Ultimate Exposure

Nice facility and free parking @ this strip mall. It’s never been too crowded & love that they’re always having promotions. I got 3 months of free tanning for 3 months of membership.

Bar None the WORST customer service I have dealt with in years!!!
I have been a customer of Ultimate Exposure for over 10 years. I pay a very steep rate of $ 34.99/month which is charged on the 1^st of each month. On November 1^st, 2014, I visited the Roscoe Village location (surprised it was open as they never honor their posted store hours — see other reviews too) and attempted to update my credit card information with the new expiration date at which time I was informed a $ 10 declination fee would be charged because when they attempted to run the credit card thru at 5 am that same day, it was rejected due to the expiration date of ¹⁰⁄₂₀₁₄. After informing «Gulisio», I refuse to pay the fee and would like to speak to a manager. I was informed there was no manager on site at which time I asked for the telephone number to the Ultimate Exposure corporate office. «Gulisio» informed me she was not authorized to give out the number to the corporate office and asked for my name and number and that someone from corporate would have to contact me. I was very suspicious of this protocol and for good reason, because after 10 days, no one contacted me. On November 10^th, I re-​contacted the salon and spoke with «Katy» who insured me the district manager would immediately be notified and that she would contact me that afternoon/​evening. Again, that NEVER happened.
I, once again, re-​contacted the salon on November 13^th and spoke with «Kelsy» who was as nice and apologetic as can be. «Kelsy» gave me the number to the corporate office which is located in Melrose Park and informed me the point of contact was Gina, who serves as the district manager. I contacted Gina at the number provided and after apprizing her of everything that has transpired over the past two weeks and how I have been a customer for over 10 years, Gina informed me there was nothing she would do for me. Gina stated this happens all the time and she was not willing to waive the $ 10 charge. I then asked Gina who above her I could speak with about the matter at which time she informed me I was out of luck as she is the highest level supervisor that would address this matter. I then asked Gina what about the 675 points I still have and Gina told me I was out of luck and there would be no refund issued.
The way this has been handled has been a complete nightmare. The staff as a whole are completely incompetent and ignorant (with the exception of Kelsy)
I will make sure I let all my family members and friends know how this was handled with complete lack of professionalism, primarily with that of Gina. She is a disgrace to this company and her not willing to waive a $ 10 service fee (the salon’s error by the way — as i came in on the 1^st) will cost them hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in the long run.
STAY AWAY from this place! I wish I could give it ZERO or NEGATIVE stars!

i would give this 0 stars but the review does not allow. All the machines are terrible, and always have a problem. I would not go here but since I bought a groupon I am forced to go to this place since it is close to my house. I thought it would get better the more times I go, but it keeps getting worse. The tanning beds are old and unattended too. Every time I sit for 5 minutes the machine shuts down when I pay for 10 minutes. When I ask them that my minutes are gone before I used them all they give me this excuse about we can not restart the machines. I ask for the manager and they get confused and start panicking. When the manager comes he can add minutes to the machine. It feels forced to buy lotion every single time I walk in because its LOTION, LOTION, LOTION. Its the only thing they say to you when you walk in the door since the managers force them to sell like machines. Once my groupon deal is done I will never go back to this place.

In March of 2013, I had bought a month of tanning full price at Ultimate Exposure in Berwyn. Fast forward to this March and I went to Roscoe to use the groupon I bought. I got in, no big deal, and tanned there a few times. Today I went back again and the guy told me that my account is on hold for $ 32 from the Berwyn location — and I accrued this charge LAST YEAR!
here’s my problem: How come it wasn’t on hold when I came in to tan on my groupon a few weeks ago? How come Berwyn never billed me for this or communicated it to me in some way? How come Roscoe didn’t tell me I owed money when I began my groupon?
This is bad communication, bad policies, and bad business. I will never be back to Ultimate Exposure and I hope they get their $h!t together and figure out their billing for the next customers who come in. But… after seeing all the reviews on this place, I’m not so sure this will happen. Apparently they don’t really care about customer satisfaction!

This place really sucks! The employees have all been very nice, but this place sucks. I bought a Groupon for 10 gold-​level tans. Yah, I had read the reviews of multiple locations of UE and knew it wasn’t going to be the greatest experience ever, but figured for $ 30, I’d give it a whirl. Well, the reviews were right. I have never tanned in a worse level-​one tanning bed EVER. I think it was probably the first bed ever made… EVER! The 1980s called and they want their tanning bed back. It rattles and clunks every time I use it. It’s horrid and besides that, I barely get tan. So yah, not great. And to add insult to injury, today I wanted to tan so I rearranged my normal Saturday morning routine and did my grocery shopping later than usual. The plan was to get my groceries at Mariano’s, which is in the same shopping center as UE, and then go over and tan real quick. I pulled up to UE at 8:55 am. I waited until 9:10 am and the place never opened. I know the place is supposed to open at 9 am on Saturdays. I tanned at 9 am last Saturday, the sign on the door says 9 am and the website says 9 am. WTF? Two other girls were waiting with me. After 10 minutes of waiting, I had had enough. I wasn’t about to waste another second of my Saturday morning waiting for the schmucks who work there to open the damn doors so I left. I hope someone finally showed up to do their job today! What a joke. LA Tan is so much better. I still have tans to use so I’m sure I’ll be back… ugh! I’m already dreading it, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to squeeze every last cent out of that Groupon I bought. Blech… find another place to tan. This place is crap.

worst customer service ever! time and time again i am told by know-​it-​all employees here that their lotion is hypoallergenic and all natural. so after trying an «all natural» lotion i find that it contains 4 artificial colors, which my skin is allergic to. so my next visit comes and i am again harassed about not using lotions. this time i am offered an «organic» lotion, whose ingredients revealed 2 artificial colors and stated 95% organic. (whats the other 5%?) when i bring this to the attention of the employee i get an eye roll and an «ok whatever.»
i understand that it is their job to sell lotions but i would be weary of taking the claims made by these «tanning experts» seriously. did i mention i have been placed in the oldest bed in the salon every time? don’t make them mad or else they’ll put you in the ancient creaky bed from 1985.

Ive yet to have a super bad experience, everyone’s always very nice, friendly, and knowledgeable

Walked in last Tuesday, bought a tan and received a 2^nd tan free — as long as it’s used within 7 days.
Walked in this Tuesday, the free tan apparently expired yesterday.
If the free tan is good for 7 days and you can’t tan more than once a day, then wouldn’t the 7 day count start on Wednesday and end the next Tuesday?
Never going back here. Also, their prices are outrageous (compared to L.A. Tan, XSport, etc.).

The beds are just fine, but that’s where the good experience ends.
The staff is incompetent at best. My favorite line? «These beds don’t have burning rays, they only have tanning rays.» Really?! Then why did I end up with a minor burn… um, because its a tanning bed. They all burn you. They are fake sun rays. You can get burned from them. I actually had 3 different employees tell me that as I progressed to the stronger beds. STOP TELLING PEOPLE YOUR MOST EXPENSIVE BEDS WON’T OR CAN’T BURN! IT’S FALSE, MISLEADING AND JUST MAKES YOUR EMPLOYEES SOUND DUMB!
Also, I ordered a monthlong plan and was informed (apparently on the 31^st day) that it expired. (Would have been nice information to have when I went for my last session, so I could make other plans) I was tanning in prep for my wedding, so I only needed 7 more days of tanning, or 3 sessions. They offered me the «deal» of $ 25 per session or I could just purchase another month. When I told them my honeymoon meant I would only be able to use 2 weeks of that month, she suggested «well, it would still be cheaper than paying $ 75 for three sessions.» Um, yeah — ‘ya think? I informed her that $ 25 a session was OUTRAGEOUS, asked if she had lost her mind, walked out and promptly went to a non-​chain tanning company, which I’ve given five stars.

I don’t know where to start. I don’t feel 1 star does my experience justice. There should be no stars associated with what I just went through. I truly hope by reading this I am saving people.
So, I went to Ultimate Exposure Tanning on Western Ave. I just wanted to get in and out and do a quick 10 minutes in the stand-​up as we are leaving soon to go to Mexico and they are right next to my house. I should have figured things would go bad when I saw people standing and waiting very impatiently when I arrived. I looked past it and decided to join this disgruntled crowd. I stood in line and waiting for about 20 minutes as Adriana (lady at the counter) was attempting very unsuccessfully to help ONE customer. She kept saying over and over, «I am so sorry; my manager said I can’t call her on her day off.» She also indicated this was the first time that she had the whole store to herself. Well, as you can imagine the line just got longer and longer. She continued to help the same one customer for a very long time while others kept waiting.
This was starting to get very painful to watch Adriana struggle. I mean PAINFUL! Finally she gave in and tried to call her manager. Guess what? No answer! That’s the best way to run a store??? Have one of your employees who is new and has never done this on her own be by herself, and tell her not to call you no matter what because it is your day off. Then when she does call, ignore it. Wow! What a great manager!
So Adriana continued to struggle helping the one customer while people kept walking in. I can’t physically describe how painful this was to watch her struggle. I would maybe compare it to being a Carlos Marmol fan, or watching the Bulls give up a 12 point lead to the Heat with 3 minutes left in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. I just kept my head down and crossed my fingers for her. Then about 25 minutes in she finally fixed the problem. «Hallelujah!» Our prayers were answered. Now we can get everyone through this line, right?
So finally I got to the front and asked her for 10 minutes in the stand-​up. Adriana asked me to fill out the new customer form and get out my ID. So, I of course tried to get this done as quickly as possible. Unfortunately while I was in the middle of filling out the form, another customer had an issue. Wow!
Here we go again. Now she had another problem. The pain started again. It was awful! So once again the line started to build up and she tried to help one person unsuccessfully over and over. We also heard the same story. «I am so sorry!» This is my first time by myself and my manager said not to bother her on her day off. I was stunned. I really thought at this point I was on candid camera or something. I honestly looked around for cameras, or Ashton to pop out and say it was all a joke.
It was about 40 minutes into my lovely visit. I was waiting with my filled out form just to do 10 minutes in the stand up. In the 40 minutes that I had been there Adriana helped like 4 people. I finally just walked out. I know I was next and I know I had my form ready. When asked where I was going, I said don’t worry I won’t be back. Everyone chuckled; surprised I didn’t have many followers.
I am sorry to write such a bad review especially because I feel it was not Adriana’s fault, but the fault of a bad manager. I felt everyone had to know how bad my experience was. The only way I would ever consider going back is if I received a written notice that the manager was fired and this would never happen again. Until then, I won’t be back and neither will anyone I know that tans.

I’m admittedly not much of a fake baker, but I have a wedding to go to this weekend and haven’t had time during the sunny hours of the day to lay out. I chose to go here since they had a 7 day free offer, which was the best of the offers I saw from tanning salons in the area. I was pleased to find staff members not sitting around texting, as LA Tan tends to be known for, but definitely didn’t appreciate the upsell. Honesty in advertising is really important to me, so I wasn’t too pleased about paying $ 17 for the 7 days, and not being allowed to use the excellerator I always use. I understand they have their company policies… it just made for a less than idea experience. That said, the beds have really good cool air circulation, so I give it 2 stars :)

I’d never been tanning before and had some questions, the girl behind the counter was absolutely wonderful. She answered all my questions and put me at ease about tanning for the first time. So much so I signed up for a membership. Been going ever since and the whole staff there are always super friendly and inviting. They are always there to greet their members with a smile. Great service!

I dont even want to give this place 1 star, in fact I want to give them negative stars. Let me start by saying if you hold more then one account here, make sure you get rid of the one you don’t use or they you run the risk of the company charging your old account (like if you were under 18 and under your parents had to sign you up). I decided to sign up again, being 22 under my account. The location copied my credit card and I thought everything was great, but boy was I wrong. Somehow, this location got ahold of my parents checking account, which I think they took from my old tanning account, which would be called FRAUD, and began taking money out to pay my sunless tanning fee. When we confronted them and asked how the heck they got my parents checking account number, they said I went in and verbally provided them with my parents checking account (without a check and without their names) to pay for it, yet they also copied down MY credit card to MY account. First of all, obviously a tanning company does not accept payment via check, and secondly, verbally?! I think not. When we talked to the company manager she was very short, acted like I was stupid, and constantly put me on hold. In the end, they refunded my parents and put the money onto my account, giving me 2 months to pay it off. No apologies for embarrassing me in front of my family and bank that my parents had gone into to talk about suspicious activity. She also made sure to point out that this case had to be settled once she refunded my parents. Sound suspicious, yeah I think so! To make a long story short, DO NOT GO TO ULTIMATE EXPOSURE, the people are rude, and they obviously do not know how to control their finances.

I like the place, staff is nice. But not happy that I joined unlimited tanning for 25.00 per month. They are the crappy beds and stand up ones. Then 2 weeks later they raised the price to 29.99. Whatever I paid it and didn’t complain about the 5 dollar increase. But they just raised it again another 3 dollars. I’ve only been going there for 4 months. So it looks like they raise the price every 2 months. And this time they didn’t even tell me. Cancelling my membership today.

My daughter is getting ready for prom, started tanning 2 weeks ago, 4 spray-​ons later, she’s still as pale as the day she walked in. So I decide to call and speak to the facility manager, find out what the problem may be?
Imagine my surprise when I can barely get the receptionist to give me the manager’s first name. I ask when the manager will be in next, «will she be in today,» and again met with resistance of the receptionist. I ask the owner’s name and she says Don, «when is Don going to be in?», her response, Never, he doesn’t come in…, you will have to call the corporate office. «oh, so this is a corporate owned store?» well then can you tell me who is the district manager and how i can contact him?” …and ms. receptionist can’t give me that info either, referring me to a corporate phone number.
So i call corporate now it’s 11:15 a.m., you would expect someone to answer the phone at some extension? NOPE! Every extension is meet with voicemail, including customer service! I call back 10 minutes later, same thing. I call back a 3^rd time, only to be met with recorded phone messages to leave a name and number and someone will call back. What kind of company has no corporate employees?
This is the worst customer service oriented company that i have come a cross in a long time. If you decide to go there and have a problem, be sure that you will not get satisfaction, because it appears that this particular company only has face people, who are inexperienced themselves in resolving customer issues.
Believe me when i say, walk away and walk fast!

I’m going on vacation (Dominican Republic, yay me!) in a week and a half and I am way too white. (No really, I think I may glow in the dark.) Anyway, I started coming here last week to get some sort of a tan. I haven’t had a problem with this place at all. I’ve never had to wait for a bed, it’s clean and the staff are nice. The best part? Since it’s in a strip mall, there is plenty of parking. Works for me!

About two years ago I was in a bed at the Ultimate Exposure on Irving Park in the Norridge area when behind the face panel part of my bed started on fire – yes FIRE!
After jumping up, unplugging the bed, running out and the next day calling HQ I was given free tans – like a fool I took them and never used that bed again.
Well just recently I was at the one on Western and not only is it a Friday night, it’s also nice out and people are getting spring fever
and getting their tan on. I walk in and there is one 18 year old (IF she’s that old) behind the desk very obviously completely overwhelmed by all the people in there. I just went about paying for my 12minute Monster Bronzer and about 5 minutes into my tanning session I hear a loud BOOM!
I open my eyes to see that the panel that protects you from the bulbs has popped out of its track and is about to fall on me. I jump up, get dressed and when I walk out of the room there are 10 people standing in line. I apologize for cutting explain to the girl what just happened and SHE completely panics and it on the verge of tears – it’s NOT her store, she doesn’t know the managers #, she is all a flutter
and I find myself consoleing her.
I leave… call HQ AGAIN! They call me back and offer me FREE TANS!
I explain to the girl I probably won’t be tanning anytime soon and she still gave me the points and offered me the suggestion to try spray tanning and cut me a check for what I had spent for the tan I didn’t get to finish.
I also explained to her that this VERY young, inexperienced girl should not have been left alone in a tanning salon on Friday night when it wasn’t even the usual store she works in to begin with.
In general from what I have seen Ultimate Exposure is one cluster*mess* after another. teenagers with no proper training left alone on busy nights who don’t even know how to handle an «issue» let alone god for bid an emergency. It’s all very disappointing and ridiculous. They really need to re-​evaluate their training process.
oh and here’s a two for:
the nail place connected to it is THE WORST nail salon EVER – do NOT get your nails done there!

I know tanning is so bad for you, but we all need a little color in the winter. I’ve been to this Ultimate Exposure before and like it– the beds are clean which is most important!