daughter wishes to comment on Gabriels points.
1. Time of consultation. Gabriel said it was one hour.
My mother and I were there for 15 minutes. We had eaten at Jin Glatt and stopped into Enigma afterward. My mother had to leave for work so we were paying attention to the time.
2. "I wanted my hair long, and my mother wanted it short."
Not true, we wanted to know what he thought would look good.
3. "She was not shy in stating she did not want to go short and demanded to keep it long"
Before I saw Gabriel I was brought to the lady who washed and deep conditioned my hair. When I was brought to Gabe, I thought he would make some suggestions on styling, Instead, he just asked, "do you want a trim?" and I said OK. He then said that I was one of his only clients that don't talk much. That was the extent of our conversation.
4. "She did not want to have her hair blow-dried, so we gave her a complementary braid instead."
After the trim, he never offered a blow-dry, he just said, "How about we put in a nice braid?" I said, "OK."
5. "She wasn't happy with the braid, and she was incredibly difficult to work with."
After the braid was done, I said "I don't like middle part," and he said "Oh, you can take it out." I then said, "Thank you, paid and left."
6. "So we gave her the deep conditioning and braid for free, and only charged her for a long haircut."
No, he charged $79 for everthing.
7. "Later on you wife called and wanted us to redo the entire service for free."
My mom called as soon as she saw the haircut. She wanted him to take her back in to style it, but he said he didn't have time. My dad then called and spoke to the receptionist who said that he'd like to make another appointment with Gabriel to give me a style like my mom and I had discussed during our consultation, but he didn't feel he should have to pay for a whole other cut. She said that she would speak to Gabriel after work hours and leave a message with us saying if the appointment was made, and if he would agree not to charge again. (We would not be able to pick up the phone because Shabbos was that night and the next day and they were closed on Sunday and Monday and Passover started Monday night.) We got a voice message that they made an appointment for me on April 19th, but they didn't mention how much it would be.
8. "Recently you (my dad) called and stated that you wanted an appointment to have the hair style done for free."
No, Enigma phoned us to say we had the appointment days before. My father called to see if Gabriel had agreed to do it for what we'd already paid.
9."During the phone conversation you were explaining her special needs."
What special needs? He said I was shy and didn't speak up to say I wanted a style, not a trim and a braid, but I figured that Gabriel knew what he was doing.
In the end I got a beautiful style at Ulta. It cost less and they were very nice. I would actually like to forget about the whole thing at Enigma, but I don't appreciate being called "special needs" and having to read all of this BS, so I wanted to set the record straight. read more