Kim's Nails & Spa — Local services in San Diego

STAY AWAY! DO NOT RECOMMEND!

Edit after owner’s reply: I did expressed my dissatisfaction right there! And I went back to your salon the next day to ask for my money back and was told to work it out with my bank. Please do not put this on me! Unless you are willing to do the right thing and give me back the money your ATM took from me there is nothing for us to talk about. Your reply is disingenuous and my review about this place stands.

I was excited to try Kim's Nails & Spa since the reviews are good and the location is convenient for me. I arrived without an appointment and Lily said she'd be happy to do my manicure right away.

The place is overall messy and not super clean. The manicure was fine but Lily did ask questions that made me somewhat uncomfortable throughout the appointment. She also insisted I should get a pedicure and get my brows waxed because they offer the service and I would look much better, despite me telling her I just wanted a manicure and I like my brows they way are.

When it came time to pay Lily said I had to pay cash and she couldn't take card payments because of "internet problems". I said I didn't have any cash on me and asked if I could possibly Venmo her. She said she didn't have Venmo but there was an ATM at the back of the store I should use. I asked if there was another way as I wasn't keen on using the ATM, she said no, and showed me to the back where she removed a blanket covering the machine.

I tried to use the ATM and at the end of the operation an error message appeared. The machine spit out a ticket saying there had been an error and that it had dispensed only part of the money, but no money actually came out. I told Lily this, and that I felt robbed. I had been hesitant to use the ATM and turns out for good reason.

Lily proceeded to say that everything was fine, and that I don't understand it because I'm not from America (I had told her earlier following her questioning that I had recently moved), but things like this happen all the time, and my bank wouldn't actually charge me because the ticket that the ATM spit out has an error on it.

She then said I could pay her with Venmo. Ah, so you do have Venmo Lily, so why couldn't I have used that in the first place as I suggested?! I expressed my dissatisfaction with the whole situation, and again how I felt robbed being charged by her ATM and now having to pay her on Venmo.

Lily never once apologized. She kept saying "No, no, everything is fine, you don't understand, you will not be charged, and if you are just come back and I will give you the money".

Well of course I was charged, so I went back to get my money. Lily said she would need to call someone for the money and I should come back later. I said I just wanted my money and was not planning on coming back.

She then explained to the customer who was getting her nails done how I didn't understand she needs to call someone for the ATM. I said I understood just fine and just wanted my money, to which the poor customer, who was brought into this for no good reason said: "maybe you could give her cash". Yes Lily, maybe you could give me cash since that is what you said you would do!

So she ends up calling someone and proceeds to put me on the phone them (so it's on me to figure this out) and they said I had to file a card dispute with my bank and that they wouldn't be paying me. I told Lily she should be ashamed of herself, she told me if I came back she would give me MY money back, and again she kept saying I don't understand. Not once did Lily apologize.

So I am definitely never coming back and I do not recommend this...

My friend and I given this place a try on multiple occasions; VanL has been the one doing my friend's manicures and I've gotten pedicures here. The last time we went in, VanL triple-booked appointments to where there were two people waiting in line for their appointments which were set for the same time as my friend's. VanL rushed to finish my friend's set when she realized her mistake, which resulted in her nails curing improperly. One nail peeled off completely the next morning after bubbling, and three others bubbled almost immediately. One of the nails also broke in just over a week - a common occurrence that is consistent with our experience with them on other occasions.

She responded incredibly rudely, and indicated that it was not her fault, and that she was only willing to fix her mistake if we could come in immediately. She was not willing to work with our work schedule (that prevents us from coming in during the week) and she didn't apologize at all for having made the mistakes in the first place. As a result, she 1) did not make any attempt to apologize, 2) did not make any attempt to fix the mistake, and 3) did not make any attempt to refund the order. So, we wasted our time and money for nothing.

My experience with pedicures has not been much better here; the pedicurist cut off some of my skin off my toe on one occasion, apologized and sprayed it down with some wound cleanser, and then did nothing else the rest of the visit despite a great deal of blood. My toe took over 2 months to heal completely.

On a separate occasion, I had a cut on the back of my heel, and the same pedicurist again sprayed it briefly with some peroxide and then made no attempt to avoid the area with exfoliants or any other abrasive materials the rest of the visit, despite me asking her to please be gentle in that area due to the pain.

She also consistently cut my nails so short as to be painful, each time, very roughly and quickly.

Overall; poor attention to detail, worse customer service, and no awareness or care of customers, their time, their money, or their nails. We will not...

Absolutely horrible experience , she can’t do much designs and her prices are ridiculous. I called and asked for her minimum price (55). I go in with long acrylics , I asked for a fill and design, she couldn’t do my original design so I changed it. She said she could do the other design. She took 30 mins to find an acrylic color then started in a strange order. From applying acrylic to fileing. She got a call mid service from someone wanting to come in, in an hour , she said yes and immediately started to speed up. I wanted a milky like clear top, and she ended up painting them a messy almost white, I spoke up ans asked for another color and settled for a clear top coat. She started to do the design ,which was black stars, by the looks of the design she had never seen a star before. I change my design one more time to just rhinestones on the nails and she tries giving me green and purple Tinted stones , I say something again and get normal silver stones and she applies them with no other adhesive other than nail polish. I’ve never been to a salon that doesn’t use adhesive for stones, I have no idea how long they’ll stay on for. She then totals me to 75 dollars claiming it’s because of the length and rhinestones. It was a fill not a full set, I don’t understand why a fill is more than a full set, and the rinestones were not what I wanted, it’s what I had to settle for due to her not being honest with me about what she can and can’t do. Huge waste of time and money. don’t recommend, she doesn’t care...