Mike N.
Yelp
Well I got a nose piercing and the jewelry for it from Apollo. It failed and fell out of my nose within 10 days. I knew within 10 minutes that it had fallen out, and I went back to search for it at the restaurant that I was eating at (in Bishop, CA) for probably 15 minutes of searching. This was to no avail. I went into Apollo then and explained this to the owner, Blue Mason. He was argumentative with me at the time, saying that 'it was physically impossible for the jewelry to just fall out'. I had no reason to lie to him, I just wanted him to back his service and product. I had the same piercing previously and it fell out after 1 year. I'm a surfer and was not that surprised by all the ocean exposure. In this case, I was in the desert so I didn't think 10 days was anything but a failure in the jewelry. He tells me that he has never heard of that in 18 years. Yeah, right, none of the jewelry ever failed. But eventually, he said to come back in a couple weeks after it healed and he would replace it.
So I call to go back after a few months since I am not local. He then goes into his argument again. So he tells me I have to buy the nose ring again which was $60 and he'd pierce it for free. Wait a minute, why would I want that nose ring again? I had my own from the previous piercing, but he refused to use it. I explain that I'm 52, I'm not broke and I have no reason to lie to him. But he goes and calls me a liar anyway. He tells me I'm skewing the story in my favor so I can get "free jewelry". He should back up his service, his product, and what he told me previously, but he'd rather argue with a paying customer, and save himself the $30 or less he paid for that nose ring. He goes on to tell me that I must of caught it on a bandana at Burning Man(even though it was a pretty windless year), or that I was messed up to the point that I don't remember. I'm sorry friend, that's a big accusation to someone you do not know. I do remember everything that happened to me in those 10 days. My piercing was sensitive, and had I caught it on something, I would have remembered the pain. But then he says, "no you wouldn't have, I took so many shrooms at Burning Man when I went, there was plenty of times I don't remember." This is the owner of Apollo Tattoo & Piercing, Blue Mason.
He continues to argue til he's 'blue' in the face, that the jewelry wouldn't just come out, that I would have felt it come out of my nose, "like snot". I have to repeat what happened to him several times because he keeps making up scenarios of what could have happened to me and the piercing he gave me. It was like a high school kid coming up with new lies to his parents while trying to talk his way out of trouble.
So, it's clear now that he's going back on his word, so I turn my car around and tell him that I'm going to do a charge back on my credit card if that's what he's gonna do now. Then he starts going into this thing about credit card chargeback fraud and that he is recording this conversation and going to send it the credit card company. Now I'm being accused of fraud, oh really???
According to California Invasion of Privacy Act, my friend, you are now guilty of a misdemeanor that could mean paying me $5000, and up to one year in jail. So really, keeping your customer happy for a failed piece of jewelry that you sold in the first place is not more important than that $30 nose ring that you say never fail in 18 years. He must be from Palos Verdes, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, or Beverly Hills cuz only someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth would act like that. Don't come to Hawaii bro, because your Aloha is non-existent!!!!
