Nina Berenato Jewelry + Permanent Bracelets — Local services in Austin

I am very disappointed in Nina Berenato and her crew.. My wife and I had a Valentine’s Day reservation for one of her ring making classes, we made this reservation over a month in advance and had every intention of attending. Sadly, Texas was hit with a record setting winter storm that week, making travel extremely dangerous and nearly impossible. The class was taking place in Austin, my wife and I were traveling from the Dallas region. Nina and her staff advised to brave the winter storm to attend the class. While fast food services were shutting down and hotels crowding with people in need of warmth due to power outages across the state, my wife and I did not find this to be a wise decision. Nina and her crew advised that even in the exigent circumstances of a winter storm beyond anything Texas has experienced in our lifetimes, that they would not reschedule or refund the class. I even explained that as a first responder in the Dallas region, I must be available during natural disasters to work and could not risk being stranded several hours away unable to provide disaster relief. I cannot support a business that will take advantage of people during a statewide time of hardship. Very disappointing.

Edit: also, they only allow 3 couples to attend the class at a time. (Which I completely understand) but the review below mine is another person who was suppose to attend my class. With no one in attendance the ethical thing to do is refund people’s money....

Went to get a forever bracelet and boy when they say forever it’s not because the bracelets last, it’s because it takes forever to get one!

The lady selling the bracelets was useless, they said it would be a 40 min wait, ok no big deal i’ll go get starbucks.

30 mins later we return and, being forced to wear a mask, wait an additional 1.5 hours to get a bracelet. oh did i mention there’s no wifi or service??? so now you have to talk to the person you’re getting a forever bracelet with (meh).

the women working there had already sold out reservations for the day but insisted, “they could fit us in within the hour”, however, that never happened. They force you to purchase a bracelet prior to the service, thus making you sit and wait. If they pass over your number while you’re out, you’ll be waiting at least an additional hour.

For the fit-in appointments, they call one or two people who are waiting in line in between the same-day reservations, making the wait unbearable as they flip from numbers 20,21,22 to 3,4,5 and back and forth.

All of their problems could be fixed with a reservation system, but alas, business will get railed by 1 star reviews as everyone was frustrated with the lies of the staff on wait times.

Horrid system for a kinda cute and fun idea, have y’all thought of maybe having two people do the bracelets instead of one? 2 staff members walking around lying about wait times seems...

Terrible customer service. I purchased a class and paid $600 but did not book a date. The pandemic hit and my clients closed offices and we were on hold indefinitely. I emailed to ask for my money back because no class was booked nor could be booked and my emails went unanswered. When I did get a reply, I was told I could use the money towards jewelry from the store - when we were all sheltering at home in the height of the pandemic. I explained that I had not booked a date but simply paid the money to reserve a future time once I could coordinate with all of the office managers. No supplies were purchased - nothing. NB refused to give me my money back and to this date - I was charged $600 but have no jewelry or product in return from NB. After this, there is no way I will spend a dime in that "small business" shop. I was not surprised to learn from other small business owners and local Austin artist that NB was taking credit for the jewelry designed by another artist for Beyonce that her shop simply fabricated. From her posts on social she takes credit as though she designed the pieces for Beyonce, when another artist created those for Beyonce. Overall, I think it is a shame to do business like that. I wrote off the $600 and won't do business with NB and also shared with all my corp accounts...