Who is the CF, me or the beauty salon?

[superdelooper]

Last week my DM was talking about getting powder ombre brows done. My friend had them done, and they are lovely, so asked friend for the salon details so I could contact them for DM.
I reached out to the salon via WhatsApp on Friday (there is no online booking or website) and someone responded immediately with details and an appointment time for this week (Thursday).
All good, fairly reasonable pricing and DM was happy to go ahead and get me to book. There was a £50 booking fee, which I paid, with the balance to be paid at the appointment.
Within an hour of making the booking DM realised she had forgotten about the blood thinners she takes and after a bit of google searching, we realised she needed at least a week off the thinners before she could safely have her eyebrows done. I reached out to the salon again and they assured me she would be fine to continue with the booking, even while still taking the thinners. DM is in her 70's and we didn't want to risk it and requested to cancel the booking. Salon again said it would be fine (these messages have since been deleted by salon) but I insisted we cancelled and apologised. Fine, booking cancelled. I then asked for the booking fee to be refunded. Salon refused stating this booking fee was 'non refundable'.
When we made the initial booking she sent a message with bank details and a note about things to do/not do prior to the appointment. It also stated there was a £50 'booking fee', no mention of this being non refundable.
Who is in the wrong here? We tried asking politely for the fee to be refunded as it seems like a lot to be charged for an appointment we booked and cancelled within an hour, DM would have been happy to pay a small admin fee but £50 is a quarter of what the eyebrows would have cost to have done.

What on earth are ombre powder brows?! Are they tattooed? I live in Essex and see a lot of tattooed brows they look awful quickly, like slugs.

They are not being unreasonable to withhold the booking fee when you cancelled, that's what a booking fee is for, they would be unreasonable to not move the appointment to allow your mum to come off of her meds for a week as per the advice. As for coming off of meds needed for health, for a beauty treatment, well, it's not a decision I'd be encouraging my mother to make.

DM would have been happy to pay a small admin fee for time spent booking appointment.

Whilst I agree with you totally on the reached out, when did people lose the ability to use basic language? I dont think it's reasonable in this instance as such a short time had passed between booking and cancellation

If the slot remains free then the worker wouldn't have got paid anyway and if someelse books it they get an extra fee so either way it's money for nothing

If you didn't know it was non refundable, then you probably have a case. A decent business would refund anyway - better to keep your reputation and customers, than quibble over £50. Their poor advice also counts against them and seems to be the reason your mother won't re-book - have you pointed this out? Most places take you on trust surely? Unless you have a reputation with them for repeated cancellations.

If you didn't know it was non refundable, then you probably have a case. A decent business would refund anyway - better to keep your reputation and customers, than quibble over £50. Their poor advice also counts against them and seems to be the reason your mother won't re-book - have you pointed this out? Most places take you on trust surely? Unless you have a reputation with them for repeated cancellations.

Microblading has been deemed a special treatment that is licensed by local authorities. It is illegal to provide or advertise special treatments without a license.
However, requirements vary between areas according to the policies of the local council health department. Contact them to find out their exact requirements as each local authority has its own bylaws and costings

From pmuhub.com

Because as we age our bodies have less ability to cope. Not everyone ages equally, but geriatric care is very different to that of younger people.

They should’ve done a full consolidation as there will be contra indications to this treatment. Of course they should refund her deposit as your Mum did her research and notified them within an hour. Very poor of salon

This is the first time we have booked with this salon

What do you mean “especially at 70”?

op you realise you’re probably the 900th person who’s done exactly this to them. They’re trying to run a business.

That's what we thought. Because we cancelled almost immediately we thought it was fair to ask for the booking fee to be refunded. I totally understand that if we cancelled this week, closer to the appointment date then we would have to wear the booking fee cost (although it was never stated this was non refundable).

DM would have been happy to pay a small admin fee for time spent booking appointment.

I think the wording 'booking fee' is misleading you here. It's clearly a deposit to keep the slot held for you, not an admin fee. Hence why it's £50 and non-refundable, not a £2.99 fee like for concert tickets. If you didn't understand that and needed it spelling out, that's quite naive. They're not CFs, and it's you who's changed your minds.

WTF are powder ombre brows and why do they cost £200?

i was surprised by this
but i assume poster means the risk to her health, especially at 70

A semi permanent makeup tattoo in the shape of a perfect eyebrow.
Mine cost £360 initially with a £200 top up every 2 years. They make me look put together with no effort and stopped me looking aged haggard!

That’s the whole point of a booking fee, or why bother asking for one?

It would have been nice of them to return it given the situation and time frame, but I can’t see how you can insist.

i think they should refund her as from a health point of view, she cannot have this done

Try google

I think the best you can hope for is a credit note tbh. Essentially you have decided not to proceed after paying.

£200 for eyebrows and a week off medication. Hmm..

@ChateauMargaux has the legal stuff spot on. Tattooing of any kind is contraindicated when someone is on warfarin.

I would email back and say that:

1. There was no indication that the deposit was non-refundable.
2. The treatment is not suitable given your mum's meds and they should be aware of that and informed you.
3. If they don't give you the money back, you will just do a charge back on your card. This will cost them more money.

You cannot contract out of consumer law. To do the chargeback, you need to contact the bank and explain what has happened. Take a screen shot when they reply to you.

YABU. The booking fee is there to protect the company from losing out on appointments and income that will keep them financially ticking over.

I used to work in a job which involved customers paying large non refundable deposits and if I had a pound for every time I was asked to refund it.....

The whole point of a deposit is to protect the buisness and make sure they don't make as much loss on people cancelling. A deposit which is refundable would be pointless. That said, I do think they are a bit unreasonable because you contacted them within an hour and also they probably should have checked your dm wasn't on any medication etc before taking her money

Do you still have the messages saying it’s ok on the medication? If so tell the salon that unless they refund the booking fee you will be going to trading standards and reporting them. You should get your money back.

No, she deleted the messages when we asked about the refund.