Great Jones Spa — Local services in New York

If I could give 0 stars I would. It was my birthday and my best friend and I booked hot stone massages and body scrubs at Great Jones Spa. My friend and I get massages on a regular basis since we were in college (we are both now in our thirties). I used to come to GJS in college and remember it being a nice experience. Now? It is dirty and the massage technicians/ management are terrible. I was supposed to receive a hot stone with a deep tissue massage. I told my technician I wanted a deep tissue massage and asked her TWICE to go deeper during the massage. She basically just "grazed" my skin with her hands and then put luke warm and cold stones over my body. Half way through I had to END the massage! It was so, so terrible. I was really cold and miserable with how bad it was I couldn't even finish it. The technician was really sweet and I felt terrible- but I was so cold and miserable I just couldn't finish it. I apologized for making it uncomfortable and she was really sweet about it. She told me she would let her manager know. I expected them to come and find me to discuss but they never did. After my friend got out- she also complained that she did not have a good massage but her stones were at least hot (she made no complaints). We were sitting there and noticed how dirty the place was. What used to be a table with snacks and drinks was now a tub of water and hot water for tea out of plastic cups. Everything has really gone down hill here. We decided there was no way we were going to enjoy the next service so decided to go to Equinox and get massages and treatments there- SO GLAD WE DID THIS. Anyways, we head to the front desk and was told management would come talk to us because I was not going to pay for my massage. It was a young guy that clearly came ready to fight. He never let me get my story/ experience out. He only focused on my complaint that the stones were cold and was adamant that they were not (...because he was there enjoying the massage with me???!!!) He told me that he checked the temp of the stones and there was no issue with them... Then why did I leave HALF WAY THROUGH a massage?? Who leaves halfway through a massage?!? It has to be pretty bad to not finish your service!! Anyways, he charged me for 35% of the massage and refused to give me the massage for free. I am currently fighting this with my credit card company and will be leaving a review every place that I can possibly can to tell others that there are WAY better places with MUCH better customer service, better services in general, and cleaner facilities. Highly, highly recommend Equinox. They had champagne for us, food, the services were INCREDIBLE and the customer service was out of this world. GJS has a lot to learn if it's going to survive! Most of the clients sitting in there with us were young kids .. that should tell you all you need to know. Management here is just terrible and has NO idea how to handle legitimate complaints. I came ready to discuss and would have been willing to find a compromise however his abrupt and rude demeanor- telling me how my experience actually was has pushed me to getting petty about it. Do not come here- your money is better spent...

Today, I went for facial and body massage appointment , spent about $ 500 and my entire day traveling all the way from forest hills queens to great jones spa New York downtown. I was checked in by the front desk with the gift certificates my daughter had gifted me for facial and body massage. But after my facial and massage done and I was checking out , the totally inexperienced front desk girl who made me spent over half hour just because she couldn't find my facial gift certificate in the system in-spite of me providing all the information regarding my email , phone number and my daughter email and phone and even showed them the all paid gift certificate online purchase email confirmation with order number and the amount $ 151.53 The front desk girl kept asking me questions with an attitude Making me feel like I was just pretending and got the service without gift certificate , she not even knowing the spa policy that they do not let anyone check in without having a booking in the system and credit card on file. I showed her the email confirmation which clearly stated the facial order number and the gift certificate to be picked at spa but still she couldn't find my facial gift certificate. In short I end up spending over 30 min and then even talked to the manager inside and explained the entire situation, showed her the email with order number and the mgmt. person was able to find my facial order gift certificate in the system but without any apology both manager and other mgmt. person just said it happens as we have so many booking in the system ! Excuse me is that all you have to say ? Neither the front desk girl apologized. Spa manager didn't apologized nor admitted that the front desk staff need to be more trained and seasoned. I wish they had a co operate head office phone number or customer service so I could file a complain of misconduct with me and the horrible experience the front desk girl and manager made me go hurting me emotionally. I would never ever go to this spa again and I hope people reading my review should think twice before booking an appointment...

This spa is really lovely. The water lounge is a great addition to a facial experience. My daughter and I went for a hydro facial and stem cell facial, on her birthday. The facialists were wonderful, kind and so incredibly helpful in choosing our services tailored to our skin care needs.

We stayed for about 30 mins after our treatments to enjoy the water lounge. It was so relaxing.

The only complaint I have is the older receptionist with black hair and thick framed glasses. I didn’t catch her name. When we arrived, I tried to explain to another receptionist that we tried calling many times to cancel an existing appointment we accidentally made on the website and she was so sweet and began helping us. But the older woman interrupted without hearing the entirety of our conversation and started scolding me and rudely told me I couldn’t cancel in person and that I needed to do this over the phone. She was curt, rude and extremely condescending and confrontational. I had to show her a screenshot of all the attempts we made at calling and she later admitted their landlines had crashed earlier in the day. Then she tried to force me to admit that she wasn’t being rude and that she was simply following the rules.

When it was time to leave, we were a bit disoriented because we were so relaxed. We thanked the kinder receptionist and started at the exit when the rude older receptionist stopped us and demanded to know if we planned to leave without paying. It had slipped my mind and I was happy to pay but she was rolling her eyes and scoffed, mumbling about how unbelievable it was that we were trying to get away with not paying.

I spent nearly $600 there last night. And would gladly come back, but I’m extremely turned off by this woman. Will she be there the next time I come? She was so rude, we weren’t even given a chance to purchase any of the products the facialist recommended during our treatments because she was so hostile during our exit. She ruined and undid all of the relaxing treatments we received.

I’m hesitant to go back because of this woman. Has anyone else had this...