I came to Wisteria Lane on the recommendation of a regular customer and unfortunately had a very disappointing experience, mainly because of the owner's response to the concerns I raised. I should say... Read More
I came to Wisteria Lane on the recommendation of a regular customer and unfortunately had a very disappointing experience, mainly because of the owner's response to the concerns I raised. I should say that I thought Chelsie was great and did a fantastic job with the nail art.
I had a "long lasting polish" manicure at the beginning of January before a holiday. Within about 3 days of the manicure, the gel had started to lift and fall off. Within a week, the polish had fallen off every single nail (in some cases chipping first, in others just lifting clean off). I messaged the salon on Instagram as soon as I returned and received no response. I then had to ring the salon three times before I was able to get hold of the owner/manager, each time being told that she was out and would call me back (she never did).
When I finally spoke to the manager (two months post-manicure), she said that they had checked under my name but never received my Instagram messages. She was unfortunately defensive throughout our conversation. I understand reluctance to accept fault; she was unwilling even to accept the possibility of fault and would not listen to reason. She told me that it was "scientifically impossible" that anything had gone wrong at their end, whether with the product, the application or the preparation. It was a "110% certainty" that they weren't in the wrong and that it must have been something "internal" at my end - medication or hormones, for example, that had made my nails unreceptive - despite me explaining to her that I have never had any other issue with a gel manicure. That is not to suggest that it is "scientifically impossible" that there was some obscure hormonal imbalance affecting me during the month of January that caused the whole manicure to fall off. But it is surely more likely that some innocent mistake was made e.g. while prepping the nails - something which was apparently impossible because the owner remembered (2 months later) exactly how long it had taken Chelsie to do the appointment and would have noticed the difference in minutes of her missing even one step.
A truly bizarre and quite exhausting customer service experience. No apology, nor even any expression of regret that this had happened (regardless of fault). No remedy of any kind, no goodwill gesture, and she said she would not even have redone the nails at the time because I could only have come in 2 weeks after the appointment due to my holiday (despite me having taken pictures as soon as they started falling off). When I informed her politely that I would not be returning and would have to leave a review, she said "that's fine, I can respond to it". I have no doubt that she will do so, but I would take any forensic claims with a pinch of salt.
All in all, would advise against. I have wasted an unfortunate amount of money (£57), time and energy on a manicure that lasted no longer than 3 days.
A couple of other minor things to be aware of:
- Nail art is listed on their website as costing "from 50p per nail". I accept that my design was relatively complex, but when I went to pay at the end I was charged the equivalent of £2 per (for a squiggly line on each nail) - make sure you confirm the price in advance because this was more than I've ever paid, even for more complicated designs.
- You have to pay in cash or by bank transfer, which I found unusual and was not warned of in advance. Read Less