[Aliantha]

Well, it was Dazza who purchased the voucher in the first place as a gift for me, so it is he who outlaid the money which they've had for some considerable time now.

I accept that they can keep the 50% for the cancellation but do they really expect me to want to go there and spend the remainder of the voucher when they've been slightly unreasonable, and I might add, not informing a client of their 'policy', and that right there is the crux of my argument. At no time were we informed either verbally or in writing that the place had this policy. It is to be found nowhere. Normally if a service industry has this policy, they make it pretty clear up front and it should be written on the voucher if nowhere else. Whether that is in fact law or simply common practice I know not, but most industries stipulate these sorts of terms in writing.

To be honest, I was really shocked at her hardline approach to a new customer. I've never had someone behave that way before. On the few other occassions where this sort of issue has come up, the shop has always been accomodating about rebooking and it is very surprising to me that she'd be so unreasonable.

As to the issue of the voucher being unrefundable (which is what I asked for on the phone - the balance ie 50%) well that's at the stores discretion. Under normal circumstances, I'd think that yes, it's reasonable not to refund, but under this circumstance, if I were the manager with an unhappy customer on the phone, I would think that conceding the remaining 50% would be the best option even if it is not normally the case.

My issue is that daryl paid for this 6 months ago, and now I wont go there because for one thing, they know that I wanted to change the time and chances are they'd know about the conversation over the phone, so what sort of service am I likely to get anyway, and secondly I believe that if there'd been some kind of documentation of their policy I'd have tried to manage the situation differently, such as by calling yesterday afternoon even though that still wouldn't have been 24 hours notice. As it was, I called before normal business hours this morning hoping that I'd catch them early enough to make better arrangements.

At no time during the conversation did she suggest that perhaps I get there when I can and have half the service and perhaps come back at a later date for the rest (which in hindsight is what should have been the suggestion imo), or that as a show of good faith, they could waive their usual 'fee' for cancellation or anything. She was not willing to concede a thing and that's bad business practice in that sort of industry. You go to a day spa to relax. Who can relax after a confrontation with the manager?

In effect, the business has us by the short and curlies thanks to their alleged policies and quite frankly, if they think they're going to get away with it, they have another thing coming.

Too right I'm pissed off about it. Yes they should have to pay. Either give me back at least 50% of what has been paid, or I'm going to make some noise.

What I'm really upset about is the fact that it was a gift to me from Daryl and I feel like it's something I've broken. I feel like I've not given it justice. I couldn't care less about the massage or facial. It's the fact that Daryl tried to do something special for me and I've fucked it up through no fault of my own.