(My friend and I are at a nail salon where I am a regular, getting our nails done. We are chatting with the nail technicians when a young girl about four or so comes in with her high school-age sister. They are greeted and go to pick their nail colors. The four-year-old breaks several bottles of nail polish and starts yelling at us to clean it up.)

Four-Year-Old: “Clean it up! Clean it UP!”

(The staff do so, with the four-year-old and her sister glowering. Neither of them says sorry or apologizes. The sister starts getting her tips done, and the four-year-old waits for her. After about ten minutes, their mom shows up. She blazes into the store with her son in a shopping cart, crashing hard into the glass door and nearly breaking it, too.)

Mom: “I understand I owe you for some nail polish that got broken?!”

Staff Member: “Oh, no, it’s fine. It’s okay. No charge.”

Mom: “No, I would like to pay.”

(She goes over to examine her little girl, and notices the several colors of nail polish streaked down her leg. One is glitter pink and one is a deep blood red.)

Mom: “Oh, MY GOD! She CUT HERSELF and you didn’t even do anything?”

Sister: “Yeah, mom, she asked for a bandage and they said NO!”

Four-Year-Old: “Yeah, mom!” *starts to cry*

Mom: “I’m so sorry that she broke your PRECIOUS NAIL POLISH. How could you deny her a bandage, though? You’re more worried about the nail polish than my little girl?!”

(The staff attempt to explain but she does not let anyone finish a sentence.)

Mom: “You bunch of stupid immigrants don’t even speak enough English to know what I’m saying anyway!”

(She wheels out of there and the staff begin speaking quietly to each other in Vietnamese. Mom comes blazing back in.)

Mom: “You have something to say to me? Huh? You can say it to my face; we’re all adults here. Huh?! HUH?!”

(She is screaming and red in the face. Her kids are bawling. Finally I have had enough.)

Me: “Ma’am—”

Mom: “I cannot BELIEVE—”

Me: “MA’AM! Your child did not ask for a bandage. They already said they won’t charge you for the polish she broke.”

Mom: “Of all the nerve! You’re telling me all my kids are lying?”

Me: “Ma’am, no one asked for a bandage. Even if she did, this is not a pharmacy. They’re not obligated to have one. IF she had, I have several and would have given her one. Besides, this is not a daycare. We’re not obligated to watch your child.”

Mom: “Rude. All of you are rude and selfish, and I’m going to sue all of you.”

Me: “Ma’am, this corner of the mall is covered by several security cameras including one right behind your head. We can certainly review the footage.”

(Mom realizes she is beat and wheels out of there, but not before giving us the finger. The employees were very nice and gave me and my friend a 10% discount! Stupid indeed?)

(I am a customer in a nail salon in Singapore, along with another lady who’s Asian but not local.)

Lady: “I would like to remove the gel manicure and get a new one done.”

Manicurist: *in simple English because she’s from Vietnam* “To remove gel, $30. Classic mani at $26 and classic pedi at $36.”

Lady: “I’m sorry; I don’t understand you.”

Manicurist: “To remove gel is $30.”

Lady: “Why are you charging me so much? In Sydney, they don’t charge me to remove the gel, and for mani and pedi it’s only $65. I don’t understand; it’s dollar to dollar now. How come you need to charge me to remove the gel?”

Me: “This is how the service is here.”

Lady: “This is ridiculously expensive. I don’t understand. It’s dollar to dollar now. How come they are charging me so much compared to Sydney?”

Me: “Well, you’re not in Thailand or Indonesia, where their services are really cheap. At the same time, you’ll never know the quality rendered to you with that kind of price. Whereas here, their services are excellent and their products are good. I’m really happy with my service and I’ve been with them for many years now.”

Lady: “If I knew it was going to be this expensive, I would have done it in Sydney!”

(I’ve spent almost all day running errands to get ready for vacation and the last thing I need and want to do is get a manicure and pedicure. The first two salons I go to have over hour-long waits so I find another salon that’s hidden in a new shopping center, I almost didn’t see it. There’s three technicians, all with customers, but I am the only other person there so I decide I will just wait. One technician that I can only assume was the owner of the salon comes up to me as I am patiently waiting.)

Owner: “Everyone’s busy so can you come back later?”

Me: *a bit confused* “Excuse me?”

Owner: “Everyone’s busy so come back later.”

Me: *getting up and putting away the polish I had already picked out* “Okay, then.”

Owner: “You’ll come back later?”

(I didn’t bother saying anything. I just left and went to a different salon the next day.)

I get my nails done quite late in the evening. The nail technician is really friendly and polite and we have a lovely chat. However it seems to me that my simple file and French manicure is taking quite a while – to the extent that I even ask her if she’s new (she isn’t). I hardly ever get my nails done and I can’t look at my phone to see the time while my nails are drying, so I think I must be imagining how long it’s taking.

While she is doing my nails the other technician finishes with her customer, cleans up quickly and efficiently, and gets the place ready for the morning. I notice she seems really grumpy, just short of being rude to both me and my tech. I give my tech a relatively big tip because she was so friendly and it was such a relaxing experience.

As I’m walking away I get out my phone to check the time: I had been there for almost an hour!

I realised the technician had been dragging out my polish to make her colleague do all the closing work, and had even managed to land herself an extra big tip in the process.

Unfortunately they’d already closed, I don’t remember either of their names, and I wasn’t in that area for a while afterwards, so I couldn’t do anything about it – but I hope her colleague or manager talks to her about being so selfish.

(I am around 11 years old. I am at a nail salon with my best friend and around 12 other girls to get our nails done for her birthday. They also do waxes. I am reading their sign for the different kinds.)

Me: “Hey, [Best Friend’s Mom], what’s a bikini wax?”

Best Friends Mom: “That’s… something to ask your own mom, sweetie.”