I'm not a vain person. I'm not into hair, makeup, clothes and shoes. It's just not my thing. Anyway, I have a good friend's wedding coming up soon, and the Book Fair Australia, so I wanted to get my hair chemically straightened again so that it looked nice and neat, and maybe get some extensions put in for some volume as my hair is naturally very thin. If my hair wasn't so unmanageable without it, I wouldn't do it. But my hair is just fuzz, and nothing helps except chemically straightening it. Say what you want about that and how bad it is; I don't care; I'm still going to do it.
That's not the point.
The point of this story is that I made an appointment about a month ago at a salon that I was recommended. It took them about two weeks to confirm the booking. That should have been the first red flag, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. My appointment was today. The salon was in a suburb half an hour's drive from me.
I got there fifteen minutes before my appointment and went in to let them know I was there and maybe get a coffee before my appointment time. I walk in, and they look surprised. One staff member asked, "Do you have an appointment today?" I said, "Yes, an appointment with Lily."
They looked at each other, confused before one said, "Lily isn't in today, and she's not coming in." I said, "Okay, but I have an appointment with her." A staff member asked, "Would you like me to call her?"
"Yes, please; I was supposed to have an appointment with her."
Five or ten minutes pass, and they come back. Then there is an awkward conversation between the three staff members. One says, "No, I can't do that. No, I don't want to."
Red flag number three.
They then come over to me and start talking about the straightening, which I've had many times before, but they are giving me the wrong information. I correct them where I can. They then rephrase what they are saying until they have repeated what I said. I asked, "So i can't get it done today then?"
their answer was, "No sorry, we can't help you."
I got up and walked out.
I drove half an hour out of my way to find out this place was the most unprofessional place ever.
I got home and received a message from them through Instagram saying that I could come in this afternoon and Lily would do my hair.
I politely declined.
Sure, you can say I should have said yes and gone back, making it two hours of travelling in my day. The process of straightening is expensive, so they obviously realised that I would never be returning there and they'd just lost a money pit. If I had gone back, there would be no guarantee they'd do a good job.
It's places like these that take advantage of people. They were unprofessional, rude and had a major communication issue.
So I found a place closer to home and booked an appointment for later in the week.