I was pretty excited about finding a place to float around here, since I have a loooong history of severe depression, anxiety, and OCPD/APD. and i've been working on trying to increase my meditation, and the like, and it took me a bit to get it together enough to give it a shot. I wanted to get a package for my dad, in hopes that it would help his combat PTSD, but didn't want to do that until I tried it myself.
I prepaid for my first float on the website and made the appointment. They want you there 30 minutes early, and this is emphasized in multiple places. If you are the least bit late, you will have to reschedule. I rushed to make sure I wasn't late to being 30 minutes early, and was immediately taken into the little waiting room area and given an ipad form to fill out. I filled out the medical information and waiver, then sat and waited. And waited. And waited.
I got to overhear a conversation with someone who came in about their boss being "a dick", another conversation about fibromyalgia remedies. There are also apparently a lot of problems with the computer system, so I heard a few phone calls about that. I got to watch the employee take a smoke break outside, against the glass window of the waiting room, as I continued to wait.
I was already anxious about this, as I'm aware it can be a bit triggering when it comes to dealing with emotions and being able to relax with the sensory deprivation, especially at first. So, my anxiety was ramping up as I just sat there, mentally preparing for how it might be a bit rough at first. 25 minutes into that 30 minutes, and 5 minutes before I was supposed to actually start floating, he came rushing in and said he forgot I was there, and was I ready to watch the video? At that point, I just needed to leave. There's no way I was going to be able to relax when I was that mentally worked up and irritated. So, I left. I was going to just consider my payment a donation, and cut my losses. But after talking to a few friends who float religiously, I decided no, i should get my money back and go somewhere else.
I'm leaving a neutral-ish review because it was an honest mistake. I have a brain injury that has increased my forgetfulness- I get it! But my main beef is that the follow up, and trying to get ahold of someone to get a refund was incredibly frustrating. If you call the office you get the answering machine, which auto-sends a text. I missed a call from someone there so I called back 5 minutes later and got the machine again, got the text again, responded to the text, and did yet another circle of "oh, you need to call the office for this". RIGHT. I DID. THAT'S WHY YOU SENT ME THIS TEXT. I drove up to the office, because it seemed easier, and they were closed and didn't open until 3.
I went back after 3 and the guy there wasn't able to do anything, and didn't really know what to do. I suggested I leave my information and just have the refund taken care of without doing more of this phone tag. I was told i'd still get a phone call in about 30 minutes-- I didn't.
When they screwed up, and I left with a canceled appointment, I should've gotten a follow up call from *someone*, and been offered a refund (or a basic apology and offer to reschedule?). Instead, I had to chase them down, and play phone tag, and text tag, and chat tag. The honest mistake of forgetting a client is there happens (I guess), but the follow up really should've been much better. It's not like I was a frequent customer who had better experiences every other time, and knew this was clearly a fluke. This is the *ONLY* experience I've had at this place, and it was all negative. Part of being a business owner is making sure that when you screw up, you fix it, and leave the client knowing that's not how you generally do business. Otherwise, it's safe to assume it is.
All this to say- try it out! But if you have a similar situation, and they make you wait more than, say, 10 minutes, go out there and see what's going on. It's not that they're just busy-- they've forgotten you're there. Like the dude told me, "you should've come and got me!" I'm not sure why you should have to do that, but you might.
I'm going to suck it up and make the drive up to Ann Arbor and try one of their many float spas and neuro-centers, and hopefully become a regular. read more
