Among Friends

[Carmie]

Hairdressers work two ways.

1.  They get commission for every client they see.  Many salons are a 50/50 split.  If they have no clients or clients cancel, they still have to be at the salon and make zero money. 

2.  They rent their chair at the salon.  It includs the space, water and electricity.  The stylist supplies their own supplies and must pay the salon for any color or other supplies used. The rent can be expensive.. thousands a month.

How  would you like to go to work and sit there doing nothing and not get paid?  Some services block out a couple of hours of the stylist's time.  If you cancel and there are no walk ins or any other customers, you wasted his/her time and costed them money.

Most of the time these signs are posted because the same people cancel  and over at the last minute, or don't even call to cancel.

if your 5 o'clock cut, color and style cancels and you have a 7 o'clock hair cut, you have to wait for that last Customer before you can go home to your family.   You also have to pay a sitter to watch your kids while you are sitting.

If you are not a person who cancels for every little thing, I think you should discuss this with your stylist,  if you cancel often, the sign is meant for you.

[judy0330]

I, too, can see both sides of the issue. I was having a manicure once when the woman who had the appointment right after mine ran in -- said it was her birthday and she forgot she was meeting her friend at noon for lunch -- and off she went. THAT is the kind of situation where I can totally understand being charged. Given the fact that you and your husband have been going to the same hairdressers for years -- as long as you don't make a habit of canceling -- I would think they would cut you some slack. I had to cancel a dinner reservation the morning of the reservation because my husband had a terrible migraine. I called at 8 a.m. and left a message. It was a small restaurant -- reservations had to be made months in advance -- and a credit card had to be provided at the time the reservation was made. I left a message apologizing and saying that I totally understood that they would be charging my card and understood. They never charged us. When we were there after that I thanked them and they said they would never charge for something like that -- followed with "We do have a heart!"

[Suziepeach]

My Kaiser charges $25.00 for cancelling less than 24hrs..  my dentist office charges a cancellation fee too, and so far I haven't seen anything at the beauty salon but they do like to have notification, that's at the front desk. 

[Katcat1]

If you have  a disease like Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, or another auto immune disease sometimes you get have attacks when you least expect them.  I think I would explain that to these people running the salon.  I would not be paying $15 for a cancellation.  I would look elsewhere to have my hair cut if they cannot understand your illness. 

[GenXmuse]

I don't think it's unreasonable to charge $15 for a cancellation fee and this is coming from someone in the same health situation.  I feel terrible about interfering with someone's livelihood that I'd be okay paying it. At least it's not the cost of the missed service they were going to provide.  

That said, I'm sure she'd be understanding but I'd tip the h3ll out of her. 

[StraytoStay]

I don't think I'd try to talk to them since it sounds like they made that decision after the cancellation in January. They probably got calls from people hoping to get in for a cut and had to turn them away, then the cancellation and those others may have gone elsewhere by then so they couldn't fill the slot. Lost money twice in some cases. I agree on what some have said that the sign was meant for you.  

There's always walk ins at Great Clips or Super Cuts.

[software]

I'm so low maintenance, I use those walk-in places.

Go when I feel  like it.

[september]

I think a $15 fee is reasonable for a late cancellation.  I don't understand why your husband can't make it to his appointment, in the event you don't feel well?   Can't he go without you?  

[KathyPet]

NO way would I pay a cancellation fee.  I would be fthe nding myself a new stylist pronto and I would make sure the salon knew I would,not be coming back and why

[hckynut]

As one that has been on both sides of question, here is my view. I have made many rules(conditions)during my 52 years of running my adult hockey league. Every player was well aware of every rule. Those that said they were not, either were not listening when I told then and/or disregarded the written rules I gave to every player.

Break any of these rules and there are consequences, different ones depending on the rule(s) broken. Life long friends or 1st season players, the rules were enforced exactly the same way. 

If I choose to go to any business, that has signs posted about specific rules, I expect them to enforce them regardless of the reasons for why I broke them. If they don't? My feeling is, why post them? Longtime customer or a 1 previous visit customer.

If I thought the conditions they posted were unfair, I would be their former customer, but had a broken their posted conditions, I would pay them before finding a different vendor for those services.

I listened to probably hundreds of different reasons over those 52 years, many I knew were like Judge Judy's book title: "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining". Rules or conditions terms a mile long and in teeny/tiny font smack in the middle? Not so much. Clear to understand? I am with your hair stylist on this one @Pasta Lover, sick or not sick.

hckynut(john)