Onebyone, I had a very similar experience. Luckily, the item wasn't terribly expensive - but I had ordered 4 and received 3. One of them broke the first time it was used. (A Wilton product.) Lesson learned.
Their sales policies annoy the heck out of me. Raise prices to a ridiculous amount so that they can give a discount or coupon. Just price things accurately in the first place.
When they stopped carrying W&N a few years ago, and were pushing their brand of batting, I found that I could get it online from a few places and have it delivered to my door for less than when I was going to the store with my "good" coupon. Their batting was lousy and they found out that they'd better go back to W&N, but I've never bought it there since.
Where I am in FL, the closest one is nearly an hour away. Less than 30 miles, but horrible traffic. Totally not worth the drive.