Cold Stone Creamery — Local services in Hybla Valley

Extremely poor workmanship/customer service from the teenage middle school employees working on June 11th approximately around 11am. I came to this particular Alexandria, Virginia location on a beautiful extremely humid Sunday afternoon with my 2 gorgeous & beautiful nieces (7 & 10 years old) . We walked in and we were instantly not greeted by Maddy and Khue, who were the only employees working at this particular location at the time. I placed a simple Cold Stone order from my car, which I was already in the the parking lot near Noodles and Company off of my phone. I walked in literally right after we placed it because I wanted my nieces to see/watch the process of the ice cream being made to order. Which it was not, because our order was already bagged. I informed the front counter employees about the birthday promo for my nieces birthday which was today (June 11th) and my birthday which was 3 days ago. We are both June babies! The Asian girl with the fake plastic toy jade pendant instantly denied myself and a 7 year old of our Cold Stone BOGO ice cream scoops offer because she had already prepared the ice cream which makes absolute no sense, because we literally just placed the order in the parking lot and walked in right after. She said we had to/were suppose to, place the order in person. Which makes no sense at all because the birthday promo is online linked to my Cold Stone app account. There were no customers at all at the very time and moment, both of the employees were just standing around on their phones doing nothing. They didn’t even attempt to redeem themselves or even try to perform any kind/type of customer service to resolve the issue at all. It’s sad to see a 7 year old little girl get taken advantage of, especially on her special birthday occasion. Honestly the only reason why we even decided to come to Cold Stone was because of the birthday gift promo (which was instantly denied and non existence) Overall Cold Stone prices are way too high and the ingredients, quality and ice cream itself is no where near worth the money. Definitely overrated, which I already knew and was aware of before hand. I just gave them a chance because I wanted my beautiful gorgeous nieces to experience Cold Stone for themselves for the first time especially considering we live literally less than 5 minutes away from this location. This particular corporate chain in Alexandria Virginia location is obviously very poorly managed and lives up to the overrated low/poor quality hype creamery. We placed an order in the parking lot and the ice cream we received was already beyond 75% melted and basically a milk shake in cheap soggy paper cups. We literally ordered,received, and ate our “not Cold” Stone at the Cold Stone outside (@ Noodles & Company because they have actual outdoor seating for their customers/guests.) The only thing cold with Cold Stone, was the human interaction, emotions, and customer service we all received and witnessed on Sunday morning June 11th. Definitely will never be stepping foot into any Cold Stone ever again, yet alone for any fake free ice cream promo or not(which we didn’t even receive anyways and we paid full price.) Quite hilarious that my young little nieces both said and agreed we should have just went to McDonald’s or Roy Rodgers for ice cream. Set aside that they weren’t even aware of costs of purchase and prices. Which was basically 30$ for 3 individual scoops of ice cream (2 were in a cheap paper cup & 1 was in a dusty crusty funny tasting stale old waffle bowl, which we didn’t even eat or enjoyed at all, and ended up throwing away into the trash at the end) Overall very terrible experience/food and Definitely will be going to Baskin Robbins, McDonald’s, Roy Rodgers, or any type of grocery store for ice cream on planet Earth, before ever stepping foot into a Cold Stone ever again.

P.s. we didn’t get any whip cream at all. Honestly blame the Cold Stone owners (Donald & Susan) for setting the example and bar so low. Perhaps pay their employees enough to care. And update...

What happened to my favorite apple caramel almond crunch? They used to fill up the cup to touch the top of the cover and drizzle toppings on top, too! We paid for a large cup today and got medium size amount of ice cream with a tiny piece of a banana. The guy who made it paid more attention to his coworker who didn’t have any pecans for the disappointed customer ahead of me. My ice cream sat there on the board melting away while he talked and laughed like he was on break. Then came the big disappointment about this much smaller portion than what we got before Covid. With hardly anything mixed in. He didn’t bother asking if it was to go and stuck the spoon in the middle. Then when I told him it was to go, he removed the spoon with lots of ice cream stuck to it and put the high cover on. I was too shocked and angry to eat there and when driving home I got mad at myself for not complaining about this ridiculous customer service. I’m posting this and will also look to email the corporate office. This is just plain wrong, false advertising to make people crave their creations and then have dumb kids get away with making whatever. Pictures...

Love Cold Stone ice cream but this Asian Chick has got to go!!! She's very nasty and had the nerve to tell me "you no welcome in me store no more" I told her "I'm welcomed anywhere I wish to spend my money and it should be worth my money and not way below the line of the cup!!" Further more learn proper English if u wish to do business in America.

I must update my post from a year ago. Service has improved but I must say that since the prices have increased, you seem to get less ice cream. I’ve yet to figure out that mentality but somewhere down the line it must make sense to them. I ordered the everything and my container was only half full when I arrived home to open the container to pass out ice cream. Called to ask about this and was told they can only fill up to the line but as I stated it wasn’t filled to the line either. Now they expected me to bring that container all the way back to VA from DC so they can fill the container up!!! I gave 4 stars bcuz they were nice and deep down I believe they meant well. Maybe I’ll be able to update...