The photo at left is an actual photo of the damage done to this lady’s hair and head. Lane writes:

I’m sure you get hundreds of complaints about salons, but have any of the salon owners in question put a lien on the car of the injured party? Mine has.

Nutshell: I went to have a perm done in a Tony Cao salon in Trophy Club, Texas. Three different people worked on me, including a boy who told me he had no idea what he was doing. He was the one in charge of rinsing out the solution on my head. I ended up with burns and bald spots (see attached picture), and severely damaged hair. Not only would the salon owner not give me a refund, he told me it was my own fault for having had damaged hair prior to visiting his salon. He also charged me for a full haircut, when I had not asked for one…

I asked for my money back three times, and he refused, so I wrote on the back of my car window with shoe polish, “Tony Cao Salon Ruins Hair No Refunds.” And he PUT A LIEN ON MY CAR! (In Texas, you can put a lien on anything for any reason.) [ed. A lien is a claim by one party on a second party’s property that entitles them to a specific amount of money in the event of that piece of property’s sale.]

After calling and speaking with Tony Cao, I found out that this was not even one of his salons, but it is a man he is suing to get the name taken down. I would never have set foot in the place if I had known it was just some guy off the street!

So I have filed a small claims lawsuit to recoup the cost of his salon’s services, the cost of the salon services I needed to manicure out the major damage he caused, and the cost of my dermatologist. I got a letter from his attorney last night saying that they will pay me my claim and remove the lien from my car, if I am willing to sign documentation basically stating that it never happened, and promising my complete silence and confidentiality. So, in effect, they are saying they will stop trying to TAKE MY CAR if I promise never to tell anyone that this horrible place burned bald spots in my hair.

If nothing else, it’s an amusing story to everyone I know.

Thanks,
Lane B.

The next day, Lane sent an update:

Late yesterday, I spoke with their attorney and they made a correction on the suit. So we have settled, and the salon is giving me back my money.
Thanks!Lane B

That’s one bad hair day, and just about the worst customer service we’ve ever heard of. Ruin someone’s hair, overcharge them, refuse to refund, then claim a piece of their car when they complain about it. Classy. Even though Lane had to go through a lot of hassle, you gotta figure that unless she publicly voiced her complaint in shoe polish on her back windshield, she wouldn’t have ever ended up with a refund. We’re not sure what happened at the point of the transaction, whether it was cash or she had given her credit card beforehand, or what, but I would have just refused to pay them.

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