I unfortunately had a most horrible experience for the entirety of my massage at Leela Traditional…read moreThai Massage, Haymarket. The following took place:
- the massage therapist did not turn up to the massage parlour until 10:58 am. My booking was for 11 am, and the sign on the door to the massage parlour said that it open at 10 am. However, it was closed, and the lights were off, and the massage therapist came running to the door at 10:58 and had to set up before letting me in. She had wet hair when she arrived, so it was clear she had not simply stepped out to buy herself a coffee. Naturally, the massage started late, at around 11:15/11:20;
- after the first 15-20 minutes, I could hear this woman talking whilst massaging me. I said to myself that there was no way she was on the phone, because she was massaging me at the same time, and that she must have been speaking Thai as a chant during the massage or some such. After later events, I was quite sure she was on the phone at this time;
- Another person arrived at the parlour, and then the woman who was massaging me continued to speak to this person throughout the rest of my massage. She spoke quite loudly, was laughing, and left the curtain open so that this other person could see me being massaged. I was fairly sure that this other person was a man, and as a woman laying half-naked (even though lying on my stomach) it was very uncomfortable knowing that a man was probably looking in the entire time;
- this other person constantly passed the phone, when it rang, to the woman who was massaging me in order for her to take bookings, whilst she was massaging me. At times she would walk away, without saying anything to me, in order to write these bookings down. This happened around 5-6 times throughout my massage, and thus it was constantly interrupted by her walking away;
- not only was this woman passed the phone to answer it, but she also left me to answer the phone, to take bookings, and occasionally brought the phone back with her and started massaging me again, whilst still on the phone;
- at times, I could hear this woman eating whilst she was massaging me, presumably passed food by the other person who arrived;
- the woman massaging me, at one point, said "sorry miss, today I am busy". As she was constantly on the phone throughout the massage, I'm not sure if she was actually speaking to me at this time, as she was having multiple conversations in two different languages throughout;
- even though this woman appeared to have good English language skills on the phone (I heard a lot of her conversations ;) ) she would not listen to me when I told her that she was hurting me throughout the massage: I told her this numerous times and the majority of these times she said "oh okay" and continued to massage with the same strength as before. It was incredibly painful;
- whilst she was talking, this woman would pause the massage with her hand, for example, on my arm or on my back. She would continue the massage once she had finished talking.
I booked this massage in order to relax after a stressful exam period, and the entire time I was on edge and in shock with the disbelief of how incredibly unprofessional this "massage therapist" was. Talking to what was presumably a man, with the curtain open so he could see me; eating whilst massaging me; laughing whilst massaging me; running off to answer the phone; taking bookings over the phone whilst massaging me; and not listening when I asked her to please massage me more gently as she was hurting me. It was unbelievable.
I'm extremely disappointed with this experience. It was very, very far from being relaxing, and I felt exposed, vulnerable, on edge, and taken advantage of throughout the entire experience. It was as if I was inconsequential to the masseuse, and other clients and the conversations with workmates were more important than actually giving me the massage I paid for. As a student, this is not an inexpensive treat for me, and it was just awful.
After such an uncomfortable, unprofessional, and unhappy experience, I would like a refund. I would never be a repeat customer to this place, nor would I ever recommend it to anyone else; in fact, I will be advising people not to go there.
