I had such high hopes for this business, I was excited to get a glass art studio in Kitsap. They have them all over in Seattle and they are a trend in things to do. Last year I contacted Lisa via email about the Garden Art class, it was $110 and the places in Seattle have glass blowing classes for under that so I was excited to give the class as a gift. I bought the class, and I was never told about a no refund policy, no where on her website does it state no refunds. FYI . Also, so technically her denying me a refund later is unjust since no policy is stated. (I'm sure she'll make that change now)
Once I booked everything the event was moved TWICE, I explained to Lisa that the recipient of my gift and I were very busy and had hard schedules so if it moved again, we would need to discuss something else. She even called me to make sure it all worked out, connected with me on LinkedIn and then the class happened.
The class explained like this in the brochure " Garden Art / Ornament Class
October 10th (Thurs Eve) at 5:30pm-9pm
Come and create unique and fun art for your yard, home or Holiday decorating- no experience necessary! In this class you will make a multitude of glass pieces that can hang inside or out! We have tons of ideas & techniques to share or just look around the studio for ideas you might want to make for yourself. This is a great class for private parties or groups!
Approximately 3 1/2 hours long, 12 spaces per session. $110"
The class provided no help in developing a strategy for what to do, more of a "this is how you do it no go" so it was poorly done.
Needless to say the time spent there was not pleasant and I contacted LIsa the owner about it via email.
Lisa called me at this time and explained that she was sorry he had a bad time and that was it. Explained that she didn't remember his piece but they would be there in the store when we wanted to pick them up.
I explained to her again, that we are not in Silverdale that often.
The gift recipient and I have dealt with a ton of travel, funerals of loved ones this past year and it was crazy.... On Saturday I found myself in Silverdale and stopped in.
The wonderful girl in the shop said she hadn't ever seen a piece like the one I was describing and she goes through them a lot. She was extremely helpful and took my name and number to have someone call me.
Today, I was contacted by Tara from the studio and a VM was left explaining that the item was discarded since no one came to pick it up. I explained I felt that was wrong, if I'm paying for something I should have someone call me. She apologized said she was just following instructions from Lisa and she would get back to me.
5 minutes later Lisa called, being sweet at first until I confronted her on not contacting us about the piece being destroyed. Lisa swears she did. I know for a fact she didn't because I was able to get all her other calls regarding paying for the class, and changing the class schedule. So no, she didn't call. When I confronted her on this, she became defensive, stating 3 times in a row that it was "not her problem". I begged to differ with her. At this time the people sitting next to me could hear her yelling over the phone at me. She actually told me to stop yelling at her and the girl next to me started laughing because I wasn't yelling, I was asking over and over, why wasn't I contacted. When she wasn't responding badly to that, her response to me saying I'm sorry we are really busy, we don't make it into Silverdale that often when you are open, and she kept yelling about only being closed on Sundays....so I had to recount my whole schedule to her explaining that I am too busy to make it into town because I have a job in Seattle, and I'm very busy.
The owner's response - "Well we're all busy".
Save your money and your time, this lady is horrible to do business with, talk to like a normal person to understand why she threw it away, or to take any responsibility.
Hey she did offer a free class, but like I was trying to tell her, why would we want a free class if the first one went soooo bad, and secondly we moved Heaven and Earth to make the two class changes work, we can't afford to do that again.
Take a ferry to Seattle, there are amazing glasses there, for way cheaper. read more