KBunn,
Please do let us know if filling out the online form even gets you a reply (other than a canned response).
I would definitely speak to the manager. If one of his employees - especially a department head - how can I phrase this kindly? - does not show forth the kind of customer-friendly attitude that any store SHOULD want to be known for, then the manager needs to be made aware of it. This gives the manager the opportunity to speak to the employee and correct the problem for the future. If it's more of a "corporate policy" issue, then making the manager aware of it might bring about a change of their policy (at least in this particular store).
That said, it's hard to tell sometimes whether the tail is wagging the dog, when it comes to the combination of a department head and a manager. I'll recount a situation that I ran into a few years back that still seems ludicrous in the re-telling.
At the time, I was making *lots* of holiday placemats and selling them at local craft shows. And for whatever reason, the fabric department head took a dislike to me, and instituted a policy whereby I was only allowed to purchase five yards of any given holiday fabric. When I asked her why, she said it was "so that all the other customers would be able to get some, too." I suggested that she simply order more (she certainly could have, because it was still early in the season and the warehouse would have had more).
Well, I got rather tired of this policy so one night I asked to speak with the manager on duty, and asked him right out, how it was in the store's best interest, not to sell a whole bolt of fabric to me? As in, why would you not want to have *all* the money for your product now, rather than a little now and a little a few days or weeks from now...? He kind of stammered that... well... it was just the policy... and...
As soon as the fabric department manager was reassigned to a different job, the policy changed. Hmmm...
And, in the meanwhile, a friend of mine had been able to go in and buy a full bolt of a holiday fabric.
Imagine that. How very special... a policy just for me!