Happiness Nails & Spa

Review: [redacted] the 'owner' only sells gift certificates with a 6 month expiration date on them. He refuses to accept any gift certificate if it is 'expired'. These are cash bought gift certs with a straight cash value. If the nail tech does not check the date, then he makes them pay for the entire service in cash (so it is not taken from their check and not visible to th IRS). He tells the clients the gift certificate is no good after 6 months and they have to pay cash for all services.I told him the gift certificate I had was good no matter what date he wanted to write on it...but he claimed he 'knew the CA law' on gift certs. He then let the tech work on my nails becuase my cert had no date on it (but I think he probably made her pay for my services anyway. They then overcharged me for a mani/pedi ($32...should have been $30 per their printed price list).

Product_Or_Service: gift certificate

Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Other (requires explanation)

I want them investigated for making their employees pay for treatments, illegal gift certificate practices and possible tax evasion.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

Contact Name and Title: [redacted] Owner

Contact Phone: XXX XXX XXXX

Contact Email: [redacted]@yahoo.com

My name is [redacted] and I run a respectful business nail salon in Turlock. I was truly disheartened by the complain made by Ms. [redacted]. I would like to address the complain in the following, we gift accept gift certificates with any expiration date, and we have ever since. We never look at the expiration date in case of Ms. Grffin, she have gift certificate issued in 2011. I asked her some questions, because somebody had complain about their gift cer. being stolen that were issued around the same time and similar denominations. So my primary concern was to make sure they weren't stolen. My employee was never charged any money. No money take out of her paycheck or cash. I run a very respectful business and I will never do such a thing.

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

Note: His response that he accepts gift certs with expiration dates "and we have ever since". Since this complaint was filed?

His direct response on the day I went in for a mani/pedi was this: "this is over two year old and it is too old, now expired". There was NO discussion about stolen gift certs and he never asked me who gave me the cert. He told me (after several iterations of me telling him loudly gift certificates DO NOT expire) that all his 'gift certs now have an expiration date of 6 months' becuase he 'knows the law' and he can write the expiration date 6 months from the date of purchase. I again said 'that is an illegal practice' and 'you can write any date you want, it will be good as long as this business is active'. He only said he would accept my GC BECAUSE there was no expire date on it (I still have the photo copy of this gc). I was supposed to get a shellac manicure but after this issue he talked to the tech in a foreign language and she then said there may not be enough time for me to get a shellac. She doesn't do shellac...only the owner does...and he didnt want to do my nails. I was there for 2.5 hours for a simple mani/pedi... no TIME? I ended up using the whole $40 for a mani pedi and a flower on a nail because she said the remainder of the gift cert would be issued in a new gc with an expiration date.

I want all his stock of gc's checked for a date line. I also want him to post a huge sign on his window for 6 months that apologizes for turning away clients with expired gc's. It should also advise any client who was refused service because of an expired cg is allowed to return for a new gc with NO expire date. My nail tech had also been charged for someone's expired gc and she should get her money back.

Business' Final Response

I have been here in Turlock, running a respectful business, for the past 5 years and I have been in this business for almost 12 years. I have never had any clients turned away because of expire gift certificates. We have been accepting all gift certificates, regardless of the expiration date. As mentioned, the primary reason for me asking her some questions about her gift certificates was to make sure that they weren't stolen; because I had a complaint from a different client about her gift certificates being lost with the similar issue date and denominations.

We are extremely busy on certain days of the week and the day she came in we were very busy. When she asked for shellac on her nails, all the nail Techs were busy with the other clients and it took a little longer than usual to do shellac on her nails.

We would like to sincerely apologize for her inconvenience. We assure you, that we run a very respectful business and utilize very fair practices towards all our clients and employees. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience.