Bait and Switch

The first night on board they had those gals who work in the spa posted by the elevators working hard to sell the spa services. I looked at the spa "menu" and nearly died of sticker shock. In the end it came down to "I'm a Dallas girl. We just don't pay $200 for a massage."

"How much you pay?"

"Whatever the Groupon is for. Certainly no more than $75. Ever."

They pointed out to me that I was on a ship, like this explains the high price. Actually it does explain it, but it's still not something I absolutely must have. I was perfectly willing to walk away. So they cut a deal. Not for a massage, but for a facial. $62 for a facial and a collagen eye treatment. At home I can get a facial for about $35 or $40 and that's without a Groupon. But after all, I am on a ship. I agreed, they scheduled the appointment for the following day at 4:30 PM, gave me a card to remind me of my appointment time and sent me on my way.

The next day when I arrived at the spa, I was asked WHICH facial I wanted and was shown a menu of facials with prices ranging from $103 on up.

"The price was supposed to be $62 and the eye treatment was to be free."

"No, you misunderstand. The eye treatment is $62 but you are getting it at no charge with the facial."

"That's not what she told me last night. The total was $62 - it included the facial and the eye treatment."

"But you are on a ship. (Even though she pronounced it "sheep", I knew what she meant.

I didn't know why that kept coming up. "I am well aware of where I am. But okay. I'll pick one. But understand that when I go home and write a review on TripAdvisor that you will be dinged for this. You will be dinged hard. I did not misunderstand. I suspect that I may have been deliberately misled, but I did not misunderstand. In fact, you know what? We don't need to do this at all. I can just go and consider this a waste of 30 minutes and we'll call it done."

Now the tune changes. "I want you to be happy. I want you to be happy with me and I want you to be happy with the service I provide. If price is the problem, I can fix for you."

Well yes. Price is the problem. The real problem is that you told me one price and then tried to tell me a different price when I got there. That is always a problem in my book. We came to a new agreement for $69 that would include a facial and the eye treatment. 

I was happy. Not happy enough to tip over and above the tip that was already added, but I was happy. When I got back to the stateroom with my incredibly soft skin, all Mark wanted to know was "What took you so long?"

"We had a bit of a problem with the pricing..."