Complain, complain, complain

This has nothing to do with babies. I'm just complaining.

Customer service used to be something that a business would take pride in. I'm not so sure any more. Whatever happened to: "the customer is always right"?

I'll preface my story with a positive. I just went to World Salon downtown and had a fabulous experience. They certainly seem to believe that customer service is something to take pride in. They also believe in protecting our environment, and they have a cool little salon.

Jevon had Alexa for the day so that I could have a relaxing day to myself. And the first part of my day certainly was good: cool new haircut; pretty new highlights; fun salon experience... And then I decided to go for a pedicure. My heels are cracked and scratchy and my nail polish was abominable.


I had a terrible experience at L'attitudes Salon in the Eaton Centre.

The aesthetician sat me down in a seat and someone's entire cup of cold coffee spilled from a shelf onto me. I was covered from breasts to knees. The little shelf was unsteady and the very act of me sitting down made it topple.

To her credit, the aesthetician tried her best to soak up the coffee and used a hairdryer to dry my clothes, but I was still soggy and felt disgusting. Cold coffee had soaked through half my shirt, the entire front of my pants, half the back of my pants, and my underwear. Coffee in your undies is a terrible feeling. It just felt dirty. I was mostly dry by the end, but the coffee was still soaked into my clothes. I was wearing a brand-new shirt, too! I hope I can get the coffee stain out.

The aesthetician finished my pedicure, and to be honest it wasn't a great pedicure. But she knew that I wanted to get home and she did it quickly for me, so I guess that counts for something.

When I got to the counter to pay, I asked for a discount to offset the cost of drycleaning the coffee off my clothes. The aesthetician said that she couldn't do it, but she talked to her manager. The manager told me that I had cost them an extra client because it took "so much time" to clean me off (it took two minutes, and in the end I wasn't at all clean and wasn't even entirely dry), and that it wasn't fair for them to lose money for an accident. Sure, it was an accident. But it could have been avoided if A) the shelf had been steady or B) someone had cleaned up the leftover coffee. However, the manager made it abundantly clear that she felt that the accident was my fault.

I fully expected them to at least offer to pay for my dry cleaning or at the VERY least to offer an apology and perhaps a discount. Instead, they told me that I was an inconvenience because someone else left a coffee on an unstable shelf and it fell on me. I was furious, filthy, and still a little damp. And worse, my heels are still scratchy!

It certainly put a damper on an otherwise lovely day of pampering.

When I got home, Jevon was waiting to admire my hair (good man) and Alexa was thrilled to see me (sweet girl). That cheered me up immensely. But I'm still seething a little about the level of customer service.

Am I overreacting? Is customer service really on the decline?