The Painted Plate — Attraction in West Chester

Extremely, extremely disappointed. I will ALWAYS go to the Lancaster Pottery Works over this place. Same exact concept, COMPLETELY different execution of quality. WAY over priced for WAY less paint colors, way less pottery options to paint, way less brushes and supplies... Firstly they tell you the price but then ambiguously say there’s a “kiln fee”... which drove the price from reasonable up to well over $100 for three pieces of pottery (only one piece was larger). Practically every paint bottle was empty or near empty. The squeeze bottles were all empty, the regular paint bottles weren’t well stocked and I wasn’t able to do all three coats of several colors because EVERY bottle was practical empty in the color I chose. Which is frustrating since their color selection was already very small. When half of the already few color options are empty it’s hard to come up with any fun design. Colors were also mislabeled and there was NO sign or example of the “speckled” paint... which was labeled on the wall as a plain color - which ruined the look I was going for. The pottery I picked didn’t even have a price tag on it and I had to ask - the girl had to text the owner so I don’t even know if I over paid for it or not. Practically every example of painted pottery was not even available to paint... which seems annoying and pointless to have inspiration you can even use or replicate, and the selection was pretty small.

All of this was unprofessional... but what really prompted me to leave a review was the fact that I had to pay WAY too much for all that lack of quality and preparation as a store. I feel like there should’ve been some sort of discount to compensate for fact that the store was out of half their colors and pottery pieces. Never going back there again. Lancaster Pottery Works has me spoiled with great prices (which btw, are one straight price per piece - no outrageous fees for the service they are supposed to provide), a large and consistent selection, and exceptional paint options that they actually keep stocked! Plus their staff is much more friendly, helpful, and upbeat. The only thing I liked about this place was the relaxing music... which wasn’t enough to justify the...

We passed by this location numerous times and I thought it would be a great experience for my mother to get out and enjoy the afternoon. She suffers from bad arthritis and recently is recovering from a stroke. This was not at all what I expected. I have been to several different places of this sort, (Board and Brush) etc. and have had awesome experiences. But this place was not as attentive as others. We had a reservation, but when we arrived, their were no available spots. They had to clear off what looked like a storage table. We were given no instruction. We sat at the table for a good bit until one of the girls working there told us to pick a piece. We looked at examples and they didn’t even have any of the example pieces. They still had items from Christmas we could choose from. And we went in March. Then, again, we Sat with no instruction. FINALLY I took it upon myself and assumed we were doing the correct thing. (High school ceramics, thank you Mrs. Blount!) with no instruction and no help from anyone we started our chosen pieces. Same young lady comes over and says “put at least 3 coats on” Of what? This is not what I expected. No help. No instruction. No interaction. I was very disappointed. Of all the places That have been using this type of format, this was by far the worst with customer service and instruction. We finished painting our pieces, I was told they call you in a week for pick up. 3 weeks went by and I finally called. Someone answered “Hello?” What? Hello? Did I even call the correct place? I asked if it was painted plate and she says yes. (Just making sure?) pick up our items, go to lunch, and one of the items wasn’t even ours. The poor kid who made the piggy bank, didn’t get her piggy bank. I call back, got an “hello?” Again. I just can’t with the staff they have there. I went picked up my actual item, returned the piggy. Not even a hello, good bye, or sorry. The idea of the company is great. The lack of customer service and attentiveness of the staff will keep me from returning there. Just basic customer service skills would help this place a lot. At least say hello when people walk...

I planned a date for my boyfriend and I a few weeks ago. I saw this place a few times and thought it would be fun. I booked a reservation for 2:30pm on a Saturday. I booked that time because I saw they closed at 6 so I thought it would be plenty of time. When we got there at 2:30, we picked big items because we thought “why not? We have time.” Until 3:30, we were having a great time. The young girl running the place then told us we only had 30 minutes left.. we were baffled. I said “oh I thought you guys were opened till 6?” She said they typically are but they were closing early today. She then states we could just come back another day and finish our painting since we weren’t even half finished. This was interesting considering when I booked the reservation only a few days prior, they had open reservation slots at 4pm. My boyfriend and I don’t have a lot of down time and after the lack of professionalism we were shown, we just quickly slathered on paint to finish. If they would have called me prior to my reservation to tell me they were closing early, or even when I first arrived, my rating and opinion would be different. But the girl waited until we were an hour into our time. I would have picked a small piece to paint if I knew my time was limited to an hour and a half. I spent over 100 dollars, which was wasted. I’m very disappointed and will not...