Cold Stone Creamery — Restaurant in Santa Clara

I usually always have my mask with me but I had left the house in a hurry as our infant needed milk and completely forgot to grab it. Even at Safeway I realized I had forgotten my mask but I pulled my shirt up in front of my nose and was allowed to shop. On the way back I stopped at Cold Stone as my kid loves their ice cream.

I stood in line for 20 mins to go into the store. When I got to the front I noticed a sign that said a mask was needed to enter the store. There was a teenager in front of me who I noticed did not have a mask either. When he went inside he just pulled up his t-shirt to his nose and was served. I was the next customer up. When I went in I was told that they could not serve me as I did not have a mask on (again I respect this policy and appreciate Cold Stone trying to keep other customers and employees safe). I pointed to the gentleman in front of me who had done the same thing as me and just pulled his shirt up to his nose. The server then look confused and stumped and immediately proceeded to call the manager.

The manager just looked at me from the end of the store and yelled sorry sir no mask no service. I kept looking at the other guy who had his shirt pulled up in front of his nose and the staff kept staring me down as if I was contaminating the entire store. I did not want to create a scene so I walked away.

Again I do not have an issue with their rule as it is in place for everyone's safety, it was the inconsistent implementation that got to me. The one difference between me and the gentleman in front of me was the fact that he was east Asian teenager (as was most of the staff at this particular store) and I'm a brown man in my 30s.

I don't have a problem with Cold Stone or their policies. They are a company that I have the utmost respect for as they treat their employees well and take a lot of pride in their service as well as product. This store though was a major disappointment. I will not be patronizing this...

I will start with, the ice cream was delicious as always, but I was incredibly bummed by the service. My boys had never been to a Cold Stone, so while we were in the area, I googled and this one came up. Not one smile from the employees. As a customer service trainer, this is the first thing that I noticed. When it was our turn, my boys went up to pick their flavor. Not once did the employees acknowledge them. NOT ONCE! I usually see other Stone Colds greet kids excitingly, so I thought my boys would get some of that today. I kindly let the employee know our four “like it” choices while I smiled at her attempting to change her mood. Her demeanor was that of someone who was annoyed. I looked around at the other employees attempting to make eye contact, but nothing from them either. I was excited to scoot my 3 to the next faze so I brushed it off. I soon realized the viewing window (you know, the part where you get to see them fold and mix in the additional yumminess?) was blocked by jars and jars...2 high...2-3 deep. No way for them too see their Oreos or sprinkles smashed into their ice cream. All three lost interest until they got the ice cream in their hands. I’ve been to Cold Stones all over since discovering them in 1998 and have never come across employees like this. Cold Stone is great at employing individuals who give great customer service. This baffled me so much that, even though I would have loved to sit outside in the sunshine, I sat inside just to observe. It went on like this for the entire 20 minutes it took us to finish our ice cream, which I’ll say again, was DELICIOUS! Cold Stone has great ice cream, but what made Cold Stone famous as an experience was completely lacking today. I regret not leaving a tip, I wonder now if they would’ve sang like a true Cold Stone does :) All I know is that I did not hear them sing once, not sure if they don’t do it, or maybe no...

Absolutely HORRENDOUS customer service. I had to do a doordash delivery today and it consisted of a quart of ice cream as well as a 6 pack of ice cream cupcakes. Not only did they originally just hand me the quart but they made me wait longer for the cupcakes which I legit could’ve just grabbed from the freezer. One of the two workers there said the cupcakes were in the freezer behind me which implies I could’ve grabbed it myself since nobody was doing it for me when they gave me the quart ; I had a past delivery where a worker knew I needed a product in the freezer additionally and got it for me. None of these workers did. So I waited . The other girl who by the way is SUPER disrespectful, asked to take a pic of my doordash order and texted it to her boss because she said she wasn’t sure if she had to make the cupcakes or not. Okay but no. I’m not going to wait longer if you need to make them because you should’ve been prepared when the quart was handed to me. The text in the end was not even remotely necessary because she never updated me on that. I waited some more and finally decided to grab a 6 pack ice cream cupcake out of that freezer because the other worker said they were in there twice . As I take one and walk over to hopefully get a to go bag, the rude girl worker snaps “you can’t just take that. Put it back.” When I was told by her co worker it was in that freezer. Which implies again that I can take it myself. They clearly weren’t doing anything. And I wasn’t “just” taking it. I was taking it for the order they were not prepared with. This girl is beyond rude. She clearly doesn’t even want to be there . They’re very disorganized and lack any sort of urgency for doordash deliveries. And don’t tell me I’m simply taking something from your building when you weren’t prepared AND a worker told me the correct item was in that freezer. So...