Caveat Emptor: Big Apple Express Spa

I'm thinking of starting a series of articles for customers to share their not so wonderful experiences with the service. For all the advertising they do and the fact that most of us believe what they say, its just frustrating when we really don't get the kind of service/product they promised us. As I'm in the middle of the bar, my classmate Kaka shares her horrible experience at Big Apple Express Spa.

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 I went to SM Mall of Asia yesterday after my bar examinations hoping to get a well-deserved break. The bar exams in civil law and taxation harassed me and so I scouted SM MOA for a spa offering affordable massage services. And that's when I chanced upon Big Apple.
 
The P299-poster caught my eye. (It's the TipidTips girl in me!) I went inside and talked to the Chinese-looking woman with curly hair. I asked her if I could be accommodated that day. I asked for the P299-massage asking what it entailed. She offered me instead the P590-massage since it was a combination massage. I told her this was the first time I would to go to Big Apple so I would like to try it out with the cheaper version.
 
She said the only available slot was 9pm. It was only 6:30pm at the time but since I sooo needed a massage, I told her I'll go get that slot and would go watch a movie to wait for my appointment. She said that there was only a 10-minute grace period and if I weren't there at the scheduled time, I would lose my slot. I gave her my cellphone number so that she could text me if there was an opening and I could rush to the spa immediately. She wrote it in a piece of paper along with the kind of massage I wanted (Manhattan) and my scheduled appointment. She said she would text me even earlier if there was a sudden opening so I could be squeezed in. I said thanks and off I went.
 
After the movie, I went to the Big Apple for my appointment. I came at around 9:15pm. I was wondering why she hasn't texted me yet so I just went inside. After standing around for 5 minutes, the Chinese-looking woman without so much as a glance at me since she was giving a receipt to this other girl, finally looked at my direction. I said I was there for my appointment. She said I lost my slot since I was late and the 10-minute grace period applied. I told her I never received a text message from her and I even watched a movie so I could pass the time waiting for my appointment. She said that since I wasn't there at the scheduled time, she gave my slot to someone else. I tried to peek inside, saw the girls in uniform eating, another one on the phone and no other customer in sight. I asked her if that was it and she said yes.
 
So "that was it" was all she could say when I wasted almost 3 hours to wait for an appointment. An appointment that I lost by a mere lapse of 5 minutes after the grace period even when I specifically left her an instruction to text me so I could rush from wherever I was in the humongous Mall of Asia to get my much-deserved massage. I said that if this was the way they do their business, it definitely left a very bad impression on me. It was my first time to try Big Apple Express Spa and I am very much disappointed. And angered. How dare she waste my time?!
 
People go to massage spas because they are stressed and they want to be relieved from that stress. They don't enter a spa wanting to get into an argument and to get angry. But that's exactly what happened to me in my Big Apple encounter. I had a really tough day like you wouldn't believe. My experience in this "spa" was the most horrible way to end my day. I didn't deserve it. Even my toughest enemy didn't deserve it. If people in the service industry were all like this person I talked to, heaven forbid, we are all in a very pathetic situation.
 
My family owned a spa business like this a few years ago. We had to close it down because after 6 productive and income-generating years, the proliferation of spas and massage parlors everywhere took its toll. But we survived and earned so much during those 6 years because we took care of our clients like family and they would always come back, if not alone, with their friends and families.
 
There's no worse aggrieved customer than one who is an uber-stressed bar exam taker.
 
And with that, I end this. This has taken soo much of my precious time off studying for criminal and commercial law.
 
PLEASE LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW AND BE FOREWARNED.

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I'm not sure if the Consumer Act of the Philippines applies to spas or salons. But I know that one should at least be made, especially because of the proliferation of these high-end establishments, who charge a lot mind you, and advertise in such enticing ways. (I'm a sucker for massages, thai, swede, acupressure, sports massage, u name it I've tried it) Some sort of consumer protection must be done. I know a lot of stories of salons that mess up people's hair and skin because of it. There are always the tort, contract, damages laws we can fall back on, but really it should be time to have a special law for bad services and not just for goods. I particularly like this provision in the consumer goods act, it's couched in liberal terms capable of wide interpretation:

Sec 52. Unfair or Unconscionable sales acts or practices- An unfair or unconscionable sales act or practice by a seller or supplier in connection with a consumer transaction violates this Chapter whether it occurs before, during or after the consumer transaction. An act or practice shall be deemed unfair or unconscionable whenever the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller, by taking advantage of the consumer's physical or mental infirmity, ignorance, illiteracy, lack of time or the general conditions of the environment or surroundings, induces the consumer to enter into a sales or lease transaction inimical to the interests of the consumer or grossly one-sided in favor of the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller.

in determining whether an act or practice is unfair and unconscionable, the following circumstances shall be considered:

xxx

c) That when the consumer transaction was entered into, the consumer was unable to receive a substantial benefit from the subject of the transaction 

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I find it frustratingly ironic that Kaka went to a spa for relaxation and got the opposite. Instead of relaxation, it turned to frustration. Now that kind of mental injury, especially from someone coming from a stressful 2nd sunday bar exam just sucks. Should this be a case of damnum absque injuria? I don't know, I'm no lawyer. I certainly hope it isn't. But for practical purposes, no one really goes after them. So we turn to blogging instead. I'm just ranting but I for one know that there are more serious injuries out there because of these establishments. Send in your stories. It's all just advertising anyway. Seller beware.