Sunday, April 3, 2011

Where Not to Get a Massage

Today my husband and I were supposed to redeem our Living Social deal for a couples massage at Euphoric Ambiance Massage & Bodyworks. This was our third attempt.

The first time we had an appointment, we received a call the day before, during which I was informed that they were double-booked, so we'd have to reschedule for the next week. Okay...annoying, given the logistics involved in finding a time both my husband and I were free and we had childcare...but it's not like my coupon was redeemable somewhere else, so I was willing to give this place another chance.

So our rescheduled appointment was for this past Friday at 2 p.m. At some point during the week, I received an email telling me my appointment had been moved to 2:30 p.m. Okay...

Then, at 2:05 p.m. on Friday, as we were leaving the house to go to our appointment, I get a phone call saying that one of their therapists didn't show up for work, so they were having to reschedule everyone. She went on to tell me that even though they're not normally open on Sundays, they created a shift this Sunday to accommodate everyone that had to be rescheduled.

This is normally where I would have sworn off ever doing business with this place (it's not like massages are hard to find), but again, I have this damn coupon that's already been paid for and it would be a really good deal...if you ever actually were to get massaged.

So, alright, Sunday it is. We drop the boys off with my mother-in-law. We go. I had been warned we'd have to call to be let in because the building is locked on Sundays. We call...voicemail. We wait 10 minutes. We call again...voicemail. Then we get a call back! We explain we're waiting to be let in for our appointment and are told, "Ok, I'll be right down."

Right down! We wait another 10 minutes. I walk around the building to see if there's a second entrance the mysterious caller could have been trying to let us in through...there is not. We call again...voicemail. Even better, we can't leave a message because the voicemail box is full! We wait a bit longer, then decide that hanging out in a parking lot isn't really how we want to spend our afternoon together. We leave. Massage-less and pissed off. The mystery caller never bothered to call back to explain herself.

Tomorrow I will call Living Social and get my money back. And I will make sure to tell everyone I know never to do business with Euphoric Ambiance Massage & Bodyworks in Minneapolis, although it's probably not necessary, seeing as they make it nearly impossible to do business with them in the first place.

But what I really want is to find out what the hell is actually going on at this place...are they hoping to frustrate everyone who bought the deal to the point that we all give up and they just get to keep our money? Or are they actually this bad at running a business? Or is it all just a front for some kind of seedy business venture to which I probably wish I hadn't given my personal information?

P.S. I ♥ Groupon and I've had good experiences with Crowd Cut. This is my first Living Social deal, but I'd like to think that Living Social couldn't possibly have foreseen the depths of the dysfunction at this place...we'll see what they say tomorrow.

**UPDATE 4/4/11 Living Social was apologetic and issued a full refund. Still no word from Euphoric Ambiance.**

No comments: