Complaint Review: Cognoscente Salon & Spa

Buyers Beware!!! Salon Goers Beware!!!! They are NOT BBA accredited and have 2 prior unanswered complaints!!!

If you need a salon service, at all costs, avoid Cognoscente Salon and their poorly trained representatives, especially the Owner who doesnt know how to apply customer service!

I am absolutely outraged and disgusted with the business practices of the individual who claimed to be the "owner" of the salon herself! I have never been so mistreated and received such harassment in my life! I received a Salon Package for Cognoscente Salon & Spa that Allowed Four Free visits with certain services and additional promotions per visit etc.

According to this pamplet, which apparently is some sort of marketing scheme put together by Vision marketing, I had to wait until a certain date before I could even start to set up appointments or take advantage of any of the promotions listed within the pamphlet. So I waited, and when I finally proceeded to set up appointments the hours of operation didn't match the pamphlet, so it was very difficult to set up an appointment time. The second attempt I tried, again, no meeting of the minds could be had because of their limited staff and hours of operation, and my having a life and work schedule, so the receptionist offered me the option of scheduling the appointment online.

I was initially hesitant at first, but decided to give it a try today 02/13/2008 so that I could attempt to utilize some portion of the salon package that purchased for me. I followed all of the directions,scheduled the appointment for 10 days from now,as it was the only opening, as I thought,that would work. Not too much later,I received a call from a woman who said she was the owner of the Salon who accused me of scheduling my massage appointment with a hairdresser.

I explained to her that I simply chose the option of searching the next available appointment for for any of the massage specialists available for that date and time, seeing as how three names were listed, I assumed that there were three massage therapists. Apparently, as it was brought to my attention, that the website is faulty, and they only have three staff members, the three listed, and of those three, only one of which is a massage therapist.I thought to myself, how odd they have so few staff members, so few hours of availability and operations, yet all of theses promotional salon packages had been distributed.

We then started to discuss how Ive had several difficulties in setting up an appointment etc. etc. and that Ive been trying diligently to take some sort of advantage, lest it go to waste, of this package. She explained that they only have very few staff members and limited hours of operations etc etc etc. I asked if it was an issue of generating revenue, or what, because it didn make sense to me that it should be that cumbersome to schedule an appointment.She immediately became extremely deffensive and started exhibiting the worst traits of a so called business owner that I have ever seen.

She basically turned it around on me and started attacking me about the package and how she had nothing to do with it other than honoring it, and that the advertising company, that she claims she pays nothing to, printed falsafied information, hours of operation etc. without her knowledge etc. Apparently a batch of 500,000 or so pamphlets were printed and distributed with this incorrect information. She continued her yelling at me, a customer, and told me that I needed to call the advertising company and that she has nothing to do with it.

This confirms her company as being a scam along with that of the advertising company insomuch that the "small print" at the bottom of the pamphlet indicates that the advertising company is not liable for any mis representation or misprint or anything that the companies they're printing for denies" Any company that agrees to have advertising printed up in that manner where the advertising group doesn have to be held accountable and the Company can deny any and all services and any and all liability associated with that is definitely a scam, buyers beware!!! After all was said and done, she said "she" has dealt with prior confrontations with me before and that I was not welcome and was hung up on rudely.

It was absolutely unacceptable how rude she was. Not only did she have the audacity to mistreat me the way she did on the phone, but have such low standards for her business that she would take it upon herself to hang up on a customer who has been trying nothing more than to schedule an appointment. Its not the customer's fault that the business in question isn's accommodating, fully staffed or equipped, and especially not the customers fault that the business takes part in particularly shady advertising deals, regardless of whether or not a claim is made of not receiving any form of income or payment from the distribution of promotional material.

Unfortunately, in the business world, when your name is on it, and it has negative connotations, the company should handle the situation a bit more appropriately, be understanding and empathetic of the frustration of the situation and then offer customer service 110% above and beyond what would normally be offered to secure that customer for life. Hanging up on a customer is not the way to do it, and most certainly not a practice taught in any basic business/entrepreneurial course. In fact it is absolutely frowned upon. Its how you damage relationships, not build them.

Its just unfortunate because being an alumni of a sorority and having as many contacts as I do in the social organizations that I do, as well as in the marketing world, I know so many people that ask me every day where I do get get my hair serviced, my nailes manicured etc...it's a shame that my word of mouth advertising won't help to give them the boost for more clients to allow them the ability and the resources to hire more skilled and licensed individuals so that they will be more accommodating and will hopefully one day not have to be so rude to anymore customers because of a lapse in judgement with a advertisement scam.

Kristen
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
U.S.A.