Local hair salon chain A Cut Above is currently at the receiving end of nasty customer complaints, specifically the Bangsar Village II outlet. A female customer named Tanya H. Fernandez, created a Facebook page called “Boycott A Cut Above” to share her alleged bad experience and service at one of Malaysia’s top hair salons.
On Facebook, she explains her experience:
I walked into A Cut Above Salon (Bangsar Village II) with thick, long & healthy hair. 5 hours later, after paying RM600, I was left with unbelievably dry, coarse, frizzy, tangled & permanently destroyed hair.
My stylist & the salon manager agreed that my hair had been ruined but can’t figure out what went wrong. They confessed that the only possible way for my hair to look better is by getting Brazilian Keratin Treatments + conditioning treatments done every 3 months until new hair grows (which will take 2 years!) or to chop my hair off.
I asked for a refund & for whatever necessary treatments to be done at no charge for however long it takes to fix my murdered hair. My stylist & the salon manager phones the owners of A Cut Above Salon, Winnie Loo & her husband, Richard Teo to communicate the situation to them. Their response? No.
I planted myself at reception, refusing to leave the salon until someone comes up with a solution to the mess they had created. The owners of the salon realizing that they are left with no choice but to address this, finally phones to speak to me. “I’m sorry but I can’t be refunding & repairing all of my customer’s hair otherwise I will have to close my business down.” Richard Teo kept insisting that all of their customers are happy except for me & that my hair was probably already ruined before I walked into their salon.
The A Cut Above team was quick to respond to the allegations, claiming that Tanya may have twisted the story a little. Responding in the comments section of the status Tanya left on “Boycott A Cut Above”, they decided to share “what actually happened”:
Tanya came into A Cut Above Village on 5/11/13 to seek a hair treatment. During the consultation, Ben (Tanya’s Stylist) mentioned that the ends of Tanya’s hair were dry and recommended a Brazilian Keratin Treatment as the best and most effective option to treat her hair. However, Tanya felt that it was beyond her budget and she insisted on rebonding (straightening) instead. Despite the expert’s advice, she chose to ignore the fact and our advice that her ends were dry and made the decision for rebonding. In the course of the rebonding, Ben took every necessary care with the application; in his professionalism he explained to Tanya step by step of the application process. He did not apply any chemicals on the ends but instead took only one pass of the iron at the ends whilst applying the rebonding cream on the top and middle section of Tanya’s hair as he was concerned that the chemicals would cause more dryness to the ends. Spa cream was applied at the ends without any rebonding cream to minimise the dryness.
We used L’Oreal Professional Xtenso rebonding cream for Tanya’s hair and with any chemical process there is bound to cause dryness which Ben explained to Tanya during the consultation.
Tanya came back 5 days later and felt her hair was dry which Ben had already cautioned at the very beginning which would result from her chosen option. She expressed her dissatisfaction with the outcome with the dryness at the ends. Ben offered to trim the ends of the hair and give her a conditioning treatment – all complimentary. She rejected our offer and asked for a refund, which Ben, in spite of having counselled her against the outcome of her chose option, offered to accommodate. In addition to the refund, she demanded that we offer her a full Brazilian Keratin Treatment and intimated that we continue this treatment after 3 months and maybe more.
Our response and position is clear, we counselled against her option of treatment. On her insistence, we took every care in the rebonding and we did not see any problems of the outcome other than the dryness which we had earlier cautioned. Based on our experience, the ends could be treated with home care maintenance or to trim off the ends however she chose not to consider the advice that Ben provided. The result is this positing on Facebook which we were threatened with if we did not accede with her demands.
A Cut Above’s Facebook page representatives also mentioned that the matter has already been referred to a lawyer as well. So, this case is not just some PR stunt gone wrong. To make matters worse on the hair salon empire’s side, Hazel Teo, the daughter of A Cut Above owners Winnie Loo and Richard Teo, has allegedly been threatening Tanya through private messaging. Tanya has exposed these messages on “Boycott A Cut Above”:
Winnie Loo also responded to a friend’s Facebook page, claiming that Tanya was just out to “get more attention”. The comments made by Winnie has infuriated numerous people, and some Facebook commentors have deemed them arrogant.
It’s still unclear who is actually being truthful in the situation, but we’d really like to know what the outcome might be. More to come.
UPDATE (Nov 19)
A Cut Above founder Winnie Loo has reached out to Tanya through Facebook to apologize for her daughter’s nasty messages. Here’s what she said:
UPDATE (NOV 21)
Tanya has responded to Winnie Loo’s apology, and is surprisingly sounds rather calm in her response. Will Winnie and Tanya be able to solve the problem better as they speak face to face? Only time will tell..
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