Food at £120-a-ticket Nail, Brow, and Lash Awards in Manchester was 'so bad' Waterlooville salon owner bought dinner at Dominos afterwards

Lauren-Ann Lee, owner of Beauty by Lauren-Ann in Waterlooville, was furious after paying more than £600 to take her staff to an awards event in Manchester and receiving a ‘sham’ of an event where the presenter failed to turn up and people began arguing over the trophies that they had taken from the stage.

Lauren-Ann received a message via Facebook from Oceanic Events to say that she had been named as a nominee at the Nail, Brow, and Lash Awards and sent details about how to buy tickets.

The company gave Lauren-Ann her ticket for free, and guest tickets cost £120, which paid for a three-course meal each and the entrance.

The beautician decided to take her staff members to celebrate the occasion, costing a total of £600, but all of the girls were left feeling upset after the ceremony, which was held at the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel.

Lauren-Ann said: ‘We rushed to get ready because the event started at 6pm and when we got let into the room it was beautiful I have to admit, but it was a disappointment from there.’

The event, which was due to start at 6pm and finish at 10pm, did not begin serving food until 8:30pm.

She said: ‘I would not have paid £4 for it in a train station cafe, it was that bad. We ordered Dominos after that it was that bad. It was just awful.’

After the dinner, people began taking trophies from the stage and opening the envelopes which contained the winners.

The organiser then took to the stage where she used expletives to describe the event and said that the presenter had failed to arrive resulting in the late start.

Lauren-Ann said: ‘It is just all an absolute shambles and they are not even acknowledging it and I am willing to take it to court because it is just such a large amount of money.’

Mollie McGill, 24 from Chesterfield, was also in attendance with her friend Amylee Whitehouse who had been nominated for an award, and they both said that it was ‘terrible’ as they had to miss most of the ceremony because it started when it was due to finish, and they had to catch the train home.

Amylee found out that she was nominated after a Facebook friend had seen it.

Mollie said: ‘It was terrible, we got there around 6pm but which was when we were told in an email before but nothing started until 8.30pm which was two and a half hours late.

‘We didn’t get our starter until about 9pm which was terrible when the event was supposed to finish at 10pm. The starter came and it was cold, it was just a tin of tomato soup and we got our main at 9.30pm which was awful.

‘It is upsetting because it was my first event and I thought it was glamorous but it was a nightmare.’

All of the girls have made formal complaints, but have been told they cannot get a refund and, have since been ignored. The event has sparked a litany of complaints on social media.

The News tried contacting the company for a comment, but no one responded.