Is this even legal?

[lexin]

I tried to make an appointment with a local hairdresser today, and when I did finally get an answer, they let me make an appointment, but asked for my email address. Thinking nothing of it, I gave it to them. Then I get a note from them that reads:

Hair Culture London would like to confirm your appointment on Saturday, 17 October 2020 at 10:00 .

We do take a £50 reservation fee for colour and £20 for all other appointments. We do this simply to protect our stylist time. The reservation fee will be redeemed of your bill on the day of your appointment. In an event of a cancellation or rescheduling, you would need to lets us know at least 72h in advance of your appointment time in order to receive your deposit back. If you let us know about the cancellation or rescheduling less than 72h to your appointment you would lose your deposit payment. Deposit payment can be made via bank transfer (you can find bank transfer details bellow). The Reservation fee payment must be made within 12h from receiving this email. In an event that you don’t pay reservation fee within 12h, unfortunately we would have to cancel your appointment due to a high demand. You can always keep your right of not to pay the reservation fee, in this kind of situation unfortunately we cannot keep your date and time available for you. You can always contact us on the day of the desired time to see if we have any space left, if we do have any space left, we will gladly book you in without a need to pay reservation fee.

Bank Transfer details: (and the transfer details were below).

Is that even legal?

Essentially they’re threatening that if you don’t pay a “reservation fee” you can’t have an appointment, and if you cancel too late or don’t turn up, they take your money. It seems to me that this is a payment exacted for no service.

I’ve been able to walk in to this hairdresser off the street and get my hair cut, and I’m very much tempted to go back to doing that. It may be that all sorts of things may prevent you cancelling within their 72 hour deadline, ranging from accident, through illness, to someone else’s illness. If they were to give you your money back if they re-book the slot, that would be one thing, but they won’t. You just have to hope that the slot you’ve booked isn’t taken.

Am I right in thinking this is at least a bit of a cheek on their part?

Comments

[bluewolf458]

It's more than extortionate - £42 is highway robbery!

[aunty_marion]

I'm more towards Central London than lexin is, and I've been paying £18 or £20 for a 'dry trim' (they just spray the hair to dampen it down enough to cut). Not that I've had it cut since January - I did it myself a couple of months back!

[lexin]

The hairdresser I used to use (run by a group of Chinese ladies who constantly changed, so that I suspected it to be a money laundering outfit) charged £22 for a dry trim. Leytonstone is not cheap for haircuts. Or much else.