I would like to share some feedback regarding my recent experience at the Chuan Spa. I will pre-empt this by saying I have worked as a Manger within a Services business for a long time and I’m aware some people are unrealistically and unreasonably difficult to please – I however am not one.
I was excited to find a package on your website for Mother’s Day which included a massage, facial, champagne, dessert platter, valet parking and some Babora products to take home. As my mum and I have had a tough year I decided to shell out the $360 for the package and book it in.
I’m afraid to say that from start to finish my experience with your spa was memorable for all the wrong reasons. From bad beginnings, we were left sitting on the couch ten minutes past our scheduled treatment time before the receptionist noticed and went to check up on where our therapists were. We were then greeted and led into our treatment room which was beautiful. Both of us were consulted by our assigned beauty therapist and this is where things started to go south. I firstly noticed multiple discrepancies in the things were asked and offer e.g I was offered a choice of oils and scents my mother was not, she was offered a choice of hair mask or oil treatment however I was not etc. now look I can deal with this however neither of us could shake the feeling that we were being offered varying levels of service despite being booked in for the same treatment and this created a sense of missing out.
I wish this was my only complaint however my therapist then made the following comment “just to let you know, I have an open wound so I’ll be wearing a surgical glove today which will not affect your treatment”……… now if I was going to compile a list of things you don’t want to hear before getting a facial and massage at a 5 star spa I would predict that statement would be pretty high up there. Feeling shocked, I was too mortified to raise my concerns as I was offered no chance to reply or request another therapist. My treatment was about as relaxing and enjoyable as you could imagine having a silicone surgical glove smothered in oil sloshed round your back and face could be. The glove squeaked and rolled up, making for an incredibly frustrating and uncomfortable experience, I was honestly glad when it was over.
Hoping that a glass of champagne and a dessert platter would rectify the situation I was even more disappointed that the allergy issues I raised were not catered to. Breaking it down; I asked for 1 x gluten free serving for my mother who is intolerant and 1 x nut free for myself as I suffer anaphylactic reactions. Instead what arrived was 1 x nut/gluten free platter and 1 x normal… I voiced the error and was stared at by the girls delivering the platters until I backed down and said it was fine. Embarrassed and made to feel like a nuisance, neither girl offered to rectify the issue and my mother and I were left to share two strawberries, a piece of rockmelon and some jam.
At this point my relaxing spa day was so far gone I just wanted to leave, still trying to put on a brave face so as not to spoil my mother’s experience. As we approached the front desk to leave we were left waiting for 5 minutes while another guest heatedly complained about their experience to the receptionist before she was able to address us. I enquired about our promised Babora products as no one had brought them to us and she then proceeded to interrogate me asking me my first name, last name, mobile number, appointment time, email address, “do you have your voucher” – no I already handed it in when we arrived, proceeds to search through redeemed vouchers before locating and begrudgingly handing over the little sample bottles and wishing us a frazzled farewell.
Fresh air! Glad for the spa saga to be over, safe to say I was exceedingly annoyed when I was told to return to the spa to have my valet ticket stamped – would have been nice to have been offered this at some point during the visit however clearly organisation is not a strong point of the Chuan Spa.
Look, as I mentioned I’m not a difficult customer – I merely hoped to receive what I paid $360 for from a reputable spa. But as you have read above this experience was a disaster from start to finish and I hope no one endures the same disappointment we did.