To feel scammed? Hairdressers

[NeverEverAgain11]

I've been going to the same chain of hairdressers for the last 6 or so years and always had the same service, balayage (colour) with a cut and finish - because they run promotions whereby if you book a colour alongside a cut and finish you get 50% off the colour)

When I first became a customer of theirs I'd pay between £130 and £140.

The last time I went, last year, the price had risen to £170 (ish)

DP kindly offered to pay for me to get my hair done this week as a treat. Upon booking under the same offer I always book under I was quoted £190 which felt steep but I only go once a year so it didn't seem wildly overpriced as a one off cost.

I felt bad about the price as DP doesn't have a huge amount of disposable money so I said if he paid £150 I'd pay the rest myself.

I booked for today and in the lead up had two calls changing the booking, the first call said they'd changed me over to a senior stylist for time saving purposes but said it would be at no added cost to me. Great.

The second call this morning they had to push my apt back an hour so I was aimlessly wandering around to pass time.

Fast forward to paying and I was charged £230.

I was taken aback and just paid on autopilot as there were two other customers waiting to pay and I didn't want to show myself up. I've felt increasingly annoyed/disappointed on the way home.

In hindsight I wish I'd have questioned the disparity between prices but it's too late now.

I feel like I've been scammed, as daft as that sounds. If I'd have known that would happen I wouldn't have bothered.

Am I being unreasonable or is this unacceptable?

Edited to add - I have shoulder length very fine hair. I only had about an inch taken off from the ends so I couldn't have incurred additional charges for having complex hair.

There doesn’t seem to be any consumer law that actually covers this, so they get away with it. If you say yes then you get charged for it.

It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. So they won’t remove it from the bill unless they do so as a gesture of goodwill.

I would make a complaint, tell them they’d lost a customer and leave a factual review about the sneaky upselling mid appointment.

just ring then?

Very sneaky to give you extra Olaplex treatment without stating the added price. Leave a review that their pricing system needs to be clearer and what happened to you so that other people are warned.

Don't go back. They shouldn't treat customers this way.

Every time there is a thread of this nature, I do a shout out to Toni and Guy who overcharged me because of the thickness of my hair 😒
When the bill was higher than quoted on their site I challenged them and they said that was their “starting from” price 🙄
Not only have I never been back but I bring it up in every conversation about hairdressers… I hope their policy of ripping off customers is worth it!

I do believe (but maybe wrong) under the consumer rights act 2015 you have been missold a treatment and should be reimbursed. If this was my business I'd be refunding you and having a stern word with my stylist about how they sell treatments.

Wow! I just got my hair cut (curly, so the cut was layers), no dye as I'm embracing my greys and whites now. It cost me £21! I'd never, even when dying my hair with tints, expect to pay over £100, much less £230.

Gosh, some people live in a different world to me. Cut and balayage and blow-dry at my local hairdressers is £75. And I thought THAT was quite a lot. I am always gobsmacked when I see some people saying they pay £250-£300 for a hair cut and colour, at an ordinary regular salon in their high street...

@NeverEverAgain11 You do need to query this, but I would find another hairdressers if I were you.

Don’t go back. And look for all the charges and next time ask for a breakdown of the price.

Hairdressers are getting silly imo.

Last time i went they started charging extra to use straighteners. I just want a bare minimum of not leaving the salon looking like shit, which has happened several times.

The worst haircut I ever got was from Toni & Guy years ago. Truly awful! The hairdresser completely ignored what I had asked for and gave me a different style. Plus it was expensive so even more upsetting because I was expecting a great haircut for the price!

Yeah, my hairdresser charges £22 for a dry cut.

Agree, Toni & Guy are shite IMO. So overpriced, with second rate stylists and second rate service. Went there 3 times, (over 8 months) and it was never good. Gave up on them some 10 years ago.

.

That’s very slippery of them. The should have mentioned the olaplex would be an extra £60. My salon use wellaplex and the first time the treatment was offered to be I was told in the moment it would be an additional £20.
When they said this on the phone, did you tell them you’d not agreed to pay the extra and weren’t informed of the cost, so would like it refunding?

Same here! My usual hairdresser couldn't fit me in one year and I'd got an event I was going to and needed a trim just to tidy my hair up. She kept cutting and cutting, I came out with my hair feathered around my face, layers I never asked for and she said she'd made my hair more 'versatile'. Stupidly, I just paid and left without saying 'what the hell have you done?!' My hair would have looked great on a pixie!

What is it with Toni & Guy? Do they just do what they want, rather than what you ask for?

Sounds very similar to the haircut I was given - too many layers - which made my wavy/curly hair look really strange.

Once I got back home and looked in the mirror, I almost cried! 😂

Surely it’s just that the one who charged you didn’t know you’d already been told you could have the senior stylist at the rate you’d first agreed for the junior stylist, since it was their choice to change things. I have no idea what Olaplex is, but if they didn’t mention extra cost when they proposed it, they shouldn’t charge you extra.

Don't be a wet lettuce, just phone, speak to the manager and say you now realise that there was a mistake and you’d like a refund!

That seems off. Like maybe they bumped you up to a senior but then also charged you for it? Presumably in error if they said no extra cost.

If the service isn't getting better to reflect the increases then I'd say you should switch. Try a local independent one, or someone who works both in a salon and privately.

If you don't mind washing own hair you could save by them coming to your house?

It's true that if you only get it once a year it will be fairly expensive. But if the current salon feels like it's now much more than the competition you should try a new one. Ask around for recommendations.

Maybe read the OP’s posts? 🤷‍♀️

Find a new hairdressers

I’ve been with the same one for years, she owns the salon .. colour, cut & blow £80

last time she wasn’t happy with the colour, so redyed it, and didn’t charge me extra

Ridiculous price and slippery hairdressers. I would make a fuss.
My last haircut and blow dry cost me £40. In London. Looks no different from the expensive ones.

I won't be going back again.

As an aside for the 'finish' I asked for curls (y'know curls done with straighteners) and I left looking like bonnie blue.

My salon uses a system called Vish for colour. Apparently it calculates exactly what you've used and charges you, no more, no less than that.

I am raising an eyebrow at it as the 2 times I've had a colour since they introduced it, the price has rocketed from the original 'quote esitmate'. I dont think I'll go back!

I'd question it if I were you if you weren't told this might happen.

I'd tell them that. Email if you can't face ringing again and say all the slippery behaviour about price, delaying your appointment time etc has made you realise you do not want to give them your business again. See if that gets a better response.

Really sorry OP that’s terrible ..it was really wrong of them not to state the price

Complain, get the money back, then tell them to ram their rip off salon up their arse. What they charged without telling you first was scandalous, but you really should've said something at the till.

That’s an insane price but you were BU not to challenge it. People behind you or not, they overcharged you despite promising you’d pay the same you were quoted. You need to call and ask for a refund.