Michael's: Please join the 21st century (or get better customer service)

[Hemlock140]

You are talking about Michael's. These are employees that make minimum wage and are just there because they don't want the stigma of working at McDonalds. When dealing with them, Jo-Ann, and the like you have to tell them exactly what to do and then follow up. You should have called the other store to have them help or even pay in advance. This is not Nordstrom
or Macy's.

[nikitakolata]

Originally Posted by Voyageuse

I always say that if I die and go to Hell, I'll spend eternity waiting in line at Michael's on Christmas Eve.

LOL, I agree! I don't know what Michael's stores are like in other parts of the country, but every single time I go to one in the Chicago area there is a huge line and the two slowest cashiers in the world. It doesn't matter what location I go to, they are apparently all extremely slow and there seems to always be a long line.

I've pretty much stopped going to Michaels unless I'm desperate to get something right then. The internet has become my friend for crafting these days. Of course, the tools and supplies I need to make jewelry these days are a little too specialized for Michael's, anyway.

[football45013]

Never been the artsy type, but went to a festival last fall where among other things, a guy was selling hand-crafted leather goods. Thought it seemed interesting and decided to buy me a leather-making tool kit a couple of weeks ago. Went into Hobby Lobby and then Michaels and talk about a world of difference. Again, I'm far from an expert on craft stores, as this was even the first time I had ever stepped foot into either store. But Hobby Lobby blew Michaels out of the water. Hobby Lobby was much bigger, had a much better selection of product and was much cleaner and better organized than Michaels. The Michaels I went to was outdated looking, messy (paint splattered on the floor), very unorganized and had much less product than Hobby Lobby.

[hotzcatz]

Well, we don't have either one, so I can't compare them. We have several yarn stores on the island, though, so we can still get our yarn fix.

I got tired of trying to find the right yarn and learned how to make it. It's rather easy to spin fiber into yarn and then you can get exactly what you want. So much easier than trying to find just the right yarn for a project. And, should you run out, you can always make more.

The other option is to keep a stash of yarn so when you need more, there's some on hand. If you find a good deal on yarn, buy enough for several projects and then you can keep the yarn and enjoy it as yarn for awhile before making it into something. Watch out for "SABLE", though. That's Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy."

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

You are talking about Michael's. These are employees that make minimum wage and are just there because they don't want the stigma of working at McDonalds. When dealing with them, Jo-Ann, and the like you have to tell them exactly what to do and then follow up. You should have called the other store to have them help or even pay in advance. This is not Nordstrom
or Macy's.

Just discovered this thread. I worked for both Michael's and Jo-Ann. People don't seem to understand what these chains are all about - it ain't like the old days. Their goal is to pay as little as possible and profit as much as possible, thus the low-wage workers and high turnover with minimal customer service. Managers have the task of constantly training new employees on top of their assigned tasks which are designed to require more time than they have on the clock. They get good at sweeping things under the rug for periodic walk-through "inspections" which are mainly designed to frighten employees into cleaning up. Their automated inventory replenishing system is seldom accurate, but employees must rely on it.

Employees are all part-time to avoid paying benefits, and some work as little as one day per week. Only managers have benefits like health care and the rest are on their own - hopefully depending on their spouses for such benefits.
Knowledgeable people who know the product and the system, except for a few, are a thing of the past. There is high employee turnover by design and, since they are marketing to millions of people, they don't care much about a few dissatisfied customers. As you say, for the employee it is a slightly better environment than working fast food.

[Sculptor]

Originally Posted by campion

but that a store about 30 minutes away (in Delaware) had 29 skeins of it. Or that I could special order it and wait two weeks (? two weeks, really?).

The other store had 29 skeins at the time that salesperson checked, but just because at that time the inventory said 29 skeins doesn't mean it was updated that hour to reflect exactly what was there on the shelf. Spot inventory checks is rarely that accurate which is why most businesses do an annual complete inventory check to correct the inevitable errors of one product being entered into the tally as "sold out" or "29 in stock" when the stock number for it was one digit off by accident.

Two weeks is certainly not out of line, it used to be standard for all mail-order items back in the pre 1990s to allow for 6-8 weeks for for delivery. It's an outside number, it could very well get there much sooner.

The issue is you go to a store and buy a product, you don't know how big a seller that exact item is, maybe they sell ONE a year, maybe they sell 300 a day. Two weeks may be needed to get the items from the distributor or the manufacturer if they don't have them in stock at the store.

On the one a year items it's possible the manufacturer discontinued it and you go back to the store to buy more and they can't get more- typical of Menards etc who buy closeouts and discontinued product lines which is one reason their prices are so cheap- buy all you need right then because the next time you go they might not even carry that item any more, I found that to be the case with Menards and new windows for my house, I bought all I needed but one got broken a week later, I went back to get another one and they no longer carry that BRAND let alone that window and they would not special order one.

Their inventory said that they had 10 of them in stock, they had exactly ZERO and the salesman and I walked all over the store for an hour looking in all the stockrooms and warehouse areas for them.

So today I drove to another state (I'm close to the border of DE) to go to the Michael's that supposedly had all this yarn that I wanted. I got there, the bin was empty. The store manager told me I should have asked them to "hold" the yarn for me. No, the customer service people at the other store should have known to do that. That's their job, isn't it? If they're going to suggest I go 20 miles, to another state, to buy said yarn, they ought to be checking on these things.

Sorry, but it's NOT the job of one salesperson to know exactly what another store's inventory, hours, or product lines are- most of these big stores are FRANCHISES, independently owned, the salesperson was trying to be helpful by suggesting something and it's NOT their job to check another store for you, you have a phone- use it and call before you go because someone could have bought all they had on hand earlier that day unknown to that salesperson who helped you.

Now I'm stuck, not able to continue my project, because I have to wait two weeks to get the darn yarn I want. All because Michael's isn't modern enough to sell their goods online like every other big box store in the country.

If you check, you'll find most of those big box stores don't ship a lot of things they sell on line, all you can do is order, pay and go to the store to pick it up, they tout "free shipping" but it's free shipping to the STORE! What kind of crazy garbage is that?? free shipping to THEIR OWN STORE???? they are supposed to carry inventory to sell, we don't care how they get it there and people should never pay extra to get a product shipped to the store, so of course it would be free.

For big box stores to do on-line sales, unless you go to pick up the items they would have to have a whole other department to deal with mail order and shipping, as well as shipping damage claims and returns, most people who buy things at big box stores (Menards, Lowes etc) aren't going to order plywood, furniture, sheetock, lumber, their new shower etc on-line, they go to the store to pick the items up.