rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

[Claire Hallman]

Yesterday during that less than super, superbowl I decided to order some batting from Joanne since they had 48 cent shipping and their batting was on sale.
I found a roll of batting for $8 which I was sure was a mistake but ordered it anyway figuring they would deny the order immediately. I got a confirmation and was very pleased.
Today after the sale and shipping special is all over I got an email saying they could not honor the price due to an error. Of course they did not offer to still ship for the bargain price and the 50% off coupon they did offer me is available everywhere, all the time so therefore no real compensation and I still don't have any batting at a good price.

I sent them this e-mail in reply:

I am hardly a valued customer if you feel this is a fair or equitable recompense for not honoring an order that was placed and confirmed.
Because of the delay in responding to this order not only will I not get what I needed/ordered but I have also missed out on the 48cent shipping and the batting sale that was going on yesterday but is no longer available.
I have no intention of shopping with your online department again and will only use your actual store if there is no other choice which will be rare since there are so many other places to shop.
I also plan on spreading the word about your poor service.

A very unhappy customer,
Claire

Maybe I was expecting too much to get the batting roll at that price but I do expect something more than a tardy email in reply.

Sorry, rant over.

[kensington]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

Well, the thing is, most of the ordering sites from Big stores to small business's have an automatic computer generated response to orders. Sadly, unless it was out of stock you would not get a fast response. Just keep in mind, if it sounds TOO good to be true, it probably is. Like on the 8.00 for a roll of batting. Sorry.

[Claire Hallman]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

Sadly, unless it was out of stock you would not get a fast response. Just keep in mind, if it sounds TOO good to be true, it probably is. Like on the 8.00 for a roll of batting. Sorry.

Actually I didn't expect to get it for that price until I didn't get the "out of stock" response. Then I feel they should have honored the price once the order was confirmed.

[vchale]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

I won't be ordering online from Joanne's anymore. I placed an order recently and one if the items I ordered was 108" muslin for backing. I ordered 3 yards and instead I got 2 pieces, one 2 yds and another 1. I then discovered not only can I not take it back locally I would have to pay return shipping. I intentionally ordered yardage big enough not to have to piece so I will now have to use it for smaller quilts. Lesson learned.

[Kgrammiecaz]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

I saw that online at $8.00 because I was looking for batting as well. However, I am one that is over cautious - and if it sounds to good to be true - its probably wrong and I do not want the hassle of dealing with it.

If I receive a wrong order, I just tape up the box how I received it, and return to sender. Then email them to let them know I sent it back and for them to fill my order correctly. It has worked for me this way. Not sure if it was a fluk.

[Auntpiggylpn]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

I refuse to order on line from them also. The last 2 times I ordered fabric on line, I was looking for a specific fabric. I had to pay postage so I added other fabrics to make the shipping worthwhile. I got an order confirmation and that was the last I heard from them until my order was delivered; WITHOUT the fabrics that I really needed! On the I closed invoice, there was a compute red generated message that some of my fabrics were out of stock and that part of my ordered had been cancelled. If I had known the fabrics I really wanted weren't going to be sent, I would have cancelled my orders. I did call their customer service and was told that they do notify the customer if their order is going to be altered. I laughed!!! I was very blunt told them that wasn't true and I would no longer be using their on line services and I had already limited my shopping in their brick & mortar store also because of their practices and lack of good quality customer service. The customer service person didn't seem to care. . .

[Suzette]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

Yep, I'm an "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" kind of gal too, but in this case, I do agree with you Claire. You had your guard up, but they DID confirm your order and so should have honored it even if it was their mistake. That's just good business. It would have been better to take a bit of a loss on those orders than to foster the ill-will that they did by handling it as poorly as they did.

We are all going to see this a little bit differently, but I do agree with you because I see it exactly as you do and I think you handled it well with your letter. It may not do any good (in fact, I am pretty sure it won't since this is a big chain and they often don't care about customers, just the bottom line because somehow they have never made the obvious and intelligent connection between happy customers and better bottom lines!), but at least you had your say and got it off your chest.

[Iris Girl]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

I understand exactly what you are saying Claire. And I agree they should have sent it to you and too the loss they confirmed it. Instead they have lost a customer and bad word of mouth spreads faster then good word of mouth. Had a similar thing happen to me with a motorcycle store. I have been looking for a pink helmet forever and this one place *always* has it in stock. I have ordered it 3 times and been confirmed with a shipping delivery date only to get told out of stock... Oh wait I did get one but it was a childs small instead of an adult small. Just a tad to small for me. So because of that I will never order from them again anything. and they keep sending all kinds of coupons and free shipping info..

[morningsun]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

Claire,
This was JoAnn Fabrics error and they should have honored their online price. Certainly, they would have lost money on the batting but honoring their pricing error and keeping a "valued customer" for life would have been really cheap advertising for them. You were already their customer. They didn't have to go out and find you! The only thing more expensive to a business than finding a customer is losing one. Any brick and mortar, online business or service industry spends a fortune in advertising to find, entice and retain customers. Customer RETENTION is always the cheapest and most profitable return on investment any business can make and referrals are platinum to them! Anyone involved in business knows this, or at least they should. The price should have been honored and JoAnn should have sent you a pleasant email informing you they had made the error and were standing by their pricing mistake. You wouldn't have cared if that email was a little tardy. By doing so you would have felt they cared about you. In addition, JoAnn Fabric should have seized the opportunity to go the extra mile by upgrading your shipping or offered a future discount coupon as an apology for the misunderstanding and inconvenience. You would have been thrilled and maybe you would have posted a raving review on this forum about your online experience and how fabulous JoAnn's customer service is! They would have had a loyal and thrilled customer for life. The old adage "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is," might be sound advice to heed when shopping at a garage sale but it should never apply to a valuable customer like yourself and many of JoAnn's other past customers posting here. The other adage "the customer is always right" is far more profitable to them. If a retailer makes a mistake they should not only acknowledge it but stand by it and get the error corrected to the customer's satisfaction. Had this retailer done that you would most likely be purchasing batting and many other items from JoAnn Fabric for years to come. As a consumer, we have the power of the purse and many of us do choose to use it when we are treated like this.

[HandsomeRyan]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

Online and in the stores the "Warm &..." battings are listed as "100% Cotton" but if you read the package both the & White and & Natural they are both 12.5% polyester. It isn't a huge deal but they really should change the labels to reflect the change in the product. I like Joann's for inexpensive stuff that I can see in real life before I buy it but I have found that generally speaking the staff are not knowledgeable about their products or general sewing practices. I wouldn't expect great customer service from them.

[Jess1377]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

Oh I will never ever use joanns online again for reasons not too far off from yours.

[Pandabear]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

I stopped using their online site over 2 years ago. I ordered a cartridge for my Cricut. The price was a special online. It took over 3 months for the cartridge to arrive. I kept getting the runaround about why, and when it would arrive. I should have cancelled but didn't. After I finally received it, I vowed to never ever again order from JoAnn's online.

The actual store isn't bad. The employees are all really nice.

[Simply Quilting]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

I had issues with Joann's online when I ordered a set of ruler and thought that I would just add a different set to the cart as well. I didn't get the set that I really wanted. The shipping email came then the canceled products email came a couple days later. So I ended up not getting the set of rulers that I needed. What got me was there was no notification option to cancel the order before anything shipped. The other thing was how their on-line website still showed the product was available.

As far as the closest store to me, they have some really nice people who work there and provide great customer service.

[chelea]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

Claire, I agree with you 100%. After reading several of the posts here, I think I'll avoid online ordering with JoAnn. I have to say that I find our local store staff very knowledgable (most of them have worked there for years).

[mommadeb]

Re: rant, sorry but wanted to let you know

I agree with you totally. If it was confirmed, they should have honored it.

Actually I didn't expect to get it for that price until I didn't get the "out of stock" response. Then I feel they should have honored the price once the order was confirmed.