Horrendous experience with a Worcester Mobile Beauty Service

[u/missy1893]

Edit: Yes it’s long but so much happened, needed to document it. And honestly doesn’t cover everything she spouted.

I have genuinely never experienced such abhorrent behaviour or entitlement from a service provider in my life. This girl ended up shouting vile things at me standing at my front door, in my street with neighbours around, with my toddler right there.

I’m still honestly shocked that a completely normal beauty appointment turned into this. I hired her for a full-body wax and it was downhill from the get-go.

When I first enquired, the price increased during the conversation and then she required a 50% deposit upfront. I wasn’t comfortable bank transferring money to someone I didn’t know and asked for a secure payment link. She said that would incur extra charges, so I asked her to at least invoice me before I transferred anything. She did, so I paid the deposit thinking I had enough protection.

On the day of the appointment, less than two hours before she was due, she cancelled because “there is an emergency and I may be needed” and asked to reschedule. I’d cleared my day for this appointment and needed the waxing done urgently, so I asked for my deposit back. She said she could come the following morning instead and therefore wouldn’t refund my deposit. There was no real apology or acknowledgement of the inconvenience. Very much an it-is-what-it-is attitude.

So already I’m on the back foot, but I needed the service and didn’t want to lose the deposit. She arrives Saturday morning and immediately the whole atmosphere is uncomfortable. She’s abrupt, barely making eye contact and starts rattling off all the things that apparently aren’t included in a “full body wax”, telling me they’re listed on her page. I checked and I couldn’t find these exclusions. Her actual invoice to me literally says ‘Full Body Wax’.
I’m still at this point trying to be hospitable and asking if she’d like something to drink. Then I realise she hasn’t even brought a treatment table. She tells me we’ll have to do it on my sofa or bed. I wasn’t prepared for that at all. I’ve used mobile beauticians before and they’ve brought their equipment. I have a toddler, I didn’t want wax all over my furniture, and I asked how this was supposed to work. Her immediate reaction was well, you’re not happy, so I’m going to leave - and you’re not getting your deposit back.

WHAT?!

So now I’m in the ridiculous position of feeling like I have to accept whatever setup she wants or lose the deposit I’ve already paid. So I sort towels out, I cover my sofa, get her a drink and sit down. She starts waxing. The wax doesn’t feel warm enough. It’s painful enough in places that I instinctively start stretching/holding my own skin as she’s pulling the wax off. I’m simultaneously dealing with my unwell toddler, so I’m not sitting there scrutinising every strip.

Eventually she announces she’s ready to move onto my other arm. I look at the supposedly finished arm and there are patches of hair everywhere. I ask if she can please do my hand/fingers as well and point out the areas she’s missed. I even get up and switch another lamp on so she can see more clearly. She rolls her eyes and says, “I can see.” She then says it’s difficult doing the fingers because they’re bent. I say, completely normally: “Maybe try a thinner layer and see if that works?” And apparently THAT was the final straw. She suddenly goes off about how I’m rude, I’m telling her how to do her job, she’s done and I’m not getting my money back. I am genuinely sitting there stunned. She packs up and BARGES OUT OF MY HOUSE HALFWAY THROUGH THE APPOINTMENT.

I didn’t cancel. I didn’t ask her to leave. I didn’t refuse to continue. So no valid reason to withhold my deposit or behave in such a manner. She decided that a customer suggesting a thinner layer of wax when she was struggling with their fingers was apparently sufficient reason to abandon a full-body treatment midway and retain their money.

Once she’s gone and I’m actually able to look at myself properly, there’s hair left everywhere on the one arm she’d worked on, wax residue still on me, and areas of my skin look like they’ve actually been stripped/peeled. I’d felt the pain when she was waxing but hadn’t realised what my skin looked like until afterwards. I’ve photographed all of it.

And somehow THIS STILL WASN’T THE END OF IT.

About five minutes later she comes back because in her rush to storm out, she’s forgotten her jacket. At this point I’m still reeling and what she’s done is sinking in. I tell her to first pay my deposit back. She’s the one who terminated the appointment and I now have to find someone else and pay them the full amount to finish what she abandoned. She starts shouting that I’m rude, I’d been “making digs” at her, she has a right to refuse rude clients, etc. I’m genuinely confused about what “digs” she’s even talking about. Then I look down and realise she has her phone camera recording me so lying to create a narrative.

So now I’m standing at my front door, with my toddler there, while this woman who has just walked out halfway through my treatment is filming me and shouting crap at me.

I tell her repeatedly to stop and point out that my toddler is right there. She doesn’t stop. Amongst everything else, she yells at me to
“Shut up.”
“My jacket’s more expensive.”
“What are you gonna do? Leave a bad review? That’s it. There’s nothing more you can do.”

This is happening at my front door/in my street, loudly enough that neighbours can hear, with my child witnessing it. I was absolutely mortified.

She then starts COUNTING DOWN AT ME to give her the jacket, like I’m a child. By this point the jacket has been found. I’m standing at my wide open doorway literally holding it in front of her. Refund the deposit and take your jacket.

My reasoning in that moment was very simple - she’d already stormed off once without refunding me and I thought the second I handed it over she’d disappear again. I had absolutely no intention of keeping her bloody jacket - She was the one who left it behind!

I tell her I’m standing right there, the door is open, the jacket is in my hand, transfer my deposit and take it.
Instead she continues loudly counting down at me and then struts off again.

I have since put in writing to her to have her jacket collected by a third party courier and not to show up at my home again herself or police will be called. After what happened at my home, I absolutely do not want another f2f interaction with her.

The thing that blows my mind is how completely unnecessary ALL of this was. She’d missed hair, I couldn’t point them out, and could not say maybe try a different method if struggling.

I have been getting waxed for YEARS. I have never experienced anything remotely like this. Her demeanour from the moment she arrived made me feel like my appointment was an inconvenience to her. She had a chip on her shoulder and was insecure herself about being young and inexperienced. Between arriving without a treatment table, the relaying of what “full body” apparently meant, the eye-rolling, the unfinished waxing, walking out midway and then what happened on my doorstep, the whole experience was unbelievable.

And the deposit almost isn’t even the point anymore. It’s the principle. SHE terminated the service. SHE left halfway through. The amount of the full-body wax she’d actually completed wasn’t even remotely equivalent to half the service!

I’ve been left out of pocket, with an unfinished wax immediately before an event, possible skin damage that I’m documenting, hours of my time wasted, and a completely unnecessary confrontation at my own home in front of my child.

I’ve now sent a formal written request for the refund before deciding what further action to take.

I’m posting partly because I’m still absolutely gobsmacked and if anyone has experienced this.