Date: 10/16/09 6:17 PM

After experiencing the joys of online fabric buying and the high quality you get, and great customer service I have received, I rarely go into a JoAnns if I can at all help it.

I have spent so much money in the past at JoAnns, and have been a loyal customer, and received very poor service. This is not against all JoAnn employees and I know a lot of the ladies are great... (and I am not against JoAnns per se either, I think this one location is poorly managed...)

Yesterday, I forced myself in there specifically going WAY out of my way to do it. I had remembered that there was a Vogue pattern sale three days only starting on the 15th.

Total waste of driving time in bad traffic. When I got there, they didn't think there was a sale. They had no ads left, for some reason, to prove it one way or the other.

I was pretty sure I was right, but didn't bring the whole ad with me. So, I had to leave with nothing.

Well, today, a day into the three day sale, I notice right on the back of my flyer, the ad for the three day sale on Vogue Patterns and yesterday was the first day of the sale. The 15th through the 17th.

One lady had tried to be helpful, but the condescension of the girl behind the customer service desk was terrible. She said with conviction, there ARE no patterns on sale right now. You missed the simplicity sale from last week. She smirked when I said I wanted to see a flyer.

Does anyone else have this experience? It seems I just can't get a break sometimes. There are no other fabric stores near me that run special's on Vogue patterns. Maybe, I just need to accept bad service or pay the high/full prices:-)

I am not upset, It just doesn't seem fair (at this moment comtemplating going all the way back to get the patterns I want) that I went all the way in there for nothing yesterday, and it wasn't my mistake...

Then I went to another fabric store right after, (not for patterns) again, stood at the counter with purchases for a long time. There was no one working the counter and the two girls working in the store were cutting fabric. There were only maybe 5 people in the whole store, including the employees. Two people at the cutting counter both being helped with fabric and auxiliary questions about their projects. One girl, looked and yelled, be there in a minute, and then didn't bother. So, after a looooong time, I left THAT store with nothing because it got to where I couldn't just stand there anymore... It wasn't reasonable anymore.
Oh weellll... just wanted to comiserate. No one in my immediate circle sews or deals with this:-)

-- Edited on 10/16/09 6:21 PM --

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Date: 10/16/09 6:20 PM

It is spelled Ad - I know!
Bad day spelling too?:-)

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Date: 10/16/09 6:43 PM

Well, it may not have helped to have the ad. I stopped by Joann's today to pick up two new Marcy Tilton patterns (released on Oct 3) -- nothing available. Clearly this Joann's either hadn't received or displayed the new patterns. Bleah. Glad it wasn't my only errand.

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Patti

R-r-r-ripping my way to fitting success

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Date: 10/16/09 7:51 PM

MY gosh! A similar thing happened to me yesterday. I drove to JA, was only 1 of 3 customers, browsed the patterns for awhile, and then picked p the 3 Vogues I wanted. When I went up to the counter, they were unaware of a sale. I asked her to scan the bar codes, and what do you know? $3.99 ea! It's a sad day when the employees are trained by the customers.

Sorry you were disappointed.

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Date: 10/16/09 7:55 PM

I hardly ever shop in there either, they just don't have the quality, or the customer service. I used to at least go in for patterns, then they never seemed to have what I wanted in my size, and the online stores have started having great sales of their own. I really only go in for notions, except thread, I dont' like the new Coats and Clark.
So, I basically don't go in ever anymore.

Last month dh needed about 10 yds of sew on velcro, he needed it right away and I was really busy but offered to drive the trip and get it anyway. He offered to just stop and grab it himself, but I said "no no, that OK, I will get it tomorrow". Now he was suspicious, so he stopped on his way home. He gets home about 45 minutes late, his first question when he walked in the door was "How much money do we give those people every year?". When I laughed and asked why he said, "Now I know where the people who are too dumb to work at the DMV go". In their defense, he isn't the most patient person...

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http://beccabeckstuff.blogspot.com/

"Clothes do not exist to humiliate their owners. Please do not force garments into performing psychological tasks for which they are not designed." Tim Gunn, A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style

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Date: 10/16/09 8:37 PM

Update:
I just went to a totally different location and they didn't know about the sale either! I brought the ad with me. The sales lady did NOT believe me even when she was holding the ad in her hands and staring at it. She was suspicious until she rang it up. You see, yesterday I was not in the mood to stand in line forever without my ad with $120 worth of patterns in my hand only to be told no - so I went directly to customer service.
Anyway, I got my patterns, and since everyone thinks there is no sale the stock was full (but in the wrong drawers)... at first I was like whaat? Then I checked all the drawers and found a whole segment of pattern numbers out of order. I saved $124.53 on $30 and $27.50 priced patterns, according to my receipt, for all this trouble. Actually, I could get them online for 40% off that. Does anyone know where the best place, besides JoAnn's, to get patterns way discounted?
These are mostly for a friend of mine who will be visiting from Canada as a gift.

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Reply to Re Becca
Date: 10/16/09 8:40 PM

My husband says the same thing about the money! He sometimes shops with me because he is into amateur rocketry and needs prachute material.

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Reply to marec
Date: 10/16/09 8:43 PM

Wow - glad you got your patterns though. I wonder why this sale slipped by everyone? Really weird!

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Reply to Terri A
Date: 10/16/09 9:04 PM

It might be hard to believe, but my nearest Joann's, 45 miles away, which has a grand total of three visible employees (one of whom answered that she had never heard of Burda patterns when I asked her where the cabinet had been moved), had all the new patterns I wanted. They were even in more or less the correct drawers. For this particular store, this whole scenario is extraordinary (Oxnard, CA, for those in the vicinity).

I really think Joann's and Hancocks may be the only source of truly discounted patterns, but the business is such that it would be prudent always to phone about in-stock patterns before driving in for a sale, and always bring along the flyer, as well. It's just 'defensive purchasing.'

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Reply to Terri A
Date: 10/16/09 9:38 PM

Yes indeed - living in Canada there is no JoAnns but a very similar store and I have been through your day more than once. I love some of the sales people and then there are others whom I cannot think of any reason why they chose (or have been chosen) to work with the public.

I do wonder if they realise with no returning customers -because of bad customer service - THERE WILL BE NO STORE TO WORK IN!!! I can truly understand their being busy but many times it is seems more just that don't give a single darn about the buying public or are having some problem with their employer. So sorry if I sound harsh but that's the impression I and others have been given. I could give you actual incidents I have encountered but will spare you

I find I am buying more on line and that's not good thing!!

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