Gem Studio - Provo — Attraction in Provo

I'm actually really sad to write this review--my husband and I used the gem studio back in 2018 to make our wedding rings and I was really excited to return for my birthday party on March 29th to celebrate with a charm necklace class, since I had had a wonderful experience before.

Well, to start things off, I showed up at my scheduled time with 6 friends and they told me my reservation time had "changed" from 6:30 to 5:30 and that we had missed our class time. I had three confirmation emails from the studio that showed 6:30 as the scheduled time, which I pulled up and showed them. The two working at the time proceeded to lean behind the desk and discuss what they were going to do. I was already feeling pretty frustrated at this point because they had seemed pretty set that this was somehow my fault. When they finished speaking, the gentleman told me that I must have entered my phone number into the system incorrectly and that that was why they weren't able to contact me to inform me of the time change aka blaming me again even though I had three confirmation emails??? They said they could squeeze us in for an hour between classes and took us over to the charms station.

At this point things just continued downhill; Ava showed us the chain lengths and styles, cut them for us, and explained to only 3 out of the 7 people how to pick out charms and record them on the sheet, as well as how to attach them to the chains. My friend ended up explaining each step to everyone based on what she caught from Ava, and what she had figured out on her own. While the whole process may seem intuitive, they did claim this was a "class" and their website says that their staff works hard "to set a vibe for the class"; what exactly was the vibe they were setting here? This was my birthday party and I paid a LOT of money for my charm necklace but I feel like I was treated very poorly and left to figure it out on my own, along with 6 other paying customers.

To top things off, Ava only checked on us 1 other time before we left and she failed to explain that one of the services with the class was to solder the charms to the necklace, so no one in my group received this service, even though we all paid full price. I expect that I should be able to go back and receive this service at no extra cost but it really rubbed me the wrong way that they blamed me for their own mistakes and didn't even follow through on the full services of the class.

As a side note, I called three days prior to my scheduled class (from the mysteriously incorrect phone number that I "typed in wrong") and left the company a message with my name about my credit card number being stolen only two days after using their website service to reserve my class. I would have liked to discuss this with them personally but, seeing as they never returned my call, I guess this is the best way to communicate that they may need to check how secure their website is and if they need to find better security--my card was used in Orem to make purchases and I don't live there or go there almost ever.

TLDR: had the worst birthday party here and was blamed for it!...

Update: I feel compelled to update my review when I learned at the end of my experience that their employees all work for tips, meaning they are paid less than minimum wage! The girls who assisted us were very helpful and their skill and service deserves more than minimum, let alone below minimum. The markup on the rings is extremely high, it would not be a stretch to pay the employees decently and I won’t be back because I feel this is an unethical business practice.

COST: For the three rings pictured (one gemstone and two stackable) my bill with a 20% tip was $164. This was with me providing my own stone rather than buying one of theirs, getting a $5 discount for writing a (this) review, a buy-two-get-one-free deal that meant one of the stackers was free, AND a 20% off the studio fee because it was my birthday (only counts if it is your actual day of birth) so I basically got every discount possible. If I had purchased one of their stones, it would have been $30-70 additional (which, as an aside, is outrageous, this is marked up literally ten times what you can get them at any gem show for.)

Also, as far as the tipping scenario goes here, it’s not like a restaurant where they have many tables they serve over the course of of the evening. Our session was three hours long and we were they only people they helped during that time so it was really just us paying their wage for the evening rather than their employer. I would have added a tip anyway for their good service but I’m dismayed that the business owners have decided that their employees wages should be entirely dependent on the generosity of the patrons. Especially considering how much they mark up every bit of the materials.

It was fun, the studio looks nice, and the helpful staff made it very easy, but I won’t be back because I really can’t support the ethics of requiring me to pay an extra $30-$50 on top of my already large bill so the employees actually get paid that day. If you can’t afford to be in business unless you don’t pay your employees, you really just can’t afford to be in business.

Original review: (provided for discount) Super fun experience! I went with my mom and sisters for my birthday and made beautiful rings. They were so helpful and made it...

My friends and I were super disappointed when we went to the Gem Studio. Had we known that the charm bar would be so empty, we wouldn’t have made a reservation in the first place. We made quite a drive to get to our reservation, so we felt like we had to stay despite SO MANY charms were out of stock. We asked the employee if there were more somewhere and she said no and that they randomly get charms in and that some of the out of stock charms she had never seen been restocked since she had started working there months prior. Why even have spaces for specific charms if they’re never going to be restocked? My friends and I had a very difficult time making the reservation worth our while because due to the lack of charms, there weren’t really any left that interested of us. Also super disappointed that the example chains that they have for lengths aren’t even a chain they offer for purchase (a skinnier paperclip chain). We ended up purchasing chains for bracelets/necklaces and plan on getting charms elsewhere. I also noticed that at the end of customers reservations, they can get a Polaroid taken and they get to keep it as long as they leave a review/give a shout out. That was never offered to my friends and I lol. The employee that worked with us was very sweet and we never expressed just how disappointed we were in the experience to her because frankly, it’s not her fault at all. I just thought it was funny that we didn’t get offered a Polaroid lol. I think that if they actually kept their charms stocked, it would be a 10/10 experience. Just keep that in mind if you want to make a...