Franklin's - Antiques | Vintage | Home — Local services in New Bern

No matter what the owner/proprietor's reply or excuse, it will not minimize how we felt today nor change our review of this business On the door of this shop (at least on this date) was a inconspicuous sign listing rules, which we admittedly did not notice. However, a friend we were with later said that he saw the sign which, he said, read no pets/no large breeds. We are from out of town, but frequent visitors to family in New Bern. We love vintage shopping, and our dog is almost universally welcome to join us. Still, we make employees aware of his presence and ask permission to bring our doggy stroller into a shop when entering. We did so here. Our 10 lb dog wears a visible purple harness that says NERVOUS on both sides and his stroller has a sign that reads NEEDS SPACE..... these messages are very much more evident than the confusing business sign and verbal okay we received when we were granted permission to bring our dog inside with him in the stroller. Our dog was clipped into his seat and could not get out of the stroller. We made an entire circuit of the shop, had even made a purchase, taken the purchase to our car, and returned to shop some more. Later, while making our way to the exit  after completing our shopping, we were approached by a child of perhaps eight or nine. She made her way to our dog stroller with her hand outstretched, while my DH backed away as quickly as he could do so while inside  a vintage shop, saying "No, no, no" all the while. At no time did the child request permission to approach our dog, nor did she attempt to retreat after my DH warned her. There was no adult supervision of the child. Only after our dog made a warning growl, did the child back away. At that point the owner/proprietor suddenly appeared and begin to berate us, claiming "We love our grandchild too much to allow this!" This man will perhaps claim that the bad pet owners cared more about their dog than about a child. Not true. Our dog was at no time outside of our control and the child was unharmed. On the other hand, the child was certainly not under adult supervision, nor was it apparent she has ever been taught pet courtesy. She did not appear nearly as frightened as we were humiliated by the grandfather/owner/proprietor. Not a recommended shopping experience. Enough said. Five adults watching a child approach a dog without permission and doing nothing. Cameras trained on customers throughout their shopping experience without incident except the one described. A business owner blaming his customers for negligence....

There are several other antique stores in downtown New Bern that have better quality service. I recommend one of them!

We recently lost a member of our family and she had a lot of older stuff and some we got appraised for value. When we visited the first time, It was brought up to the woman at the desk that we were interested in selling some stuff and asked if they bought things. She said we would have to bring the stuff in for them to look at. Which is fine and I expected that much. So we packed it up a few days later and called them ahead of time and the woman on the phone said to come in around one p.m which we did. The woman who served us was rude and short and I am appalled to find out that she was the owner. She gave my mother attitude and made her pull things out of the box and my mother pulled a single pillow out of the box and she immeadielty said no. She refused to even look at anything. This is horrible business when we checked with you on multiple occasions and one was face to face and asked you if you were interested and you said yes. My sister told her that she had called ahead of time and was given the drop off time of 1 pm. The owner swore she never said that and was the only one there all day. My sister then gave her the number she called and the woman said that "wasn't them" and "people confuse them with other antique stores". So we left and when we got in the car my sister called the exact same number and the same woman answered and gave us the address of the exact building we sat in front of. She then refused to speak to me at all. This is horrible customer service and I do not recommend...

I read your response to the review I left. Now I’m going to say I still do not believe it was my pocketbook that hit the chalkboard ( you would have to prove it to me by allowing me to review the video ) but that’s not my biggest issue with you it’s your rudeness and lack of concern for the customer. Not once did I raise my voice or talk disrespectful to you nor did I refuse to pay. I was however shocked at your price including your discounted price. I’ve been buying and selling antiques for quite awhile so arguing with me about this is pointless. It will not change my mind or yours. No one other than you ( the owners wife ) was rude to me yesterday. I don’t feel that I’ll ever visit your store again and I’m not trying to be ugly but you really should work on your people skills. Thank you for your concern about my welfare as I travel back to Florida though. I wish you had shown some concern yesterday for me instead of your broken ceramic Christmas tree. On a positive note one of your patrons did ask if I was ok. If you had shared the video with us yesterday ( you never offered video proof you just demanded money ) the mystery of what caused the chalkboard to crash into the tree could have been solved and we may have left with our 75 dollars in our pocket. Maybe or not but fussing and saying you’re going to have to pay for that. I JUST PUT IT OUT YESTERDAY! was not necessary. I never offered any resistance about paying for it. The bottom line is wether I’m at fault or not a little kindness and concern on your part would have made this experience much easier...