Beads by Tara | Permanent Jewelry + Charm Bar (by appt. only) | Private/Corporate Events — Local services in San Francisco

Just know anything written below by Tara is false. She did not “fully refund me” and the insurance total is def not “auto populated”. I cannot even believe the nonsense.

The brand and company give false representations on their website for ordering jewelry. If you pay for insurance to cover your package and have protection, Tara, the owner, will never honor the insurance you were charged for & paid for and give you an extremely hard time and make you regret ever purchasing from them. If your package happens to be stolen, they will make you do the impossible task of trying to “prove” it to them. When my order didn’t arrive there was no mention of a replacement, refund, or insurance. When I questioned who provided their insurance that I was charged for, I was met with no response until I did my own looking and realized the brand uses a Shopify widget tool called Navidium which simulates insurance but is not actual insurance. This tool appears designed to mislead customers into paying more for an order that is not legitimately backed by an insurance provider. This would mean that the brand would have to personally guarantee a refund in the event insurance is needed since they don’t have one backing the orders they pretend to have when they charge you.

The owner clearly isn’t prepared to part with customer’s funds in an event like this. I know Tara will likely respond here and say she offered a replacement after being incredibly difficult and dishonest and making several misrepresentations, but I do not want to do business with this company at all and have asked for my money back since my insurance covers it. She’ll likely say that I demanded a refund, but my exact email said,

“Hi Tara,

I’m reaching out to request a refund as I never received this item. Can you advise on the refund process?

Thank you”

The owner can’t seem to comprehend that people have busy lives and don’t want to devote time to things like this when traveling.

Tara agreed to refund me back and asked me to cancel a dispute I had with my credit company so she could proceed with the ‘insurance claim’, and following doing that, she decided to reverse course and tell me she’s not going to refund my money. A classic bait & switch. Extremely unethical.

I originally made a purchase because of an influencer’s collaboration, and made it based on my affection and trust for that person. The entire experience has been embarrassing to observe how the owner of Beads by Tara simply will not acknowledge facts or refund my order. She refuses to acknowledge that packages do get stolen and that in fact is the sole reason why a customer would opt to pay extra for insurance. Additionally, I was charged nearly $20 extra on my order for insurance and when I found out that it wasn’t actually backed by legitimate insurance but a random number used simply to increase profits, Tara changed the price tag to the “insurance” back down to $6.00 for a cart totaling over $300.00 for the same items I purchased.

To be clear, Beads by Tara had insured my package with USPS and can claim insurance on that, and they also use another 3rd party insurance, but it is not Route. She seems to be filing insurance claims and potentially keeping the funds for herself but not refunding them back to the customer.

Route insurance protection is advertised all over the website but Route has confirmed they do not work with Beads by Tara anymore. Tara had stated to me that Route does not cover packages that are marked delivered by USPS, so I asked Route to confirm this, and they stated to me, they do in fact cover packages that are stolen and marked as delivered.

As of today USPS formally confirmed the package was sent to the wrong address and proved it in writing. USPS even remarked how difficult the merchant was after speaking them.

There's so many brands out there that make it enjoyable to work with and leave a lasting positive impression, this is not one of them.

Thank you....

I’ve been curious permanent jewelry as it’s recently come across my for you page on tiktok and Instagram. When searching for places to get mine done, I reached out to a friend and she recommended Beads By Tara. It turned out to be a ~5 min walk from my house in the marina, which made it easy. I think the first time I went in, Mikayla could tell I was nervous (it’s semi-permanent!) because she walked me through all the options, the process and explained to me exactly how to get it off after if I didn’t like it. Spoiler: I’m obsessed with it and will never ever ever take it off. There’s something so elegant about having a permanent piece on all the time and to be honest, it wasn’t too expensive either. I’ve been thinking of getting another perm bracelet but surprising my mom for her birthday so we do it together :’) Also, after getting my perm bracelet, I also purchased pieces from her website over the last few months (I have 10+ earrings, necklaces, bracelets from beads by Tara now), and none of the pieces have broken, damaged, tarnished or had literally any issues. I’m always on the lookout for beautiful jewelry and it makes me happy to know this is also supporting a small business....

I never write reviews, but after my experience at BEADS by Tara, I decided I must.

I first heard about their jewelry through a friend who raved about the quality of their pieces. I love jewelry, but am very particular when it comes to the quality and longevity of pieces.

After doing a bit of research I saw they offered a permanent jewelry option and booked an appointment. Mikayla zapped me, and was such a gem. She helped me decide which chain to get (there are so many options!), talked me through the process, and made the overall experience seamless.

Fast forward, 6 months now, I can confirm my new bracelet is fuss-free, durable as can be, and is just as sparkly as the day they zapped it on me. I've been telling everyone. I cannot recommend them enough. I can't wait to get another one, it will be a matching one with...