Banter by Piercing Pagoda — Local services in Raleigh

Banter: a nice way of saying “argumentative.” I wondered why they changed the name. After my experience, I can confirm that the name fits the argumentative nature of the staff, but the “nice,” not so much.

My daughter got her ears pierced there by the manager, who was lovely the first time-when we were buyers. She did a great job with the piercing. She was kind and pleasant as can be. So when she rung us up, and included a warranty on the earrings, I thought nothing of it.

A week later, one of the earrings got recessed into her ear. The diamond popped out when we tried to remove it from her ear. Although questioning the quality of the earrings, I thought, “Well, we have the warranty.”

Two months later we returned to get the hole pierced again. As I stood waiting for my turn, I overheard the manager being verbally confrontational with a customer - it was very uncomfortable I almost left.

The associate (not the manager) then helped me. She told me the warranty only covered breaking, bending, not losing the earring. When I produced the broken earring, the Manager jumped in with wide eyes and said, “ok, what’s going on here?” The associate explained. The manager then turned to me and began speaking to me in the same unnecessarily tense, flustered and mildly confrontational tone as I asked questions to make sure we were not being charged again to buy the earrings and re-pierce my daughter’s ear. So she did replace the broken earring and re-pierce it, which was I was grateful for. As I was waiting for her to look up our information, another customer was waiting. I jokingly said to her, “Claire’s” - not because the ear got infected but because she had also been standing there listening to the manager was jumping down people’s throats and, in my case, not just pleasantly and politely honoring the warranty I’d paid for. She then got snippy with THAT poor woman about going to Claire’s (which did do immediately afterwards) and had a wonderful experience (we ran into them again and shared a laugh over the stressed out manager at “Banter”).

We passed by the kiosk again on our way out of the mall and I overheard her AGAIN being salty with a customer.

Obviously, she was having a bad day because the first time, she was lovely. I get it: people can be terrible. But being terrible back and on the offense doesn’t help. Moreover, it isn’t being a good manager, nor is spreading any joy. She is making experiences that should be fun, extremely awkward and unpleasant.

I wanted to edit my review to add that the associate did a great job piercing her eye and was not in any way unpleasant. I also wanted to warn people that if you leave a negative review, the store will immediately call you! Which is even more uncomfortable- downright scary. What is...

Overall experience was ok. The lady who was working the kiosk kept letting other people in front of us. We were there to get our 4 month old daughter's ears pierced. A person came up after us. When it was our turn she asked who was next. We spoke up and said us. She then went over to the group that came up after us and asked them if we really were next and luckily they were honest and said we were next. She then came over to us and told us she was going to pierce the young man in that group first because "babies tend to take a little longer with then moving around." She then pierced the guy and a lady walked up in the meantime and wanted to make a purchase. She came over to us yet again and stated that she was going to check her out before she would check us out. We had planned the trip during a time that our daughter was just waking up from a nap so she was less alert/mobile, but as we waited and waited and waited she became more and more alert. Overall, the piercing experience went well and our daughter was able to get her ears pierced. There needs to be a better system in servicing customers in the order in which they arrive, because regardless if our service took longer than other people's we should have been serviced in the order if which we arrived. Imagine if you had went to Target, for example, and the cashier notices you in line and the person behind you has 2 item and they tell you,"the person behind you who walked up after you only has 2 items so I am going to check them out first. It will take you longer to check out." Wouldn't be fair....and neither was...

If you are looking to pierce a toddler or newborn’s ear I do not recommend this location. The ladies at the counter were super friendly but the woman who pierced my daughter’s ears did not come across knowledgeable despite the website suggesting their employees have X amount of training. There were a few things that were off during our visit, from the employee complaining about the quality of the gloves available to the marker running on my baby’s ear, therefore making it harder for the piercer to see exactly where the accurate marking was. I should have stopped the session after the 3rd time she tried to position the marker. As the customer, I shouldn’t have to guide you on where to put the marking. I’m not the expert, you are. …long story long, one piercing ended up being higher than the other, which was quite frustrating.

Thankfully, I took my daughter to the other location in Crabtree for a 2nd opinion, and the young lady (McKenzie) was amazing. She removed the earring and told us to return in a few days. We did, and she correctly repierced my baby’s ear.

After this experience I HIGHLY recommend searching hard for a pediatrician’s office that does medical piercings (many will not service you if you’re not a patient…keep searching though) OR visit Cary Dermatology (I found out about them after the fact). Don’t hesitate to travel a little if you need to.

First few pictures posted are of accurate earring placements and the 4th picture is my baby’s piercing that is...