So, you would think I would know right? Do I not look as if I would know? This is what happened, one day not so long ago, there I was minding my own business, on my way to watch shop on the strand. I was just walking out of Embankment tube station, when for reasons known only to God, I stopped for a young man who said. and I quote " do you like make up?" what an odd question I thought, anyhow I stopped, and it turns out he was a salesman, oh yeah knock me, like it was not obvious. d'oh anyhow he was an amenable chap, we had a good chat about what he wanted to sell me, which was this experience where you go and have a make over and get your pictures taken with a mate. Initially I said no, but he wore me down, he reduced the price, he supposedly gave me longer to book ( I later found this to be untrue) but I was only allowed to bring one person. That was really annoying, and they were quite fiendish about that. I have not gotten anywhere and I am already irritated twice. Ok, I got over it. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and my phone rings, its a lady from the studio when are you coming she asks, then comes another saga, firstly I was not ready, I had not even told my friend that I wanted to come with me, I was busy learning trying to sort myself out, living life etc, so then she said, well you have only a certain amount of time to book, well I said, the sales man said that I can have longer, he's not allowed to do that, its on you voucher she said. Well I don't have a date I said, and the conversation ended there. I think in the end, we had this exact conversation about twice, with at least one of them ending in me saying, that you see that is why I don't normally stop and buy of vendors on the street. When I finally got a date, which I subsequently had to change twice because Saturdays are difficult apparently, she kept offering me a Wednesday after all, like that was gonna work, I kept saying that we would be at work, well at least my friend would and besides I wanted a Saturday. Anyway got over it, booked April 9th. So then it was time to book, she goes, there will be a deposit of £150 WHAT???? no word of a lie, I was screaming, well its for two of you, yes I said, but the sales guy said it was £50, well its refundable on the day she says and it because its a Saturday. Do you want me to take yours and you get your friend to ring in and pay hers? I mean it was such a palaver, it hardly seemed worth the effort, I was tempted to tell her to stuff it, but I did not I prevailed. I paid.
So come the 9th April. I have to be honest to all intents and purposes it was a nice afternoon with my friend. We had wine, we did our hair, ok my friend did her hair I did not have any to do, we had make up and nails painted. We had fun with our very funny and dry photographer. The host a Jamie foxx look alike was very amenable and friendly. Ok they have redeemed themselves right?? Oh no, we were told that it would be 20 minutes to view the pictures, that turned into an hour, then when we did get to see them, the guy who was really friendly and warm to begin with changed before our very eyes, when we said we were not buying any photographs. Let me explain, it turns out they were charging £500 for 10 images or something of the sort. That was not surprising, what was surprising was the rudeness of the guy and the fact that we were not allowed to choose a picture of both of us together. We could each have one of ourselves only and we had to choose it in a hurry. Bearing in mind we had 3 clothes changes and there were loads and loads of pics. It was too bad, really. Do you think this is the worse thing? Well we don't get our deposit back until a week after we have been? Apparently they hope that we would put it towards the rip of price of their photos. To me the worst thing was not being able to chose a photo of my friend and I. What is the point? I may as well have gone by myself. Whenever I complained about anything their answer was that it's on your voucher. Not good enough. I feel duped, and annoyed, mainly with myself for going against my own policies of not stopping for sales people on the street. Lesson firmly fixed in my head!!!
