The Salon IFSC - Living Social Deal Problems

TechFreak

Just to give everyone a heads up. A few of the guys on here posted on the Bargain Alerts thread last December about a living social deal for The Salon (it’s some girlie beauty place) in the IFSC. It was an impressive looking voucher with tons of different treatments and it only cost 50 euros so I jumped at the chance and got it.

What a mistake I made. (Although I in no way blame the guys on here who recommended the deal).

The Salon place is a nightmare to deal with. We contacted them in early April as the wife wanted to get her treatments in and around her birthday in early May. The Salon is open 6 days a week 9am to 6pm or 7pm I think. We were told that every appointment was booked up for every treatment on the voucher until the voucher expired in early June. I rang too hours later pretending I wanted to book an appointment and I was told there was availability (there was also availability to book on their website). I was told that the voucher was valid for 6 months until mid June and whilst we did get on 2 months before the voucher expired, the voucher was subject to availability and they had no availability left. We were told that we would not get our money back, nor could we exchange it for a voucher for the salon that we could use a later date.

I got on to living social and they rang the salon immediately. The salon said that I was never informed the above with regards to being fully booked (it’s not the type of thing you forget someone saying though). They offered to fit my other half in for a limited number of the treatments at shockingly awkward hours but stated that they could not fit her in for all the treatments available on the voucher. The girl I spoke to after speaking to Living Social had shocking customer service skills, not so much as an apology for any of the handling of this, and she treatment me like I was some inconvenience ( also music was really really loud in the background, like she was at a rock concert).

I’ve looked online and there are some shocking similar stories to mine. Is there anything I can do? Living Social has stated that they have already given the money to “The Salon” and there’s nothing much they can do.

Any suggestions guys?

MOH

What are the exact terms on the voucher about booking?
I presume you have to mention the voucher at the time? Is there anything to indicate that appointments with the voucher are restricted to certain days of the week/times?
If not, and they're accepting bookings but just not with the vouchers, then it's clear that the salon just don't want to honour the vouchers.

You bought the voucher off Living Social, so your contract is with them.
I don't know how they work, but most of those voucher sites don't pay the merchant until after the voucher has been redeemed - if they've already given the money to the salon that's their problem, that's probably why the salon don't give a damn.

If you can somehow get proof that there's appointments available, but the salon won't give you one using the voucher, then you could take that back to Living Social, and if they won't refund you then maybe the SCC. But not sure how you'd get that.

Or can you make a booking without giving any credit card details, then ring them back close to the time and mention the voucher - if they won't accept it then tell them you're cancelling the booking.

TechFreak

MOH wrote: »

What are the exact terms on the voucher about booking?
I presume you have to mention the voucher at the time? Is there anything to indicate that appointments with the voucher are restricted to certain days of the week/times?
If not, and they're accepting bookings but just not with the vouchers, then it's clear that the salon just don't want to honour the vouchers.

You bought the voucher off Living Social, so your contract is with them.
I don't know how they work, but most of those voucher sites don't pay the merchant until after the voucher has been redeemed - if they've already given the money to the salon that's their problem, that's probably why the salon don't give a damn.

If you can somehow get proof that there's appointments available, but the salon won't give you one using the voucher, then you could take that back to Living Social, and if they won't refund you then maybe the SCC. But not sure how you'd get that.

Or can you make a booking without giving any credit card details, then ring them back close to the time and mention the voucher - if they won't accept it then tell them you're cancelling the booking.

Thanks for the response. From what I could see you need a credit card to book appointment but I'll check it out. Living Social stated to me that they had paid the money however.

Living Social having the following in the fine print;

Refund Policy
LivingSocial will provide a refund if you change your mind
within five days after you've purchased your voucher and
want to 'return' the unused voucher. After that, we do not
provide refunds except that we will provide a refund if you
are unable to redeem a voucher because the merchant has
gone out of business.

Even Finer Print

Limit one per person per visit • Limit one per purchaser,
additional as gifts • Customers can bring their LS voucher
into The Salon and exchange it for an official “The Salon”
gift voucher • Appointments are required and subject to
availability • Appointments are being taken for 9th January
2012 and onwards • All services
must be used by same customer; cannot be shared •
Merchant cancellation/re-scheduling policy of 24 hours
applies; voucher subject to forfeiture
• May be used over
multiple visits
Except where noted in the Fine Print:
No cash value/cash back
Entire value must be used in one visit
Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion
LivingSocial Terms and Conditions -

TechFreak

There appears to be alot of companies in ireland with the same name and I dont want people getting confused over the shop Im referring to so Im putting the link below with regards to the shop in question to avoid confusion with establishments which may have similar names but are in no way associated with my complaint;

http://www.the-salon.ie/

saraocallaghan

Thanks for that information. It looks like I'll have to tell my brother and get him to try and get his money back. What an absolute farce. What is the point in selling these vouchers and deals if it's obvious that the company isn't going to honour their commitment. Companies like this make my blood boil. It's a recession and people don't have money to burn. :mad:

the groutch

this seems to be a re-occuring theme, where as soon as you mention the voucher you're treated like a 2nd class citizen because you're not paying their full (often rip-off, Celtic Tiger) prices.
tbh, I think they days of these daily deal sites are well and truly numbered, and businesses will have to cut ALL their prices if they want to survive, not just gimmicky "offers".

cgibbons

the groutch wrote: »

this seems to be a re-occuring theme, where as soon as you mention the voucher you're treated like a 2nd class citizen because you're not paying their full (often rip-off, Celtic Tiger) prices.
tbh, I think they days of these daily deal sites are well and truly numbered, and businesses will have to cut ALL their prices if they want to survive, not just gimmicky "offers".

Hi all living social sold 1686 deals for the salon Christmas box. I worked out assuming they opened every day mon-sat using opening hours as per site that they would be open 1226 hours in total between Jan 9th-June 6th. The total time to get all those treatments listed I'm assuming would take 3.5 hours.So 1686*3.5=5901 hours.
So in order for them to honour all vouchers they so happily sold would take 5901/1226=4.8 therapists fully dedicated to just this voucher deal! Plus need others for normal bookings plus the other deals they have also sold! All I can say is they are <SNIP>! I am not letting this lie one way or another I'm getting my money back even if I have to go down small claims court route!

ted1

cgibbons wrote: »

the groutch wrote: »

this seems to be a re-occuring theme, where as soon as you mention the voucher you're treated like a 2nd class citizen because you're not paying their full (often rip-off, Celtic Tiger) prices.
tbh, I think they days of these daily deal sites are well and truly numbered, and businesses will have to cut ALL their prices if they want to survive, not just gimmicky "offers".

Hi all living social sold 1686 deals for the salon Christmas box. I worked out assuming they opened every day mon-sat using opening hours as per site that they would be open 1226 hours in total between Jan 9th-June 6th. The total time to get all those treatments listed I'm assuming would take 3.5 hours.So 1686*3.5=5901 hours.
So in order for them to honour all vouchers they so happily sold would take 5901/1226=4.8 therapists fully dedicated to just this voucher deal! Plus need others for normal bookings plus the other deals they have also sold! All I can say is they are <SNIP>! I am not letting this lie one way or another I'm getting my money back even if I have to go down small claims court route!

Staff can multi task and work on different customers at the same time. Colour etc takes a while to work and frees staff up while doing so

uck51js9zml2yt

Theres a thread on boards deal experience about them

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056616249

they used to be Free Spirit who went into receivership.

Jilly0212

Guys i would strong advise for people to stay away from The Salon in the IFSC. I bought the Living Social deal of €39 for full colour, cut, wash, treatment and blowdry. When i went in the receptionist looked at me lik ei had 2 heads, had no manners and her appearance wasnt what you would expect from a receptionist. I told the girl doing my hair that i wanted the colour but would also like highlights going through them and that i would pay extra for the highlights. She didnt listen to what i said and didnt put a colour in just the highlights. When i asked her where my colour was she said i told her that i only wanted the highlights (which i didnt considering i had bought a voucher for a full colour) her attitude towards me was appauling and tried to tell me i had told her thats what i wanted. When i told her i wasnt paying for the highlights she said she was going to speak to the manager. She (not the manager the girl who had done my hair) came down and said that the manager said i could use the value of the voucher for the highlights but i would have to pay extra for the cut and blowdry. I wasnt happy but said fine. The cut she gave me on my hair was awful and it was like a 2 year old had taken to my hair. I would strong advise to avoid this place at all costs. Just to make people clear where this place is and dont get confused with another place it is the one on the left hand side of the road on the corner as your heading towards the point in between Georges dock and Mayor Square Luas stops. Just before the Spar shop. I will never ever use their services again i was in tears leaving the place

gruenchen

thanks for the heads up, was just about to buy a voucher for them on groupon, will wait for another offer so :D

uck51js9zml2yt

gruenchen wrote: »

thanks for the heads up, was just about to buy a voucher for them on groupon, will wait for another offer so :D

Good call:D

My wife has gotten house of colour deals and has been happy with them

dudara

This just keeps popping up time & time again. Thread closed

dudara