Treatwell: Beauty Bookings

tl;dr - I was charged £60 for an appointment I cancelled, despite being within the cancellation period. The salon received nothing; it all went to Treatwell. I'm amazed by how terribly this booking structure treats customers, and in this case the salon / venue too. I booked a hair appointment at a salon, and selected the option to pay at the venue. I rescheduled it once, no problem. I then had to cancel the appointment, which I did more than 24 hours in advance. My credit card was still charged for the service, despite the fact that: a) I had opted to pay at the venue and not in advance, b) the salon does not receive any money, which I confirmed with them and c) nowhere in the confirmation email or online documentation does it state what the cancellation period for this venue is. The salon owner said she thought it was 24 hours. The Treatwell website says it will tell you clearly what the cancellation policy is for your booking. The confirmation email I received does not do this. It refers only to refunds being fully available if appointments are changed within 24 hours of the scheduled date, and states that if I want to cancel I must let the salon know in advance. It does not specify a time; nor does the salon's profile on Treatwell. This contravenes Treatwell's online information, including the contract terms. I have made a complaint and received no response. I will not be using this platform again.

The app doesn’t in any way make it clear when booking that they are only a payment platform facilitator. If there is an issue with the service you booked through them they send you to the business to sort it. They don’t mediate, they don’t help, they don’t issue refunds. All the while, the business says they only receive the money from treatwell end of month and that treatwell marks customers as no show randomly themselves so they keep the money and don’t pass it to the business, so the business refuses to refund. Overall, if you have a problem, you’re on your own, injured and iwth your money stolen. And the app doesn’t make it abundandly clear when you make the booking that this is the case. The developer response also shows it’s a copy pasted response with no research because Treatwell agreed what what the business where I booked was doing was blackmail - they said they want to refund but only if I remove my negative review on Treatwell- they won’t help refund me, nor did they accept my review update which revealed this to other users. So the service reviews on Treatwell still can’t be trusted, since Treatwell is ok to let businesses blackmail clients for good reviews and won’t accept genuine reviews of the services saying they pose legal issues - of course!

Treatwell is fantastic very easy to you and shows all the local places and gives good explanation of all the treatments and gives reviews of all the place as well as detailing the location of the places and filtering. I came across Treatwell just by randomly searching google for a local tanning salon and I manage to find a place local to me that does every treatment I needed in one place rather than than going to different place for the different treatment which made it more simple and I could organise what I wanted when. I love it that I can pay and book in advance so I can do it when I want rather than ringing up and booking over the phone. I would definitely recommend it.