Twelve people. Over two years she had personally sent twelve friends, colleagues, and family members to the same nail salon. Not because anyone asked her to. Because she genuinely liked the place and talked about it the way people talk about something they want others to experience.
Then she had to cancel an appointment. A family situation came up the morning of her booking — the kind of thing that cannot be rescheduled or planned around. She called the salon as soon as she knew, gave them as much notice as she could, and apologized.
She was charged a cancellation fee.
Not waived. Not noted and let go given her two years of loyalty and the twelve paying customers she had personally walked through their door. Charged. The full amount, applied to her next visit with a short message explaining their policy.
She paid it. She did not argue. But she sat with it for a long time.
Twelve referrals. Two years of never missing a single appointment before this one. One family emergency. And the salon's response was to apply a standard cancellation fee as if she were a first-time customer who had simply not shown up.
She has not referred anyone since. The friends she had already sent still go — she has not said anything to them. But when someone asks her now if she knows a good nail salon, she recommends somewhere else.
Twelve referrals lost over a cancellation fee that probably cost the salon less than fifteen dollars.