Today was one of the worst experiences I have ever had at any establishment. I have been to this nail salon at least a 1/2 dozen times before today, and found it OK, it was in a convenient location so I would go back from time to time. After my experience today, I will not return, and I will also be filing a complaint.
My mom and I had been at a different nail salon waiting for our appointment. We were told it was going to be an additional hour wait, so I decided to call around to other salons to see if we could get in elsewhere. I called Great Lakes and the American man who works there (Tim, I believe) answered the phone. I asked him straight forward "I need a full set and a manicure, is there a wait if we come right now?" He put me on hold for a second to check, and said. "We can get you right in in about 15 minutes." (which was 1:45 PM) So we proceeded to head over to Great Lakes.
When we arrived we found a lobby full of other customers waiting. I was optimistic, maybe they had all just showed up? But that was not the case. When the clock hit 2PM, I was starting to get frustrated. We asked him directly: "Why would you say you can fit us right in if there is clearly a wait for services?" and we were ignored.
At 2:15, I was directed to go sit in a chair. However, that was just to allow space for others who continued to enter the salon and were quoted 15 to 20 minute wait times. About 10 minutes later, I was told to move chairs and an employee (perhaps Tim's wife?) who was visibly frustrated and busy finally began to work on me. We were sitting at the very front of the store. My mom sat next to me, soaking her nails to remove the gel polish she currently had on. I don't think salon's are supposed to use those jars with the sponges in them to remove polish (like you get at the drug store for home use) because of sanitary purposes, but they were using them today.
I was planning on getting a full set of acrylic nails. The employee who was working on me cut down my real nails with little care, and then began to glue on the tips for my acrylics. The employee who was working on me then asked the American man, Tim, to remove the polish and begin working on my mom's nails. My mom and I both looked at each other ... and I immediately asked directly to Tim again, "Are you a licensed manicurist?" and he responded "No, I am not". WTF! My mom refused to let him work on her nails- for obvious reasons. We again asked why we were quoted no wait time and the man has the nerves to say, " I knew I shouldn't have told you to come in."
At about this time, my tips were all glued on (she had not worked on my cuticles, or done any of the usual nail prep) and the woman working on me pulled out a pair of dull scissors - not nail scissors or clippers, these looked like scrap booking scissors and began to cut down my tips when she nicked one of my fingers. She was obviously rushing through my service and not following protocol for proper nail procedures. We were appalled and I could not continue to sit there and allow them to work on me. We left the salon, me with broken tips on all my fingers and my mom with half removed polish, and we will never EVER go back due to the illegal and rude employees at this salon. read more