If you're looking for terrible and outright rude customer service/employees, here at Gertrude Hawk Chocolates in North Wales, Montgomery Mall is the exact place you're looking for. I went into this establishment for the very first time after years of looking at the cute little corner store and smelling the wonderful chocolaty aromas. I walked in looking for simple chocolates for my landlord's mother. I wondered around for a bit looking at their selection. I ended up finding myself at the front counter, gazing into the display case. I stood there for a short time, waiting for someone to assist me. Finally, an older woman, who didn't seem to know the product, came to me. I explained to her that I wanted a half of a pound of chocolate all together, but half milk chocolate buttercream and the other half dark chocolate buttercream. The woman stood there, confused, as if she didn't think they sold any buttercream. I proceeded to point at the label taped behind the glass. Another employee from behind the cash register, Katie, came over to "help." She kept explaining to the older employee where the buttercreams were over and over. I decided to clarify myself even further by saying that I wanted the chocolate, not vanilla-filled buttercream (since there was both vanilla-filled milk/dark chocolate buttercream and chocolate-filled milk/dark chocolate buttercream). I repeated myself multiple times until the woman "understood," but even as I did this, Katie wouldn't back off and help her own customer that she had left to "help" the older employee. While all of this was going on, their credit/debit card acceptance software crashed. Katie made a huge deal over it and got instantly frustrated. She shouted from across the store to the only employee doing their job correctly and demanded he come over and fix the bugged software. He instantly rushed over to her and explained that this sometimes happens and that she has to simply restart the computer and it will eventually load up correctly by itself. He then walked away and continued stocking shelves and greeting all the customers that walked in while also assisting any customers that needed help. Meanwhile, the older employee proceeded to put the wrong chocolates into my box and sealed it! The picture attached below is of the vanilla-filled buttercreams and chocolate-filled buttercreams. This being said, this means I only got 33% of what I initially asked for, not to mention the fact that I verbally clarified my order countless times. I debated on speaking up and saying that it was the wrong chocolate, but I knew that that would be a waste of my breath. Katie started to yell at the male employee, stating that she had earlier (when the computer crashed) demanded that he come over to her (as he did). However, in her eyes, he didn't. She became extremely hostile and gossiped to the other employee about how rude and disrespectful he was. He was anything but those negative accusations! She continued to shout across the store in front of 7+ customers and asked why the computer's monitor picture had changed. He said it didn't. She then very disrespectfully mocked him and said, "Well it clearly did!" He came over and checked the picture and explained to her that it was the same picture. At this point, I'm getting incredibly disgusted with Katie's attitude and her unprofessionalism. The male employee apologized to the growing line of customers waiting to check out and gives us all a free sample of chocolate. He even asked if anyone had any allergies to the contents in the sample chocolate before placing it in our hands. The computer finally reboots and the woman in front of me successfully pays. I pay in cash to insure that I won't have any more wait time because I desperately wanted to get out of that store before I got further aggravated.
I will NEVER be returned to this Gertrude Hawk, and in fact, I will never step foot in any Gertrude Hawk due to the horrific experience I had. read more