Shady

novella1186

I've been having the worst time finding hair and make-up people for the wedding (sorry, I know I've already whined about this before). I thought I found someone, finally, so we were messaging back and forth. I made it pretty clear: All 5 of my girls want their hair done and 3 of them also want make-up. That's it. The lady kept bringing up doing my hair and make-up too and I kept telling her I really want to do it myself. She tired to add my mom, groom's mom, grandma, etc. NO! Just the bridesmaids. So she was going to write up the contract for that. (I'm paying for this myself so I need the total to stay under control).

The next day, while I'm waiting on the contract, she asks if I'd be interested in a trial for myself. I said, again, that I'm almost positive I'll do my own hair and make-up, but ok. I will do the trial just to SEE if I like it. (I wanted her to be clear on the fact that ultimately, I'll probably choose to do it myself because I don't want her to get offended when I do the trial and then opt out, but at the same time I thought it was worth a shot because maybe I'll love it). She's nice about it and we schedule the trial.

She then sends me the contract that night (last night). Grand total? $775. Why? Because she put my hair and make-up in the contract which is $275. As soon as I sign the contract I legally owe them $275 for my hair and make-up whether they do a good job at the trial or not. The trial is in March. She's urging me to sign the contract and pay the deposit NOW. I don't fucking think so lady.

Just my hair would be $175 which is a total no-go for me because I'm just wearing it down. I've told this lady many times that I'm just wearing it down. So $175 for me to have my hair curled? Ugh! NOPE! I was so so so so so mad when I saw that contract. That's so fucking shady to add in services that I haven't even agreed to. FI told me to just respond and say never mind on the trial, and never mind on my hair and make-up. I was like "Nope, if I say something to her now I'm gonna be a total bitch cuz I'm so annoyed."

Well, while I was annoyed I went online and researched hair and make-up people AGAIN. I ended up finding someone in the area who responded to me within minutes, has amazing photos of the hair they've done, (these people I was gonna hire didn't seem too impressive to me but since the girls all wanted something simple I thought it would be fine), have lower prices than the shady people, were super friendly and helpful, have great reviews, AND since the girls want something simple I don't have to pay the full up-do price. Woo!

So now I'm not gonna hire the other people at all. I'm going to let them know they can forget the whole thing. If they hadn't tried to sneak those extra services into the contract, after how clear I was to them about all of it, I would have already signed with them and they'd have 5 girls to work on and about $500 to make not including tip. Now they get nothing.

(And just and aside, I'm pretty sure adding things into a contract that have not been agreed upon by both parties is fraud)

flutteringinfl

That's icky. I'm so glad you found someone else to take care of that!

novella1186

flutteringinfl said:

That's icky. I'm so glad you found someone else to take care of that!

Right?! The first thing I looked at was the total and thought "whoa how did that happen?!" Then I read through each item and see that she has taken the liberty of adding in my stuff too, despite everything I had said to her about how I probably wouldn't have then do mine. So icky!

larrygaga

wtf are you joking! Practice and do it yourself. And laugh in her face and tell her hair and makeup isn't hard to do And not worth that much

novella1186

larrygaga said:

wtf are you joking! Practice and do it yourself. And laugh in her face and tell her hair and makeup isn't hard to do And not worth that much

No kidding! I curl my hair every day for work (because it's naturally wavy and tends to be out of control otherwise) and it takes me about 15 minutes. My hair is super easy to work with and doesn't even need product or anything. When I take my time to curl my hair really nice for a special event, it still takes about 25 minutes, tops. And $175 for that?!!! Stupid. Attach the word "Bridal" to anything and the price automatically becomes insanely inflated. But we already know that, don't we knotties?!

theartistformerlyknownas

Yeahhhh no. That's CRAZY high for Michigan, especially small town Michigan! And ridiculous that she'd try to sneak it in. I wouldn't give her a dime, either, and I'd probably write a review of the experience to warn other brides to read their contracts carefully before signing.

Cookie Pusher

I would never sign that contract. I did freelance makeup for over a decade, and I never made anyone sign a damn thing until they had a trial with me. There was too much of a chance that 1) they were not going to like what I did, 2) wouldn't communicate their "vision" effectively with me and be unhappy with the results, or 3) were such a pain in the ass that I wouldn't want to work with them anyway. 

novella1186

lolo883 said:

Yeahhhh no. That's CRAZY high for Michigan, especially small town Michigan! And ridiculous that she'd try to sneak it in. I wouldn't give her a dime, either, and I'd probably write a review of the experience to warn other brides to read their contracts carefully before signing.

By the way, I tried to hire the lady you recommended because based on the photos on her website (and on your photos) she seemed awesome. Unfortunately she said she doesn't travel to the St Joe area But at least she responded to me quickly and was really nice!

novella1186

Cookie Pusher said:

I would never sign that contract. I did freelance makeup for over a decade, and I never made anyone sign a damn thing until they had a trial with me. There was too much of a chance that 1) they were not going to like what I did, 2) wouldn't communicate their "vision" effectively with me and be unhappy with the results, or 3) were such a pain in the ass that I wouldn't want to work with them anyway. 

Yeah it seemed extra shady to me. Especially because she made some comment about how I needed to sign right away to secure the date. No. I'd rather lose that date than sign with someone I don't like. So many things rubbed me the wrong way. I don't feel bad at all not hiring her now.

theartistformerlyknownas

novella1186 said:

lolo883 said:

Yeahhhh no. That's CRAZY high for Michigan, especially small town Michigan! And ridiculous that she'd try to sneak it in. I wouldn't give her a dime, either, and I'd probably write a review of the experience to warn other brides to read their contracts carefully before signing.

By the way, I tried to hire the lady you recommended because based on the photos on her website (and on your photos) she seemed awesome. Unfortunately she said she doesn't travel to the St Joe area But at least she responded to me quickly and was really nice!


Aw boo!

huskypuppy14

That sucks. I hope you do say something to them, because it's totally unprofessional.

 However, are you sure you don't want your hair and or makeup done professionally. I understand that it seems like you can do your hair yourself, but what about makeup? Your bridal makeup should have a little more pop than normal every day makeup. 

Anyway, even in the Boston area where I got married, my hair was 150. I thought that was high, but it seems normal for my area. 

crackktheskyy

I was seriously wondering if this is the same person I had difficulties with until I saw this was in Michigan. I can SO sympathize.

I had almost the same exact experience with a hair stylist. She was recommended by my really reputable photog so I figured she was good.

She sent me tons of info including a spend minimum that she required. 

It was unclear at the time whether 7 or 9 of us wanted our hair done. If it turned out being 7, we would have been shy of the spend minimum by 50 bucks, or something. I asked if we could still use her services if I offered to pay the difference to meet the spend minimum. She said we were no problem at all because we were close enough and she only had the spend minimum to discourage one or two people having their hair done.

Cool, that's fine.

It takes this woman weeks to send a contract and she kept coming up with all kinds of excuses. When the contract comes, it is for 9 people to have their hair done. WTF. So I email her, thinking this must be some sort of confusion or mistake, and I ask her to contract for 7 minimum and not 9 minimum and she replies saying something about why she doesn't like to do contracts for this reason. 

She then goes on to say that she has already lessened the price (which is not true, she lessened the spend minimum but lessening that is irrelevant if I'm contractually obligated to pay for two girls who might not have their hair done -- and this cost would have been MUCH more than the spend minimum!) She then reaffirms, "I have a minimum. That is also a very busy time of year." ....But I offered to meet her minimum. I just wasn't going to overpay by $140 or something ridiculous like that.

I was so annoyed that I spend months trying to negotiate a simple contract with this lady and she snuck in two extra people for me to pay for that I decided to sign a contract with another company that day. 

She was obviously so wonderful and the time our wedding is such a busy time for her that she clearly must have millions of other clients that really want to work with her.

The funny part? She emailed me months later and told me she had more time to talk now and asked if she could be hired to do hair at our wedding.

Bye, Felicia. 

novella1186

huskypuppy14 said:

That sucks. I hope you do say something to them, because it's totally unprofessional.

 However, are you sure you don't want your hair and or makeup done professionally. I understand that it seems like you can do your hair yourself, but what about makeup? Your bridal makeup should have a little more pop than normal every day makeup. 

Anyway, even in the Boston area where I got married, my hair was 150. I thought that was high, but it seems normal for my area. 

I actually have taken pro make-up classes and I've invested in some high-end products and keep watching tutorials to brush up on techniques and whatnot. So I feel KIND OF ok about doing it myself, but I still am kind of hoping I can find someone else to do it, (or at the very least do a trial) just because I'm still far from being an actual professional. We will see...

ETA: the pro makeup classes were several years ago just for fun, and it was like a 1-week workshop. That's why I'm still not 100% confident in myself

rockin30ish

That is ridiculously high for anywhere in MI, especially St. Joe. 

And you can and should flat out tell that lady that you won't sign the contract because she added things without your approval. It's not an estimate. It's a binding contract. And tell her you found someone better and less expensive that didn't try to swindle extra services into the contract.

I would never sign a contract pre-trial. That's bizarre.

novella1186

crackktheskyy said:

I was seriously wondering if this is the same person I had difficulties with until I saw this was in Michigan. I can SO sympathize.

I had almost the same exact experience with a hair stylist. She was recommended by my really reputable photog so I figured she was good.

She sent me tons of info including a spend minimum that she required. 

It was unclear at the time whether 7 or 9 of us wanted our hair done. If it turned out being 7, we would have been shy of the spend minimum by 50 bucks, or something. I asked if we could still use her services if I offered to pay the difference to meet the spend minimum. She said we were no problem at all because we were close enough and she only had the spend minimum to discourage one or two people having their hair done.

Cool, that's fine.

It takes this woman weeks to send a contract and she kept coming up with all kinds of excuses. When the contract comes, it is for 9 people to have their hair done. WTF. So I email her, thinking this must be some sort of confusion or mistake, and I ask her to contract for 7 minimum and not 9 minimum and she replies saying something about why she doesn't like to do contracts for this reason. 

She then goes on to say that she has already lessened the price (which is not true, she lessened the spend minimum but lessening that is irrelevant if I'm contractually obligated to pay for two girls who might not have their hair done -- and this cost would have been MUCH more than the spend minimum!) She then reaffirms, "I have a minimum. That is also a very busy time of year." ....But I offered to meet her minimum. I just wasn't going to overpay by $140 or something ridiculous like that.

I was so annoyed that I spend months trying to negotiate a simple contract with this lady and she snuck in two extra people for me to pay for that I decided to sign a contract with another company that day. 

She was obviously so wonderful and the time our wedding is such a busy time for her that she clearly must have millions of other clients that really want to work with her.

The funny part? She emailed me months later and told me she had more time to talk now and asked if she could be hired to do hair at our wedding.

Bye, Felicia. 

lol what a total jackass. That's the thing, if you treat your clients crappy or act shady/unethical, they have the very easy option of just not hiring you. Do you want the gig, or do you want to act like an asshole?

crackktheskyy

novella1186 said:

crackktheskyy said:

I was seriously wondering if this is the same person I had difficulties with until I saw this was in Michigan. I can SO sympathize.

I had almost the same exact experience with a hair stylist. She was recommended by my really reputable photog so I figured she was good.

She sent me tons of info including a spend minimum that she required. 

It was unclear at the time whether 7 or 9 of us wanted our hair done. If it turned out being 7, we would have been shy of the spend minimum by 50 bucks, or something. I asked if we could still use her services if I offered to pay the difference to meet the spend minimum. She said we were no problem at all because we were close enough and she only had the spend minimum to discourage one or two people having their hair done.

Cool, that's fine.

It takes this woman weeks to send a contract and she kept coming up with all kinds of excuses. When the contract comes, it is for 9 people to have their hair done. WTF. So I email her, thinking this must be some sort of confusion or mistake, and I ask her to contract for 7 minimum and not 9 minimum and she replies saying something about why she doesn't like to do contracts for this reason. 

She then goes on to say that she has already lessened the price (which is not true, she lessened the spend minimum but lessening that is irrelevant if I'm contractually obligated to pay for two girls who might not have their hair done -- and this cost would have been MUCH more than the spend minimum!) She then reaffirms, "I have a minimum. That is also a very busy time of year." ....But I offered to meet her minimum. I just wasn't going to overpay by $140 or something ridiculous like that.

I was so annoyed that I spend months trying to negotiate a simple contract with this lady and she snuck in two extra people for me to pay for that I decided to sign a contract with another company that day. 

She was obviously so wonderful and the time our wedding is such a busy time for her that she clearly must have millions of other clients that really want to work with her.

The funny part? She emailed me months later and told me she had more time to talk now and asked if she could be hired to do hair at our wedding.

Bye, Felicia. 

lol what a total jackass. That's the thing, if you treat your clients crappy or act shady/unethical, they have the very easy option of just not hiring you. Do you want the gig, or do you want to act like an asshole?

Seriously. But the sad part is that vendors like this probably do take advantage of unsuspecting people.

I get that it's your responsibility to read your contract and all, but the way these people operate is just so terrible.

novella1186

crackktheskyy said:

novella1186 said:

crackktheskyy said:

I was seriously wondering if this is the same person I had difficulties with until I saw this was in Michigan. I can SO sympathize.

I had almost the same exact experience with a hair stylist. She was recommended by my really reputable photog so I figured she was good.

She sent me tons of info including a spend minimum that she required. 

It was unclear at the time whether 7 or 9 of us wanted our hair done. If it turned out being 7, we would have been shy of the spend minimum by 50 bucks, or something. I asked if we could still use her services if I offered to pay the difference to meet the spend minimum. She said we were no problem at all because we were close enough and she only had the spend minimum to discourage one or two people having their hair done.

Cool, that's fine.

It takes this woman weeks to send a contract and she kept coming up with all kinds of excuses. When the contract comes, it is for 9 people to have their hair done. WTF. So I email her, thinking this must be some sort of confusion or mistake, and I ask her to contract for 7 minimum and not 9 minimum and she replies saying something about why she doesn't like to do contracts for this reason. 

She then goes on to say that she has already lessened the price (which is not true, she lessened the spend minimum but lessening that is irrelevant if I'm contractually obligated to pay for two girls who might not have their hair done -- and this cost would have been MUCH more than the spend minimum!) She then reaffirms, "I have a minimum. That is also a very busy time of year." ....But I offered to meet her minimum. I just wasn't going to overpay by $140 or something ridiculous like that.

I was so annoyed that I spend months trying to negotiate a simple contract with this lady and she snuck in two extra people for me to pay for that I decided to sign a contract with another company that day. 

She was obviously so wonderful and the time our wedding is such a busy time for her that she clearly must have millions of other clients that really want to work with her.

The funny part? She emailed me months later and told me she had more time to talk now and asked if she could be hired to do hair at our wedding.

Bye, Felicia. 

lol what a total jackass. That's the thing, if you treat your clients crappy or act shady/unethical, they have the very easy option of just not hiring you. Do you want the gig, or do you want to act like an asshole?

Seriously. But the sad part is that vendors like this probably do take advantage of unsuspecting people.

I get that it's your responsibility to read your contract and all, but the way these people operate is just so terrible.

Agreed. It's really sad. For people who don't have contract experience/knowledge it's easy to overlook those little sneaky things. Especially if you assume the vendor is honest, which they sometimes aren't. And then once you sign, there's not a thing you can do about it.

I feel like if I showed my correspondence with this woman and then contract she sent me to my law professor, he would laugh.

jenajjthr

I went with a professional because they could do a better job than I could, or so I thought. I got the hair trial, but not the makeup trial because the MUA was always too busy and only worked limited days at the salon. Mistake on my part, I will own that. Loved the hair trial, woman did an excellent job, assumed the MUA was just as talented. Mistake #2. 

Day of wedding, everything is going great. Hair goes awesome. Then time for makeup. MUA asks me do you want a smoky eye, that will look good. I was like, okay, sure? She knew what time our first look photos were and what time we had to be out of there. She took freaking forever. When all was said and done and I look in the mirror I look like a raccoon. By this time, I'm pissed, about to cry, and ready to get in the car and go. One BM opts not to get her make up done by her, to save time and not to look like me. We get to the church to change and I try to salvage what I can. But yeah, damage is done. I don't have time to redo too much since we are already 45 minutes late for photos.

Lurkers - always have a trial first! Don't be pressured into any contracts either, they probably have their reason for it, and it probably isn't good. 

climbingsingle

Wtf. That is bananas.

sophhabobopha

This kind of shit makes me so happy FSIL/MOH is a hair/makeup artist and would murder me if I went anywhere else.

bride2b71614

I am glad that you were able to catch the price difference and that you have not signed anything! The fact that she even attempted to add "additional" people and charges without your consent is shady. Her urging you to sign the "additional costs" contract after issuing it straight away in itself is a massive red flag. 

You are also fortunate because you are not interested in getting your hair and make up done on the day of your wedding. Because you are providing this service for your bridal party, you have some time to shop around for a vendor who will honor your explicit request of not having your hair and make up done. It already looks like you have some promising leads!  In the meantime? I would send the shady MUA a short email stating that you will no longer be needing her services. You are not obligated to provide her with an explanation. I would then block her email address and phone number in order to avoid her hounding you.