Dona’s Hallmark Shop

When I asked about the store hours, the old lady literally rolled her eyes and groaned. Wow, sorry for ruining your day. Get your shit together, lady. Not going in there again.

Nice spacious store where you can browse at your leisure. I went to look for some items that were recently released and I found some of the items I was looking for. When I asked whether or not they expected a future order for the other items, I didn’t get much help other than it’ll probably be ordered. Oh well, at least I was able to get some of the items.

Expensive! And it often can be hard to find the things you’re looking for. Staff are often in the back of the store taking care of stuff, and sometimes they don’t notice you came in. I realize it’s hallmark so i should have known it would be expensive. I love the location of this store though and it’s very handy to have around. Parking can be a struggle though, especially on the Weekends

I used to enjoy shopping here under the previous owner, like the variety of cards, gift wrap and unique gifts. The staff weren’t overly friendly or helpful unless one would approach them, but with the new owner the staff has gotten worse. One can walk by the cash out desk and they’re usually so busy talking between themselves they’re oblivious to customers. I also don’t like the remodel.

my preferred place to shop when i’m in need of a greeting card. this is one of the few hallmark stores that i know of in the peninsula, so when i’m in san carlos, i usually drop by to see what they have on their shelves. aside from a diverse selection of birthday, anniversary, wedding, and other occasion cards, they carry a large stock of gift items, soft toys, candies, and seasonal products. the ladies who work here are super friendly and helpful. i definitely recommend coming here for the selection of merchandise as well as good customer service.

I like this Hallmark store for some of their great prices on box cards. They have a variety of items great for little gifs and such. The store is located in the heart of the street of downtown San Carlos which makes it super convenient to visit.

I called ahead of time and they told me they close at 6:30. I rushed over after work got there at 6:20 and the doors were already locked. The ladies looked at me through the window rudely motioning that they were closed. Last time I depend on them for a gift.

I’ve been shopping here since we moved to San Carlos in 2006 and have almost always had a good experience with the staff. We buy the Hallmark ornaments every year, and I generally pop in about once every two weeks. Not as many ‘edgy’ cards as I would like, but it *is* a Hallmark store

They close at 5:30 on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. Enough said. The owner said we are closed while I was shopping but let me pick out another card pay and leave. Toy shop across the way will get all the business they miss out on and rightfully so.

This is the only Hallmark store I will shop at. They ladies are friendly and always attentive, they have a nice selection of stationary for any occasion especially for the size of the store. I will always come here to support Michael and his employees.

Nothing short of horrible.
My previous review was deleted/​removed/​whatever for reasons unknown.
So I will keep this very short: I have never been treated with this much disrespect by any store owner since I was, say, four years old. Some bad stuff went down there. I’ll leave it at that. You can ask if you want.

People here have bipolar disorder.
Rude customer service, I don’t even need a compelling story, just read the other reviewer’s remarks.

I don’t write many reviews – only ones that are exceptional in some way, good or bad. Dona’s Hallmark Store on Laurel Street in San Carlos is one of the exceptionally good places around. Not only is their merchandise fresh and appealing, but I’ve found the service extremely helpful and friendly. If you’re looking for something specific, they’ll go out of their way to help you find it, and offer suggestions when appropriate.
AND – they are offering free «Cards for the Cure» to support the Susan G. Komen organization to help find a cure for breast cancer. What a class act.

My husband and I used to attend Collector Club Meetings until about two months ago at Dona’s Hallmark in San Carlos, CA. On the morning of one of the meetings in March, I called to ask if we could attend since I had not RSVP’d the week before. Beth, who manages the club for the store, said that she did not have enough food and we could not come. I told her that we could eat at home and come later since they were going to discuss the upcoming summer Hallmark event. She repeated a vehement «NO.»
After a couple of days went by, I discussed her rude attitude with my husband. I then called the store and told Maya, another employee, that we no longer wanted to be part of Beth’s group since she had a very discourteous attitude about what happened. My husband waited a couple of weeks and wrote the owner, Michael, a letter about her attitude. The letter also discussed other customer service issues that we had noticed on occasion with her. When she’s in a good mood, she’s really nice; when she’s not in a good mood, it is readily apparent.
We thought that what we had encountered was singular to us until we read other reviews about her on this site. So, we thought that we would share our experience. What we have surmised is that to be part of the «in crowd» at that store, we need to spend a lot more money. We used to be huge shoppers of ornaments and have obviously slowed down over the years simply because we’re running out of space. Everything is all about the money these days, and one would think that no matter what a customer spends in a store, he/​she is still considered a valuable customer.
It is interesting because my husband received no answer from Michael, the owner of this store. So, that says to us that he agrees with her behavior and decision in the way that she treated us. And that’s not okay. We went another step further and asked Hallmark to remove us from advertising that is tied to Dona’s Hallmark in San Carlos. Evidently, by consistently shopping in the future at the Bridgepoint Hallmark Store in San Mateo, the advertising will switch to that store since we have discontinued shopping at Dona’s even though it is more convenient.
We are also sharing our very discourteous experience with our friends so that they can take their business to the store in San Mateo. The critical point is that neither Beth nor Michael considered that an apology was in order. As they say, what goes around, comes around. All customers need to be treated respectfuly no matter how much they spend.

This place is terrible. I love Hallmark stores but this is a disgrace to the name. I was in the store on Sun and the little red haired lady literally followed me around the store. My husband inquired about possible sale items since the items were one sale at EVERY OTHER HALLMARK and the lady said «why don’t we go to the other Hallark then» I think she thought she was being funny but as a customer we were amazed at such poor service and regard for our business. I am relunctantly giving one star for the selection. But please go where you will be valued as a customer & not watched and spoken rude to. San Carlos can be a snobby place to shop and this store only further ruins San Carlos rep as a friendly place to shop. I will never go there again & Will spread the word– in fact I have done over 300.00 in business there in 2008 and wish I could take it all back. They have gortten worse…

I had a terrible experience with this place and I will never go back to this Hallmark and will be sure to let everyone that I know about how horrible this place is. Never in my life have i been teated like this in a Hallmark.
I walked up to the counter with my products and put it on the counter, the lady walked away from me and then came back to me about 30 seconds later or so and told me that she would not ring me up until I got off my cell phone. Beth is her name. So I proceded to go to the side of the counter so that any other customer could get rung up. They did not know that my co worker was with me and proceded to talk about me as if I was not there. Very loudly they were saying how rude I was for talking on my phone and who did I think I was!!! I been a Hallmark customer for many many years and to be treated like this is not OK. My co worker asked them why they would talk about me like that especially right in front of me. Its not like I made a scene about getting ringed up while on my phone, I stepped aside. So to be treated like this is unacceptable and this store is really making Hallmarks look bad. Every other Hallmark that I have been to the people are usually very pleasant and nice so this came as a big shock for me. They defended there behavior by saying «its just rude, its just rude to be on your cell phone». Well I think its rude to talk to customers that way! Regardless if they think its rude to be on your cell phone in line, you DO NOT tell the customer that! There names were Beth, Carole and Beverly, All horrible representations of Hallmark Stores. Also the owner Michael Langley was not much better.
Also if you go to insider pages you can see all the other bad reviews this year on these disgusting women.

I never knew there was a full fledged Hallmark store in San Carlos until I needed to find some cards. The staff were pretty helpful whenever you had questions. I was desperately looking for a silken white ribbon as part of a gag gift, to wrap a gift a la Tiffany’s. The gentleman working there went to the back and pulled out all the recent shipment of ribbons to find if one was delivered. That was great service and I’ve been coming back ever since!

This store is not friendly to children despite having many wonderful toys for kids. The staff were very rude and condescending on a recent visit and «stalked» us and our friends in the aisles, staring at our school aged children as if they didn’t trust them, despite our supervising our kids. There were many gifts my friend and I were mentally making note of that our kids wanted, but given the behavior of the staff, who didn’t say a word to us but nonetheless gave us rude stares, we will not be returning to this store. I recommend that if you wish to go to this store, leave your children at home (even well behaved kids as ours are) as the staff do not appear to want them there.

Small mama and papa shop. I love this place mostly because of the post office. There is another post office down the street but that place is packed. The line was so long I hated it. This place, the guy was friendly, nice and best of all… there were no lines. Should I be telling you all this?

I can’t even believe I am Unilocaling about a Hallmark store… but yeah. I am. Wandering around SC today… we saw this Hallmark shop that’s one or two shops down from the Speederia pizza place where we grubbed on lunch.
Now I’m a confessed Christmas dork and so while I don’t actually like to be any of the hordes shopping the sales after Xmas… if I just happen to be wandering down a street with pizza grease on my lips and see an open Hallmark shop with big 50% off Christmas signs everywhere, can you really blame a gal for parking her hubby on a bench nearby and heading in??? Nahh didn’t think so.
I scored some sweet deals on wrapping paper and the like, I *love* not having to pay full price for Xmas wrapping paper! Service was friendly and fast… some gal even broke some type of strange Christmas porcelain item in her Christmas-​sale-​lust and they didn’t even make her pay for it. Drinks all around!