5-23-15 The first time I went to Turtle World Ceramics, I found the owner, Scott, to be customer oriented; we had a conversation about the lack of activities for children to do in Santa Fe and he gave one of my son's $5 off his ceramic for correctly guessing the number of baby turtles in one of the tanks. There was an older woman there, a smoker, she was friendly but she cussed a lot; Not in front of the three kids I took with me but while she was in the back talking with the owner. The three kids and I had a good time painting our ceramics and were happy with the finished results.
10-13-16 was the second time I went there. I had phoned the day before, spoke with Scott, and he agreed that if we wore costumes into the shop (because it was October), he would wave the $7 studio fee. My sister and I go into the shop wearing our costumes. There is an older woman working there (short brown hair, brown eyes, dresses Santa Fe tourist style). I informed her that I had spoken with the owner and he agreed to let us wear our costumes and have the studio fee waived. She said she'd have to talk with the owner. She liked my sister's costume but not mine. Her exact words were, "That is a costume! Yours is just whatever!"
Throughout our visit the woman kept being extremely rude to me. As I was trying to pick out a ceramic, I placed a turtle on the table as something I may want to paint but continued to look at other things, she then yelled at me from across the store saying, "Did you put this here?! Is this what you want?!" Also, while we were picking our ceramics she'd stand right behind us and that made us feel nervous.
Then when I'd go up to the counter for more paint, she'd ask me, "How do you think your going to pay for this?" I, knowing how rude she was to me, told her, "Oh, I don't know, card, cash..." At this point I was beginning to be rude back to her after she had offended me and my costume and yelled at me.
Then I'd go up for more paint and she'd rudely ask me, "Are you finished yet?" "No, no we're not." "Well you've been here an hour already!" I'd shrug and say, "So?"
Then she'd walk up to our table and inform us about how long we'd been there. It made us feel rushed and we had planned on having some sister time and taking as long as we wanted. She did at least two more times. Finally, my sister asked her, "Why? Are you closing?" and the woman said, "Yes, I'm closing at four today." Note: their website says they close at 5:00 Monday - Friday.
When it was time to pay, actually I should say, when the woman felt it was time for us to pay (we were still painting) she came to our table with the ticket and asked us how we were going to pay. My sister and I each had debit cards. Thus, the woman proceeds to calculate our bill separately so she can charge the separate cards. She then says, "$2.29." (pause) "Hello?!!" I hadn't realized she was talking to me as I was concentrating on my painting. How rude of her to yell Hello in my face. So I yell back, "What?!" She tells me my total and I say okay.
I really like painting. I really like painting ceramics. That's something my sister and I did as young children with our mom. But this woman was so rude to us, especially to me, that I really don't know if I'll ever go back to Turtle World Ceramics again. read more
