Back in Oct. 2017 my husband began a new job in Massachusetts while I was preparing our move to the state, along with taking care of our 2 kids. I had packing and cleaning to do, and I was very stressed out because of the whole situation. My husband purchased a gift certificate for me from this business for when we did finally arrive as a family to the state.
We arrived in our new home in mid-Nov. 2017 and I not only had to deal with the usual business of unpacking boxes, moving large pieces of furniture, removing wallpaper and repainting several rooms of this older house, but we also had to deal with a slow insurance company after a deer crumpled our vehicle during the actual move from our previous residence to our new house. Plus, being a mom of 2 middle-school aged kids, and not a retired vacationer whose time is their own, I'm busy driving the kids around town and preparing family meals. Then out-of-town guests arrived for the holidays in the midst of our chaos. It wasn't until Jan. 2018 that I was ready to settle down and make use of the gift certificate my husband had purchased for me only 3 months earlier.
But when I opened the envelope and read the gift certificate, I noted that the therapist wrote "Expires 12/31/17" on the gift certificate! I was shocked! I had never before received a massage gift certificate demanding that I use it before a set date, and I usually get around to using them within 6 months of receipt. When somebody writes "expires" on something, it says to me that I'm supposed to "use it or lose it," that if I don't use it, then I'm supposed to forfeit the money that was spent on it. I was angry and appalled and wrote a different review over this experience on Google about my displeasure over a gift certificate having an expiration date only 2 months after purchase.
I called this woman and she said, at the time, that she would still honor the gift certificate and so we scheduled the massage. But it wasn't until after making the appointment that she found the review on Google and asked me to remove it, which I did. Two days later, I received an email from her saying that she was cancelling my appointment and refunding the certificate money to my husband and that she wanted the gift certificate back. (How tacky!) This wasn't my decision; it was hers! So not only did she not wish to honor the gift certificate that my husband spent the time, effort and money to graciously purchase for me, but she was also refusing to honor my appointment!
She originally asked me to remove the review from Google because she had "never had a bad review before." But by her own actions of cancelling my appointment and refusing to honor a gift certificate are what earns her a brand-new poor review. I have no idea what her motivations were but I can only guess, and I find these actions highly unprofessional. Small businesses, such as this one, cannot afford to push customers away, especially customers who have the potential of becoming regular clients because they live in the area. And in this area where "everyone knows everyone else," this small business owner made a horrible decision to cancel my appointment just because I had initially been unhappy about her idea of putting expiration dates on gift certificates in order to rush people to her office. I know from my own past experience that there are many benefits to receiving massage therapy, and I have had work done by many good therapists in the past. But I also know that small massage therapy offices are competing against the corporate massage therapy places like Elements and Massage Envy and other places that are giving massage therapy a bad reputation. This woman cannot afford to make bad business decisions like the ones she made within this kind of business climate. It is up to HER to ATTRACT customers--not make them angry enough to tell the whole world about their bad experiences with her.
So what began as an intended gift from a husband to his wife ended becoming a cruel rejection notice from someone who was paid to provide a service. Now whenever I drive through the Lenox area and I see her blue attraction signs on the road, I get really angry.
(P.S. Later, I told this story to a day-spa receptionist of a different local business, and she informed me that putting an expiration date of ANY KIND on a massage gift certificate is ILLEGAL in the state of Massachusetts.) read more