We booked the entire salon for a large wedding group well in advance for several pedicures/manicures and even a few massages. We were allowed to bring our own champagne and goodies. They were very helpful in booking the event for us on a Friday morning and had very reasonable prices and were friendly over the phone. The atmosphere was quaint and cute. The receptionist was very friendly, however, the person who we came to find out is the owner of the establishment, Dawn, was very rude on several occasions to me and to other family members of the bride when we finally arrived on Friday morning.
When the list Dawn was given by the bride, about the number of pedicures and manicures we had anticipated was off by one manicure (there was some misunderstanding and she was no longer getting a manicure), I, the maid of honor and a patron, was scolded about how I needed to respect the fact they had set aside timelines for a specific number of people. But the hypocrisy in this came when they were drastically understaffed and underprepared for us and were disorganized for our party. Not only that, but I had told her that there was someone else who wanted a manicure in this person's place, and therefore, her count would be the same. I also explained some people on this list were coming later to get their services. We told them this on purpose - not to rush to all come at the same time since there weren't enough pedi chairs for everyone at once anyway. It didn't matter. The owner was still pretty mad. I was pretty pissed to start the day off with a service industry owner chastising her customers before even starting a service! At least she didn't vent her frustrations out on the bride!
But then it got worse.
They only had one person doing pedicures and one person doing manicures for the first half of the morning. We had over a dozen people having services done! We were told in advance they only had two pedicure chairs and would have to stagnate the people, which we were fine with, but then to only have one person at a time, it was frustrating. Not to mention, Dawn, who was giving the manicures, was very rude, telling me that my old UV gel manicure, which I asked nicely for her to remove, causes cancer as she mocked my nails for needing air, etc. SO RUDE for a patron paying good money! I was no longer interested in her criticizing "small talk". I was very unimpressed and insulted. Who needs that?! Just do my nails and be nice!
Then, she didn't clean my cuticles. I had a very obvious hangnail after she was done that was not removed. My left hand didn't match the length of my right hand. I mean, some very basic stuff. Not cool, for someone who just wanted a plain buff, no polish manicure. I ended up redoing my own nails after the fact. I could have done this myself. This rating would only be 1 star, if it weren't for my lovely pedicure given to me by a friend of the shop owner (she has friends?) who just happened to help out that day (because the owner hadn't planned well enough accordingly). She wasn't even an employee of the shop, but helps out here and there. Her name is Candice and she does excellent work and makes you feel very much at ease and lets you be yourself. Also, Vivienne (sp?), who did the bride's pedicure was very friendly and accommodating. She added glitter polish after the fact as a special request. She was very friendly.
All in all, they pedicure girls worked hard, but we spent a really long time in there - much more than we had anticipated. It took so long, that several girls opted not to have services done at all. At one point, Dawn, who was doing the manicures, disappeared. Then there weren't any trash receptacles provided for us to clean up after ourselves, as we were TOLD to do by Dawn. She really needs a good lesson in civility and manners and customer service.
I probably would go again for a pedicure by Candice, but only if Dawn wasn't working there that day. read more