Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa — Attraction in Aberdeen Township

I am updating my prior review because over the years, it is clear this franchise has shifted its priorities and value one thing: increasing their bottom line and maximizing profits for its owner(s). Customer satisfaction is no longer a priority at this location. I walked in yesterday (Saturday) afternoon requesting to cancel my membership; my reason being I don’t use the services often enough to justify the monthly membership. I have been a member off and on for several years. I was told that a manager must contact me and that I would be put on an email list for a manager to call me on Monday. I then asked how many services I had remaining and was told 8. Trying to use up my built-up prepaid services, I booked a facial and massage with a hot stone upgrade for the next day. I called the next day before my scheduled appointments asking to reschedule to a later time in the day. I was told I could not reschedule the massage as there were no other open appointments and that I would be charged a cancellation fee. I asked if I would be charged a cancellation fee if I rescheduled the massage for another day and was told yes. I was advised that I could reschedule the facial for a later time in the day which I agreed to. The associate then asked if I wanted to reschedule the facial now or if I wanted to call back. Becoming irritated at this experience, I said I would call them back to pick another time in the day to which the associate says “so you’d like to cancel this service also?” I was beyond frustrated at this point and stated yes I would prefer to cancel the facial and that I will wait for the manager to call me to process my membership cancellation. A little while later, I went on the Hand and Stone app to verify my rewards balance and saw that there were 4 open massage appointments. I called back and asked why I wasn’t offered one of the open slots. I was told that the therapist I was booked with (Gail) had no other availability and that I was not offered to reschedule with a different therapist simply because they don’t do that. The best part of this second conversation is when I was advised that, even if I rescheduled with a different therapist today at a later time, I would still be charged their cancellation fee. I am certain the staff works hard at this location and I have almost never had an unpleasant massage or facial. I do not intend this negative review to indicate that my dissatisfaction is with either the front desk staff or the therapists. The staff simply is following the policies and procedures put in place by management. It can’t be easy to be the messenger of conversations that undoubtedly cause friction and unpleasant reactions from their customers. I truly look forward to cancelling my membership (curious how many hoops I will need to jump through) and not returning to this location unless ownership/management gets...

My review below was from July 22, 2018 when I gave them only 1 star. The manager Andrea called me the following day and apologized for her staff and absolutely went above and beyond to get me to give them another chance. She personally rescheduled me, amongst other details. Today as soon as the front desk saw me come in, I was checked in and Jeanine, the massage therapist took me right away. She was terrific!! Caryann did my facial and as always, tremendous! So kudos to the Aberdeen management, particularly Andrea, for making up for my frustration last week. If the service continues to be like it was today for me, I’ll definitely give you 5 stars! Thank you.

Only reason I’m giving it 1 star is because CaryAnne is excellent with my monthly facials. Otherwise, this place has a serious issue with their scheduling. The first time I booked a massage and a facial back to back. After my massage was done the therapist went to see if the next therapist was ready for my facial. Turns out they had made an error and I was never added to the schedule for a facial. I had to wait about 15 mins while they scrambled to “fit me in”. After that experience, and accompanied by the fact that the massage was no where near as good as they were at Massage Envy, I decided to only use my Hand and Stone membership for facials.

Today I decided to give the massages another try and booked a massage for 11 and a facial for 12. I get there at 10:50 and wait until 11:05 at which point I was the only one sitting in the waiting area. I asked the receptionist to double check that my booking was ok because I had an issue before. I waited until 11:10 when finally someone tells me that the therapist will be another 20 minutes late!! I mentioned that I had another appointment after my facial which now is jeopardized because we’d have to push that back too. I decided to wait until 11:30. I actually waited until 11:40 at which point I was told they’d check to see if the therapist was “in the back”. Now it’s 11:45 and I’m besides myself in disbelief at the inefficiency of this place. The lady that had explained the delay did offer me free enhancements but at that point the topic was moot was no massage in heaven or hell could have made up for the inconvenience and waste of time that I had endured. To all this I have to wait until TOMORROW for a manager to call me. Needless to say, I’m cancelling my membership and going back to Massage Envy.

There were a million ways to rectify this on the spot. Call in a free therapist. Offer to rebook me for later in the day. Have the manager call me on the spot to rectify. Forget the free enhancements, I should have been offered the services for free! Instead all they could say is “we understand”. Sorry. Not good enough. Treat your...

Scheduling and front desk: Scheduling was easy. Efficient. Staff very nice and friendly and courteous. Same goes to front desk.

Waiting area: Looked cluttered. Too much paper bags all over the place, I guess for the upcoming Black Friday deals. Looks a bit tacky for my taste. Wasn’t offered service upgrade.

Room: It looked tired. Also, I was put in a couple’s room. Personally, nope. I don’t like it. It kinda took away from the experience, the ambience. Room was too big. Also felt like an afterthought like as if they were overbooked and they squeezed me in. I would have appreciated if I was asked if it was okay with me to be put in that room. It’s the little things...

Massage: Big downer for me. I explained and couldn’t have stressed enough how much I wanted relief especially on my lower back. She acknowledged verbally but I felt like I was just being rubbed instead of being kneaded. She only put effort on the neck/shoulder area, and feet - after I asked for harder pressure. I dunno, this lady seemed distracted. At some point I felt maybe she was texting. (There were brief moments it felt like she was only using one hand..)

I could’ve complained while I was there but I’m not the type. I felt weird and kinda worried if I complained it would ruin the experience even more (how does one go on giving a personal service after somebody complains that you suck) plus I was running a schedule like a lot of us working moms do. I just wanted to squeeze in that one hour of ME time before picking up my daughter from a class.

Anyway, I got this as a gift so can’t complain about something I got for free. Not going back to this branch though. My Hand and Stone experience at the Ocean...