Firstly, I would like to say that this shop is beautiful and I have recommended friends & family to visit.
It is for this reason that I am a bit heart broken.
On New Year's Day, January 2, I came in looking for new Crystals & jewelry for myself & some gifts for loved ones.
I came upon a section marked off as Citrine. Personally I never knew anything about this crystal, but upon reading the description I thought it would be a wonderful gift. I bought it, took it home & began looking for more information about the crystal since I wanted I to be more informed, so I can share it when I gifted it.
This is where the issue came, now I am not well rounded in this world of stones and crystals as I am a beginner. However, upon looking up this Citrine Crystal's information, what I found made me upset. I won't get too deep into, but basically the Crystal isn't "real" Citrine. (Feel free to search information about fake citrine, baked citrine or heat-treated amethyst to make your own assumptions)
Obviously, you can seek the information and bring upon your own conclusions and opinions. So, I personally felt a bit betrayed since I bought it with the intention to gift it for its description just to find out it wasn't entirely true. This made me uncomfortable to gift, since I would be gifting "a beautiful lie".
So, I made the decision to return it. Unfortunately, I did not have the receipt, so I knew that I may not get my money back, which was ok because I was still willing to get store credit. Either way, they did let me know they usually don't take back crystals, only jewelry-which also has crystals and stones, so I'm not sure what difference lies there- but I was told by a worker from the store that Crystals themselves usually are not able to be returned because they don't know what people do with them. They mentioned about possible negative energy, which is something I understand. I get that you'd like to keep your store cleansed. But then they began talking to me about the Crystal; its description, how beautiful it is and what upsets me the most is that they persuaded me into keeping it, which made me upset because after a long research I came to the conclusion that it was not "authentic". This experience made me question their integrity, the authenticity of their products and the poor information the store workers have about many of the items.
Now, I am not here to say that the store workers nor the store may even know about this nor believe it the same way I do. For all I know they are not aware of it at all and I wasn't going to start this debate because it was obvious that they were not going to take the Crystal back as I did not have the receipt, even tho the purchase was made on my card, had the date of the transaction and their inventory-barcode. They did not try to make the effort to look into it, so I just parted my ways.
I am taking this as a life lesson, but l do advise others to look up more information when buying certain items, specially Crystals. I understand some may not care and say it's only a "rock" but based on how well spoken they are and how informed the store is, they should also reflect the same values with their products.
It's a little heartbreaking when you find out these things, it honestly isn't about the money ($16) because money comes and goes. I am just a little weary about how a store that is well establish would sell an item that is fake marketed as "real".
You live & you learn. read more