Yuan Spa - Totem Lake — Attraction in Kirkland

I got a massage service a few months ago. I was too angry to review at the time.

I checked in 15 minutes earlier than my appointment. The lady at the front gave me a tablet to fill out the information and was then given a quick little tour and waited in the area for my appointment. on the hour people started getting called to head back to their appointments. About 5 minutes passed and I thought maybe my technician was just running a little late and waited for another 5 minutes. (at this point it was about 10 minutes past appointment time). I then walked back to the front desk to tell them that I was still waiting. They immediately asked, "If someone checked me in". I replied "Yes" while pointing to the lady who checked me in. Another lady then asked me a 2nd time and this time I responded more sternly "Yes, 25 minutes ago that lady over there gave me a tablet and walked me back to the waiting area". I felt like they were trying to accuse me of sneaking in. They shuffled around sighed and said okay well go back to the waiting room and the tech will come get me. I asked if I would still get the 1 hour and the front desk said "Yes, the tech has time in their schedule to still give you the 1 hour". (at this point we were roughly 15 minutes into appointment time.) I proceeded back to the waiting area and the tech came out pretty immediately. As the tech walked us to our room she proceeded to ask me "what had happened and asked how long I had been waiting". I told her "I was here 15 minutes before the appointment and I waited until around 10 minutes after the hour to go back to the front desk cause I felt like I was forgotten". The massage itself was great. Relaxing. (this was my 2nd ever massage). But then 45mins in the technician said she was finishing up. I told her that the front desk had told me she was able to do the full hour even though we started late. She looked at me unsure what to say and said she wouldn't be able to with her schedule since she had someone else coming in. She asked me to get dressed and that she would go speak to the front desk. She came back and said that the best that they could do was give me a free "add-on" for my next visit. I went back out to the front desk and asked for a discount for my current visit since I did not plan on paying for another visit to use the free "add-on" since it was their mistake to begin with. They said they couldn't do a discount for my current visit cause the owner wasn't in. On top of all this, they couldn't even give me the add-on directly to my account. They said I had to e-mail the owner to get her to do it. Needless to say, I was super annoyed. You're a business and you messed up, instead of an apology and reasonable solution you treated me like I was wrong, trying to blame that I somehow sneaked into the waiting area. Now you're requiring me to do extra work to get what is owed to me. On top of all this, I need to PAY for another appointment to use the "add-on". The tech was nice and did a great job but the way the other staff handled this situation was awful. I would never...

I really tried with this place. The first time, I had a prenatal massage. I was in my first trimester. The therapist, I told him to apply more pressure several times. He never did. "Okay, I'll just get a different therapist next time," is what I told myself. So, the second time, I was in my third trimester and I requested a woman therapist. This was last Monday.

I had booked for myself and my friend - deep tissue for her, prenatal for me, followed by facials. First problem - we went in to find out we'd have none of the services together. "You had to have reserved the couples room for that," said the receptionist. Well, it would have been nice to know that at the time of booking, which was in person by the way. This wasn't a rushed or willy-nilly booking. I told them clearly what I wanted, which is why the next part really irked me. They got us all ready, robes and shoes and lockers, showed us around to the lobby, then as we were getting ready, the receptionist came back to tell me "we don't have a therapist for you."

There was no explanation, just "there's no one available to do the prenatal massage." There was no apology and the thing that really, REALLY bothered me was that the receptionist didn't acknowledge this mishap or the effect it was having on the customer i.e. my disappointment, NOR did she try to even accommodate me for that hour by offering other services from the spa menu. She only said "we can put you in the hydrotherapy room" of which I responded "I'm pregnant, I wouldn't be able to do that especially not for a whole hour, bad for baby" and she said "you could put your feet in." Wow.

I want to make it clear that I was very polite, patient, and confused at why this receptionist and the other two receptionists seemed to be very nonchalant and careless about this situation, to the point that I had to drive the fact that they should at least try to accommodate me for the hour since I'm not getting what I had originally booked. I said "hold on, I want to get something done, I was hoping for something relaxing, and I don't know your spa menu, but you do...so...can you please help me? What can you offer?" And this is the response I got "just tell us what services you would like." So basically, they refused to help me.

I looked up the menu myself and chose a half leg wax and bikini wax to do before the facial. They went to check with the esthetician if they could do this. While I waited, I sat down and I couldn't stop the tears. I cried. Then the esthetician came and she saw me crying. She was very kind and took care of me. But it should never have been like that.

Very, very poor customer service. Booking I thought was solid, but Yuan Spa in Totem Lake has a lot of work to do with the receptionists and how they actually care for the customers. And this place is way too expensive to not provide quality...

Let me preface this by saying, I trained & work in this Spa, Beauty therapy, etc, industry.

Reception friendly. Spa facilities great, women's facilities really good, changing rooms very nice.

Steam room was out of order, which we received notification of prior to appointment and we had 2 choices, either cancel or attend appointment. No discount etc offered or credit, not even for me, I'm overseas visitor, but at least a credit for my companion who lives in area, given that we couldn't get to use all facilities.

I'm very fortunate, I get to travel the world, experience different spa therapists. Without a doubt, massage therapist is 1 of the worst. Technically, she's good, she has technical skills, where she trained trained her well BUT she simply didn't come across as personable. Was she having a bad day or is she always like this? Something just seemed "off". Cant even recall if she introduced herself or actually smiled, honestly can't remember because she was hurriedly shuffling me to the room. Music choice AWFUL for spa environment, way too loud, its a spa, not a monestary with bells music dinging & chiming. Not her fault, not sure if there are volume controls in therapy rooms.

And just like that massage ended, no slow come down, no ease off, just boom, we're done. It felt like she couldn't get rid of me quick enough because of next appointment.

Perhaps management should not book back to back appoinments so therapists have time inbetween appointments?

Ugh, I think of the money spent on that specialsed massage...that I couldn't wait to be over...imagine wanting a massage to be over.

Front desk reception really, really, REALLY wanted to know what my massage experience was like...so okay, I told her the brutal honest truth. Not sure if anything will be communicated with therapist...like I said, I know how this industry works...if the numbers just keep coming it which seems to be the casefor this spa, they can operate at, Meh, 50%/60% customer satisfaction.

Spa good though, they should offer alternatives to customer when you pay for full hydrotherapy experience, and a quarter or third is missing due it being broken. I understand things break down but still.

Oh and only swipe card facilities for payment, no tap and go or...