Soyodo LLC — Local services in San Jose

Unprofessional customer service. Deplorable manners, with the owner forcibly touching me. I am an Asian American woman.

My mother and I visited Soyodo in San Jose on February 4, 2024 3:15 PM.

We made this trip from out-of-town to purchase Chinese goodies, at the recommendations of our friends. In our basket were Lunar New Year red envelopes, red calligraphy paper, and a Chinese calligraphy brush stand.

The brush stand piqued our interest and Dad was in need of one. He couldn’t make it with us to this shopping trip, so we FaceTimed him to show the quality of the brush stand. We were excited about it!

Upon checkout, my mother asked the owner’s employee, presumably his wife (?), if there were any Year-of-the-Dragon-themed red envelopes. Without even finishing her question, my mother received a rude, brusque response “No” from the woman. What’s the rush? And why the attitude?

My mother expressed to both the owner and the woman that the service we received today was unprofessional. The woman employee proceeded to gaslight us, claiming that our video call hurt her feelings because she thought we were criticizing our product. This employee was becoming indignant and getting more impatient. I took a photo of her, and you can see in the second image that she pulled out her phone to record me.

The owner was taken aback and pushed my shoulder to get me to put away my phone. I yelled, “Don’t touch me!” in Mandarin Chinese.

It is actually ironic that his employee was recording all of this, as it would be evidence that he indeed laid hands on me. I yelled at him, in Mandarin Chinese, that we are in America. In English, I said I could sue him for touching me.

His woman employee was still recording me. So I faced the camera, pulled my mask down, saying I was at Soyodo San Jose and I will post on Yelp and Google that we received horrible customer service.

My mother and I walked out of that store, leaving the basket behind.

A huge disappointment that people from my own community behave in this manner to their own customers.

I am soured by this experience today and wont be returning. I am now taking my business online with...

I came here specifically looking for Chinese calligraphy/brush painting supplies.

First things first--their book collection is fantastic! I wanted some guide manuals on Xieyi (spontaneous) brush painting and had at least 6 different options for flowers alone. Books are not shrink-wrapped, so I was able to flip through all of them and pick my favorite. I also found a Chinese calligraphy practice book with 20 sheets of water-writing paper (same stuff they put on Buddha boards and magic cloths) for $5.50! Prices for the books are quite cheap, in my opinion (I spent $16 for a full-color 150 page book).

Actual painting supplies seem generally low quality (but it is all cheap!). Their Yi de ke bottled ink that they sell for $1.50 is definitely fake! It smelled awful, like garbage mixed with machine oil, and couldn't produce a concentrated black. I threw it away immediately. Likewise, I bought a cheap

Dusty and cramped bookstore filled with random items, hidden from the main walkway, in a dimly lit corridor. Beware the products may have gone bad and are poor quality. My mom comes here for calligraphy supplies. The calligraphy books are good but the ink and brushes have long passed their best buy date and may be coming apart. The cheap bottle of ink had a terrible smell and the cheap brushes were unusable. My mom regrets those poor purchases, even though they were cheap, it was still a waste of money. Whatever is in the store is whatever's left from the previous owner before they moved to this location. The owner said he will not be repurchasing fresh stock and wants to sell everything so they can go back and retire in China. Being open 7 days a week and so many hours a day must be draining. I don't know how they even make profit, if at all. No wonder...