That was no one-off (Toni & Guy)

Member Name: annathekitten

Product:	Toni & Guy
Date:	16/03/03 (3853 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: products, posh interior

Disadvantages: lousy service, overpriced

I had been living in New York for several years and in mid-2002 I moved with my husband to the UK. I'm originally from Russia and therefore knew very little about what England had to offer in the way of hair salons. I lived in Haywards Heath very briefly in which I took the opportunity to try out the local salon. It was a very reasonably priced salon in which I had no cause to complain. Unfortunately, I had to move to Kent and settle there. Having experienced mediocre salons for a few months afterwards, I came across T&G when I was shopping in Bluewater for the very first time. Since I had read about the recommendations and awards for T&G, I thought it would be too good an opportunity to miss in trying them out.

Everytime I go to a hair salon, it's pretty straightforward what I want: dyeing of roots and blowdry and maybe one or two of their products to look after my hair until the next visit.

The first thing they require is a skin test. They apply a small sample of their bleach behind your ear and if it doesn't flame up in the next few days or so, you are welcome to use their services. Not a problem.
During the appointment, you get serviced by two or three workers. One to wash your hair, one to dye it and another to blow dry it. At the time, all this went without a hitch. When my husband came over to pay, I had asked to include a few hair products too. The total came to about £140. On getting home, I noticed the girl dyeing my hair had allowed bleach to run down the back of my top and consequently ruin it. The other issue was I had noticed they had charged me for a cut (£20) when I didn't get one. My husband rang the Bluewater T&G and explained the oversight. After the receptionist had spoken to her manager, he was hustled into accepting a discount on my next visit as getting a partial refund would take 'months' to go thru head office to get authorized. Obviously not wanting to wait that long for a relatively small sum (
though wishing not to allow T&G to make a pure £20 profit out him), my husband accepted the promise of a discount on my return. At this stage he didn't even bother trying get compensation for the ruined top given their reluctance to hand back money that strictly speaking, wasn't theirs!
So off I went for my second appointment a couple of months later:

A drink offered to me never arrived (despite a reminder).

Senior colorist told me my hair was too damaged to bleach them again (why wasn't this mentioned the last time I came? and why did she have to say it so loud that others turned round to pay attention?!). But nevertheless I accepted and chose to have my hair dyed aubergine. Worried about the chances of my hair turning pink (previously being blonde), I asked for assurance that this wouldn't happen. 'What do you do for a living that makes it so important it turns out right' she said. Aghast that a paying customer could be spoken to like that, I promptly replied that it wasn't any of her business what I did for living. Of course I could have said that I was the paying customer and who did she think she was...etc. - but one only thinks of this afterwards...

As it happened, the original colorist didn't want to do the work for some reason and got someone else to do it. This one was not much better. She allowed dye to run into my ears. When I pointed it out, she gave me a damp cloth to wipe it out myself (wasn't too successful as I can't see to well into my ear holes!).

My husband got his refund and we decided never to visit that place ever again. Though the nightmare wasn't over. After a couple of weeks, my hair started to appear washed out in places, making my hair appear pinkish. I decided to get my hair rectified at a salon in Bexleyheath (reasonable prices, attentive service and decent results - they remarked on why T&G would dye my hair aubergine when it would appear washed out in a
matter of weeks!). I wrote a letter to T&G explaining what happened. I got a reply saying they would like me to make a visit to any branch of T&G to rectify the hair for free - too late! I rang them up to tell them I wasn't exactly pleased the first two times, so it was unlikely at the time for me to come back and go thru the whole bungled process again. I want my (husband's) money back. She will be speaking to her manager when he/she comes back from holiday to see if they can offer me something else. I won't be holding my breath.

Don't be fooled by the high prices, the individual hair dresser awards (of which I'd guess none were allocated to anyone working in the Bluewater branch) and the fancy interior. If you're missing service and skill, what is the point. I give them two stars instead of one as their products are quite good - but I wasn't really reviewing them.

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