Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Why I Shop At Hobby Lobby and NOT Joann's

I love Hobby Lobby. And I used to love Joann's. But a recent experience there showed me just why I will do all my future craft shopping at Hobby Lobby. I do not understand, especially in the age of technology where a dissatisfied customer can cost a company a lot of money by sharing their bad experience don't all have the customer is always right attitude. If nothing else, they should treat the customer KINDLY and with respect.

Here is a copy of a letter I recently sent to Joann's:

I went shopping yesterday at the location in city on street. I was in need of some pink number 10 crochet thread. When I went to the store, you did not have what I was looking for. However, I noticed around the corner that your DMC floss and DMC Perle were on sale. I decided to settle and get something else instead to see if it would work. So I looked to see if there were any exclusions to the sale. There were none. So I grabbed 5 DMC perle and 3 DMC floss. When I got up to the counter to pay, the DMC was wringing up higher than I expected. I was told that was because the variegated floss was not included in the sale. I tried to explain that it said DMC FLOSS was on sale and it did not say there were any exclusions. So while someone was looking into that, the DMC Perle was wrung up. Neither the regular NOR the variegated were wringing up at $1. I again mentioned that there were no exclusions on the sign. So they called the man from the back who I guess was in charge of that area.

While I was waiting in line, about 15 people got in line behind me (this took quite a while).

I was appalled at how I was treated. Most of the time, stores have "the customer is always right" policy. And whenever I am mistaken, the employer GENTLY explains, even SHOWS me what was being talked about. Then they apologize that I was mistaken, and everyone leaves happy. Well this man was so rude to me. When I tried to explain that I had looked on the sign and did not see any exclusions, he said the sign was only right there in front of the DMC floss and not the variegated. If I were to go by only where the sign is, I would have only been able to chose from a small handful of colors. He rudely told me that the sign says "as advertised" and that if I would have looked in the flyer (I am sorry but since moving I have not been on your mailing list and had actually came in to sign up) that I would see it plainly.

I had four kids with me, and a Hobby Lobby just one light away (and actually CLOSER to me than the Joann's) so I didn't buy any floss and left the store one VERY dissatisfied customer.

Hobby Lobby not only has better prices for the same quality, but they have better customer service. Whenever they put up sale signs, they say what it excludes so there is NO misunderstanding. And for those times where I picked up something that was not on sale, thinking it was, they explained NICELY that it did not include what I was wanting to purchase. And if there was a misunderstanding and they were not sure if it was on sale or not, I get it for the sale price. "The customer is always right" rings true with Hobby Lobby and they will be getting all my Joann's business from now on. Not only did Hobby Lobby have what I want, I did not have to settle for something I did not want (like I would have purchasing the DMC floss from Joann's), but I saved a LOT of money because the size ten crochet thread (with 40%off coupon) only cost me just over $1.

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Amen! I feel the same way! Hobby Lobby, woo hoo! Not to mention the owners of Hobby Lobby are Christian and they play Christian music in the store!

:D