VIKA SPA

Tried to book an appointment to use the voucher my friend had given me. it was for a mani/pedi/foot massage. Left a message, but never heard back.

Finally decided to email them, requesting for an appointment. The response I got back was they are under new ownership and is no longer accepting the vouchers.

Such a disappointment!

Unfortunately, I bought a voucher to this place in July, and when I tried to book an appointment in October they were BOOKED SOLID until December.

I had to ask for clean pedicure and manicure files/buffers because the ones they first brought out were filthy and covered in a thick layer of other people's dead skin. My manicure and pedicure were extremely minimal, and I noticed the towels at the manicure station were pretty dirty too. Both procedures were not consistent, and I noticed they were so overbooked that some women were getting their manicures completed in the waiting room. Overall the atmosphere was chaotic, rushed, and noisy. Not exactly a relaxing spa experience.

I brought my own nail polish so I can't comment on their selection, but when I asked for a French manicure they said I'd have to book that in advance since they were so tight for time. Good thing I brought my own polish!

The massage was the best part of my experience here, but again, I'm not sure the sheets on the massage table were entirely clean. I felt like all the employees here are overworked and exhausted with the voucher crowd.

I want to give the staff here 3 or 4 stars because I felt I was treated warmly for the most part. After going to Nailsense for manicures/pedicures, though, it's pretty hard to find something that will even come close.

I bought a voucher for a mani-pedi and it took 3 emails, so many phone calls that I lost track and finally 3 phone calls to buytopia (the voucher site) to finally get an appointment the following day.

So, in terms of getting an appointment, I don't know if their phone somehow knows how to discriminate against non rich house-wife type ladies, but not once was my phone call picked up or responded to, and same goes for the emails.

Once I finally did get an appointment (which had to go through buytopia, the 3rd phone call) everything went fine. The place was friendly enough, although I must admit I did feel a little insecure and uncomfortable, showing up in my fleecy pants and broken up fake Uggs, thinking "it's my day off and I'm pampering myself" but apparently, their clientele is more the "I need to dress up in all my gold and wear expensive clothes to get my hair and nails done" type.
So, I did sense that my manicurist and pedicurist weren't perhaps as nice to me as they might have otherwise been, probably not expecting a good tip (and despite how crappy getting the appointment was, I did tip them very well based solely on the fact that I felt I had to because of the supposed "actual" price of the service).

The place is over priced no doubt, but I assume most places in that area are. And there wasn't a very large selection of nail polish colours.

I felt good being able to get service at a fancy pants place that I clearly didn't belong in, but frankly, I left feeling worse about myself than when I walked in.

Be careful if you're purchasing a voucher from Deafind or any of the other Groupon type websites.

October 2010 is when I purchased a $49 voucher for a 30 min 'swedish' massage, mani and pedi and they couldn't see me until Feb as they were booked. The next day I find out they are again selling vouchers to hundreds of more customers. The supply can't meet the demand.

Further more, I heard from a customer who also bought a Dealfind voucher that the massage was done by the same person who did her mani and pedi, and that they didn't use clean supplies, the nail polish selection was low and that they were 'unprofessional' and 'amateur'.

Be weary.

Disclosure: bought a Dealfind voucher. Didn't have any appointments available for a few months. Massage was meh. Mani/pedi was meh. When I sat down for the manicure, the towel was covered in someone else's nail clippings, and I had to ask the aesthetician for a clean one, because she seemed to not notice/not care.

Pros: cheap (with voucher, and they seem to regularly run daily deals), nice locker rooms, nail polish dryers are a nice touch, location

Cons: not exceptionally clean, massage very mediocre, small nail polish color selection

Wouldn't go back, trying to get a refund on the second voucher I purchased.

I had the same experience as Amanda with making an appointment after purchasing from Dealfind. I purchased in July, and my appointment was this December!

I have no idea how it would possibly be regularly $180 for a massage and a mani and pedi. The massage was in a tiny room where the individual knocked over oil and tripped on the stool because there was barely any space around the bed. The massage seemed short (and I did hear someone else in the change room saying they felt ripped off) and strange, as if they weren't sure what to do. They went from massage my back to my neck to my head, to my arm, then legs then back up to my back and neck and head again. Therefore it was just someone rubbing me inconsistently. My partner who was getting the same thing done, said his massage was the same, so maybe thats what theyre trained to do.

I found that all the staff lacked professionalism and in their attempt to make conversation would hint at how low income they were..they never said they were outright not paid enough but talked about going to outlet malls to afford clothes to deal with this weather. When getting my mani pedi this seemed to be a concern for all the staff. Don't get me wrong, they weren't rude, they just weren't professional.

The individual who does your massage, also does your other services. At the time, the mani pedi area was rammed with all stations occupied in such a little space. My individual didn't help me get to the pedicure station to the manicure station and I essentially walked barefoot while she held my flipflops.

They later dump you in the lounge and so you can dry your nails. But no one comes to see you and no clocks in the room, so you're sitting in a room confused as what to do.

The reception was nice, the changerooms and the decor and cleanliness is what you would expect. But the massage room and the staff leave little to be desired. Be warned.

GREAT facials and pedicures! I eagerly look forward to each appointment.

The staff is professional and my appointments ALWAYS start on time.

I bought a voucher and initially had trouble connecting with them (by both phone and email) to redeem it. However, once I did connect with VikaSpa I was given a phone number that they refer to as the "VIP line".

I have scheduled biweekly appointments for the next 3 months (voucher period) and will likely purchase another one.

Let me start by saying UGH.

I was a member of this spa for 13 full months, so I feel that I can accurately review it.

For those that don't know, Vika Spa offers memberships that are $200 a month and require unlimited amounts of most of their services including mani/pedis (not the deluxe ones), massages (hot stone is technically included but an absolute pain in the ass to try and book), facials, body scrubs/wraps, waxing and blowdrys. I was there 1-3 days a week for these 13 months so I got to know them all pretty well. With taxes and grats it came to a little over $300 a month but to be fair I used about $1500 a month worth of services so the price was right.

I will say that 90% of their estheticians were great. I did have my favourites, like Suzanne for nails and waxing and Inna for massages but I never really had anyone I disliked over the year I was there.

My problems with this spa don't lie with the services or the prices, they lie with the admin. Which was a complete and utterly terrible MESS. Booking an appointment was next to impossible. There were times where Iiterally took the subway from Lansdowne where I live to Yorkville, a 45 minute round trip just to book and appointment because my calls weren't being answered. And this includes when I used their VIP number for members that is supposed to put you are the front of the line. I would even go as far as to try and book a full months worth of appointments a month in advance to make things easier for them and they still couldn't make it work.

They were releasing daily deal vouchers every 2 weeks and selling them in mass quantities so the spa was always filled with people who had terrible etiquette (bringing your screaming 8 month old to a spa, cellphones in the lounge, etc) and were never coming back anyway. These people were taking appointments away from people like me who were consistently paying.

The receptionists themselves weren't too bad, except this one girl who was kind of dumb, she had just started a couple months before I left so I didn't catch her name. They were just way understaffed and because of all the vouchers they kept selling were receiving way more phone calls than were physically possible to answer between 3 people.

I know that as my 1 year contract with them ended the spa had been sold to some corporate company so things may have changed around there. To be fair, things could be running smoothly and it may be a great place to be. But after more than a year of being endlessly frustrated with these people, I have absolutely no desire to give them my money ever again.

I bought a discount coupon for a couple of massage treatments. After the first one I have decided not even to take the second one. I swear I will never set foot in this place again because they have no respect for customers!

This email to them tells my story:
"I had a massage today and was asked to be there 10 minutes to 3, to ensure that the massage could start on time. Ten minutes after the hour though I was finally picked up from the waiting room, without a word of apology. The actual massage started at 3:15 and was terminated at 3:42. That is a 15% under delivery of value!

I used a coupon which you sell to promote trial and attract clientele. I will find it very hard to recommend this to friends or to come back after my second coupon treatment."

Guess what? No reply, not even after two phone messages for the manager to look at this email and call me, and even a further email to tell them how discourteous I found this behaviour. Not a beep!!!!

There are enough spas in Toronto. Why would customers deal with a business whose management are so ignorant not to understand the relevance of customer service and are intent on wasting their marketing dollars on getting people to try a service without customer service. What? Ignorant? Correction: Arrogant.

Too bad for them I am also a customer service consultant with a blog. They have given me another lovely case history... In the trade we call this market damage.

Please. Do yourself a favour and do NOT even consider going to Vikaspa. They are terrible. They have very questionable & unethical business practices.

I bought two online vouchers last March (2011) for Vikaspa. The "earliest" appointment I could book for both my friend and I was 6 months later (I called in June and could only get a December appointment). I was advised that they had no other availability.

The night before my appointment, I received a voicemail message from Vikaspa advising that they were under renovations and had to cancel my appointment because they were "closed". The voicemail also stated that they would be contacting me in the new year to rebook my appointment when they are up and running again.

My friend, who had her doubts, called them the next day to book us for the exact same services (mani, pedi and massage) for that day. The first question the receptionist asked was whether or not she had a coupon. My friend advised no, and the receptionist advised that they were fully open and would love for us to come in. My friend then confronted the receptionist and advised her that she already had the same services booked for the very same day and was advised that they were "closed for renovations". The receptionist had nothing to say except that she was told by management to cancel our appointments and to make up the excuse of being closed for renovations, and if we had any complaints, to bring it up with management.

I've been trying to book an appointment ever since and they won't return my call. My vouchers expire next month and its obvious they have no intention of honouring those vouchers.

I know of two other people who have had the very same experience - had their appointments canceled last minute due to being closed for renovations and Vikaspa not returning their calls to rebook.

Please stay away from this place to avoid getting scammed. I've never had such a terrible customer service experience. I am so appalled by their unethical business practices.

For those who cannot redeem their vouchers, you should consider contacting the company you purchased the vouchers from to get a full refund. I also suggest that you file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I have done both of the above and trust that the problem will be resolved.

For any potential clients of Vikaspa, please stay far away... at the very least, please check out reviews online as they have had terrible reviews.