Saturday, 06 November 2010
We made another trip to Michaels today.
Last week, we visited their custom framing department to inquire about getting three pictures framed. This would have cost over $400. Yikes! Did I mention that was with the non-fancy frame style and did not include glass? Yep. The employee told us they do have 50% off sales all the time, which makes sense, because I can’t imagine anyone pays full price. We sure didn’t.
Instead, my wife went online and selected the frames we needed. For less than $80, we bought all three frames (and this time it included glass). The problem was, it did not include spacers.
Spacers, for those who don’t know (and I sure didn’t) are little pieces that hide between the glass and the picture (tucked behind the frame) that keep the print off the glass.
No problem, we thought, we’ll just pick some up at Michaels.
So today, we stopped at the apostrophe-starved store and my wife went in while I waited in the car with our two miniature versions. She came back ~10 minutes later empty-handed. Turns out, Michaels does have spacers, but they only sell them in with custom framing orders. When they asked my wife if she bought her frames from Michaels, she said no (have I mentioned she’s honest to a fault?), and they said that they couldn’t sell them to her.
Fine, if they don’t want our money, we’ll take it elsewhere.
We ventured over to Gallery Editions. The sign on their window said they are open until 5:00 but, even though it was only 4:45, the doors were locked and the lights were out. A sign on the door said that they had to adopt shorter hours, including closing on Saturdays at…5:00.
Um…if the economy is cutting into your hours, Gallery Editions, maybe you should at least stay open as long as your signs say. That way you could have made some money off of us.
Sunday, 07 November 2010
Today was sure to be a good day, as we were determined not to go to Michaels. Instead, I stopped at Deck the Walls, a store that, despite claims to the contrary on their website, were not willing to help me ‘created my masterpiece.’
We also stopped at Things Remembered. After the teenage employee got off the phone with her BFF, I asked her if she could stitch our daughter’s name on a new blanket we purchased. She said they can only customize blankets that were purchased in their store. I said, “Oh, you must’ve changed your policy in the last few years,” and she said, “yeah.” Then my wife said something super sarcatic to her (that’s the kind of thing that makes up for her überhonesty, which is a word I just made up so that I could use an umlaut), and we walked out of that store.
I gotta say, though, I’m kind of happy that the girl refused our money. She didn’t exactly make me feel confident. She was a typical gum-chewing, hair twirling ditz who was gabbing away on the phone when we walked into her store, despite the fact that other customers were there, presumably looking for assistance. She only got off the phone because I just walked right up to the counter and stared at her until she said to her friend: “Well, I have to go now, yeah, okay, talk to you later, okay, mm-hm, yep, bye.” For some reason, she just didn’t exude “You can trust me with your family heirlooms.”
I guess I’m saying this because, thanks to that girl, I have no intention of returning to Things Remembered for any reason. If I need something customized, I’ll go somewhere where the employees at least seem competent and ready to help.
Wow, you have had a lot of bad experiences in stores lately. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, that if there are so many people out of work, why are the people WITH jobs so incompetent? Plus can’t tell time…
I hope you are sending letters to these store telling them of what you have experienced.
I have sent letters to companies in the past, and I’ve often gotten gift cards for my letters. In the past few years, though, I haven’t received any such recompenses for my troubles, so I’ve kind of given up on writing to stores. Most stores now just prefer that you email them, and then I never hear back.