"I'm never shopping THERE again!" Share your story!

[Kaora]

Comcast
It would cost me $70 to see the "free" streaming NBC (#nbcfail) is offering . At first they couldn't wrap their heads around the fact I'm a cord cutter. Then they told me it was illegal pirating to use a Roku box. Yea  Hulu+, Netflix, and Amazon Instant are all illegal pirates.

If they tried to take my Roku away from me, they'd be minus some hands.  I love the thing, and just got the 2 XS for Angry Birds. The second one is tiny compared to our old Roku XD.

As an addendum, mum has a habit of calling FedEx Smartpost Dumbpost.  Ours is actually pretty good, but I can see why.

[Thuringwethyl]

Background: I used to have long hair, not quite boob-length but almost. Due to a clumsy accident I had to cut it all off.  I've been trying to grow out my pixie and gradually re-shape it into a subtle bob. If my hair is above my shoulders I prefer to have the front longer than the back as anything else reminds me of a bowl-cut. Pixie's tend to be longer in the back (due to the natural hairline) so this has not been a quick process.

After today I'm finding a new hairstylist. My hair had FINALLY reached my jaw and I could get it shaped according to a haircut I liked. I went in with my rows of pictures and instructed him to not touch the front. I told him that I wanted my hair slightly shorter in the back but to keep it subtle; to NOT CUT IT BLUNTLY but to thin the ends out a bit so that it would taper (I have a softer jaw and blunt cuts are too severe).

He immediately snips off the front ends and cuts a blunt stack at the back of my head. When I unbelievingly asked him why he cut the front after I told him NOT TO TOUCH IT he said he needed to blend it in. I asked him to thin out the thick bush at the back of my head and he just cut a higher stack.

I gave up at this point, paid, and left. I went to a different stylist to see what could be salvaged and he told me that the only thing he could do was to smooth it out. The shape that had been cut into my hair wouldn't even support a pixie - so I'm stuck.

I'm just so mad because I was almost there. The months of waiting and cautious trimming had almost paid off and I feel like my hairdresser took that away from me. I'd been going to him since before the original hair accident and I had liked him - but I just don't feel like I can trust him anymore.

[sevenday]

Piggybacking on the last story about the haircut.

Last year, around my birthday, I went in to get a haircut since I hadn't had one in... quite a while at that point.  I wanted a shorter hairstyle that would be easier to maintain for various reasons.  I took a picture in of a sort of a bob style haircut.  The first thing I told the stylist was "DO NOT CUT MY BANGS."  I made her repeat it to me to make sure she understood, even though there was no language barrier apparent.  The reason for this was that my mother decided I needed to have my stick-straight hair permed for my sister's wedding when I was ... eh, 13/14.  In the process, the chemicals used burned off a strip of my bangs, about 1/4'' wide, down to the very roots.  When it finally began to grow back, it basically grew straight up, and never really "fell" naturally across my forehead until after it was really rather long, long enough to reach my eyebrows.  I consciously never cut my bangs shorter than that to avoid the whole sticking-up thing.

She brushes out my hair to get a feel for length, draping my bangs across my face (they were almost the same length as the rest of my hair at this point, so I understood the whole brushing-over to be sure where you're working) - and then grasps a big hank of my bangs and as I'm saying "Uh, I asked you not to -" SNIP.  Straight off, above my eyebrows.  I was PISSED, because she'd just chopped off half my bangs, and the only way to "fix" it was to cut the other half even to the same length.  I immediately demanded a supervisor (there was none, she was the only one working there that day) contact information for the manager, etc.   She just fluttered her hand at me, even though that one section of bang was already visibly beginning to lift above the rest of the bangs.  "Oh your gel will take care of that!"  I informed her icily that I do not use hair product AT ALL.  No hairspray, no gel, nothing that would 'hold' that section of hair down.  Oh yes, and it's right smack in the center of my forehead, too.  Very obvious.  She just said airily, "well now's a good time to start!"

I called multiple times over the following days to complain, but the manager was never in, and as soon as I said it was a complaint they said I'd have to speak to the manager rather than leaving a message or voicemail.  I eventually wrote out a complaint, went to the Walmart the salon is in (one of those Regis SmartStyle or whatever it's called) and spoke to the manager for the whole store. I explained that I understood the manager of the HAIRCUT PLACE is not necessarily a manager for the STORE, but I was getting the runaround left and right.  The store manager confirmed that the manager was difficult to get ahold of, but did still have to report to him for some things, so he would personally hand-deliver my complaint.  I never did get a follow up on that.   

[MariaE]

Thuringwethyl, why did you pay? He did exactly what you told him not to, I'd say that was reason enough not to pay!

Sevenday, you didn't mention whether or not you paid, I hope not 

[sevenday]

In my case, I did, because the one girl was threatening to call security for theft if I didn't.  The rest of the haircut was... OK - shorter than I liked but the only real complaint was the bangs part, and I settled for paying ($8) without a tip (she tried to give me guff for that too)  and I was relying on the whole... getting in touch with the manager thing, thinking they'd give me a refund or something. That never materialized, of course.

[BarensMom]

In my case, I did, because the one girl was threatening to call security for theft if I didn't.  The rest of the haircut was... OK - shorter than I liked but the only real complaint was the bangs part, and I settled for paying ($8) without a tip (she tried to give me guff for that too)  and I was relying on the whole... getting in touch with the manager thing, thinking they'd give me a refund or something. That never materialized, of course.

But now you have just told an entire forum not to go to the Regis inside a Walmart.  Even though you didn't get your money back, you just saved us all from bad haircuts and cost them $$$ in bad publicity.

[Luci]

In my case, I did, because the one girl was threatening to call security for theft if I didn't.  The rest of the haircut was... OK - shorter than I liked but the only real complaint was the bangs part, and I settled for paying ($8) without a tip (she tried to give me guff for that too)  and I was relying on the whole... getting in touch with the manager thing, thinking they'd give me a refund or something. That never materialized, of course.

But now you have just told an entire forum not to go to the Regis inside a Walmart.  Even though you didn't get your money back, you just saved us all from bad haircuts and cost them $$$ in bad publicity.

This won't keep me from going to one in an emergency. The poster had problems with people - the stylist and the salon manager. If she had notified Regis corporate and had not gotten satisfaction, I might be influenced. As it is, if I were in her area, I would want to know which branch not to go to.

[MariaE]

In my case, I did, because the one girl was threatening to call security for theft if I didn't.  The rest of the haircut was... OK - shorter than I liked but the only real complaint was the bangs part, and I settled for paying ($8) without a tip (she tried to give me guff for that too)  and I was relying on the whole... getting in touch with the manager thing, thinking they'd give me a refund or something. That never materialized, of course.

Fair enough - for only $8 I probably would have too, but I'm insanely jealous at your prices! I've never had a haircut cost less than US$50 - ofthen it's closer to $75.

[Mental Magpie]

In my case, I did, because the one girl was threatening to call security for theft if I didn't.  The rest of the haircut was... OK - shorter than I liked but the only real complaint was the bangs part, and I settled for paying ($8) without a tip (she tried to give me guff for that too)  and I was relying on the whole... getting in touch with the manager thing, thinking they'd give me a refund or something. That never materialized, of course.

Fair enough - for only $8 I probably would have too, but I'm insanely jealous at your prices! I've never had a haircut cost less than US$50 - ofthen it's closer to $75.

Same, MarieE, but after a few disasters of cheaper haircuts, I'm willing to pay for it.  I have really curly hair and apparently no one worth* less than $50 a haircut knows how to cut it properly.  I had a similar Wal-Mart hair place story as the "I finally got my hair long enough to look good and they wrecked it!" story.  I finally had grown my hair out to my shoulders, it was looking normal again, and I went to get it cut.  The lady put one layer at about chin height and that was it.  I had hair to my shoulders, and a shelf of hair at my chin; it looked like I had a weird wig sitting on top of my hair.  That was the one and only time I cried about my hair (no qualms about cutting it all off, I had a mohawk after all, just that I had finally gotten it to a good length and then it was all ruined).

*I am not saying that all stylists who charge less are not talented, only that the ones I have visited personally were not.

[Kimblee]

In my case, I did, because the one girl was threatening to call security for theft if I didn't.  The rest of the haircut was... OK - shorter than I liked but the only real complaint was the bangs part, and I settled for paying ($8) without a tip (she tried to give me guff for that too)  and I was relying on the whole... getting in touch with the manager thing, thinking they'd give me a refund or something. That never materialized, of course.

But now you have just told an entire forum not to go to the Regis inside a Walmart.  Even though you didn't get your money back, you just saved us all from bad haircuts and cost them $$$ in bad publicity.

This won't keep me from going to one in an emergency. The poster had problems with people - the stylist and the salon manager. If she had notified Regis corporate and had not gotten satisfaction, I might be influenced. As it is, if I were in her area, I would want to know which branch not to go to.

I like my town's Regis. I go in nervious with no clue what I want, and I leave with my hair pretty and perfect. AND they listen to me when I say "There's no way I'm going to use any product regularly, so this needs to be nice even without." Other than one of them, once telling me that if I want long hair I need to be very careful when brushing and use a leave in conditioner to give it "weight" so it doesn;t blow around and get damaged, I've never gotten an upsell either.

I will never go back to our town's ProCuts though. I have been trying to grow my hair out for years and they not only cut it to my chin (no flattering) they put the dreaded layers back in so i had to go almost a year of trims before I was back to all of it chin length.

[Emmy]

For some reason this morning I thought of my one (and only) experience of a 'facial'. It's not the kind of thing I had money for at the time but it was a gift certificate to the local 'luxury' spa so I thought, why not?

The woman spent the whole. time. telling me all about how dreadfully I am going to age and how *awful* my skin is in order to upsell me a load of products. I know that's where they make their money, but it made it a very unpleasant experience. Also a lot of what she said was just utter rubbish. I have that skin that blushes easily and turns very red with heat, exercise or alcohol so chances are that when I am old I will have lots of broken capillaries in my face. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that, but buying her brand of *cleanser* is never, ever going to make an appreciable difference to it. Note, that I already do look after my skin, just according to this lady not with 'good enough' product. I felt awful that someone had spent a lot of money on this facial as a treat for me and it was just an absolute ordeal. It's turned me off facials forever. Not only that, but several times I have told other people not to use their services and told them why.

The kicker is that although I don't get facials I do spend a steady amount on other treatments (now) and not one red cent of it goes to this place.

Grrr that makes me so mad. I will absolutely not go back to a place that tears you down in order to sell product. 

Facials are my beauty splurge.  My absolute favorite piece of advice I received was from my current facialist who told me how to take care of my face cheaply but very well.  She actually recommended Neutrogena and Oil of Olay and told me to splurge on a cream exfoliator.  I'm almost 30 and I still have people who think I'm still in college thanks to her advice.

I went to a dermatologist to check a suspicious looking mole out.  The dermatologist also did a lot of cosmetic procedures.  After the mole was removed she started talking about my skin.  I also have fair skin and a few broken capillaries.  She pointed out all that she could find on my face and said I should really do something about it and they are just going to get worse and suggested an expensive laser treatment.  The broken capillaries were the size of a pore and barely noticeable.  I may want to get the capillaries treated one day if they bother me, but I hate when people in the beauty industry try to feel make women feel insecure about their appearance to boost their income.  I figure I can't look that bad because people guess me around 10 years younger than my actual age.  Oh, and she also gave me unsolicited fashion advice by telling me she didn't like my shoes. 

[Iris]

For some reason this morning I thought of my one (and only) experience of a 'facial'. It's not the kind of thing I had money for at the time but it was a gift certificate to the local 'luxury' spa so I thought, why not?

The woman spent the whole. time. telling me all about how dreadfully I am going to age and how *awful* my skin is in order to upsell me a load of products. I know that's where they make their money, but it made it a very unpleasant experience. Also a lot of what she said was just utter rubbish. I have that skin that blushes easily and turns very red with heat, exercise or alcohol so chances are that when I am old I will have lots of broken capillaries in my face. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that, but buying her brand of *cleanser* is never, ever going to make an appreciable difference to it. Note, that I already do look after my skin, just according to this lady not with 'good enough' product. I felt awful that someone had spent a lot of money on this facial as a treat for me and it was just an absolute ordeal. It's turned me off facials forever. Not only that, but several times I have told other people not to use their services and told them why.

The kicker is that although I don't get facials I do spend a steady amount on other treatments (now) and not one red cent of it goes to this place.

Grrr that makes me so mad. I will absolutely not go back to a place that tears you down in order to sell product. 

Facials are my beauty splurge.  My absolute favorite piece of advice I received was from my current facialist who told me how to take care of my face cheaply but very well.  She actually recommended Neutrogena and Oil of Olay and told me to splurge on a cream exfoliator.  I'm almost 30 and I still have people who think I'm still in college thanks to her advice.

I went to a dermatologist to check a suspicious looking mole out.  The dermatologist also did a lot of cosmetic procedures.  After the mole was removed she started talking about my skin.  I also have fair skin and a few broken capillaries.  She pointed out all that she could find on my face and said I should really do something about it and they are just going to get worse and suggested an expensive laser treatment.  The broken capillaries were the size of a pore and barely noticeable.  I may want to get the capillaries treated one day if they bother me, but I hate when people in the beauty industry try to feel make women feel insecure about their appearance to boost their income.  I figure I can't look that bad because people guess me around 10 years younger than my actual age.  Oh, and she also gave me unsolicited fashion advice by telling me she didn't like my shoes. 

It's interesting that this came up again because just yesterday I read a column in which a woman was asserting that she and all her friends have botox treatment entirely and totally of their own volition, without anyone making them feel insecure about their looks at any point ever. Perhaps that's the case for her, but it's certainly not my experience of the beauty industry.

[Elfmama]

It's interesting that this came up again because just yesterday I read a column in which a woman was asserting that she and all her friends have botox treatment entirely and totally of their own volition, without anyone making them feel insecure about their looks at any point ever.

Riiiiight!  Because, hey, who wouldn't just decide someday "Hey, I'm going to inject a deadly poison into my face!  No, no reason, I just feel like doing it."

[redsfan]

I was once getting ready to go to a wedding when I lost power.  I had to shower, so I decided to pop into a salon on the way and hope for the best.  I wasn't familiar with the area, but I finally saw a supercuts.  I decided since I had to have my hair dried, I'd ask for a blowout.  I asked for it, and halfway through the girl decided to just blow dry it.  Great, nothing like no style whatsoever.  Then, she had a runny nose.  While she was running her hands through my hair to dry it, she wiped her snot on her fingers, and then put them back in my hair.  When I got up front, she asked another stylist how much to charge.  That stylist said $10, she said back, no, I think $14.  I shot back, I think $10 is too much.  I paid $10 with no tip.  Never again.

[sevenday]

To those commenting about my haircut problem (the one inside the walmart) they're called SmartStyle, but they're owned/run by Regis.  Regis Corp never really got back to me on that, either - they tried to palm me off to the same manager who was not responding to my calls or attempts to complain.  Recently I've noticed they've cut the hours in that salon - probably because they're not getting customers due to questionable training and practices.  The $8 price was a promotional thing; their cuts start at $15 or so normally.  There is a Great Cuts about the same distance in the opposite direction that I may try.  A korean family has set up a salon within walking distance, advertising $8-and-up cuts. I may try them next. My roommate has tried them and said they have strong accents, but understood what he was asking for, so I'm optimistic.