PCI Academy Plymouth, MN — Local services in Plymouth

I had a perm scheduled May 17th with Raegyn at 9am. I had originally contacted her on March 23rd to schedule a color/chemistry treatment on May 3rd, and the perm/cut May 17th at 9 AM. Even that took a lot of time to work with her schedule, and we didn't get anything set until April 10th. I do not live around here and work in Eau Claire, WI most weeks M-F, but like to support my friend in school. Since I knew I would have the day off, I scheduled a dentist appointment at 2 pm as well. That would leave 9am-1pm for a perm and cut. 4 hours is plenty of time for this. I scheduled this so far out just so I could get work off. I had my hair colored on the 3rd as planned and everything was fine. I even purchased some expensive products that were recommended by the educator (Ms. Gomez) just so I could get my perm done May 17th, 2 weeks later, and not melt my hair off. I was told using these products would be the only way this would be possible, so I shelled out $60 on top of my already expensive bill. Then 5/16 I received a confirmation text saying my appointment was at 11am, not at 9am. I contacted Raegyn who stated "Well they moved it to 11 cause we have some education class tomorrow 9-11. They didn't clear it with me". Now, because I have a dentist appointment at 2 and can't possibly have a cut and perm done by 1 according to Raegyn and educators, I had to cancel my appointment. The next day I am able to get off work is June 15th. A whole month after my appointment! I would like to know why it is okay to move appointments around 2 hours like that without asking the client? I have been waiting for months to get this done and now have to reschedule for a month from now. What if I had had work that day? I am extremely disappointed with PCIs scheduling from the 3 times I've been scheduled. I may not even come back as I wasted over $60 in product (which I wouldn't have purchased if I had known it'd be 6 weeks between my color and perm) and took the day off work to come in. Every time I've tried to schedule has been a fight. I do love supporting Raegyn, but there needs to be a better system for scheduling. I deserve a refund for those expensive products I purchased, just so my hair would be healthy for a perm today, and an apology for moving my appointment without my consent, causing it to be rescheduled for a month from now. A salon would not do this. Please change something. Also, I wouldn't go here if you want a balayage or highlight (any lightening treatment) lighter than a dirty blonde. Neither of my 2 colors have been as light as had wanted, but both were okayed by educators. I think Raegyn is a great cosmetologist so far, but the academy is terrible to schedule with. *Response to owner 5/23: Firstly, you should NOT reschedule any scheduled appointments without confirming with the client no matter what. Doesn't matter if you're a school or not. That was not okay. Secondly, you DO have the correct phone number for me because you called and texted to remind me of my appointment time, which is how I learned there was something changed. Thirdly, I deserve a refund for those products. $60 is over 6 hours of work for me and I would NOT have purchased them if I knew my appointment would be 6 weeks out, not 2. When I was scheduled for 2 weeks out the educator said I needed them to get the perm. Now it's just a plain waste of money. I did everything in my power to be ready for the perm appointment and your academy messed up the schedule wasting my $60. You should know when classes are to be held more than a few days in advance and only should schedule them if the schedule clears, not pushing appointments back without the clients approval. These products had nothing to do with my color. They were for the sole purpose of getting my hair permed in 2 weeks. Not 6. *EDIT 2: Spoke with the stylist and rescheduled for June 15th. Owner stated that there was no education class that day and no refund would be given...

Additional Edit: Contrary to their response, no one ever reached out to me and concerns were never addressed.

As a recent graduate of this school, I would never recommend anyone go here. It is no where near worth the amount of money we had to pay to be there. When I questioned where our tuition money was going, I was met with the response “it keeps the lights on in the building.” The schools last priority is the students, no matter how much they love to preach that they come first. Their ONLY priority is making money, which some people outside of the cosmetology world are not aware that students do not receive a penny for the services they are doing. I had attended the school for a year, and one of the owners/managers who I talked to repeatedly didn’t even know my name. They see you as a free money maker and not a person. Their turnover rate is horrendous, I believe around 16 people were fired in the short time I was there. We watched good educators get fired while abusive educators got promoted. Educators who yelled in our faces, degraded us in front of clients, made students and clients cry on a regular basis, ect. The educators who do want to be there for us, can only do so much because there is no time allotted for actually teaching. Students are packed back to back with appointments so much so that educators can’t sit down and help them with the service… but hey as long as the school gets the money. Not to mention they rarely provide students with breaks, even on 10 hour days. They were well aware some students were working multiple jobs on top of going to school, but wouldn’t think twice about taking away a students only opportunity to eat to give them a client. If you refused a service, even under the circumstances of not having a break, you were sent home which in turn is setting you behind in the program. We had to hit certain quotas in order to graduate, but they have now taken away the ability to have designated time to work on those and are strictly taking clients our entire time. They also give little to no preparation for all state testing required to receive your license. Students are given little to nothing in their “kit” of tools and have to use the dollar store supplies that this million dollar company provides them with. If you speak up for yourself and try to bring light to these issues, they shoot you down, gas light you into thinking you’re overreacting, or make your life a living h*. I could go on forever about how terrible of an experience this was for me, but bottom line is this school takes your money, works you until you physically and mentally break, and then throws you out the door as soon as you’re done without even so much...

Alright let me start off by saying 95% of the educators that I had been taught/educated by were great, they pushed you to do better and tried to help out where and when they could. Now how the school was and is actually ran is a completely different story. First of all my biggest complaint/concern and what inclined me to write this review is that it took almost 7 weeks for my license to come in the mail! I filled out my application to receive my license on February 26th and I was informed (as were all of the other students who graduated at that time) that my application paperwork was going to be mailed to the MN board of cosmetology that day. Great, cool, fantastic so they should have had it by the end of that week, so maybe March 1st at the very latest. When I hadn’t received my license by about the end of March (about 4 weeks after filling out the paperwork) I went on the MN board website and read that once they receive an application it takes NO MORE than 15 days to review and get it sent out in the mail. So I called the board to see if the was any issues with the paperwork. Nope they just hadn’t received it until March 15th, so that means PCI held onto my application for my license for a good 10 days or so before actually mailing it in. Because of that I was unable to start my job on time and missed out on two weeks of pay and being able to do services. I chose PCI because of the convenience of location and because it seemed like a great place when I had toured. It’s not ran like a school but more of a business, and because of this everything was about money. Couldn’t practice services on each other unless someone paid for the service, which got tricky for some students and requirements especially when they had taken on more students than they could handle and have clients for. I’m grateful they taught us the business side of everything don’t get me wrong, but it was taken a little overboard by some. The owner came up to meet with almost every student in the esty program because so many students had been complaining but anything valid someone would bring up an excuse was made and not a whole lot changed. I know the educators had tried their best to keep everything running smoothly when there were extra students so that wasn’t really the issue, just that the school needs to be more organized with everything and find a better and more efficient way to help their students, because the students are the one earning the money...