Made By Hand Crystals — Local services in Trumbull

Upon entering this store I was approached by a staff member who immediately asked me to step outside and stand behind the red line, until invited to enter "in a few minutes". It was mid afternoon and there were no other customers. Seemed a bit odd, so I asked what the rationale was and received a nebulous explanation on it being some kind of age old tradition. Hmmm.

While waiting I noticed store bulletin board detailing the policy and some covid info but not one peep on the back story. I noticed the staff were not wearing masks.

Finally an individual who seemed to be the store manager, invited me in and read me a riot act about the shopping experience being visual and no touch. If I wanted to purchase something a only a staff member could touch the item and bring it to checkout. Another age old tradition?

While perusing I noticed that the majority of items marked as "on sale" had the original prices crossed off but with no new price marked. Upon asking the store manager about odd pricing policy he became apprehensive. He asked if there was a specific item I wanted a price for. I responded that I was curious as to why the sale prices were not clearly marked making it a lack of transparency in pricing. He stated that he would ask his manager when he returned, although it was pretty clear that he was being dodgy and is the manager.

Altogether the shopping experience at this establishment was unpleasant and overshadowed by lack of transparency in policy and pricing.

Addendum: You stated in your response that I was there Friday night and engaged female staff in conversation for 20 minutes. This clearly indicates several things. 1) You are either confusing me with someone else or fabricating your own story. I was neither there on Friday night nor did I engage your female staff in any lengthy conversation. 2) In either case, your response is clearly an ad hominem attack, albeit a feeble one. Attempting to attack a customer in response to a negative review, rather than address the concerns, reflects more on you as a business than the reviewer. Being that most of your responses to negative reviews are in this style, I urge others reading this to have a look and judge for themselves. I also urge customers to ask you regarding your lack of transparent pricing on sale items where original prices are crossed off and there is no clear pricing. I will be looking into this further and filing a report with the department of consumer protection if appropriate. I also encourage them to ask you for the age old tradition story on making customers waiting an indeterminate time to enter. If not a plausible one, then it demonstrates control issues likely engaging in a form of psychological conditioning to feel "privileged to gain access", as there is not a single other retailer engaging in this cotrolling and peculiar to say the least policy in the entire Westfield mall.

Re: your addendum response Neither of your two responses address the issues raised.  Rather, it is clearly apparent to the educated consumer that your's is an attempt to deflect attention.

The review left is an observation that reflects irrefutable facts that anyone visiting your store can easily and objectively observe...

So I came to this mall because it showed that this store sold crystals. I have been on a spiritual journey for over 3 years and I have been to MANY crystal stores around the world. My favorite experience was in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Every time I visit a crystal store, I like to take my time, and TOUCH the crystals that resonate with me, to feel the crystal energies, especially the moldavite (to determine if it's real or not), I usually spend over an hour at a crystal shop, exploring, talking to the workers, asking questions etc. The one in San Juan, Puerto Rico was such a BEAUTIFUL experience omg.

Now let me review my experience with this one.

I saw a sign at the door, I read it, but I still went inside because I didn't see anyone in there. As I entered a lady asked if I had been there before, and I said no it's my first time here. She then escorts me to wait at the red line to wait.

A man leaves the store and I am welcomed in. So let's say I spend an hour inside, everyone else have to wait for me to finish in order for them to come in after? That's wild to me.

I came with my mom, and she asked that we stay together. In other crystal shops I visited with family and friends we tend to just roam and look around, we all have different spiritual journeys, we like to look at other things separately.

A lady at the store is hounding you when your looking, saying "Please don't touch anything, we don't want your energy on our crystals". I said I always clean my crystals after anyway.

She said they already have been cleansed.

So I'm already feeling uncomfortable because I want to touch the crystals so bad, like this is not a museum, I am a consumer looking to possibly buy something.

I already knew which crystal I wanted so I asked her to take me to it. She lead me to that crystal, and I couldn't touch them. I had to look and see which one I wanted. I really wanted one since I traveled all the way to this mall to specifically find this crystal.

She then proceeded to bring the container with the specific crystal to the counter. I told her the one I saw, since I am "buying" this crystal let me go ahead and "touch" it.

Who touches it instead? SHE DOES! I don't want YOUR Energy on a crystal I just bought smh. Yes, I reiki cleanse and sage my crystals after.

I wanted to continue looking but with these "rules" it was such a turn-off. I will NEVER go back there to support their business. Don't come here if you want to be treated as a child, go somewhere else with a better customer service experience.

I've seen the owner respond to other negative reviews. You would have made more business if it wasn't for these childish rules. But since I "couldn't touch" I'll bring my money to a business with a better welcoming...

hey, so me and my dad came here at the Trumbull mall just to look around, but when we got close, the guy working there told us “are you looking for a Sephora? Sephora is over there” thinking that I was a Sephora kid. I’m not. 10. I was so confused when we got asked that since we were just gonna look around. And yeah I had mascara on but still??! The store was so empty just him, and we still got told to stay behind the red line.. unbelievable when we first got in, the man kept saying there was this jade which will allegedly protect me from people who focus on money. First of I’m Buddhist, some Buddhism people believe in crystals but I surely know I don’t. At this point I was just looking at some crystals and I realized, that some of the crystals were DYED. DYED.. I didn’t really care at this point but the man who was working there was keeping on eye on us like we were going to steal? I’m sorry but I’m alright. When my dad was talking with the man, the man kept interrupting, so my dad is not really great with English, and isn’t good with hearing, so he just talk and let the other guy talk, but when my dad wanted to say something I heard the man who was working there whisper to himself “didn’t even let me finish..” Well, first of all you literally tried leading us to Sephora, tried to persuade (not really) into getting a jade necklace. This was so inconvenient, the customer service is horrible here, and just saying if you want customers try not to focus on enforcing ur rules. Not trying to be rude I’m giving out advice. Just saying that after me and my dad left this shop, we had went to a shoe shop who had treated us so politely, very nice vibes, and actually had a good conversation unlike some people think they have. I know I have said this a lot but, I had found the Sephora thing very rude and the fact we can’t touch the crystals are also a bad vibe. I’ve seen your TikTok and this girl had said that you allegedly yelled at her mother? If that is true then I wish I could’ve gave ZERO stars. She told me the whole story, wish I could’ve gave zero stars anyway. My dad said that he was also very uncomfortable and his exact words were “ I can see why no one comes here.” Also, when my dad said “thank you” before leaving we didn’t even hear a “your welcome” or a bye. Before leaving the actual mall, we saw 2 ladies waiting behind the red line and due to waiting way to long they had eventually left. We haven’t heard of any tax sales at all, this place was nice but customer service was not...