Ulta Beauty — Local services in Pensacola

I hate writing a negative review but I can't get past this. Went in for my birthday and showed my card to receive my gift when I was told I needed an email to pick up my gift and could not use my card--- the girl realized that my email address was entered in the system without an @ symbol-- therefore no email was ever gotten. She kind of shrugged and said "you can call if you want, but I can't give you the gift" (super annoying that I had come back at a later time after the email had been properly sent in order to get my birthday gift but whatever) Go back in and LOVED getting my hair done, my stylist did an excellent job with the cut and color but unfortunately did not cape me properly, and bleached the dress I was wearing. What makes it worse is the stylist knew it had happened, because she had me sit forward and wiped the chair down after she was done with the lightener. When I asked if it had gotten on my clothing she said no. Really the bleach is not in a HUGE area, but I called the salon as soon as I noticed. I have never had to deal with my clothing getting stained by professionals, so after I get passed around on the phone to 3 different women-- the salon assistant manager asks me what she can help me with. I tell her I came in less than a week ago and noticed my dress was bleached during the processing of my hair color. She pauses and says "Ok.....so.....? What do you want....?" I said I had never had my clothing stained/bleached and was not aware of their policy. She then responded that I should bring in my receipt from my dress and the dress itself so they can photograph it and send it to their corporate office to DECIDE if they will do anything about it. First of all--- who keeps receipts for clothes they OWN? Second, I am tired of making extra trips to Ulta to correct their mistakes. Third, Ulta gets to DECIDE if they are going to compensate me when one of their employees does not cape properly and clothing gets stained? Zero empathy from the assistant manager, I did not hang up the phone with a warm fuzzy feeling that this woman actually cared that my clothing was stained. I can say that I will return-- to have my dress evaluated by the stain police, but I likely will not return for any other services-- unless of course they send me an official email about a gift, in which case I will call to...

Undervalued, mislead, and judged is how I'd summarize my first experience with Ulta.

I called to ask if they had anyone who specialized in natural African American hairstyling. My daughter wanted to cut her hair short and style it. I was assured that yes this could be done and an appointment was booked at 6:15 on Friday. We are understanding, so when we received a call asking if the appointment could be pushed back an hour we agreed to it. We arrived early for the new time and the stylist and I both agreed in order to do it right, it wasn't worth starting on it that night as the store closed at 9.

The new appointment was Sunday at 11. We arrive and show the stylist a couple of styles that we would like. We ask for the stylist's expertise on which one was doable and I asked again was she sure before she started cutting my daughter's hair. The stylist chose a style and started cutting. Two hours into the cutting I step outside for some fresh air. I'm texted to comeback inside because the stylist was done. To my surprise, no styling was done and the cut didn't seem right for the style she chose. The reason I was given was that she didn't have the time. I was told to comeback in 5 weeks and that she the stylist, books up fast.

I have a few questions and will be reaching out to the corporate office in Illinois, Mary the CEO, and possibly share our experiences on several social media platforms.

Questions:

Why was our appointment pushed back an hour but there wasn't an attempt to ask the next customer for a little more time ? Why weren't we told that it may not be finished ahead of time so we could make a decision ? What happened to all the talk about showing us products that was going to be used on her hair that we could purchase to maintain her hair ? No product was used and no assistance was offered. Why during the cutting I was constantly reminded that it would be extra but never given a price or a sense of wanting to perform what was needed ? I was okay with it all. Maybe the stylist somehow knew what I could afford ?

I still payed for the service, not knowing if I received the 20% discount promised for first time customers. My daughter was heart broken but didn't want to cause any trouble. Ulta taught my daughter and I a...

TODD. IS.THE. BEST.