Another would you pay this?

[clairebear]

So yesterday I wanted to treat myself to a pedicure; I only get them once or twice a year. Anyway, I was a couple towns over with work and went to a new place. It was $25 for a basic pedicure which I know is cheap. The tech accidently gave me a significant cut on my big toe that oozed blood for the rest of the pedicure. The tech skipped the included leg/foot massage and skipped smoothing the heels on one of my feet. When she finished blood has seeped into the wet nail polish. She kept wetting a paint brush with a liquid and pushing it into the cut to get it to clot, but honestly that just hurt like heck. I knew paint on that one toe would need to be redone since the blood would dry with the polish and not come off. She also got some polish on the skin around other toes. The salon was well reviewed and busy when I was there. I know it was just an accident with the cut. 

So would you pay? I refused and even offered to let them take off the polish so they knew I wasn't trying to scam them. But the pedicure was a mess and I knew I'd have to repaint at home. They kept insisting I pay, but there was a language barrier so there wasn't a chance for any meaningful conversation about it. But now I'm second guessing myself. 

[wildrice]

Ummm. No I would not, and I'm surprised that they wanted to charge you. I guess the language barrier doesn't help, but they should have known that if it looked like a mess, they injured you, and they couldn't even provide the full service, they shouldn't expect payment! If anything they should have offered to have you come back and try again for free (though I would not come back anyway!).

I'm sorry that happened. Keep an eye on your cut because I know infections from this type of situation are common.

[macmars45]

No I wouldn't pay.

[pandora89]

No, I wouldn't have paid.

[eb777888]

Oh my god! That sounds like the pedicure from hell. Did she cut you while clipping your nails? :::shivers:::

[ECB]

The cut itself, I would still pay. It happens. But no massage, didn't do your heel on one foot, AND there was polish on your skin? AND also a cut? NO!! I wouldn't pay.

[dexteroni]

Oh wow. How did she cut you so badly? Please go get the cut cleaned out and treated properly. I have germ related trust issues with pedi places in the best of circumstances, but repeatedly pushing something into your open wound sounds like a sure way to get a deep infection.

To answer your question, not only would I not pay, I wouldn’t have even finished out the appointment with blood oozing everywhere. This sounds like a “you get what you pay for” reminder. I hope your cut heals well!

[deadwing]

I have gotten an infection from this exact scenario. You were right not to pay.

[liverandonions]

$25 seems REALLY cheap for a spa pedicure, so did you confirm it included massage, and wasn't just nail care?

[Deleted]

Absolutely not.

[osulori]

Definitely not. And yikes, your poor toe! How did it get cut that badly?

[penguingrrl]

May 12, 2023 9:15:51 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

$25 seems REALLY cheap for a spa pedicure, so did you confirm it included massage, and wasn't just nail care?

That only sounds a little low to me. By me it’s usually $33 for that, $15 for a polish change. And I’m in a HCOL area.

[meanie]

I would expect them to stop the pedicure if the cut was that bad, and have you come back for a free one once you healed. What they did sounds....unhygienic.

[penguingrrl]

I would not have expected to pay for that. They injured you and then didn’t do the entire job you were paying for. That sounds awful! I would also get that checked out by a doctor because it sounds like what she was doing put you at risk for an infection.

[TR]

I'm very  at the idea of them continuing a pedicure while I'm actively bleeding.

[deadwing]

May 12, 2023 9:15:51 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

$25 seems REALLY cheap for a spa pedicure, so did you confirm it included massage, and wasn't just nail care?

From the OP, I don't think this was a spa - just a nail place.  I agree, spa pedicures start at $50 here (MCOL).

[mcsangel2]

Oh, that is a big no. If it was $25 you might not want to bother, but I would probably try once to do a chargeback. Even if you had a language barrier, whoever handles the finances has to understand English well enough to understand the issue.

[clairebear]

May 12, 2023 8:57:49 GMT -5 eb777888 said:

Oh my god! That sounds like the pedicure from hell. Did she cut you while clipping your nails? :::shivers:::

She cut it with those cuticle nippers. The basic pedi did include a 5 min massage which is the best part! I feel justified in not paying. I honestly didn't know I was bleeding until she "finished". When I pointed it out she tried to get it to stop and just made everything worse.

[definitelyO]

I would not have paid and yes, I would have complained - even without the cut (which is major) the rest of it would have made me refuse (and say something and ask for the massage and the callous treatment.

[cville]

What in the hell? No

[nicolewi]

Heck no!!!!!! And I would be really concerned about infection and watching it carefully. Sorry that happened! I’ve gotten kind of leery of getting pedicures. Too many horror stories.

[livinitup]

I am not surprised that a low cost nail salon leaned hard on you for payment. Any cut during the pedicure should have been immediately treated. Getting it disinfected should have been the priority and disclosed. Not providing a half service and applying polish! Sadly, I am not surprised that they skipped what they would have done in lieu of squeezing a payment out of you.

You did the right thing by noticing it and not paying. I can sympathize that there is tremendous pressure for the worker to turn over a service and payment. But you were not wrong at all.

ETA: I read sent ‘s post and take back what I said. sent is right. If I’m willing to pay for a $25 pedicure, I should just pay it because I know the industry is trash and this kind of risk is part of it. I shouldn’t get on some high horse that the service was sub par.

[liverandonions]

May 12, 2023 9:34:34 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

May 12, 2023 9:15:51 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

$25 seems REALLY cheap for a spa pedicure, so did you confirm it included massage, and wasn't just nail care?

That only sounds a little low to me. By me it’s usually $33 for that, $15 for a polish change. And I’m in a HCOL area.

Ours are $60, pretty much everywhere around here 

[sofamonkey]

They used a general bottle of polish on your still bleeding toe. And kept reusing the bottle, dipped the bloody brush back over and over. And will use that on others later. ::shudder::

That’s not a place I would ever go back to. And no way in heck would I pay!

[sent]

I'm going to make a huge assumption that if this is a place offering $25 pedicures and there was a language barrier, the person that was working on you isn't being paid like a traditional employee and is likely off the books. She may have screwed up because she was new or has poor training or idk. Now she won't get paid at all and the boss lady/man is going to be super pissed at her. For $25, I would have just paid and then never gone back. I also would have not expected them to offer any kind of customer service or care at all that my toe got cut.

I don't support this industry ever since The NY Times articles came out exposing the industry in 2015. Huge exploitation of women. The NY DOL went after the salon owners but I don't live in NY anymore so I'm not aware if there's been real reform since then.  But I know the unpleasant treatment of workers continues over here in HCOL NJ.

[dexteroni]

sent that’s terrible, but unfortunately not surprising. Since you seem to have more knowledge of this topic than most, are you aware if there’s a way to vet a salon in advance of going there?

[sent]

May 12, 2023 13:30:18 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

sent that’s terrible, but unfortunately not surprising. Since you seem to have more knowledge of this topic than most, are you aware if there’s a way to vet a salon in advance of going there?

I don't have any intimate knowledge beyond what I've read in newspaper articles. This article is a free summary of the NY investigation and has links to the NYTimes articles that originally put all the info out there back in 2015 but the NYTimes articles are behind paywalls. 

www.vox.com/2015/5/11/8585863/salons-safe-chemicals

DD used to go to a school in 1st grade that was part of a daycare located in a strip mall back in 2019. One morning both of us parents went to drop her off earlier than usual. A white passenger van pulled up and all of these Asian women jumped out and headed to the nail salon in the strip mall and the van took off. My husband was like "what's going on?" I remembered reading about the van in the articles and this was the first time I was seeing it in person. Basically they bus these women from parts of NYC to salons all over the tri-state early in the morning and then pay them unfairly and treat them poorly.

I would judge a salon around here by how much they charge and looking up the licenses of the people working there to see if they're real or not. If you're paying $25 at one salon and there's a giant language barrier with all of the staff working there vs paying $65 at a salon where everyone is gossiping in English about whatever on TikTok, there's probably a reason for the price discrepancy. 

[lilac05]

May 12, 2023 9:34:34 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

May 12, 2023 9:15:51 GMT -5 liverandonions said:

$25 seems REALLY cheap for a spa pedicure, so did you confirm it included massage, and wasn't just nail care?

That only sounds a little low to me. By me it’s usually $33 for that, $15 for a polish change. And I’m in a HCOL area.

This is beside the point, but oddly, I found that pedicures were cheaper when we lived in SoCal than for a lower quality service in Iowa. Supply and demand, I guess.

[sent]

May 12, 2023 13:43:09 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

May 12, 2023 9:34:34 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That only sounds a little low to me. By me it’s usually $33 for that, $15 for a polish change. And I’m in a HCOL area.

This is beside the point, but oddly, I found that pedicures were cheaper when we lived in SoCal than for a lower quality service in Iowa. Supply and demand, I guess.

I think that is part of the point. Is there some reason women in Iowa wouldn't want $25 pedicures? There is little supply of underpaid immigrant women in Iowa to work in nail salons compared to SoCal. Someone tell me I'm wrong. 

Nearly every poster here said they wouldn't pay the $25 and would be were mad. But take a look around at why you were only being charged $25 for a pedicure by an undertrained woman who tried to hide the fact that she cut you pretty badly and literally not one person in the salon cared that the OP got cut. A bleeding cut on the toe requiring at least a bandaid transcends all language barriers. And the google reviews were great - yet another reason I almost never read those either but I know most people read them more closely than their chosen religious text. 

ETA - she didn't hide that she cut you, but I bet she regrets showing you the cut now given the outcome. She probably would've been better off if she had said nothing and took the chance that you wouldn't notice until after you paid and left the store.

[bronxgirl]

May 12, 2023 13:43:09 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

May 12, 2023 9:34:34 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

That only sounds a little low to me. By me it’s usually $33 for that, $15 for a polish change. And I’m in a HCOL area.

This is beside the point, but oddly, I found that pedicures were cheaper when we lived in SoCal than for a lower quality service in Iowa. Supply and demand, I guess.

Yes, they're much cheaper in the NYC area than in other parts of the country. Very few things you can say that about.