Petroglyph Ceramic Lounge — Local services in Santa Cruz

Ridiculously Inconvenient – they would not take our one hundred dollar bill! Accepted, They Don’t Even Warn You

I had high hopes walking into this ceramics shop – I love supporting local businesses and was excited to buy a few handmade pieces. And have a great experience with my mom and little girls. We don’t live in town we are traveling we do not use our credit cards when traveling. Everything looked nice enough, but the experience quickly turned sour thanks to one major issue: when we went to pay which by the way it was extremely expensive $165 for FOUR of us! they wouldn’t accept our $100 bill. They stated and I quote” we don’t accept because we’ve had fakes”. Excuse me first of all not our fault, second of all it’s money. Absolutely the most rude staff I have been around in a very long time. And do they post that they don’t take $100 bills anywhere? Nope. Not on the door, no where that we could see it! So we proceed to say call the police and explain to them that you will not take our money. And the worker proceeds to turn to me and says “ do you have a card!?” I was flabbergasted they would not take my mother’s cash so she asked me if I had a card!!!! Hello we don’t use cards when traveling that was the most rude thing to say to me. Second issue we had, they did not tell us they had a four day turn around on the kiln process. We leave tomorrow to go home, we told them that and they said and I quote “ it’s posted on the wall, we did try to tell you”. Yes it was posted on the wall after they pointed it out to us we accepted that. The person who was helping us DID NOT try to tell us or we would have not started painting. If it weren’t for my daughters whom are little we wouldn’t have stayed or it would’ve just crushed them to leave. So I asked if they could possibly kiln our items and help us ship our items they said and I quote “ oh no we can’t do that” and I said “ ok can we get that discounted for not getting them kilned?” They said and I quote “no we don’t do that.” Absolutely the most rude staff I have been around in a very long time.

When I mentioned that it would’ve been helpful to post a sign or anything to let customers know, I was met with a shrug and a half-hearted, “Yeah, we’ve been meaning to put something up.” Great. Thanks for wasting my time, being rude and making our experience with my children absolutely awful!!!! To those of you who are traveling and went to try a family fun place or date place whatever, avoid this place and I do mean avoid this place! They don’t OWN their mistakes and treat you awful for it.

Honestly, it felt like they couldn’t care less about being helpful or transparent. If you’re going to have a policy that excludes people from making purchases, at least communicate it. Until then, I won’t be back – and I’ll be telling my friends to...

Even during COVID this has been one of my favorite activities. (I think I have painted like 15 pieces in the past 8 months.) Since March I have been able to pick up paint and pieces, then create my mini masterpieces at home. We even had a socially distance painting party with five friends a few weeks ago. Mask on, each person had their own table, tools and paints, big space and all, but it was the first time since March we all agreed we felt "normal".

I will for sure continue to paint through the pandemic and look forward to getting back in the studio again when I am up for it. Thankfully my family appreciates my crafty nature an are expecting more items under the Christmas tree.

A special shout out the the store manager and staff. Each of them has been helpful, kind, and really making my heart happy each time I can support this...

Update! Super impressed with how the owner of Petroglyph handled a difficult situation.

My mom picked up two projects on Monday, wrapped in paper in a Petroglyph paper sack. When lifting the paper bag out of the trunk of her car the bag split open and my still wrapped piece fell to the ground, breaking in two. She was heartbroke. She called the store that afternoon and spoke with the young woman she had picked the items up from. She was very apologetic and told her she'd call us back after speaking to a manager.

The manager initially refused to offer any credit for the broken piece, however the owner reached out herself and offered a credit to cover a replacement. Great customer service, and we are thrilled to continue enjoying such a fun and...