This is my first ever yelp review so you know it's serious. On top of that, I hate to write this review because I love the purpose of Mountain Music Parlor. I think it is a great business for small community events around music. With that said, I have had a terrible experience with the owner. She really REALLY did me dirty.
Let me explain. My parents got me a $60 gift card to Mountain Music Parlor last Christmas (Christmas 22'). I had a full year to use as it expired on December 20th of 2023. Cool. I was away at school in the midwest so I don't check out the place till the fall.
So I go in sometime in November and she is frantically running around. She explains she has a meeting in 10 minutes, but I can look around for a little till she has to leave. I get people are busy, especially small business owners so I don't think much of it. I leave soon after, planning to come back at a different time. I come back early December... same story. She has to leave even though it's 11 am on one of her open days. Again, I get it/let it slide. I come back a 3rd time, place is closed even though it says it is supposed to be open. AGAIN, I let it go. I really do get that people/small business owners are busy/frantic - especially around the holidays.
The FOURTH time I come back, it is on the day that my gift card expires. I walk in, things are calm, she asks me what I am looking for or if I need any help. I tell her I have a gift card and it expires today. She says "Oh well you better use that". I second that notion ma'am.
The parlor has many cool vintage items to look through. I am not much of a musician so I figure I'll use my $60 to pick out some cool things that strike my fancy. I spend 30 mins perusing and picking my items. She takes them from my hand each time I choose something (maybe for fear of me stealing/maybe because I am younger?) Whatever, I know vintage shops do this.
Okay bear with me, I am almost done. So I finish up and walk over to her desk where she takes out her handwritten notes and documentations. I give her my gift card (which is a piece of cardstock paper) and she starts looking through last years notes on when my gift card was purchased. As she is browsing she tells me I have interesting taste. I take that as a compliment.
She gets to the documentation of my gift card purchased last year and proceeds to tell me it has already been redeemed. I tell her that can't be the case - I simply haven't redeemed it nor have I had the damn chance. She tells me my gift card paper "looks like it has been around the block"; Insinuating I somehow already used it and am trying to use it again. Not only would I never steal or try to pull a fast one on somebody, I would never do it to a small local business. I tell her I am confused. She tells me she can't do anything about it because then it is hurting her business. I tell her my parents bought this last year so I have had the paper for a year (trying to say no wonder the card looks like it has been around the block, it has). She tries to look up what my parents used to buy it with, but since they bought it with cash she can't verify??? I don't even know. Defeated and not really knowing what to say, I kindly and calmly walk out.
On my drive home I was thinking I wish I fought harder, but truly what was I supposed to do. So here I am, writing my first ever yelp review and sadly, it is a negative one. read more