Customer Service Bad Dream...

I don't think it has quite escalated to a nightmare...but let's give it a few days.

About two months ago, a Beauty Brands opened up just about a mile from my house. I was very excited about this because they carry salon products that I like and they have the brand of shaving cream that TC has decided he likes. In the past, I've usually just paid my sister to buy the stuff at her store and mail it to me. Now, I've got my own store to buy it whenever I want!

The store had been open about 1 week (should that have been my first clue?) and I decided I was going to schedule a manicure for a Saturday morning. I called on a Monday and scheduled it for the following Saturday. No big deal. My appointment was at 9:00 am so I got there about 8:45 and went to check in.

"What's the name of the stylist you booked with?"

Ummmm...I can remember my own name better than a random one of a stylist. I don't know who they scheduled me with. The poor lady working the computer couldn't figure out how to look through the schedule by customer name instead of stylist name (not real user friendly if you ask me!). So, she looks at all the appointments scheduled for 9:00. My name is no where to be found. Ms. Blonde asks for assistance.

Ms. Brunette says, "What is the name of the stylist that's giving your manicure?"

I still don't know this information. After several clicks of Ms. Brunette's mouse and some keyboard taps, she finds out how to look up an appointment by customer name. What a concept!

Apparently, from the time I scheduled the appointment to the day of my appointment (a mere 5 days, mind you) Kim no longer worked at the company. And no one thought to see if she was scheduled for an spa services?!?

No problem. Another girl was supposed to be coming in at 9:30. She can do a manicure then. Unfortunately, this girl didn't have an appointment until noon, so she wasn't planning on coming in until 11:30. The called her about 10:00 and got this information. She drove as fast as she could and got to work about 10:30.

So, 2 1/2 hours...and one free manicure later, I left.

*******

Now, a few weeks later we found out that TC's aunt and niece (she'll be 14 on June 12) would be coming to visit us for a weekend (it happens to be this coming up weekend!). I've got Friday off and TC has to work the first half of the day. I decided I'd give Beauty Brands another chance and schedule a manicure for all three of us. I scheduled them a month ago.

TC needed some shaving cream so I went to BB yesterday to buy some. I thought, "what the heck...I'll confirm my appointments." Again, the new lady couldn't figure out how to look up by customer name (I thought that the stylists names had transfered to my PDA, but no such luck). She kept asking me if I had three appointments with the same stylist. I told her (4 times, to be exact) that I had scheduled three appointments at the same time with three different stylists...so we could all get a manicure together. This is apparently a difficult concept.

Is it surprising that they only had appointments recorded for two of us? They were able to get the third one scheduled at the same time. I'm still not sure though. I'm going to confirm them again tomorrow.

Then I think I'll be through with their salon services...