I have really resisted taking this step, but my next payment is due next month, and every payment I make is non-refundable, so I kind of feel like I need to make a decision soon. I have just completely lost confidence in my HMUA at this point. A brief history of my what’s happened so far:
1) The salon owner missed both scheduled phone calls I had with her (the introductory call and my post-trial call). Both times, I had to reach out to her after she missed the call, and she responded hours later with what I felt were legitimate excuses, but also do I have such bad luck that I only schedule calls with her when she’s having a family emergency lol?
2) My assigned artist is not the salon owner. She’s great, has hair very similar to mine, and I especially loved how she did my makeup. My hair was not as polished as I would have liked, but she assured me that’s because she didn’t use her professional grade products which she will do on the wedding day. Which, as a curly girl, products in my hair make a night and day difference so I was like ok, but it needs to be better than this. After seeing other posts about trials, though, I’ve grown less confident in mine and wish I would have insisted that she gave me the actual day-of look.
3) FH and I have bridal portrait sessions the day after the wedding. I confirmed with HMUA that they could come back and do hair and makeup for this. They were supposed to send me an addendum to my contract to cover this back in November. I’ve reminded them about once a month, and they still haven’t sent it. They always respond with “we have you scheduled, you’ll get the addendum shortly” then crickets. Of course their prices have now increased, so I’m sure they’ll charge me their 2023 rates instead of what I would have been charged back in November.
I just can’t shake the feeling that something is off here. Thanks to the sunk cost fallacy, I’ve held strong with them. I’ve found someone else who is available, but she’s even more expensive and I’d probably have to make cuts elsewhere to start paying HMUA from scratch (in addition to what I’ve already paid the original salon). Am I overreacting? Should I follow my gut and jump ship?