Why I quit

Oh my glory.

I quit Salon on the Avenue. I don't wanna have to explain all of this to you all on the phone haha, and Its a long story, so bare with me. I also didn't want to write it on my blog in case she uses this against me.

I did have my own station and was paying $250 for booth rent. I stayed pretty busy considering I only worked Tuesday all day, Thursday half day, and Saturdays. Paying what I paid, was considered part time. Well, Betsy hired 2 new girls, and one of the girls got her own station since she was full time, but the other girl was part time. She started sharing a station with a girl Lauren (Lauren only worked mon wed, fri and every other sat).

Somehow, both of those girls had a conflict and could only work at the salon on the same saturdays every week. So, Betsy, without asking or any sort of warning, told the new girl that she could have my station all to her self, and I would share with Lauren. I showed up to work one day with all of the new girls stuff on my station. I was a little confused, so I went to the back and asked Betsy what was going on. She told me I had to share with Lauren because those two have saturdays that conflict. I told her I wasn't ok with that because I had been there a year and the new girl had been there two weeks. I didnt think it was fair that she got my station all to her self since I was paying more than the new girl. She said "sorry."

So, I moved my stuff over. I was pretty upset, but knew I was going to have to share sometime since I was part time. Well, this is when the major conflicts started.

I usually do one client Friday mornings. My fridays are usually kind of crazy because I have counseling and I have to prepare a lesson for my musical theater class which is also that day. So I usually just try to fit in one request client in the morning. Lauren has fridays but I had looked at the appointment book and she didn't have any clients. So, I decided it was ok for me to do a quick mens haircut. I went in, and she was at our station, blowdrying her hair. She ALWAYS come to the salon with wet hair, and no makeup on, which bugs me because if you come to work, you come to work ready. The salon isn't a bathroom. It's a JOB. She can get ready at home. It's unprofessional to do that when there are other clients there- which there were. So I kindly told her that I had an appointment coming and asked if she could get ready somewhere else. She said "Nope. You can use someone else's station." That made me mad because I paid for my station, and I should be able to do a client especially when she doesn't have anyone coming.

So, I moved, did my thing, and then left. I remembered that I had a client the next Friday so I texted her to remind her that I had a client and not to book someone at the same time. She texted back and said I could not use the station, Fridays were her day. K, so now, I am paying the same amount as Lauren, and can only work Tues all day, Thurs 9-1, and every other saturday. That's not fair. I needed Friday mornings to be mine so I could make enough to pay for that rent and make it worth it. But, Betsy then texted me and said that I could use her station Fridays till 2. (so lauren had texted her and tattled) She said she always used to be a floater, who always moved around to other stations and it never bothered her.  Ok, well, if I am going to be a 'floater' then I don't want to pay for a booth. I never wrote her back. With all the things she has been doing to me besides this stupid situation, I decided it was time to move on.

Betsy is a horrible business owner. Someday she will lose the salon. I'm surprised she still has it. We would always get final notice stuff from the gas company and electric because she wouldn't pay it. She makes promises she cant keep. She always says one thing and then takes it back. She told one girl she could have free booth rent for 3 months if she stayed. Then, the next day, she took it back and told her she had to pay. She once fired Lauren for 2 hours, and then re-hired her. Shes just ridiculous. Oh- and even though we pay booth rent, she says we have to do her discounts whenever she wants. Booth rent is booth rent because it means FREEDOM. But not at her salon.

So, I told her I quit and I needed to move on. I asked her if I even had to pay booth rent because I had worked one day and made about $35. She told me she wanted me to pay her $75 booth rent since it was such short notice. Keep in mind, I have never signed a contract. She doesnt have contracts. So, after thinking about it, I decided paying was not worth it to me. I had only made $35 and I never signed anything saying I had to pay, so I wasn't going to. She forced me out of there by all her decisions she made.. I probably would have still been there if she wasn't so crazy. I like the girls there a lot and I am really busy there but I just couldn't take it. It was way too much drama there for me, and I am learning to just get rid of those things in my life, and she was the BIGGEST drama thing in my life.

So she texted me (she refuses to talk on the phone to ANYONE)  last night and asked me when I was going to bring in my key and check for 75. I told her: "This is a dilemma for me because now I have to pay rent this month somewhere where I can work all the days I need and not have my saturdays suddenly limited. Because I was unaware I had to pay (since I didnt use the station at all besides for 1 hour). Not only do I not have the funds now (considering the situation) there is no contract and I wasnt aware you needed notice otherwise I would have given you notice a week ago. Truthfully, my station isn't mine anyway." She then said back: "Yes, you do need to pay rent. I will prorate it to $50. Thats the way any type of rental situation would be. I'm trying to make it doable. Let me know what time you will be here so I can be here when you get your things. Your right, there is no contract. Just hoping you will be honest with your obligation. I didnt ask you to leave, and you have worked this week and your stuff  is still here at the salon. In any rental situation it is common knowledge to give 30 days notice or pay full rent. Please pay the prorated amount. You have the knowledge of how right this is." I then in turn said: "I don't want to get into a battle of integrity. Obviously  if I thought things had been fair, I wouldn't be quitting. I guess it goes both ways. Besides, you already have someone at the booth. But now I have to pay rent to a place that I will actually be working at this month. Here again, I would have given you more notice if I had known that was necessary, but its the decisions you and others have made that have brought about this change anyway. Sorry you are not happy with the situation. I am not either if it's any concession." Then she said "Ok. Be at the salon at 8:30 and bring the check for 75." So now she is changing it from $50 to $75. So, I wrote back and said, sorry I am not bringing you a check. I was so mad.

So, Kevin and I show up to pick up my stuff, and she is there and says "I will give you one more chance to pay this. If you don't, I will be taking you to small claims court, and instead of the $66 (ok what the heck, she changed it from $75 to $66 now???) I will go for the whole $250 rent." I just looked at her and told her no, I wasn't going to pay. She said ok, and then told me that she had taken pictures of all my things and found one of my settlement reciepts (from my credit card machine) in my stuff and she had a copy of it. She said she would win at court and She wasn't going to let people take advantage of her. I wasn't taking advantage of her, I had no choice but to leave. I didn't know what I was going to do since I had to pay stupid rent to her but didn't have any days to work. Plus, I let her know by April 4th that I was quitting. I hadn't used the station except for once so far this month.

She gets her phone and starts talking on it to her husband (who knows if someone was really even on the other line) and she says "Yea, they are dumb not to pay. We will just take them to court and get all our money. Can you have so and so get the papers drawn up. They say because there was no contract they dont have to pay but they made the wrong decision" and she goes on and on about us in front of us while I am cleaning up.

After she got off the phone, she kept saying little snide things about how if I don't pay she won't tell all my clients where I am going to be working. She was totally manipulating me. She then asked us one more time if we wanted to pay. Kevin jumped in and just said "You know what, we will pay, but not because you will win in court, but because we want you out of our life." Then she said "Well, you made the right choice. Now I will tell all her clients where she is." We were SOOO mad. She then told us that I was not allowed to ever set foot in that salon again. Kevin goes "Um, pretty sure you pushed her far enough away that that will never be a problem." She goes "I'm not that mean person you say I am. I promise I am so nice." HAHA. Please. Shes a witch. Then she asked me not to write any bad reviews or anything about the salon. Well, I have nothing bad to say about the girls. Just the owner. Shes crazy. But that's why I didn't write about this on my normal blog because I don't want her to have anything else to contact me about.

So yea, that's what happened. Im super mad. And even more mad that we allowed her to manipulate me and that we paid. We shouldnt have paid. When she kept saying it was the honest thing to do, well she didn't do any honest thing by making me share without telling me before hand and taking away my saturdays and friday mornings. Sorry.

What do you all think? Should I have paid?