Pandora Jewelry — Local services in San Jose

Erika and I stopped by Pandora at Valley Fair Mall this evening around 6PM. She wanted to have her bracelets and charms cleaned. We met with Brian who took the bracelets/charms and recorded how many bracelets/charms there were. He told us it would be ready in about 20 minutes, so we left to do some shopping.

After returning, he verified the count of the bracelets/charms he recorded with the actual number of bracelets and charms. The counts didn't match. We were short one charm compared to the count he wrote down initially. He counted several times, and tried to explain that he probably miscounted the first time.

Probably? You have got to be kidding me. How can you say probably miscounted when it's someone else's property you're dealing with. We weren't happy about this to say the least.

He soon called a manager over (Samantha). She counted the bracelets/charms and compared it to the count that was recorded initially. It didn't match again. At this point, she decided to question Brian's method of counting and criticized his method of doing so. She asked us if we had pictures of the bracelets/charms. We told her that we didn't, and she was very surprised. Apparently, everyone who buys Pandora bracelets/charms take pictures to document every single one. We weren't aware that it was standard operating procedure to do so! We told her that we didn't expect we would have to do so, since we trusted their store with OUR bracelets/charms. At this point, she asked us what we wanted to do.

We were understanding but pissed at how the situation was developing. I too interact with customers/clients in my line of work, and I have plenty of experience in how to handle a client when a situation goes awry. Asking the customer how they want the situation handled is not the best method. Her asking us this gave us the impression that she thought we were trying to get something out of this situation. She was right, we wanted to make sure that all OUR charms were accounted for.

We asked her what the usual procedure was in a case like this, and she didn't really seem to know. She excused herself to make a phone call (we're not sure if she really did or not). When she returned, she got some paper and a calculator to try to verify that OUR bracelets/charms matched with the initial count.

For those of you keeping track, Brian counted at least 3 times, and Samantha counted at least 2 times (before her call). The total is up to at least 5 counts before the call.

This brings us back to Samantha counting after the call. Armed with pen, paper, and calculator, Samantha counted at least 3 more times while trying to explain to us the possible error in the initial count.

POSSIBLE ERROR? No, just no. At this point, it was blatantly obvious that she was trying to throw numbers in our faces in an attempt to confuse us. It wasn't working. We saw past the smoke and mirrors. We explained to Samantha and Brian that the explanations being provided still doesn't prove without a doubt whether a charm is missing (or not).

Erika and I were beyond pissed at this point, and were trying hard to remain civil about this whole mess. How can a store with "professionals" make an error like this? Some of you might think, it's just one charm. It's not that expensive, and it can be replaced. True, we agree. How can the sentimental value of the charm be replaced though? Going past the value (monetary and sentimental), how can we ever trust this store again?

We realized that we were getting nowhere with the incompetence, and took our bracelets/charms. Samantha and Brian didn't have any solutions for us, other than that all the bracelets/charms "should" be accounted for. To them, should was good enough. For us, it definitely was not.

Before we left, we made sure to get employee ID numbers. We'll be contacting Pandora of North America regarding...

Last month, Pandora had a promotion where if you spent a certain amount, you’d get a free bracelet. I went to the Stanford Pandora with my daughters to get bracelets together. The bracelet my eldest daughter wanted was a bit too big, and they don’t carry the size she wanted but we were told she could buy it, wear it to see how it fits, and exchange it within 30 days if it wasn't right—so we didn’t miss out on the deal.

Within 30 minutes of wearing it, the bracelet fell off, We took it back to Pandora. They were still out of stock and said they’d call us when it was back. The bracelet has been in the box ever since. After reading reviews, we found out the T-bar bracelet has issues with falling off, so we decided to exchange it for a different style.

Yesterday , I went to the Valley Fair location with my daughter and she explained what happened, but the associate rudely cut us off, saying she couldn’t exchange it because it was "worn" and "tarnished." When I asked her to explain, how it could be while it wasn’t worn she grabbed a rag and tried to clean it, some gray color was on the rag claiming it was proof. First off, if the bracelet actually tarnished that quickly, I wouldn’t have spent $200 on it. Secondly, the item wasn’t tarnished at all. After she held it for a solid minute, it’s normal for oil residue to transfer, and yet they blamed the condition on that. I own several Pandora pieces, and they never clean the jewelry between associates and customers handling them, so claiming it was 'tarnished' was ridiculous. It seemed more like the associate didn’t want to do the exchange and was using that as an excuse. The lack of professionalism was disappointing—This location needs to reevaluate their staff, as it seems like they’re just hiring anyone at this point. I did end up driving to stanford shopping center where they immediately did my exchange and were extremely sweet and understanding. The difference in customer service was night and day! I’m grateful for the help I received at Stanford, but my experience at Valley Fair was frustrating and disappointing. I was planning to start buying charms for our bracelets but not anymore if there items tarnish...

This has to be the worst Pandora I've ever been in. Ive been all over the country and pick up location charms whenever I'm in a new place all of the previous Pandora's I've went to go above and beyond they are just genuinely kind but this one was horrible!

I have a tradition that any close friend picks out a charm for my bracelet, anything they want. My partner and I went in 4/17/18 so he could pick one out we were asked if we needed help while all 3 employees just stayed in the far corner away from us which normally Pandora employees will approach you and stay behind the counter to assist if they are needed.

When my partner finally had an idea of what he wanted, we had to actually walk across the store and ask them for help to be assisted. We were looked at like we were wasting their time, but she walked over to the counted and seemed to act like she was just humoring us when we asked for certain charms.

We asked for book themed charms and she pulled two out, Ive never seen a pandora employee only pull out the charms and not the whole box. Pulling out the whole box is a selling technique to get you to buy more and she seemed to get really uncomfortable when I lifted up the charm so I took off my bracelet and she looked surprised that I had a Pandora bracelet and when we decided on a charm which was a very expensive one I had asked if I could get my bracelet cleaned. The lady made a point to tell me I had charms that weren't pandora brand and refusing to clean it when i offered to take the extras off she said it'd take 30 minutes which didn't sound right i have my bracelet cleaned every time i go to a pandora and it has never taken more than 8 minutes.

We were treated like we weren't going to buy anything, or thieves, or both Im not exactly sure but my bracelet cost a lot of money and the charm that isnt pandora a friend since passed gave to me theres no reason i should have to take it off to have my bracelet cleaned or be treated differently because I am sentimental. This store and its service was completely appalling.

Take my advice and drive to a...