fleeting passions

I really don’t like saying “I told you so”s, but since I felt that saying it to myself is justified, I’m going to tell me it, anyway. So… “I told you so.” There.

Against my better judgment and despite the negative reviews I’ve read about the Salon de Rose branch in SM, I still decided to give it a chance. After all, I couldn’t very well say something not nice about the establishment when I haven’t tried it yet. I figured that since I have been satisfied with their BTC branch, I’d also find their SM branch okay. Besides, I don’t need a fancy haircut, just something that doesn’t require too much time to style.

Yesterday afternoon after work, I finally gathered enough courage and dragged myself to SM. Line decided to go with me (to give me comfort for when the stylist mangled my hair). I was actually kind of expecting to be disappointed with the new hair, but that wasn’t enough to make me change my mind about trying the place. It wasn’t seven yet when we arrived there. One girl at the reception area took my name and informed me I was eighth in the wait list. It was fine. I was okay with waiting, as long as I would eventually be attended to. So we sat there and waited. Eight o’clock came and went but still no staff was available to serve me. I was still quite optimistic around then. When a few more minutes passed and all the people who were waiting had either been served or decided to no longer wait since it was almost closing time, I was starting to get apprehensive, especially when I noticed that Line and I were the only customers left. When Line jokingly remarked that maybe they had forgotten that they still have a customer waiting, I approached the reception area (there were several staff milling about there) to ask if somebody was already free to serve me. Heck, by the time I asked I was prepared to get a crappy haircut, knowing that whoever would serve me would already be tired after a day’s work. I prepped myself for it, and I wouldn’t really be too disappointed if I left there with hair too short for my liking. I just wanted to get a haircut and be done with it. But nooo, getting a haircut, crappy or otherwise, was not in my cards that night. Guess what answer I got for my question? She said they were sorry but they could no longer entertain me because all their stylists were still occupied blah blah blah… that their customers wanted to get this or that treatment for their hair blah blah blah so they no longer had time for me. Why in heaven’s name couldn’t she have told us that earlier so we’d still be able to get to other salons? It was not as if they would need to spend money on long distance calls to tell us – the reception area was just an arm’s length away from where we were sitting. How hard could it be to drag their feet a few steps and tell us that? Were they waiting until they were minutes from closing to inform me that they could not give me a bloody haircut after all? They knew they wouldn’t be able to accommodate me, they should at least have the decency to tell us that so we’d not lose any more time for nothing. I was really disappointed and irritated. So much for giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I am not saying people are better off going to other salons. For all I know, their other customers are really satisfied with their services. They should be, or they wouldn’t keep coming back. I am just speaking from personal experience. But I’m never going back there again. I still need a haircut, though, and it is making me antsy since last night.  I’ll try Ricky Reyes after work today.  I just hope I wouldn’t go home disappointed again. *I’m crossing my fingers for that.