The Mud Room — Attraction in Grand Rapids

I have never experienced such poor customer service from a small business owner before! I have taken my children to The Mud Room on many occasions and have spent hundreds of dollars on hand painted pottery there. While the fees and costs for the pottery are very expensive, I was willing to pay the money because I wanted to support local business. However, on our most recent visit, when I picked up our two small pottery pieces (which I paid $50 for), I asked to have my punch card punched for our most recent purchase. The young worker told me that it was against company policy to punch cards after payment because customers were "cheating the system." I assured her that I was not trying to cheat the system and simply forgot to request a punch since I was not asked at check out if I had a punch card. The worker then told me they don't ask customers if they have punch cards because it takes customers too long to download the punch card app on their phones and they frequently forget their passwords. Another young worker then quipped, "that's why it's written on the chalk board behind the counter." At this point, I wasn't going to argue with the young workers and left my name and number for the owner of the business to call me. She never did. I was then in the area and decided to pop in to see if the owner was working. I knew if she saw me she would recognize me (since she was the one who checked me out and took my payment) and assumed she would be happy to punch my punch card. Unfortunately, the owner was just as rude and skeptical of me as the young workers! After explaining the situation to her she said she did recognize me and remembered checking me out, but didn't remember if she had punched my card. We'll I remember and she hadn't! She then said she looked in my "account" and only saw two purchases in 2015, hence my two punches on the card. I then started to list the items we had painted this past year and she quickly cut me off saying "they don't keep a record of the items painted," so I had no proof that I hadn't gotten punches for every purchase. I was so surprised and insulted by her response I couldn't even respond! I simply walked out of the studio. As I was leaving the studio with my three small children I saw the business owner and her workers rolling their eyes and talking about me behind my back. What a terrible experience!! I have never been treated so poorly as a loyal, honest, paying customer. Not only do I have the credit card history for all THREE purchases I have made at her studio in 2015, but I have the pottery pieces dated with the month and the year (2015) in HER handwriting sitting on a shelf in my house!! I will never paint another piece of pottery at The Mud Room again and I will certainly never recommend The Mud...

Let me begin by saying, the rating I gave is based on never actually being to the mud room, but purchasing over the phone, an 8th anniversary gift (Pottery as I have always followed the Traditional gift giving) for my wife and I, and we never did get to use it. (80 dollars +? Don't exactly recall) I am not bashing nor am I saying this place is awful. I'm also not saying it's great or that I liked it. I can't. What I'm saying is this: It's a shame I didn't (and don't) get to use the 8th anniversary gift of "Pottery" that I purchased for my wife and I a year ago from the Mud Room. Things came up, Snowstorms, then it got rescheduled and we had a sick kid, (your staff that evening dropped the ball because I in fact DID call to cancel), and then well, LIFE. It took me a year to reschedule again and I get it, a whole year passed by without utilizing the money we spent at your business with nothing to show for it. I should've called to let you know that we simply wouldn't be able to use it until this year. (My fault) Then we find out our friends, who celebrated their 8th anniversary, bought the same thing we did and wanted to see if we would go with them as a double date, because they knew we hadn't used ours yet. What a great idea. Until I called you. I had to leave a message. You called me back immediately with questions. At first when I spoke with you, it seemed as if all was good. You were offering to take my word, but there was always a hint of "I don't believe you sir" in your voice, yet you kept repeating you believed me when I said I did not utilize your services. I didn't much appreciate that but I understand. It's hard to believe everyone, right? I personally don't think like that, but most people do unfortunately. I try and believe everyone and give them the benefit of the doubt, especially someone who's "story" never changed. You never have to remember something if you are always telling the truth. Snowstorm. Sick kid. Never rescheduled to use it. Same story.........

I hope you have a fantastic and prosperous business and wish nothing but the best for you. But for me and my family, we will choose to not come to...

UPDATE: Gave them another shot when we went to pick up my daughter's pottery. I figured maybe I was too harsh, and so what if you have to put your paint on a card if you got to take the whole container to your table. This was 2 weeks ago. I STILL haven't received an email that our pottery is done. When I called to inquire, I was told that they "have been very busy" but that she was packing a bunch up today. I asked her if she could let me know if our pieces were complete, explaining we come from Zeeland, the weather is favorable & it's my day off. I was told that she had too many slips to look through & that she didn't have time to look for mine, and that if I didn't get an email today, I could call back tomorrow. I mean... the customer service here just SUCKS. We will NEVER go back here.

We came to the Mud Room after years of being away - it used to be in this cool building in Ada. Now it's in a strip mall on the East Beltline. The options to paint were lacking. The girl who "helped" us was not really any help at all & they give CARDS to put your paint on with the instructions on the other side!! There were hardly any pieces to get ideas from & when I FINALLY picked something to do, they had like 15 colors to choose from & half the ones I wanted were taken to other tables so I couldn't even use them. We will stick to Holland. Paint-A-Pot...