Office & Event Policies:
HOURS OF OPERATION: New in April 2026:
CURRENT:
MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAYS: 7:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
SATURDAYS: 7:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
THURSDAYS: closed for massage
EFFECTIVE APRIL 01, 2026:
MONDAY, TUESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY: 7:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
The 1st Saturday of Each Month: 7:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Wednesdays and the 2nd, 3rd & 4th Saturdays & Every Sunday: Closed*
[*Accommodations may be made for prearranged events and/or ceremonies.]
Booking Parameters:
Believe it or not, every single one of these policies outlined below are in-place because they are issues I've crossed over my last 28 years in practice. In order to run a business smoothly and efficiently, I believe everyone needs to be informed and treated, unilaterally, with mutual respect and transparency. So...
Every client booking a session must provide a current credit or debit card number to hold their appointment with our booking system, (Vagaro). Your information is encrypted and stored within the system and I am unable to schedule your appointment if you don't wish to provide this information. Providing your card information and scheduling an appointment signifies that you have read and agree to the Late-Cancel / No-Show Policy parameters listed.
For insurance and No-Fault clients, you must also place a credit card/debit card on-file. This is a requirement of our booking system. Thank you.
ALL gift certificates purchased through "Nicole Mendez" must be redeemed through Nicole as she is an Independent Contractor and received the monies for those purchases.
Appointment Arrival Information:
Due to scheduling procedures, should you arrive late for your appointment I will have to “shave” the same amount of time from your session, however, you (the client), will be responsible for the full appointment fee.
Ideally, new clients should plan to arrive 15-minutes prior to their scheduled session so paperwork can be filled out and I'm able to accurately review your medical history.
Established clients should arrive 5-minutes prior to their scheduled session time. I am very punctual with my time management and ask that my clients be respectful and manage their time appropriately.
Late-Cancel Policy:
24-Hr CANCELLATION FEE POLICY:
Massage & Bodywork Clients:
After 42 years of working, essentially, 6-days per week, I am choosing to scale-back my practice to a more normal 4-days/week. Therefore, my time will be more limited and more valuable.
ALL appointments receive a courtesy 48-hour reminder text if you chose to provide your cell phone number. In my 15 years of using this booking system I have had 1 person ask to be opted-out. Ideally, when you receive the reminder text, if something has changed and you can't keep your appointment you should call/text the office then. If you wait to cancel until the day before your appointment, you will start to incur late cancel fees as outlined below:
A. A cancellation policy is in-effect for all clients, either private pay, insurance or accident (No-Fault).
The policy parameters are changing effective 04.01.2026:
New:
a. All cancellations made the day before your appointment, up until 4:00 p.m., will incur a 50% cancellation fee.
b. All cancellations made after 4:00 p.m. the day before your appointment, cancellations made the day of your appointment or no-shows will incur a full appointment fee.
c. If your card on-file does not process you will be sent an invoice, payable upon receipt. If the invoice is not paid, you will be unable to reschedule, or, if you are scheduled, your appointment will be canceled until the invoice is paid.
d. As with all credit / debit card invoicing, a $5.- fee will be added to cover (some) of the processing costs.
Psychic-Mediumship Reading Clients:
B. The same parameters apply as listed above. Cancellations made the day before will receive a 50% refund, (minus a $5.- return processing fee), up until 4:00 p.m. Should you cancel after 4:00 p.m. the day before your reading or cancel/no-show the day of, you will not receive any refund.
NO-SHOW / NO-CALL FEE POLICY:
C. A full appointment fee will be automatically assessed by my booking system for ALL No-Show / No-Call appointments. I cannot override this system. An additional $5.- processing fee will be added to the amount due. Should your card on-file be declined, you will be sent an invoice, the amount due will have to be paid prior to your rescheduling.
FOR THOSE WITH OWED BALANCES:
D. When a sent invoice is left unpaid for up to 72-hours, my scheduling/booking system will attempt random captures for previous charged fees that were declined and still owed or invoices that have not been paid until it successfully captures a charge. Once successfully processed, the fee/s will not need to be captured again. These clients will not be rescheduled.
Weather-Related Cancellations:
Living in WNY can be tricky. Should a heavy snow be forecasted I may preemptively contact clients via phone/text to cancel appointments for everyone's safety. These past few years have shown that one area may have five feet of snow, while 2-3 miles away they only had a dusting. I ask that my clients to give me notice ASAP if they are unable to keep their appointment due to a weather-related event. Additionally, I will contact clients ASAP to cancel/reschedule due to weather or life-emergencies. Please check your texts/voicemails. If you voicemail box is full, I will send a text via my scheduling service. It is up to the client to check their phones for alerts.
Please do not assume if it's a blizzard in Tonawanda that we're closed/closing in Williamsville. Please call or text my office, (716-725-0264), to let me know that you are unable to make your appointment due to weather conditions.
If you merely No-Show without calling/texting, I cannot stop our system from charging your card on-file. I will notify clients and post any unexpected emergency closings on my FaceBook page or on my answering system when possible.
Booking Policy When There's A Balance Due:
For all clients: Should you late-cancel or no-show and there is a balance due on your account, my system will not allow me to re-schedule you until that balance is cleared. Additionally, if this occurs several times, not only will your owed balance need to be paid, you will be expected to pay in-advance for any future sessions. If you no-show/late-cancel the pre-paid session, you will not be refunded, nor can those monies be applied toward a future appointment.
For Psychic-Mediumship Reading Clients:
Psychic Mediumship Readings with Colleen:
If you schedule a psychic mediumship reading and then no-show or late-cancel, please note that the parameters above for late-cancel and no-show appointment policies still apply. I reserve mediumship reading times from my massage appointment schedule and will often start to hear from people on 'the other side of the veil' wishing to connect/speak with the client sometimes days in-advance. Should you late-cancel or no-show, not only do I have lost income from where I could have booked another client, but more importantly I have already invested my time and energies meditating/praying/lending thought and intention into your session, or, I now have to contend with the entities who were looking forward to communicating with the you that I must console and "send away" without them having their say/time. This is very much a real thing that occurs with my mediumship.
Should you book a massage with a message appointment, (please see the infomation and description of this service on my Services & Prices page), appointment and then choose not to receive a message that day (just a massage) there will be an automatic $45 upcharge added to your massage session for three purposes:
1. To allow me to recoup a small portion of "the lost income monies,"
2. I will now have to work to clear the energetic beings who came through wishing to speak to you that day, (seriously, this is a real thing for me, and sometimes they're upset and don't want to leave!), and,
3. When I do a reading I work with my own "team" of Guides/Teachers/Helpers/Protectors, etc. Prior to doing a reading I have already invested my time, energy and intention into speaking with "my team" and getting them on-board. Readings expend energy from both the living and non-living, so we have ALL invested energy into your reading in-advance. Therefore I should receive some type of compensation for that energy, meditation and intention I have already given your reading, (and now clearing-out your people in-spirit).
I ask that you be respectful of my time AND the time/energy of those in the energetic realm. Should you reserve a reading session and then cancel/reschedule several times, you will not be scheduled again.
Policies
Appointment & Event Reminders:
Clients with cell phones will automatically be entered into our courtesy text reminder system. You will receive a text alert when your appointment, (or scheduled event/class), is entered into our booking system and you will receive one reminder text alert 48-hours prior to your appointment. If you are unable to keep your appointment or attend the event, I ask that you CALL or TEXT my office at (716) 725-0264 to let me know you need to change your appointment when you receive the 48-hour reminder text.
A. Please DO NOT reply to the reminder text as it is computer generated via the Vagaro booking system; I do not receive reply texts from those alerts.
B. If you are a massage or bodywork client and do not contact our office when you receive the 48-hour reminder text, you will be assessed a late-cancel/no-show fee starting 24-hours before your appointment.
C. Please note: The reminder text is a COURTESY. As an adult, it is up to you to remember your appointments. I am happy to supply you with an appointment card if you are re-booking following an in-person appointment.
Gift Certificate Policy:
A. As per NYS law, when monies have been exchanged, gift certificates cannot expire if a business is still open or if the practitioner is still in-practice. However, if a service has had a price increase since the certificate was purchased, businesses/practitioners are able to require payment for the price increase.
B. If the gift certificate was *donated* for a basket raffle or any other event, a hard expiration date can be placed onto the gift certificate and enforced as the provider is volunteering their services and no monies were exchanged. It is up to the recipient to use that certificate within the time frame stated on the certificate and with the practitioner who donated the certificate. Great Lakes Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork Practitioners
is not liable for gift certificates donated by Independent Contractors when they worked within the facility.
C. No refunds will be issued for gift certificate purchases for any reason.
D. If a gift certificate recipient schedules an appointment then no-shows or late-cancels, (less than 24-hour notification), the gift certificate is forfeited. No exceptions. This policy is reviewed with the recipient when they call to book their session.
E. If you have a gift certificate, please INDICATE THIS WHEN YOU CALL TO SCHEDULE YOUR SESSION. If you present a gift certificate at the end of a session and it was sold by a practitioner who is no longer working within Great Lakes Therapeutic Massage, you will be responsible for paying for your session.
Lost, Stolen or Damaged Property:
Great Lakes Therapeutic Massage, as well as the Owner/Management of 4085 Seneca Street, West Seneca, NY 14224 are not responsible for any lost, stolen or damaged property on the premises.
Client Payment Parameters / Dismissal / Discharge:
A. Should a client no-show or late-cancel multiple appointments, you may be asked to pay up-front for any future appointments scheduled. Should you late-cancel or no-show any of those appointments, you will forfeit your paid monies. The money paid will not be applied to any further appointment. You will have to pay in-advance to schedule again.
B. Should a client continue to late-cancel or no-show, they will be dismissed from our care and will no longer be allowed to schedule appointments or attend events within our facility.
C. As per NYS law, should a client act inappropriate, make inappropriate comments, or arrive for their session under the influence of mood-altering substances, it is within the therapists legal right to terminate or refuse the session. It will be up to the therapist should they wish to reschedule a client. Because the session was set aside and booked for you, you will still be responsible for your session fee.
D. Clients unable or unwilling to follow office policies and procedures will be terminated as per NYS practitioner guidelines.
For Attendees of Events and Classes:
A. All of the treatment session parameters above are applied toward events, classes, etc within our teaching and shared event space. We expect patrons to arrive to classes, events and functions not under the influence of illegal drugs/alcohol, in a non-disruptive fashion, be respectful to the facilitating practitioner/event facilitator, be respectful to others, and leave the space in the same condition as it was when you entered;
B. For all events, you are not considered registered until your payment has been made to secure your reservation;
C. No refunds. Once you have registered for an event or class, there will be no refunds. It is up to the event facilitator to decide if they approve of you transferring your paid reservation to another person;
D. Please arrive on-time, or 10-15 minutes prior to the start of any event. For certain events, once the lobby or suite door has been locked, we will not unlock it to allow for late-arrivals, you will forfeit any monies paid for the event;
E. If you are ill, running late or have a change-of-plans and can no longer attend an event or class, please call our office, (716) 725-0264 within 1-hour of the event. My office phone is silenced for many events, so if you call a few minutes beforehand, I will not receive your message until after the event has concluded;
F. If an attending guest is unable to follow the parameters above, you will be barred from attending future events within our facility. No exceptions;
G. Should an event facilitator/instructor cancel a class or event, it is up to them to reimburse all individuals of their monies/deposits. Great Lakes Therapeutic Massage are not responsible for monies, including deposits or monies paid for a transaction of service or good/s, taken by Independent Contractors. Depending upon the circumstance of the event cancellation, those facilitators may not be welcome to present within our facility in the future. It is up to the attendee/guest to pursue all avenues, including legal parameters, to re-collect a paid
debt/monies transaction from a facilitator who canceled and did not reschedule;
H. All 1st-time attendees will be asked to sign a form that asks for your general information, (address, phone, etc). If you do not wish to be added to our newsletter, please let us know on that form, (by checking the appropriate box), and you will not be added. Your information is kept within Great Lakes Therapeutic Massage
and not shared, even with the class/event facilitator. All event facilitators are Independent Contractors, if they wish to obtain individuals information they should/will supply their own contact sheets at the event/class;
I. For Classes & Events:
In this day of social media and connectedness, everyone has a camera/video recording device tucked into the purse or pant-pocket. While we appreciate your desire to share events you may be attending, you DO NOT have the permission of the facility, event facilitator or other guests to share their images without their written permission. We ask that guest attendees to events not take photos or videos to post on social media without asking permission of the facility, presenter /facilitator or other attendees. Photos and video posted to social media without the consent of the event presenter/facilitator are in violation of ownership infringement /ownership copywrite law. We reserve the right to ask the poster to remove the post, (or edit the post to properly credit the facility / presenter). This is simply courteous and respectful to all. Thank you.