Fiat Lux — Local services in San Francisco

I want to love Fiat Lux, but I will likely go to other shops in the future for piercings. It is a high end store, so the prices are very high. Two nose piercings with simple studs ran me more than $500. They are a very clean shop and the piercers are kind and knowledgeable, so I will give them credit for employing great piercers and keeping a sterile environment. However, they do not keep a large stock of basic jewelry, so it can be a frustrating experience picking out jewelry. After my piercings healed I wanted to replace the studs with plain gold hoops, and I had to go to the store on three separate occasions to do so. The first two times, they did not have basic gold hoops in stock. This was frustrating to me as I do not live in San Francisco and had driven over an hour to their shop the first time, the second time I took a $30 each way uber from my friends apartment. They do not have any indication of what they have in stock on their website, so if you are going in with a specific item in mind you won't know if they have it until you get there. They charge a $50 fee if you do not show up or cancel your appointment, but if you do show up and they don't have what you want in stock, you are out of luck. For the third time, I emailed them and asked to special order the gold hoops. Apparently they did have them in stock at their other location. So they do not have a system where they know what is in stock at which store. I paid for the hoops ahead of time, made an appointment, and drove to SF for the third time, only for them to be unable to find my order. They still did not have the hoops actually in stock at that location, so they almost sent me away again until a second person working in the shop looked through the orders again and found them in the order bin. They also say that their jewelry change appointments are free, but they actually charge $5 per piercing to change out your jewelry even if you just purchased expensive jewelry from them. While $5 is a small fee, after going to SF on three separate occasions (and spending well over $100 in gas/uber costs) to get two simple gold hoops that cost $200, it was a bit frustrating for me to have to pay an additional $10 that I was not aware they would charge.

I don't like leaving bad reviews for small businesses and Fiat Lux is a store that I specifically wanted to support. However, I think they need to improve their appointment and stock processes so that customers know whether or not they have the item they are looking for in stock before traveling to their store. It would be nice if you had the ability to say what you are looking for and have them set the jewelry aside so that you know it will be available when you arrive at your appointment. Not having a very basic item in-stock once is something I was willing to look past, but when it gets to the point where customers come in on three separate occasions looking for something very simple, it becomes a business issue. How many other customers are they turning away or making come back multiple times because they do not have a way of letting customers know that what they are looking for isn't in stock? Overall a frustrating experience to want to spend my money at a store but being repeatedly unable to, and having to instead spend a significant amount of money traveling to and from their store only to be turned away every time. Hopefully they can improve their processes in the future so that customers can be aware of what is and isn't in stock before coming in for their...

Update 5/29: I emailed Jennifer to ask for a status update. Jennifer informed me that the item was marked as delivered on 5/25 and provided me with the tracking number (I wasn’t notified when it shipped). I checked with my apartment mailroom attendant and turned out it had indeed been delivered but the mailroom failed to scan it into the system. The repair came back beautifully and I’m happy to have the item in my hands again.

I hate leaving bad reviews for companies that offer things I truly love, but I strongly feel the need to share my lengthy experience with Fiat Lux... I have placed 2 online orders with them in the past half a year. My first order was placed in late January of 2021, delivered promptly within 1 week and the item was just fabulous. Given the first great experience, I placed a 2nd order on 2/18 during their anniversary sale. This order did not arrive until a whole month later on 3/22/2021. I understand this delay since some of the pieces I ordered were made-to-ship.

As part of this 2nd order, I purchased a webcatcher clasp that I absolutely adored. I wore it exactly twice, and then on the third time of putting it on, one of the clasps fell off. This was within 1 week of receiving the item... We are now at the beginning of April and I have paid for insured UPS shipping to get the webcatcher back to Fiat Lux in SF for a repair. Tracking showed that the item was delivered and signed for on 4/5/2021. I reached out to them by email on 4/20/2021 because I had not received any form of communication indicating that someone is working on my repair or that it was even received. Jennifer emailed me back 2 days later and said that the repair is in progress and should be shipped "later next week" (aka last week of April). It is now almost June, I have been told over email THREE times that "it will be shipped out next week" on 4/22, 5/1, and 5/15 (and mind you, I had to track them down, email them and ask about the repair to even get any form of update). I have no idea when this item will be back in my hands, how absolutely mind-blowing this 2 months repair must be (because it has to be right????), and probably will never purchase from them again. I only wish I didn't talk them up to so many of my jewelry friends because now I really don't know how their service is... Anyway, just thought that people should be aware.

I won't name any names, but a very very similar Brooklyn based jewelry company literally just gave me a new bracelet the day I went in for a when my bracelet snagged and that took 5 minutes. Some companies stand behind their products,...

If you are looking to get a piercing either as a newcomer or after having a botched one done previously, this is the location for you. Frank is a super professional, super meticulous piercer that takes a lot of pride in his craft. He went above and beyond what I expected to ensure I was both comfortable and safe from potential contamination or infection. He took the time to ask me detailed questions about the previous piercing I had gotten done by another piercer at a completely different shop that I had to allow to close and heal because it was incredibly painful (it was a septum, if you’re wondering). He then informed me how my previous experience might’ve been so bad because it was pierced incorrectly and in a spot that caused excess and unnecessary pain and irritation. I had no idea that’s why it had been such a horrible experience. He then made sure to very carefully assess the anatomy of my septum, and he didn’t pierce it until he was fully sure he had found the sweet spot. When he did it, the pain was incredibly minimal and over quickly. 2 days later and I’m still not in any pain at all. As I’ve already said, my previous piercing done by another less-experienced piercer was much more painful and developed significant irritation and complications to the point it impeded my sleep. It would hurt to even touch my nose and apply the slightest pressure, but with this piercing I can move my nose around while washing my face or cleaning the area and there is only the tiniest pinch occasionally. It is so painless I literally keep forgetting it’s on my face. Overall, this is a fantastic place to get a piercing done right the first time if you’ve never had one before or redone correctly if you were unfortunate your first time around like I was and got something done by someone else who wasn’t qualified. The jewelry options are also beautiful too, I custom ordered a piece that is incredibly unique and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Shoutout to Skyla too, they were a super nice and super accommodating individual who has especially attentive customer...