If I could give below one star, trust, I would.
I opened up a yelp.com account for the specific purpose of exposing the nightmare that is Michaels on upper Greenville Avenue in Dallas.
At about 6PM this evening, I ventured to the local Michaels to pick up a few things for my classroom. The store was clean enough, yet things were a bit hard to find. This however, is not why I'm upset.
As expected, there were only two cashiers open to check out the line of about five people when I walked up. Completely understandable--I'm thinking not a lot of people have crafting emergencies at 6PM on a Saturday. As a teacher, I get a discount on my purchases, which is pretty much the only reason I came tonight (I was at Hobby Lobby for fabric earlier, and could have easily pick up what I needed there). Before the the girl started ringing up my items, I notified her that I was a teacher, and showed her my badge.
After the transaction, the girl placed the receipt in my bag even though I asked for it in hand. I had some pretty heavy items, (two glass pieces) so I was unable to look at the receipt until I walked back to my car. I loaded up my crap, and low and behold, the girl did not give me my discount. I walked back to the store and stood to the side of the line that was now about ten people deep. Now, I'm not stupid, nor am I disrespectful, so I made eye contact with another girl checking out and asked her if I needed to get back in line, or if I needed to get a manager to refund the money that I was overcharged. The girl didn't seem to know what to do (more like didn't want to offer any help), and sure, I could have gotten back in line, but I didn't.
I walked to the back and just so happened to run into the customer service manager. I told her that my teacher's discount was not applied, and that the girls at the front would not help me. Instead of immediately rectifying the situation, Vicki asks me: "Well, if you knew you got a discount, why didn't you tell her before you checked out?"
She walks me up to the girl who originally checked me out--explaining that it was her (the girl) fault for not giving the discount and asked her to return the items. Knowing that there was a pretty big line, I was concerned about taking up the girl's time and asked why the customer service manager didn't just help the situation--she wasn't busy, and it is her department. She left me with the girl, who was unapologetic for her error and acted like I was an inconvenience.
Immediately to my right, I hear two men negatively discussing the situation: "Look at her texting on her phone, she obviously doesn't care that there was a line and just jumped right in," etc, in harsher words. I turned around to the couple and tell them that I was sorry for cutting and that I asked the girls what to do and that the customer service representative brought me to the register to issue a refund, to which the man says, "I wasn't talking to you, bitch!" I was honestly taken a back, and embarrassed. Why didn't Vicki explain to the other disgruntled customers why I was "cutting" in front of them? Why didn't Vicki just do the return herself? Why was I even shopping at Michaels, when I had previously read about the poor service on yelp.com? So many questions, no answers.
VIcki comes back up with another employee--still oblivious to the fact that the line is long, and people are becoming combative. I tell her what just happened in her store, due to her decision, and how the whole ordeal has almost brought me to tears. She tells me, "Oh, maybe I should have informed the line about your return." pats me on the shoulder, and walks off.
Velcro, stamps, and a bitch out later, I am HIGHLY unsatisfied with the company, and wish I was offered a better resolution, and or remedy to the problem. Instead, I was embarrassed, berated, and ignored for a crummy company's crummy customer service.
My final opinion is that Michaels' is the true bitch in this scenario, not me. read more