(This review is for their Capitola Mall store location)
I've always had a great customer experience every time I've come to this store. The selection of jewelry is always interesting, and I usually am able to find something I like within my budget.
Unfortunately, a recent incident has caused me to cease all customer loyalty and appreciation I had for this store.
Over Father's Day weekend, I visited the store while on a shopping trip with my mom. The young lady that was working was very friendly and helpful to both of us. I was looking for a specific style of a ring, something that I had bought a few years back from another local sterling silver jewelry store. I had lost the ring and was hoping to find a replacement. The young lady knew exactly which ring I was describing--she searched through the collections of rings in the store and was able to pull up the very ring in just a matter of moments. Although it was not in my size, I was thrilled that she knew the exact style. Using the ring as a reference, she jotted down my contact information and descriptive details about the ring on a post-it note at the register, in case one similar to or exactly like it became available in my size.
Fast forward to two days later...I receive a phone call at somewhat of a late hour in the night, but decide to answer it anyway, assuming it is someone I know. I don't recognize the voice, but it is a young man, asking for me, then proceeds to talk in a disturbing, immature manner. I manage to keep my calm because I'm wondering how the heck this creep knows my name and my number. At first, he states that he found my name and number on the wall in the restroom at the movie theater. He then says he found my name and number on a piece of paper in the restroom, then proceeds to tell me that included on the paper is also my email and some notes and details that he didn't seem to understand--the details he reads off to me are the very notes the young girl at the store had jotted down (ring size number, descriptive details of the ring). I politely ask him to dispose of the paper, but wind up getting another series of inappropriate and creepy comments and questions, and so I hang up. Minutes later, I am sent a photo from his phone, showing the post-it note with my contact info and ring details, stuck onto a urinal in a men's restroom.
I called the store this morning, asking for a manager or supervisor, who turned out to be the one answering the phone. I explain to her what happened. I expressed that I understood that accidents can happen, and that this might not necessarily be the fault of the young lady who had helped me days earlier, but it is still disturbing that a customer's personal contact information, MY information, managed to leave the store and wind up in the hands of a total stranger (and who knows who else). The manager checks the schedule to see who had worked/helped me, mentions that the young lady is working at their other store location today, and suggests that I could call the other store to talk to her personally.
Though I did not express it, I was REALLY thrown back by the manager telling me that. Isn't that HER job to be discussing the matter with her employee? I'm sorry, but unless I'm getting paid or compensated for using MY time to do someone ELSE'S job, no thanks.
I politely decline from doing so, and make light again on the possibility that it may not have been the young lady but another store employee who mishandled/misplaced my information. Although the manager told me she would talk to her staff about proper handling of customers' information and apologized for the situation, something about the "I'm sorry"s she told me just wasn't all that satisfying. Granted, there really is no fix to what I had to put up with in this weird type of situation, but the manager's sympathy just wasn't at the level it should have been. I don't wish it upon anybody, but I'm sure if she ever had the creepy experience of her personal contact information winding up in the hands of a total stranger (and a pervert, at that), she'd probably be a little more considerate of my situation.
I have completely lost all interest and respect for this store. I've had my fair share of experience working in the retail industry, and I know that flukes and accidents can happen, but when it comes down to it, the customer is still always the first priority. Mishandling customers' information and the failure to assume responsibility roles in handling the situation is flat out unacceptable. read more