Vida Spa - The Westin Bayshore — Local services in Vancouver

It is absolutely repulsive that Vida Spa feels the need to bully paying clients for simply sharing their very real experience and it is disgusting that Allison, specifically, routinely gaslights us in order to avoid taking accountability. While my friend and I visited Vida Spa on August 24th and left with a terrible impression, we have tried countless times to settle the matter privately despite having left with a water damaged phone and having paid $600 in total. If a free treatment is what we were after, do you truly think we would have bothered to pay after seeing the damage instead of arguing right there and then? We chose to respect the integrity of the business and to address the matter privately rather than causing a scene at the place of business. After well over a week with no response and all our evidence ignored, we finally decided to bring the matter to public light and now we are once again having our voices silenced under the false accusation of “bullying businesses”. Allison, as students who have felt the very real struggle during the pandemic, both with our studies and our employment in a geography where the effects are much greater than Vancouver, it is tragic that you choose to victimize yourself. It is very unfortunate that you use your seniority to maliciously exploit us and to twist our words and the truth. While Allison has the time to make bold claims and false accusations, she coincidentally will not take the time to discuss the matter with us and told us that “there really is no further conversation to be had” before we were able to truly converse. All of this could have been avoided, but with the responses we have been getting instead, it is blatantly obvious that Allison is the true bully here. INDIVIDUALS NEED TO TAKE A STRONG STAND AGAINST SUCH BULLYING AND AGGRESSION, EVEN WHEN THEY FEEL THEIR VOICES WILL ALWAYS BE SILENCED (and by the president, nonetheless).

Specifically wording your response to say that the phones were placed at opposite ends of an 8 foot counter is highly misleading. While the counter may be 8 feet long, it had 2 separate sinks and the phones were placed no more than a foot away from each sink as this is exactly where we picked up our phones from. While you say “the phone looked as if it had been submerged in water”, when did you actually see the phone? You were not there that day. The only employee who saw the damaged phone after the treatment was the receptionist, who saw it after my friend had already dried off the exterior. Do you really think he would just allow the water to remain on the phone? Although I know protecting the company may be your priority, your logic is severely flawed. If you disagree, please enlighten me with how you formed that conclusion.

Furthermore, having worked in the service industry (perhaps not as long as Allison), I may not know as much, but it is common knowledge that empathy, professionalism and tone can be the differentiating factor between a positive and a negative experience. It is unfortunate that the representative of a client-facing organization like Vida Spa lacks these traits and I only hope that more training and emphasis is placed on how to treat their clients. Allison, whether you choose to respond or not, I implore you to review the security footage first (this will clear up a lot of confusion on your end), avoid making false accusations if possible and consider the qualities and traits that a good leader and representative of a large organization should embody. As of right now, I can only say that it is unfortunate to be bullied by the president of a corporation that promotes treating your mind and body because the only manner in which we have been treated is sickening.

While future clients may not experience property damage, in the event of any incident, know that Vida Spa will not take accountability and will instead, accuse you of bullying, aggression and fabrication. What an interesting business strategy in the face of these...

ONLY VISIT VIDA SPA IF YOU WANT YOUR PROPERTY DAMAGED AND YOU ENJOY DEALING WITH RUDE UPPER MANAGEMENT.

My friend and I went on vacation to Vancouver and on August 24th, 2021, we visited Vida Spa.

In the massage room before our session, the therapists took our phones and placed them on separate counters in the room. After the 90 minute massage, I picked up my phone which was drenched in water and severely water damaged. The screen would not respond to any touch, and shaking the phone would physically spew water out of the speakers and charging port. Less than 5 minutes later, the phone screen was completely dead and would not turn on.

The rest of the vacation was wasted searching Vancouver for repair shops to attempt to fix my phone, all of whom were unsuccessful. That night, we decided to email the spa addressing the issue.

The regional manager, Nicole, replied and told us that after conducting an “investigation”, she concluded that the phone damage could not have been caused by the spa because if one phone had water damage, the other phone would have had it as well. A thorough investigation would have shown that the phones were not even placed on the same counter and were on opposite sides of the room. After explaining this fact to Nicole and asking her to review the security footage, the only reply we received was that it was not their fault as per their “investigation”.

We were then contacted by Allison, the president of Vida Spa, and told once again that it was not the spa’s fault. She mentioned that the extent of the damage could only be caused by fully submerging the phone in water. However, numerous phone repair shops have told me that water damage is highly variable and that a bottle cap of water can cause the same/more damage than a fully submerged phone.

Allison also said that the therapist would have seen the water when cleaning the counters. Since we didn’t contact the spa until that night, I doubt the therapist would remember whether the counter was wet or not. However, all of their points are subjective to the therapist’s memory who probably sees multiple clients a day.

After unsuccessfully attempting to schedule a call with Allison and then asking to speak to someone who would be more available to address this situation in real time, she very rudely dismissed our concerns and suggested that the phone was damaged prior to the spa. Once again, a thorough investigation into the security footage would show that the phone was working prior to the massage, and not immediately after. She concludes her email by asking us to “respectfully” stop emailing and calling her team, which did not feel respectful in the slightest. It is appalling to hear this response from the top management of a client-facing company.

The bottom line is that neither Allison nor Nicole were present during the treatment. All of their “investigations” were based on what the therapist told them or the protocols they should have in place. How do we know that these “protocols” are even being followed? If the extent of their investigation is asking the masseuse, why would they admit to not following protocols or to damaging client property? Although we suggested multiple times to review the security footage, I am sure this was ignored as they never addressed it.

This issue has caused me tremendous amounts of stress. I have spent a lot of time and money every day since trying to resolve the issue with various phone repair companies on top of looking for a new phone.

Ultimately, my phone came into the spa working well (and dry) and left soaking wet and unusable. The bulk of their emails just recited their protocols and ignored any evidence brought to them. After spending $600 at the spa, I would have hoped to at least get the bare minimum. Instead, we got nothing but empty condolences, our concerns dismissed and our emails ignored.

For the full review with additional details, evidence, photos and emails, please visit Tripadvisor - Vida Wellness...

Very rude and racist individuals. Sent a corporate client executive there to whom staff assumed was some Barbie or playtoy and told her pay upfront. To even make a complaint to the manager or owner, who did call and just say her staff is honest and never wrong is pointless. Had the calls recorded and owner still refused to meet me! Owner said her manager was "shaken" over call I had with her where my tone was more relaxed as I was in a sense wanting to deal with the owner not manager. I mean which idiot refuses to hear evidence! The hotel manager was being very kind though and offered my friend dinner and told us both they are separate and agreed what staff did was very rude. Only rub and tugs asked to be paid first! This was a walk in!

It's good because my friends, clients and family will boycott this place and my friend is going to not take civil action. They don't even have real RMT's there and inside is not as nice as Shangrila...