Several problems with this hack nail shop...
First of all, I called ahead to see if there was availability to redo the new OPI gel for natural nails on my nails. The high pitched voice girl who works there said ""we're very busy right now"", after which I asked what time they closed. Two hours into the future. So I asked her if I came in if there would be a way for me to be seen before they closed, and she said ""oh, absolutely!""
I then went to the salon and proceeded to wait. Not that I minded. Not for FAR beyond a reasonable amount of time. You don't find out until you get there that they have a skeleton crew of THREE people working. Any city has literally hundreds of nail salons, so great to waste a trip to and half a day in just one in particular when I could have gone to any of dozens of others in the general vicinity who just might have adequate staff...
But then onto the actual ""service""...
OPIs new colored gel for natural nails is a SOAK OFF product. Several times while waiting patiently for my turn I asked them ""to save time, should I soak them while I'm waiting?"" To this the guy and another woman who work there both replied ""oh, we can get that off easily."" I asked them what they meant by ""get it off"" and never got a straight answer. I then said, SEVERAL times, I don't want anybody drilling or prying anything off my nails (a major point to using this product is to NOT destroy your nail bed like all the acrylics I sat there and watched them apply to everyone else). This stuff is supposed to be gently SOAKED off of the nails. It took several separate verbal exchanges of my insisting this before the guy finally mumbled to the other girl ""is it supposed to soak off, I don't know?"" and she replied that it was. At that point I was FINALLY given a bowl with polish remover to soak in.
The funniest part was that when they finally gave me the seat and the bowl to soak in, it was right next to the poster for the new product, which clearly said, ""OPI...SOAK OFF gel."" Clearly a mystery.
Adding to the comedy was the flier just opposite that which read ""Any customer has the right to refuse to have their nails drilled."" I guess you have to refuse ENOUGH TIMES for them to actually respect it?
So fast forward to well over an hour after soaking and everything else, watching people come in and go and me just still sitting and I finally called and found another nail salon that just might have more than three people employed there, so it doesn't require sitting and breathing acrylic fumes for hours to get seen. This apparently pissed off the high pitched girl who then said ""you can just leave."" I let her know I'd already planned to do so (obviously). At this point she started telling me how she had supposedly told me over the phone that ""you can't be seen today"" rather than the reality which was that in her chipper voice she had told me nearly an hour and a half prior that ""of course"" I could eventually be seen as a walk in, they were just busy at that moment. I walked out 15 minutes before their closing time no closer than when I arrived to getting a service that, if they did know anything about their new gel product (and they make it so obvious they don't that they have no qualms about just saying ""I don't know anything about it""), requires a lot more than 15 minutes to do and do right.
If she'd really told me a hour and a half prior that there was no way for me to be seen at all, why after waiting inside the salon for over half an hour did they (finally) put me into a soaking bowl? Isn't that odd for a staff who'd been supposedly telling walk ins not to... walk in? If you want to waste half your day and NOT get anything done when you could have gone literally dozens of different places, this is the spot!
Pros: Pretty storefront
Cons: Poor ventilation and fumes, unfamiliarity with own products
more