Uptown Nails — Attraction in San Diego

This was THE WORST nail salon experience I've ever had! Wish I could actually rate them with 0 stars. The salon was not very busy when I arrived and I was able to be seated immediately. I proceeded to choose a polish color from the wall and sit down. I was almost instantly bombarded with the questions about "gel" color instead of polish. I don't see the need to pay $15 EXTRA for "gel" color, as I typically never have chipped polish... and IF I do, being a licensed cosmetologist, I can fix them myself. She kept insisting that I NEEDED "gel". Besides the point. A different tech came over and assisted in selecting a "gel" color as close to the polish color I chose as she could find. I selected a completely different color from the "gel" colors I was shown. The tech proceeded to file and buff my nails and she asked again if I wanted "gel". I said "let's see what my nails look like after you clean them up, I may just leave them clear". She IMMEDIATELY became very nasty and aggressive. Snatching and pushing my fingers as she moved along. 2 other customers walked in, and she proceeded to rush through the rest of my service. Almost as if she was annoyed that I came in to begin with. She asked again "so clear, or polish?" Suddenly, the same "gel" she insisted I needed wasn't an option, as she was trying to hurry me out to help the next customers that came in. I said "don't worry about it!" She quickly slathered some clear polish on my nails and said "thank you" although her a tone indicated more of "please get out of here, you're wasting my time". I paid exactly what she quoted me, $20 and left.

Here's the issue with a lot of these establishments... people of color are second rate customers. I can't possibly want to have the same level of service as other people, therefore I must never tip. Well, you assumed wrong, as THIS is the first time I've ever received a service and not left a tip. If I'm not good enough for your service, then surely, I'd prefer to take my money elsewhere.

You've got to do better, ladies. You don't treat paying customers like trash. Have...

I asked for dip on my nails and regular polish for my toes. I said, "usually I get gel but it makes my nails weak, so I wanted to try sns, do you think it's better for the nails?" And she said "yes dip is better." I picked a color (white) and asked for the matching color for my toes. When the dip started going on, it looked sheer so I asked to clarify I wanted white, like opaque and not clear (I don't think she understood what I meant by opaque) but it was good enough, so I said it was fine. When the color went on my toes, it was very bright opaque white and didn't match my nails at all. So I asked, is that the matching color? It doesn't look the same. So then she did 2 layers of white gel on top of the dip to make it match my toes (and it still wasn't a great match, she just picked a random gel white color to try to match my toes). And putting gel on sort of defeated the purpose of me getting dip, and made it way too thick looking. To make it worse, the woman who was doing my manicure acted very annoyed, by what I thought were very reasonable comments/questions. And then she charged me $20 more than what she said it would be over the phone (to give the benefit of the doubt, I assumed I just misheard her). But the whole experience was just bad, and not relaxing at all, which is the opposite of what I wanted on vacation :( The woman doing my pedicure was really...

I called and asked for the price to have an acrylic overlay SOAKED off and redone, the lady said $28 + $5 for the removal of the overlay. Asked when I could come in, she responded by saying I could come in right away. I arrive, say Hi I just called about having my acrylic soaked off, they yell for a lady from the back. She comes up and saids, hi you just call right? I say yes about haven my nails soaked off. She told me where to sit, and got out a kit with fake tips. I explained to her these we're my real nails, and I didn't need that, I only needed the hardening soaked off so that I could keep my real nail & overlay put back on, she responded and said I know I know. I turned to observe the display of polishes on the wall and POP, she had taken a false nail and slid it between my real nail & the overlay. I said mam, I asked for them to be soaked off and she said yeah but most customer don't like that. I said but that's what I ASKED for. In short it was a very painful experience, I paid her for the removal even though I did not allow her to do my left hand( because that what was asked of me.) She broke all of my nails with the exception on one and none of the nail techs seemed to...