I purchased a GROUPON deal for a Global Keratin treatment that was being offered by EBS. The promotion for the treatment was $99. The fine print for the deal was that extra charges may apply for very long or very thick hair. I have neither, so I couldnt pass this deal by. I had never heard of the salon or seen it despite shopping/living in the Elmwood area for about 3 years. When I called to make my appointment, I called at 9:30 am on a Tuesday and it rang a number of times before someone picked up and just said "hello?" in a pretty abrupt voice. Thinking that I must have had the wrong number because who would answer the phone at a business like that, I said sorry, and hung up. About 20 minutes later, someone called me back from the number and said "sorry we missed your call", etc, "can we schedule you for an appointment?" I made the appointment, despite being bewildered about the person that answered the phone, the call back, etc.
Upon arrival, I was greeted by the manager who took my groupon print out and then brought me upstairs to where the hair station chairs where. I sat down and she explained to everyone in the salon how the treatment was administered. Then she told me that there was going to be an extra 50 dollar charge because of the length of my hair, which is just past my shoulders and very fine. I was very surprised and very upset. The manager asked if that was going to be O.K.? I had to agree, because I had already paid the $99 for the groupon so I had no choice.
Then a very young girl took me over to get my hair washed, which was done with ice cold water. To my dismay, the young girl took me back over to the chair as I learned that she would be the one administering the treatment. The entire time the girl was working on my hair she was signing loudly (and badly) along to the bizarre music that was being played throughout the salon. She didn't utter more than 10 words to me throughout our nearly 3 hours together, instead spoke to the other employees as they sat around and watched her work on me. I am usually not one for the chit chat while getting my hair done but I thought that this was pretty rude.
The salon overall was very messy and cluttered. There was a very small work space with only 2 hair stations. The rest of the space was filled with a million couches and chairs, rugs ( rugs in a hair salon?), dead/ dying plants and a ton of mismatched artwork/ statues/ figurines, etc. There was a dining room table in the middle of the room where the hair stations where with a ton of the figurines, and a full set of wine glasses and dishes and bowls (it was unclear what the were doing there).
When I was set to leave, the manager asked how I'd be paying. I told her credit and she said she'd have to take my credit card into the basement to do it on the computer, despite having a seemingly full register on the counter at the entrance. She disappeared into the basement for about 10 minutes and then gave me a receipt on a printed out piece of paper.
Overall, it was a very odd experience- I'm very upset about being charged the extra $50 for no reason. The treatment ended up coming out okay so far. I will see in the coming weeks how long its lasts. read more