Shocked that hairdresser cancelled my appt because I was late!

[Adnerb95]

1st time at a new hairdressers this afternoon. Appointment was at 4:15pm for a cut and blow dry. I work 20 mins away, left in plenty of time but there had been an accident and so major traffic delays. I ended up arriving at the salon 8 mins late to be told by the stylist that she wouldn't be able to do my hair now, because she had another client at 5pm"and the turnaround is very tight".

I was almost speechless - never had that response before on the (rare!) occasions over the years when I have been a few minutes late.

It got worse. I was desperate to have a haircut so suggested that we forget the blowdry and I just have a dry cut. "We don't do that" . "Well, why not do a wet cut? That way, there is still plenty of time, since you won't be blow drying my hair, before your next client"

"We don't do that"

.??????????????.

I think this is not only ridiculous but completely unreasonable or is it me?

I have emailed the owner in advance of posting a public review to give her a chance of responding. In the meantime, I have now booked with another salon for a couple of days time (checked their policy - "we wouldn't cancel an appointment unless a client was at least 15 mins late")

Not only do the first salon have a very disgruntled customer who will certainly not recommend them, but they have lost my business for the next 4/5 years, probably. I was looking for a replacement for my lovely hairdresser of the last 7 years who has left for Scotland. So pretty naff commercial decision as well.

Where I work we operate a strict 7 minute rule. We tell customers 5 minutes. We aren't a hair salon or anything like that, but our appointment slots are 20 - 40 minutes long. If someone turns up nearly 10 minutes late, that shaves nearly 15 minutes off the appointment, once they've been booked in and had the pre-testing stuff done. We can't do a 20 minute appt in 5 minutes, and we can't do a 40 minute appt in 25. So yeah, if you were 8 minutes late then we'd have to rearrange the appointment.

Having owned a salon in the past, if it's a busy salon then any late client impacts upon everyone else, (think of how late an appointment gets with your GP at the end of the day). Yes, you may have 'arrived' 8 mins late, but you probably had to wait at the desk first, get someone to ask the stylist and then have everyone adjust their workload to accommodate you, so the stylist probably realised that she'd have to rush and maybe have you complain, despite the whole thing being your fault. Usually if you had phoned ahead they may have been more sympathetic, but when a client doesn't turn up on time or have the courtesy to let them know, then the chances are they might have tried to fit a walk in to make up for the loss of your revenue. It's not ideal, but from a salon owners perspective, their contract with you ended the moment your due time arrived and past without any word. At the risk of sounding harsh, to attempt to slate them is in my view, what's wrong with society these days, I.e. that no-one seems prepared to accept responsibility for their own actions - but rather lash out because they were inconvenienced by others whom are trying to make sure one client doesn't impact everyone after you. You could have called but you didn't, so not really sure what you want them to do, as it sounds like you would have complained if it had been anything less than perfect, which it would have been if it were rushed. So sorry, but I think YABU.

A dentist did that to me.
I practically went into meltdown.
I never went back.
How many hours have I sat in a dentist waiting room waiting for my appointment.
A bit of give and take goes a long way with me.

I can see both sides here. It's frustrating OP. However this current passive aggressive trend for threatening to bad mouth on social media is just awful. Please resist doing that. Just speak to them directly, and if the answer is not satisfactory, just don't use them again.

I think she was being quite arsey. Yes you were late, but not excessively so, and I've been later than that to a hair appt and was still seen. You also offered alternatives as well which they weren't prepared to agree to. Sleep on the review, and see how you feel in 24 hrs.

Salon needs better organising e.g. 5min gap twixt appts. For everyone benefits. If a h/dresser is so rushed then they can't be doing a good job. Sounds as if salons just cram in clients on a conveyor belt!

Not RTFT but out of interest, have they always seen you right on time? My hairdresser is routinely late getting to me, sometimes as much as 10 minutes.

If they don't keep to time themselves, they can't really act in a high handed way when a customer is a bit late.

I always have a wet cut. What's the point of having a blow dry if you're eg going running in the evening or it's raining or is windy outside? They do a rough dry but it's much faster than the full blow dry.

I think it's arsey of the hairdressers. Too many people think they are brain surgeons. Leave a review. The same think happened to me when the road was completely closed because of an accident. I was 15 mins late but no one else was there. Beautician said she couldn't see me. I was going on holiday the following day and wanted several treatment which I had booked. I offered to only have 2 out of the 3. She wouldn't budge. The week before I had been kept waiting for 30 mins whilst she did a walk-in electrolysis. I had booked and was on time but she made me wait.

I once had to wait over 3/4 of a hour for a hairdresser, she was running late. i never went back there again.

YABU to expect the hairdresser to fit you in if late.
YANBU to offer to miss out the blow dry to fit you in

Im a hairdresser and would have also cancelled your appointment. I am.not running behind on my other clients who are on time because you couldn't be. Also this is my job, I have money to make so missing out on a late person to make sure my reputation for the loyal clients is really important. It's just rude. Did you call them? Did you apologise profusely? We are professional not just people that play with hair all day.

I cannot figure out at all though why they wouldn't cut it and not dry it and therefore save that time and get their money anyway - YANBU, they are ridiculous

Why didn't you call and explain your situation? It's what most people do... most people don't think you can just turn up when you want 8 mins late or not.
If you had done then you'd have right to complain.

think of how late an appointment gets with your GP at the end of the day
That's because they allocate 10 minute slots if that to a job that can take a variable amount of time and often much longer than 10 minutes. Next to nothing to do with clients being late, once the doctor is running 10 minutes late then all the patients can be 8 minutes late if they want and they wouldn't get seen any sooner anyway.

You were late. Okay only 8 minutes but the hairdresser didn't want to rush the appointment or rush the next appointment either!
If it was me I would have understood and been fine with it. As long as you wasn't charged for the appointment I think it's fine!
My hairdresser is the same. The appointment slots are very tight so she can see more customers!
It would of been worse if she rushed your appointment and you wasn't happy with the end result!!

I went to a hairdressers once booked a time and then when inwent there was waiting over a hour and half to be seen. She kept seeing other customers who walked in just for a simple cut.kids and men. I was like helllo im stil here i actually booked in they never.

But why would you sit there for an hour and a half and seemingly not say anything?

llhj
Really no need to be rude!
It has a knock on effect for the rest of your day.I always try my hardest not to keep people waiting and if it's a new client it just takes longer. And yes if I had a client who was late a couple of times they wouldn't be offered another appointment.Nobody likes to be kept waiting
Not that I need to justify myself to somebody who clearly doesn't work in the industry

if it were your first time late and a regular customer then she could have scaled down your appointment by doing just the cut ..

Something i hate is arriving 5 mins early for an appointment and not being taken within 10/15 mins of my time because hairdresser has spent too long standing talking to customer/s in their shop about this, that or whatever and not doing persons hair

Im reading this thread and felt I had to respond. As a small business owner with a beauty salon, we run our salon in a very similar way to a hairdresser.
Im the defence of the salon owner, these are my reasons, which I hope you can then see the other side of the argument,
If any clients are late, please ring the salon to notify them, no shows and lateness can ruin small businesses. Most salons usually we all give a discretionary 10 minutes only. The reasons for this are, if we let all our customers arrive late, we would then be running late all day, with a lot of us being mums, in term time can mean we finish late, which means we are late for our pick up time.
If you are booked in for a certain service, then only this time has been scheduled out in the appointment system. If arriving late you would not be able to have that whole allocated time slot. No hairdressers can do a quick 5 minute haircut, as it would not be feasible and your haircut would be rubbish.
Leaving a bad review is not something I would recommend as you were late. Not the salon. Leaving a bad review could have a detrimental effect on a small business. No one wants to see another business fail.
I would always recommend that you politely email the salon owner/manager. Explain what happened, I can only imagine that they would want to see a new customer happy and would probably send you a gift voucher to use in your next visit.

I know its frustrating, but when a salon says they cannot do your appointment, there usually is a very good reason.

Lj20051416 did she offer you a free cut for your troubles.

Sandy Denny I am married with kids and a job and cm honestly say I have never been late for anything (where I have been responsible for myself ) and my DD is the same about time keeping would rather be 20 mins early than 5 mins late no bs. I have my own business and people being late eats into my time which I resent and affects my family time so if I had been late I would not be shocked at appointment getting cancelled. Equally I hate being kept waiting my Drs being the worst place for overrunning (probably due to people being 8mins late for their appointments)

Burnett Lateness is only rude if the intention is there not to be punctual or make an effort to leave on time. The OP cannot help an accident blocking her route to the hairdressers! You are very harsh to label anyone as being rude for being late. Would you label someone as being 'rude' for being late if they had had a bump in their car en route?

Adnerb95 I think the hairdresser was being a bit 'arsy' IMO. Fair enough that she couldn't do the 'cut and blow dry' in the 32 minutes that was left but yes, most hairdressers can do a dry cut or a wet cut. She simply didn't want your business.

TBH I don't think a review would make much difference. Most people have a hairdresser and stick to it and regular customers won't give a 'toot' about it. But if you want to leave a review, be critical but polite. Mention that you were late due to matters out of your control but the hairdresser was not very accommodating in altering the nature of the appointment to a 'dry cut' or 'wet cut' and therefore you would not be recommending the business to new customers as you were just that. Mention that you were looking for a permanent hairdresser and that you are looking elsewhere.

Shell449 the customer is always right is a service industry workers pet hate. Whilst most are pleasant and a joy to work with far more these days are rude and entitled. I have to deal with abusive entitled customers who think they are the only ones and as much as we try to accommodate their requests it is not always possible. Only this week I have been bawled out over the phone whilst trying to sort out problems that were not of our making but that of a third party (transport). One even said it's not your fault directly but I'm going to shout at you as you are dealing with it. If it was my own business I would have dealt with it differently to his I did and those 2 customers would currently be in receipt of refunds and no product and be ranting to no one as the phone would have been put down. One day (last day of work before retirement maybe) I may just drop the smile and tell some customers exactly how rude and entitled they are and to get over themselves, few years to keep smiling yet though

I ve been going to my hairdresser for 15 years - he is a very hard working man - has a farm - up at 5 to sort his horses out - in his salon at 7.15. Works until 6 pm. Bed at 9.30. He has a very full social life but works like a machine.
Gives every new trainee the same quality support he gives to one of his top stylists.

He is like a god to us - I would rather stick pins in my eyes than be late for an appointment with him. Just sayin'

I have an amazing hairdresser. However if you were late there, they wouldn't be able to fit you in as they need 45 mins minimum for a haircut. They don't do wet cuts either as I've asked. I think it's actually a sign of an excellent salon.