Ulta Beauty — Local services in Rancho Cordova

I had an appointment booked with Michelle (salon manager) at 11:15am today, October 17th. I booked this appointment 6 days ago online. (Oct 11th)

I got multiple confirmations by text and on Ulta's booking website up to an hour before the appointment. I will attach photos. I took a screenshot of my confirmation just in case.

I'm glad I did. I got a call 20 minutes before my appointment from Michelle and this is how the conversation went: "Hi this is Michelle from Ulta, you had an appointment at 11:15am?" "Hi, Yes I did." "I'm sorry, but the books have been glitching and booking appointments over each other. Can you move the appointment to 1pm today or 12:30pm tomorrow?" "No, I'm sorry. I can't. I work a graveyard shift and have to go to sleep before a certain time. And I have a work event tomorrow all day." "Oh okay. Thank you!" "Thanks. Uh-" I was going to ask if I still had my appointment at 11:15 but she hung up the phone before I could ask.

I went to my appointment, and a male hairdresser helped me at the counter. I said I had an appointment at 11:15 and he said I wasn't on the books. Michelle was at a station working with another girl. He asked who I booked with. I said Michelle and she came to the counter. I repeated that I was there for my appointment and when I tried to pull up my appointment online, it had suddenly vanished. Luckily I had the screenshot from an hour before and showed her. I don't think she was expecting that. She said "Oh I just spoke with you on the phone right? Yeah, I can't do the appointment. The books are weird and if you book online there's an issue. I can do your appointment at 1pm like I said on the phone."

Just to be clear, she never told me that she had literally canceled my appointment 20 minutes before I was supposed to arrive when she talked to me on the phone. Even if she had, that would be unacceptable as I booked this appointment 6 days ago and should have been notified far in advance of 20 minutes before my appointment that there was a booking issue.

I worked as a Guest Service associate at a waxing center for two years. I know exactly how online booking systems work, and I know that my appointment would have shown up in the system, even if it was double booked. Any well trained associate would contact these customers as soon as the issue was noticed. Michelle/Ulta had six days to handle this issue and notify me, and yet they didn't. Michelle was working on a dye job when I got there, and I can tell she waited until the very last minute to call me once she knew for sure she wouldn't be able to do my appointment. That is so incredibly inconsiderate.

She sneakily deleted my appointment off of the books 20 minutes before it was supposed to happen without telling me because she mismanaged her time, and just hoped I wouldn't show up. I have all of the proof in the screenshots I'm attaching to this review.

Michelle, not only did you embarrass me in front of other customers and your coworkers, this was really shady and you should have at least successfully communicated to me that you had canceled my appointment over the phone, even though cancelling someone's appointment 20 minutes prior is unacceptable and completely unprofessional regardless. Even calling me an hour before would have been more polite. But no, I got called 20 minutes before, when I was already on the way there. This whole situation really ruined my day, as I haven't been able to cut my hair in over a year and I was so looking forward to my appointment today. I don't think it's unreasonable to at least be treated with common decency and respect.

I expect to hear back from management about this review. If I don't, I'll be calling the store's manager directly. I have proof of all of this happening the way I said it did in the screenshots. I will not be coming back to this Ulta, and will be going back to see a respectful and kind hairdresser at the Ulta in Delta Shores.

Due to my experience today, I do not recommend booking an appointment...

I’m writing a review on behalf of my mom. My mom purchased a too faced eyeliner in store, when she got home she noticed it was empty. She called the store and was told they would take her info down and she could come back to pick up her eyeliner. She comes in store, where she is told by some employees that she needed to bring the box with her, she insisted she wasn’t told to bring the box and she was told they had no notes about her interaction on the phone. She requested to speak with the manager whom didn’t ever speak to her, instead he sent another Spanish associate to. tell her it was store policy and they would not give her the eyeliner. This manager, Ryke did not speak with my mom because she spoke Spanish and because he didn’t deem the issue important enough to even let her know he would bring a Spanish associate to speak w her. My mom leaves upset, she is then called by first manager she spoke with on the phone, whom apologized and said she could come in for her eyeliner and they’d have a gift for her for her inconvenience. They literally gave her a benefit eyepatch. These are literally samples; not worth the headache nor the inconvenience of driving back and forth nor the racist experience. The manager and the girls here were extremely unprofessional and this has been escalated with ulta headquarters and I hope that people who’s English is not their first language never experience...

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