| rev:text
| - I booked a pedicure & a gel manicure here well in advance of my May 21st wedding. There was an initial slowdown in communications when a manager apparently replied only to my original contact & didn't copy me on the message, but I resolved that & was assured that a gel manicure would look great & not chip for at least a couple of weeks, so that getting it two days before my wedding in Las Vegas would be fine.
I came in on May 19, the day before we were set to depart, & it took them some time to find my appt because they had another customer with my given name (very rare, admittedly) & had booked me under her account despite numerous emails I had sent w/my full name.
Paula did my gel manicure (OPI Axxium). She was very rough with the tools, but I know my cuticles were kind of out of control--still, it was probably the most painful manicure I've had in recent memory. I had never had a gel manicure before, & I thought at the time that she was applying it very thickly, but had no basis for comparison. She had me put both hands in a UV device that I later learned is only intended to cure one hand at a time; when she was finishing up, my pinky nails weren't cured at all & she took off half the gel w/acetone while trying to wipe them down, so she redid them, but she didn't even try to start from scratch--just put new gel on top of the half-destroyed stuff.
Then she passed me off to Lisa, who was doing my pedicure. Lisa commented that the manicure had been done really quickly--much more quickly than they'd scheduled for, so I spent about 45 minutes waiting for my pedi.
The pedi was good quality but I found Lisa pretty grating--she had a really jerky, abrasive manner while talking to me, & I felt like I was being questioned about the validity of my career path at points.
The next day, my gel manicure starting showing visible cracks in three different nails. I called the salon & got a bored brush-off from some guy who said there weren't any appointments for the day, regardless of when I was leaving for Vegas. I sent an email to the manager I had previously spoken with, but didn't get a very quick response.
I was fortunate enough to find another salon in town that was able to squeeze me in that afternoon & fix it. The first thing they said when they saw my nails was that the gel had been applied MUCH too thickly--when they fixed it, I also discovered that my original manicurist had only done one coat of color rather than the two she should have done--no wonder it was done so quickly! (It also should have been cured one hand at a time, & Lisa had DEFINITELY not left the UV on long enough for the individual coats, either.) It took awhile to find this out because it took over half an hour to get the original way-too-thick gel OFF. At one point my new manicurist actually called over another woman to "get a load of" the incredibly bad job.
I did eventually get a call back from the manager at Studio Z offering to refund my money for the manicure & apologizing--she was obviously very sorry about it, unlike the guy I'd spoken to in the morning. However, after having a COMPETENT gel manicure, it was clear to me that Paula at Studio Z had no idea what she was doing. I consider it extremely irresponsible of the salon to offer a service like that with untrained personnel.
I actually held off on writing this review until the refund process was complete--& that's why they're getting ONE star instead of two. After returning from my honeymoon, I phoned the shop to ask after my refund. I had paid with a debit card but nothing had shown up on it. I got some random receptionist to whom I had to explain the whole thing over again because there was no manager to speak to me; I emphasized that I had already been told by Colette that a refund was in the works. The girl was completely silent for about five seconds & then put me on hold for about five minutes. When she came back on the line, she perkily declared that I had reached Studio Z & asked what she could do for me. I pointed out that actually, I was still waiting for my refund & she got flustered about how difficult it is to keep track of the lines on their phones.
She then told me that "unfortunately, Rosie handles all that, & she's not here today." (This was the first time anyone had mentioned such a person to me.) I asked when Rosie would be back, & she didn't know, but declared she would leave a note. Then she started to hang up. I interrupted her with a request for a response time frame, to which she replied, "Oh, hopefully soon!" I said I did very much hope it would be soon since I'd been waiting two weeks already, & hung up.
Two days later, I did get a call from the elusive Rosie, who offered absolutely no apologies (neither had the receptionist) & just confirmed my address. A few days after THAT, I received a check for $40. Why they didn't just refund my card, I have no idea.
I definitely would not return to Studio Z for ANY reason, coupons or no.
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