Oh help..

[lady R]

Hello all,

Need some advice regarding promotions run by the Hair and Beauty Group. I saw an Free Manicure Offer in You and Your Wedding and though it might be a good way to get business. I rang them, they were very nice and told me to look at the website, I couldn't load all the pages but it seemed good.

The woman on the phone said it was £200 for a lifetime membership and every month one of a various amount of publications will run an offer, They collect the clients details, forward them to me and I provide the freebie. But it costs me £4 for each client as a "referral" fee.

Ideally once they come through the door there is a chance of them coming back or booking more and they can only use one voucher per year - so no fleecing!

However after chattig to them today and them dropping the fee to £100 I looked on the website, which was working and on the membership page itsays the fee is only £100 (not the £200 she said initially) but a monthly fee of £20 - she didn't mention that on the phone!

I am ringing back tomorrow to clarify but in essence - have I done a bad thing here? Has anyone else done this? Oh help.....

 

[Lynne Baker]

OK, so the first thing to do is to not commit to anything on the phone tomorrow. Ask them to send you the contract in writing, and if you don't feel happy about anything in it don't sign it.

 

[lady R]

Too late, they took my credit card details......is it too late to cancel?

 

[Lynne Baker]

Nope. Call your credit card company to cancel the payment. And I think you have a cooling off period under the Distance Selling regs of 7 working days.
The Office of Fair Trading: Distance Selling Regulations

 

[Bombalurina]

I worked at a salon which was a member of the beauty group, and we got loads of clients through them. It does seem expensive, as each month we might get anything from 2 leads to 200!! It's then up to you to contact them to offer them the treatment (To let them know that they can claim their freebie through you), book it, carry out the treatment, and get them back in for more! We did it for about 2 years and thought it was working well...but when we actually sat down and looked at the figures, only about 4 had become clients that had revisited!!!!!! So in 2 years we'd paid a small fortune, offered loads of freebies, and got virtually nothing out of it.

I think if you're a brand new salon and you're great at promoting yourself, your services, etc then it's a brilliant way of getting your name out there, because you never know how many people those freebie clients are going to mention you to. But for us it was an expensive exercise that really didn't do anything.

They did, back then, offer a training day when you signed up, to help you get the most out of the membership. I found that really helpful, and it was very inspirational...Gave us lots of ideas for promotions etc.

If you've not signed anything then you should be entitled to a refund if you want it. I think it's something that's worth trying out for a few months...can you see if they'll let you do a trial with them? You never know, you might be able to make it work for you...

 

[number1kitty]

I did this too, cost me £200 joining fee and paid a fee per client. It varied month by month what I got in terms of clients.

Its hard to convert thses people as they are often the people who cannot normally afford to visit a salon regularly. These sort of offers are also exploited now by moneysaving expert website where consumers tell each other about all the freebies on offer. So people looking for a treat are doing just that for FREE!

If you want to do this its far better to offer the same advert in your local paper. They will advertise it for you for free anyway as they will sell more papers that day because of the offer.

It is proven though that buy one get one free offers are far more effective than any other type of promotion. If they pay for their first treatment and get their second free, then thats twice that they visit you, and twice you get to sell yourself.

From here offer them their next manicure/treatment at 50% off, then 25% off etc. This builds up the relationship with your potential clients.

Kate

 

[lady R]

God you guys are GREAT!!!

Calla - can I just check, if its a business to business verbal contract do I still have 7 days cooling off?

And when phoning my credit card do I just tell them I changed my mind and to cancel it?

Spot the business newbie here huh!!!

Thanks again!

 

[number1kitty]

God you guys are GREAT!!!

Calla - can I just check, if its a business to business verbal contract do I still have 7 days cooling off?

And when phoning my credit card do I just tell them I changed my mind and to cancel it?

Spot the business newbie here huh!!!

Thanks again!

You dont need to tell them any reason, they should just return it no questions asked. I actually thought you got 14 days as a cooling off period, so good to know the actual time limit! I learnt something too lol!

Hope you get it sorted xx

 

[Blue Rose]

I nearly signed up with these people myself a couple of years ago but decided against it.

It's a funny old business, this doing freebie treatments. I've participated many times over the years with Andrex, Aero etc etc & I find that almost all clients come in for the freebie, never to be seen again :irked:.

What I do now instead, which works really well is run competitions in local shops (& ladies evenings). I have a main prize, & some other smaller runner up prizes. I'm currently running one at the moment & out of 24 entries, 6 have made an appointment & 2 of those have rebooked. The letters were only sent out last week so I know from past experience that out of those 24 entries we will end up with 4-6 regular clients, which is not bad for a few free treatments.

I also do reader offers as mentioned by number1kitty in our local evening paper which is another way of bringing a fair few peeps through the door.

I think you are best off saving that joining fee & monthly fee & using that money to better effect.

 

[emily22]

Hi there,
Im no expert but if they didnt tell you about the monthly fee then its been mis-sold to you surely! If you have any trouble cancelling the agreement and getting your money back from the company then i'd assume the credit card company have to be equally responsible so you should be able to claim back from them instead...

I would firstly ring the advertising firm and speak to someone senior, explain how all was NOT made clear to you and that you expect the agreement to be fully cancelled and any fees refunded. Take down the name of who you speak to and keep a brief log of your conversation with them. I'd also put your complaint in writing asap (ask for their head office details to write to). Keep a copy of your letter and send it recorded delivery.
Secondly, id contact your credit card company and see what they say, you may very well have a 14 day cooling off period and may be able to cancel easily under this..

I know i probably sound like id be over reacting but i've been stung so many times, so i always try to cover my back in situations like this BEFORE things get complicated, that way, if things dont go smoothly you've done everything you need to to give yourself back-up!

x

 

[Elaine143a]

I also belonged to this scheme several years ago, and like the above postings, did not find it particularly successful. Very paperwork heavy (in my opinion), and generally attracted the sort of clients you wouldn't want to invest time and effort in (if you get my drift). I cant remember exactly, but dont think I gained any regulars from it.

 

[lady R]

Hello all

well initial update....

phoned credit card and they said they couldn't do anything as payment had already gone through so ring the company.

Rang the company and cancelled it - all fine, then a few hours later rang to say they had some more postcodes in my area if i would like them and as my details were already live they had 3 referalls already for me. And my £100 was now an 'admin fee' as they had wiped the membership and monthly fee for me and was non refundable????? And so why not go ahead and see how it goes...

They said the best thing to do was offer the mini mani but offer to upgrade it to a full mani for a fiver or tenner and then loyalty card them with further discounts like recommend a friend get 20% off for both of you or 10% next treatment, that kinda thing.

They were so very nice and friendly and helpful and very persuasive .....I kinda said ok.......

Bugger....I gotta toughen up! On the bright side (ha ha) if it works great - I only need 3 full sets to recoup the cost! If not then I'm outta there and have only lost £100.....

I've lost more than that with other advertising in the past....

I just can't tell the hubby.....

 

[number1kitty]

They are lovely people who own and run it. I know I been out with them all at the show lol! They bought me dinner nice of them hey!!!

Ask to speak to charlie or simon in future if you find it isnt working.

Charlies the founder and Simons his sidekick.

Kate x

 

[Cathie!]

I lost more than I made with them, as has been said the clients may well upgrade their initial service, if you get them through the door in the first place, but not one became a regular client for me when I had the salon.

Sorry to be negative about it but that was my experience of it.