1 /5 Tasha Benbow-Harris: ASK THE PRICE BEFORE YOU GET IN THE CHAIR!!!!!!!
I am taking precious minutes of my life to share about an experience that I recently had with a Poughkeepsie hair salon. I wish this was to talk about the awesome experience that I had but…years ago when this place was called Yahaira’s, I was fairly regular with my wash and sets, so when I was back in need of a good wash and set and a simple cut, it was the obvious choice. On Friday, October 28, I stopped by and asked if I needed an appt and how much a wash and set with a cut was. The woman told me “$35 and up for the wash, $10 and up for the cut.” Two days later I returned. There was nothing unremarkable or remarkable about my experience in the chair, except that the stylist (the same woman who gave me the prices on Friday, made comments about how dry and thin my hair was, in the little English that she seemed to speak. I brushed it off because it was true. All is said and done and I go to check out and she says to me with a straight face, “$80.” It took a moment to process because I thought I heard wrong. I asked again, and she repeated that absolutely ridiculous price to me. I asked what the breakdown was. She said the wash and set was $45 and up and the cut was $25 and up. Forget the fact that she told me completely different (jacked up) prices…what does and up mean? I asked what “I” was paying for. When I told her what she had previously told me as the prices, she smiled, shook her head and said, “no.” I only had a card so I was forced to pay the $80…NO TIP! I left feeling beat down by the audacity, as if I was born yesterday. I don’t even know what to suggest to other potential customers because the experience was so brazen. There was no reason I should have left paying more than $50. They lost a potential long-term customer because of a big con. They should be ashamed of themselves. I plan to Google translate this into Spanish and take it back to the salon so they know that they are going to be put on blast…I work at Poughkeepsie school…I’m telling anyone who will listen. NOT OK!