Cobblestone Cottage

This is the first time I have written a negative review about any business but the owner of this business should win an award for sheer disregard for her customers. Sure, there are some glowing reviews but the underlying message in a significant number of these reviews is that 'they are not nice'. It is apparent that this culture flows from the owner Kathy, down to her General Manager Jamee and then evidently trickles down to most of the staff. Not all, but most. Read the reviews...they all can't be wrong. Kathy claims to come into the store when she can to hear her customers sing their praises. She might consider taking a moment to visit the internet...there's not much singing going on there.

Yesterday I sent an e-mail to Kathy and Jamee asking them about two recent situations that were shared with me by two people I had referred to their store. I explained that I wasn't looking to place blame but merely wanted to know their side of the story. I waited until 2PM for a response which never came. I called the store, waited on hold for five minutes, and then asked Jamee if in fact they had received my e-mail. She said they had and it was up on her screen. I then told her that the nature of my call was to merely see if they received my e-mail and that she could take her time to read it and I would wait for a response. She said she was going to put me on speaker phone and I immediately asked who was in the room. In addition to Jamee there was Kathy and a person described as the store manager. I again repeated that they could take their time, read the e-mail and that I would wait for a response. They were not budging and Kathy had no intention of reading the e-mail and told me so. She made a comment or two about one of the situations I wrote about and then said 'this is silly'.

Imagine that, I took time to write, called to see if my message was received, was presented with one or two lines of brilliant business acumen and then was basically dismissed by Kathy. I wished them a good day and terminated the call. I may have been dead wrong in the facts I presented in my e-mail but stated that and asked only for an explanation from their store. They didn't think I deserved one.

It's always puzzling when a business claims how long they have been 'making people happy' in this case since 1987. It's even more puzzling when these businesses forget that the children of the people they were making happy in 1987 are now the people coming to their store and spending their money. Their parents, for the most part are no longer their primary customer base. The culture of this store seems to be stuck in the 1980's and although successful for many years back then now have competition all over the neighborhood as well as the internet. They won't go out of business because I won't shop there anymore and I can certainly find what is in their store in many others...complete with a smile.