The Cave Smoke Shop — Attraction in Walnut Creek

Recently learned about The Cave when my husband and I met them at their booth at one of the events we attended this past weekend in Oakland. We ended up buying a torch and a dab tool. They were cool with helping us swap out the torch when it ended up being defective, and even invited us to check out the different stores.

We recently got into dab so my husband has been looking for a lot of pieces and was so impressed with their selection that on the 12th we drove an hour away to check out their San Mateo location and purchased an $85 ruby terp slurper bead set. Upon getting home that night we realized that the set was not the right size with our terp slurper even though we were told that it would fit.

So the NEXT DAY at about 9:20pm, we drove 30 minutes to THIS location since it was closer to home. Came in and was greeted by a female employee and a male employee who later identified himself as "Sam". My husband walks over to Sam to talk to him about the bead set and to see if they carried the other items he needed to complete the full rig set he wanted.

My husband decided it best to EXCHANGE the bead set in lieu of the other items he wanted as it didn't fit our nail. Sam blatantly refuses and insinuates several times that my husband was trying to return an item to The Cave that we bought from a different store. How does that even make sense? When my husband tried to explain to him that we bought it at the San Mateo location less than 24 hours ago and that I had the receipt, he refused to acknowledge the existence of a receipt, and raised his voice to tell my husband that he can't just be trying to do these "things to people'' insinuating AGAIN that he was somehow trying to scam the store.

Sam then tells him the best thing he can do is replace the ball that didn't fit but he's not going to ALLOW him to return the whole item for something else just because my husband had "Buyer's Remorse". He then proceeds to tell my husband that they do not actually do refunds or exchanges, to which we ask him whether THEIR OWN DOOR states that they allow exchanges and he replies with, "it says something about exchanges but whatever." He then proceeds to raise his voice at us AGAIN to inform my husband that he didn't know what my husband was going to do since he wasn't going to accept the exchange. When my husband tried to ask him how that made sense he attempted to accuse my husband of "raising his voice" while consequently yelling right at my husband to which I stepped in and called him out. (Note: Sam's other blatant micro-aggressions towards my husband last night have not gone unnoticed and makes this situation even more infuriating). When I told Sam that it was him raising his voice he quickly retreated into saying that he would call his manager and let him decide. I asked him to make the phone call in the store so we could all hear him. Sam refused and went outside to make the phone call by himself.

What astounds me is that when he stepped out and I asked the other employee why we were being refused, she was also confused. Asked me if I had the receipt to which I handed her and she EASILY was able to scan the item with no problem. She proceeded to try her best to step in and help us while Sam was outside. When he returned, all he said was a begrudging and quiet "they can exchange it" to his coworker and then proceeded to stand in the corner of the store to sulk, never ONCE apologizing or acknowledging his mistake or behavior. Wouldn’t even look us in the eye.

For reference this was the exchange my husband wanted to do and ultimately purchased from the other employee: $85 ruby bead set exchanged for a $35 round based banger, $20 down stem, and a $40 ashcatcher. Someone explain to me why we were being refused?

Never been so blatantly disrespected by a...

UPDATE: they've made some good changes since i left my original review. new batch of employees that have a friendly attitude and are knowledgeable. they are beginning to stock Vaporesso devices and pods... a far superior product to Smok. they also now stock some of the less obscure juice companies, though I'm still trying to find a local brick-and-mortar shop that carries Coastal Clouds. In conclusion, if you've had a bad experience at The Cave in the past, I'd say give em another chance... the jaded. burnout girls appear to no longer work there.

Originally gave The Cave 5 stars. After 5 or 6 return visits to the shop, I can't with a good conscience recommend it to potential new customers. A couple months back, I came in to get new pods for a Smok device. I should the woman the pod from device and she sold me a 5-pack for a totally different model. And guess what? NO REFUNDS. EVER. Despite the fact that it wasn't my fault. They never have anything I need. Like, ever. So they try to sell me something else totally unrelated. For example, if I need particular coils, they clumsily look around, unsure if they have them or even carry them, and then try to sell me an overpriced device instead. Their juice selection is embarrassing and way overpriced. STAY AWAY! This place won't be in business much longer....

WORST STORE-rude and inexperienced and overpriced. i went here out of desperation because my usual store was out of my atomizers. asked for a specific dual-CORE atomizer that i have been using for years. the name and ohms is on the box! i went to show the worker and he grabbed my gear and broke the seal so now i have to buy a new tank! no apology or offer to pay for what he broke. Then went on to lecture me on how i was wrong about asking for a dual-COIL atomizer. Core- not COIL you geniuses. Then another woman behind the counter marches over to use a nasty tone to lecture me some more on coils. i said fine & that i didn't want to argue THREE times. Then they would not give me a receipt until i insisted. What goes around...