Ocean Blue Day Spa — Local services in Port Alberni

I had a terrible experience with this spa. Recently I called to see if they had any openings for a treatment on a particular day. When I said I had just a couple of quick questions about what COVID precautions the spa was taking the staff person became hostile and rudely said that they were following all Worksafe BC requirements, that she wasn't going to read them all to me, that they were listed on the wall in the spa and that I could come and read them myself. When I (still politely) tried to tell her quickly what my two questions were, she told me that perhaps I should look for another spa and hung up on me.

Providing a reply to the Spa's response below (Thank you for your review. I apologize for the misunderstanding ...at the point in time of your call we were fully occupied and busy and I should have sent you our three pages of protocols via text or email. I truly did not have the time …

Let's be clear...there was no misunderstanding here. Generally when you are rude and hostile, it is upsetting to the other person. You knew nothing about my personal health or that of my family. With the restrictions changing, businesses are taking different approaches now and it is perfectly reasonable for a customer to ask a business a question or two. If you had given me a few seconds to ask my questions instead of hanging up on me, I would have asked (1) generally how far apart of the pedicure clients & are there any windows open in that area (2) same question for the body treatment. You could have answered them quickly. If you were busy, you could have simply explained that, taken my phone # and called me back a bit later. Instead, you chose to provide exceptionally rude customer service and be generally disrepectful and lose a customer who is in Parksville often. I hope you learn from this experience. I've learned that I won't ever...

Went for a massage and pedicure with my significant other. The massage was wonderful, we both enjoyed ourselves very much. We were both a little disappointed in our pedicures, we felt they were a bit rushed. I was upset to see a $30 charge for gel polish removal added to our invoice after the fact, I felt as though someone should have mentioned it especially because we had a confirmation email with the amount expected. $30 seems quite high, seeing as my usual place where I live my pedicure is $40 with gel polish.

The one thing that really upset us both and really reflected poorly on their customer service, was their reaction to their tip. We both come from the service industry and prefer to tip in cash as we know the benefits. On our way to the spa we had discussed that I only had $60 in cash and we were wanting to leave a larger amount. We didn't have time to stop to get more cash out, so we decided he would just include a tip when he paid as well. He ended up finishing his pedicure first and went to the front to pay while he waited for me, I had my purse/cash with me otherwise he would have given the cash then. However, I could not believe the look on the lady's face when he paid and it wasn't what she wanted and then to point it out to another lady doing the services and have a discussion about it while we could very plainly see was pretty astonishing. I get it, i'm from the service industry, it sucks to get a tip that is under what you were expecting, but you should not be making your guests feel so uncomfortable while you react the way they did. In the end, we left a 25% tip, which I believe is pretty generous. Needless to say, the massage was fabulous, but we were certainly disappointed in their...

Came for pedicures. They charge $25 & to remove old nail polish (claimed it took 20 min to remove, but my watch said 9 min???!) , the color selection is great if you like red, pinks or brown, no gel nail color was offered (she then said the did have blue gel but you had to book that extra), so you leave with wet nails, they rub the feet but not the calves or legs, and was very light. The plus was the hot wax foot part for two min hence the 2 stars vs one. Oh when asked if I could get a pumpkin face applied she claim she would not have time for that since she had to spend so much time removing old polish (something we were not told needed to be done and had we know would have, even if to avoid the 25$ fee) All n all, it was not worth the high price for me I...