Unhappy client

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SkinDoll

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2014
Messages
114
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Location
S.Yorks/Derbyshire
Hi guys, wondering if anyone's experienced a similar situation that could shed some light on it for me!

So I had a girl in for ombré with a root touch up on Saturday, new client to the salon who'd come in for a full consultation previously. Skin test was fine, strand test lifted well and without breakage, client seemed very happy with our colour decisions for both roots and ends, and very accepting of the fact that I couldn't perfectly match box colour and cannot achieve a platinum blonde ombré in one lift after home colouring for a long time. She then continued to send lots of pictures for her end aim result in the days leading up to the service.

Saturday comes around, client comes in, is cut & coloured, pays & leaves. She then barrages the salon with calls and Facebook messages on Monday and Tuesday, stating that she's not happy with it, listing a lot of various issues that she has with it. She's not happy that her roots don't match (which I am kicking myself for matching her ends rather than her mid-band), uneven cut, not enough feathering, ombré not how the photoshopped picture looked etc etc.

She's threatening small claims court, and wants a refund, and is leaving me voicemails on my personal phone (as I called her on my day off on Monday). [emoji31]

She's not mentioned scalp or hair damage, which is a saving grace with regards to the claims court from what I've read. I've offered to look at it and correct any issues, another stylist has offered to correct it, and we're considering a refund just to get her out. She's turned down the first two options now (after making and cancelling two corrective appointments) and is refusing to come into the salon to collect the refund or allow any of the staff to evaluate her hair, she wants to send her boyfriend in to collect it! The refund in my opinion, is not an issue, though I don't want to admit liability (as the issues are SO easy to correct) main concern is social media slandering, as we all know these days that bending over backwards for a client is not necessarily the be all and end all with regards to court cases and bad reviews.

Can anyone give me any advice on where to go from here? Sorry if my message is jumbled, I'm a little shook up as I've never experienced anything like this before. I have pictures from both me and her, but would prefer to send via message rather than put it out there.
 
Do you think you did wrong.....ie, were you pleased with the result, or did you cross your fingers as she left!
Not judging.....we've all been there. :oops:
If you think the result could have been better, I'd try to get her back so as I could correct/improve it..... if she refused, to be honest, I'd just refund,
The problem nowadays is social media!
It's a Devil when someone wants a rant.....they can do so much harm, and cause such distress. :(
Let the boyfriend collect the refund, make sure you get him to sign that he's received it, and brace yourself.
Once she has her money, she'll probably disappear......fingers crossed! :cool:
 
With regards to the overall finished look, I can comfortably say yes. However, with hindsight, I'd have ignored the red tones and replaced with something with more gold to match with her most recent band (resulting from her most recent foray into box colour). Which is super easy to correct, which is why it's irritating to me in that she won't come in for me to correct. Argh.

Thank you for the quick reply RedStar :)
 
I wouldn't be giving a refund in those circumstances and certainly not to the boyfriend on her behalf.

She needs to grow up and stop being a drama queen and someone needs to say 'No' to her. I appreciate that you don't want to be that person and that's up to you.

It sounds like you were very honest with her in what could be realistically achieved without compromising the hair, and if all she has to complain about is not getting it to platinum, then obviously, she has no case.

The small claims court is for the victims of dishonest or incompetent tradespeople as an opportunity to get their money back. They have to prove they have been unfairly treated. Having unrealistic expectations regarding her hair colour is not a good enough reason to issue a refund and the courts will not support vexatious claims.

Personally, I'd offer to re-do once for free and that would be my only offer in her case.
 
I wouldn't be giving a refund in those circumstances and certainly not to the boyfriend on her behalf.

She needs to grow up and stop being a drama queen and someone needs to say 'No' to her. I appreciate that you don't want to be that person and that's up to you.

It sounds like you were very honest with her in what could be realistically achieved without compromising the hair, and if all she has to complain about is not getting it to platinum, then obviously, she has no case.

The small claims court is for the victims of dishonest or incompetent tradespeople as an opportunity to get their money back. They have to prove they have been unfairly treated. Having unrealistic expectations regarding her hair colour is not a good enough reason to issue a refund and the courts will not support vexatious claims.

Personally, I'd offer to re-do once for free and that would be my only offer in her case.

I'd be asking myself why she is not willing to come in for you to look at??
You have done your part. I wouldn't refund. She was happy when she left. She has no scalp or hair damage from the service. I think she just chancing it. And maybe coloured it at home again
 
I don't think she should be calling the shots and refusing to come in for her refund. It def sounds like she has done something since her appointment. I think your boss should call or email and say this is salon policy & she can come back for a free redo. If she turns that down and demands her refund then she needs to come in for the hair to be assessed as details will need to be forwarded to your insurers. ( obviously you don't have to involve insurance but whose to say she won't decide to take further action in the future, so you need to see exactly what is wrong before you can decide if a refund us warranted or every client will do this! She can't just send her boyfriend in, if she wants it that bad then she needs to come in herself! Stand your ground.
 
As awful as it is forget social media slandering, would you call topshop shouting about how your jeans aren't right and demand a refund without the shop looking? They'd laugh and put the phone down! Stand your ground and give her the options or your basically admitting you messed up which I'm sure you didn't! Hope all goes well X
 
Oh no! Sorry this has happened to you. I'll echo what others have said.
Offer to correct it for her for free, and thats all. No more you need to do.
You and your other loyal clients know you and your skill.
For her to be so unreasonable shows the type of person she is so people will realise this too when shes ranting.
I bet shes put something else on it so won't dare come in! X
 
Thank you all for your great replies. I can always rely on geeks for good advice :)

It's upsetting me a lot, I feel myself questioning my skill even with regular clients, so I just want rid really. She's still refusing to come in to have it corrected or even looked over, so I'm going to refund her I think. Even though it seems like giving in to a bully, the amount of calls/messages/threats just don't seem worth it to drag it out.

Does anyone have any good advice for a contract for her to sign upon receipt of the refund? Although I know it isn't legal, it's be good to have something in writing to show that we've offered every possible course of action to rectify the situation?
 
Or even what details to take in case of involving insurance etc? Thanks xx
 
I wouldn't refund. I'd be asking myself why she doesn't want you to see her. Sounds like she has either gone and coloured it herself again or that she has had it done again elsewhere and didn't want to pay twice.
I'd firmly say without seeing the hair I cannot see there to be a problem and therefore no refund will be given. No other place would she be able to get a refund without returning!
Hope it works out for you, don't stress about it too much, she sounds like a chancer X
 
Thank you all for your great replies. I can always rely on geeks for good advice :)

It's upsetting me a lot, I feel myself questioning my skill even with regular clients, so I just want rid really. She's still refusing to come in to have it corrected or even looked over, so I'm going to refund her I think. Even though it seems like giving in to a bully, the amount of calls/messages/threats just don't seem worth it to drag it out.

Does anyone have any good advice for a contract for her to sign upon receipt of the refund? Although I know it isn't legal, it's be good to have something in writing to show that we've offered every possible course of action to rectify the situation?

Why not drag it out !? ..... What have you got yo lose!? Forget "face fart" & "twatter" (as my husband calls them![emoji23]) slander!Anybody who does this gets an "eye roll" "bore-off!"from the reader before they scroll on! Just stand firm & say unfortunately you cannot refund as you need to see her hair & as of yet you haven't! Short, simple & to the point! Do not engage in anymore text tennis!! You ve told her what she needs to do! X
 
I would not refund. She hasn't been in for you to see it in the flesh and has made & cancelled 2 appointments that could have been filled by paying customers.
You offered to correct it so it isn't like you haven't tried to rectify the situation, even offering someone else to correct it if she didn't want you to do it personally.
I wouldn't give in.
 
I understand that you want her to just go away but I'd be concerned that you're setting a precedent for yourself wherein anyone who makes a fuss, gets a full refund regardless.
If you pay her off, what if she's the type to crow about it to her friends?

Also, on what basis will the boyfriend be signing your 'disclaimer'? He can hardly sign on her behalf that she won't bad mouth you on social media. Well, you could get him to sign something but it would be pretty meaningless.

Seriously, without wishing to sound patronising, if you generally find it hard to deal with conflict and back off or try to ignore it, you'd be better off investing in a good quality course in assertiveness training. That way, you will feel confident at handling this sort of situation in the future and without getting yourself overly stressed.

You are a good capable hairdresser and you don't deserve to be suffering with worry like this!
 
Playing Devils advocate but, if one of us was on here, telling a tale of how we'd been to a salon, and left with hair we didn't like/ask for/want, folk would be saying,
......."I'd ask for your money back if I were you"......
We'd also understand/expect the unhappy head not to want to return to the salon that made the 'mistake'.
I'm not saying any 'mistake' was made, but, if looked at from another angle, it's possible to see both sides.
Only you know if the complaint is valid.
I'm by no way excusing her actions, regarding the Facebook abuse, which is why I would want 'shot of'! :p
 
I wouldn't expect to be given a refund on the basis of a phone call. I would expect to have to go in and if it was my hair I would want to give them the chance to rectify it as it would save me going elsewhere, but if I really didn't have confidence in their work I would go back to show the manager exactly what I was unhappy about so that they could see what I meant. I would want it dealt with swiftly and smoothly with the minimum of fuss so wouldn't want to wind the salon up further by not turning up to agreed appointments. I would want to get them on my side so that they either sorted it to my satisfaction or refunded me.
I feel like she isn't helping herself by not coming in especially as she paid and left satisfied, there is no evidence of poor workmanship.
 
My husband is a barrister and we were only talking about liability two weeks ago. 1 a court won't entertain a case clearly as there has to be physical scarring, burning , permanent hair loss through burning , allergic reactions causing death or oesophagus airway blocking. 2 your insurance company will want her to have a psychological assessment this will prove either that it's caused her issues psychologically with her everyday well being. Hairdressers very very rarely get taken to court except for the most extreme case ie: death or burns.
If you have offered to put her hair right I can tell you now an insurance company will not entertain such a claim.
My advice is sit tight and wait for a so called court letter oh and by the way the court will want a £350 fee up front from her to even open a case. Don't worry
 
I'd be asking myself why she is not willing to come in for you to look at??
You have done your part. I wouldn't refund. She was happy when she left. She has no scalp or hair damage from the service. I think she just chancing it. And maybe coloured it at home again
I bet that's what she done !! She's coloured it at home again [emoji35][emoji35]
 
Guys, you never cease to amaze me. Thank you all [emoji173]️

I know what some of you are saying 100%, that I am undoubtedly setting a precedent for myself and that refunds don't actually make the situation better (as there's nothing really being done to fix what the client was unhappy with!). I just don't know which other route to go down, as I can't afford to go to court (though thank you so much Simba1972 for your excellent advice here) and I just want this situation to go away. We've organised for her to come into the salon tomorrow lunchtime to talk (in our opinion) or to refund (her opinion).

I've never, ever experienced anything like this before, the few and far between times a client or I have not been 100% with their hair I've worked on it again for free, until we were both happy with it. But refusing point blank to let anyone touch her hair (not even the manager!), getting her boyfriend to leave threatening voicemails on my personal phone, and now (best one yet LOL) she wants to bring her old hairdresser into the salon with her. To basically belittle me in front of my clients in the middle of a busy Saturday. Luckily we have a spare room which my boss can speak to her in, but I'm dreading it. I think this statement emphasises how long she's been out of hairdressing - "my hairdresser says she's never heard of anyone doing balayage with Saran Wrap, it should be foil!"

I want to go and work in Tesco about now! [emoji23]xx
 
When I have a bad day I say to my husband "I want to work in tesco" they look much happier and leave there work at work. Unlike us stylists who walk out with the world on our shoulders [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
 

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