Meraki piercing studio — Local services in Stow

bought some jewelry from them to downsize what i currently had in my earlobes. the process itself wasnt bad - i took out what was in my ear so they so they could see and give me a proper size. they insisted on taking what id removed and running it through their autoclave with my purchase. then they packaged everything together and i was on my way. when i got home several hours later and opened the sealed package, i discovered theyd lost half of what had been in my ear - which happened to be white gold and cost me $88 + when i bought it. if id ever wanted to wear that "pair" of earrings again, i now cant, which means $200 i spent on them is now wasted.

when i called them to advise what had happened, the person who answered didnt seem bothered at all by the situation, even laughing several times, and then told me id have to talk to the piercer... but instead of taking a message or offering any other responsible sort of thing, she told me to "call back". taken aback i said i would even though i was leaving for an outing. when i did call back, they dumped me into voicemail, even though they were still open.

i understand that what was lost was super small and chances of finding it were slim, but if i lost something of a customers that cost as much as the sale id just made, i would do whatever i could to help, or at least sound like i cared.

EDIT POST BUSINESS RESPONSE: when this business responded to my review, they opted to do so in a very snarky manner, blaming me for what happened. they entirely missed the point of my review - they LOST an expensive, tiny piece of jewelry that i havent even asked them to compensate me for because hey, things happen, and then when i called to discuss (maybe they found it, maybe it was sitting in the autoclave), i was treated less than helpfully. I WAS NOT A WALK-IN - i called ahead 20-30 minutes before i arrived to see if they could take me - i was enthusiastically invited in. i didnt need their assistance putting in what i purchased because i put them in myself at home - BUT THAT WAS NEVER EVEN THE POINT OF THE REVIEW. if they were paying attention when they packaged the items to be sterilized, it would have been apparent that there were an odd number of items in the sealed package. yes, the piercer was busy when i called the first time, but the person on the phone laughed multiple times when i explained the situation, sounded annoyed, and told me i would have to call back myself (instead of taking a message or maybe even taking a quick look around themselves). as its crystal clear in their response to my review they believe im the problem, in the midst of that phone call it was also apparent. i called back like i was told to - during their open hours that day - and no one answered the phone. yes, they could have been busy, but while i sat in there for at least half an hour earlier that day i witnessed them dropping whatever they were doing - including piercing - to answer the phone. again, it was made obvious to me that i was a problem to them.

yes, they called me on sunday morning, however i was asleep when they called AND my phone flagged their call as a potential spam number. no attempt to call back on their part. admittedly i made no further attempts myself, but after my previous experiences of trying to discuss the situation with them, i was done trying.

these people are good at what they do, yes - thats why i gave them two stars and not one - but their attitude after the fact is what made me rate them lower than five stars. making a customer feel like a problem when THEY lost something, and then snarkily blaming them every which way they could when i wrote a review about being made to feel like a problem... thats not good business and not a way to build a relationship with a customer who chose them over their usual piercer when...

For cleanliness & friendliness Meraki gets 5 stars. Unfortunately for the piercings, it’s a 2. My first experience here I had my daith and tragus pierced. I have my other tragus pierced so I wanted them to match up. My new tragus does not match up to my first, and it is angled oddly, however, it healed nicely and I am happy with it. For my daith piercing, it bled, ALOT, and nothing was done to collect the blood or stop it from going into my ear canal. My ear became severely blocked, I had to go to the er the next day, and I had a huge blood clot blocking my eardrum that the doctors had to get out over a span of a week. It was a very painful and uncomfortable experience. Still, I really liked jasmine so I decided to come back for my next piercing desire. The next experience I had, a year later, I was pierced by Kris, the owner. Who again, was very friendly. I got my double earlobes pierced, and a double stack on the left ear. We finished up and he said “hmm I’m not sure about the length of these posts. If they feel too short come back”. That struck me odd, because as the owner and as a piercer, he should know what length post to use in my ear. How am I supposed to know? Fast forward a week and I can tell that the posts are too short, and my earrings are sinking into my skin, and are painful. I go back in and see jasmine, who tells me that the posts are in fact to short. She had to go up one size for two of the piercings, and up a size and a half for the other. I wasn’t charged, and she was very kind to me and assured me I did nothing wrong, but I was and still am upset. They had a rough time healing, two of them never did and I ended up having to take two of them out. I have no doubt that it’s partially if not fully the fault of the piercers, for putting the incorrect size posts in, in the first place. I spent over $200 for piercings that I can no longer have, and jewelry that I can no longer use. I have never had healing issues from the only other piercing studio that I have gone to. But at Meraki I have now had two bad experiences, a year apart. Unfortunately I will not be...

Took my teenaged daughter for a septum. As a very nervous Mom the whole idea kind of freaked me out. I didn't want a sweaty guy from the back of a dingey tattoo shop sticking needles into my baby's face. Meraki was the nearest APP studio I found, so we decided to make the trip. Right off the bat Kris was super welcoming. Everything was clean, bright and organized. He took his time explaining the process to us. One of the first questions he asked is "How long have you been thinking of getting a septum piercing?", which stood out to me. You could tell that it mattered to him that she was making an informed decision and not being impulsive. He was very thorough when explaining their sterilization process, as well as carefully fitting/customizing the jewelry, cleaning, mapping the shape of her nose for placement and making jokes to keep her comfortable. Overall it was an ideal experience and I feel more comfortable with her decision knowing that the procedure was safe and professional. Definitely more pricey than the $20 holler you get at a tattoo chain, but you get what you pay for. Thanks Kris :)

ETA: 5 stars to 2. My daughter's piercing never healed correctly. I took her to another studio for evaluation and they told us that it wasn't pierced correctly. I took her back to Kris and while he was looking at it he said "This is not a good piercing, who did this???" and I was like umm, YOU?? So mixed feelings. All of the things I said in my original post are true, but still, at the end of the day she was left with a weird piercing that even now (over a year later) hasn't healed properly because it was oddly placed (to his own admission). Bummer because I really thought we had made a good choice. Still a nice guy,...