Joann's Fabric Store

A friend sent me this:

Great discussion on how corporate america really works big box stores.

Did you read this?

http://thebitchystitcher.blogspot.jp/2014/09/behind-bolts.html


I work for the federal government and my job is run almost exactly as posted in the above.

My local Joann's is 20 minutes away. My best fabric store - Fabric Depot, is a good 30 minutes away. It's often faster to drive to Fabric Depot to get a few items than wait in line at Joann's. Of course there is that dreaded carbon footprint of driving more and longer distances....

Policies

I managed to hit both the Pendleton Woolen Mills store and The Mill End Store
on McLoughlin Blvd on Sunday.
I didn't buy much - some cheesecloth for the Waste Not V-8 juicer person and some trims.

I am still grumbling (well - minor rumbling) about a customer service problem I encountered recently while on-line fabric shopping. If you'll remember, I posted here about my crankiness.

To recap, most of my order fell out of the hastily sealed flat-rate envelope. The seller took five days to get back to me.  She then wanted me to go find my order through the morass that is the USPS. In short, it was not her problem.

Since then, I have visited other shops and kept an eye out for policy wording.

This seems to be a typical worded policy at several on-line fabric shops:
AFTER SHIPPING
After your order is shipped, we cannot be responsible if your package is lost, stolen, or undeliverable. (To date this has never happened.) We will help you locate the package by providing all relevant shipping information, but we cannot reship or refund your order. Please call your local  Post Office and/or local Customs Office.

Several on-line fabric stores have this policy posted. I don't believe the one who took so long to get back to me and then wanted me to chase my fabric had this policy - which is actually the norm - not to have any policies. I haven't been back.
Those are important words: "I have not been back".

I then looked at Joann's, Hancock's, and my own Fabric Depot. No policy stated.
Are these 'no responsibility' sellers only boutique sellers? hmmm. . .

1. What do you think of foisting the entire blame for an incomplete or lost shipment onto the post office and the customer?

2. Would you be satisfied to say sayonara to your money and your fabric if it went missing?

3. Am I the only one who sees this as bad customer policy?

4. Have you had a shipping incident? What happened? Were you satisfied? Dis-satisfied?

I went back to my etsy shop and re-worded my policy to include provision for the customer to tell me what they wanted to make them happy as I clearly identified my dis-satisfaction of not getting the fabric & pattern I spent time to order and pay for.  I was never asked what I wanted - to make the problem better.

Here's my re-worded policy:
In the event USPS or UPS loses your item or it arrives irretrievably broken or incomplete, I will refund all monies. However and Please, let me know if you would like to try something else. I want my customers to be really happy.

I tend towards overkill in the shipping and packaging department. I want you to receive your order asap and in fantastic condition.
I rarely encounter problems and I believe there are generally few problems. But if you wanted the customer to come back wouldn't you bend over backwards to keep them?

I would be interested in what you think. If you don't want to share in public - you can e-mail me at k8hobbies(at)yahoo(dot)com.


And finally: USPS.com has about 40 different priority products that you can order for free and receive for free. Take a look.