I am with you , every time I think "maybe this time will be different " they find new ways to disappoint me. I have had it with them. Just not worth the aggrivation!
I even contacted the District Manager after one particularly bad experience. Nothing changed ...got worse ... I am done with them.

It all adds up to customer service. I find the people at JoAnns here very helpful and polite. If there is a problem, they bend over backwards to help. I find nice quality fabric there. I bought embroidery thread recently--JoAnns--DMC, Hancock--from China. There was a big difference in the quality of thread. I also find a lot of the fabric at the Hancocks here has a much lower thread count than the cottons I find at Hancocks. I think a lot depends on the local manager. Hope you find a source for your supplies that makes you smile. Some quilters like WalMart fabric and others of us won't touch it. It's all a matter of preference and the store management.

The clerk at the store I visited accused me of making too much money on my job and chastised me for using gasoline to drive to the store. I can overcome the shabby layout, but not anything this offensive.

"Meanwhile, the JA's where I live have much more in the quilting area, tools, and such ... and are really friendly and definitely don't cop an attitude with shoppers"....

I don't know if you realize that there are two categories for JoAnn's....The craft/fabric and the "upholstry/curtains".

In Lancaster, we had both. The craft store usually had everything I needed. The other very small seclection for "us quilters"

This is not the first time this issue has come up about JoAnn's. I believe there are more people who are disgusted with JoAnn's than there are people who are satisfied. Never enough help, sullen, unknowledgable, unhelpful people working there, customers treated like they are stupid and a bother. I won't step foot in the store near me. I'd rather go to my LQS, pay a little extra and get intelligent suggestions, be treated respectfully, get better quality fabric and even get free help with quilting questions! That kind of service is worth the price. Leave JoAnn's in the dust. They are not worth the hassle.

I had a problem with a JA store in Oregon that I visited on vacation. I live in AZ. I emailed corporate, very upset. They emailed me back and forth and finally resolved the problem. Don't stop with the local store. Email corporate and complain - loudly - they will listen and do something.

You just have to find the 800 pound gorilla at the top of the hill who can ajust attitudes and job descriptions. Case in point: I had a problem with the VA supplying a gravestone for my husband. After 9 months of the funeral director trying to get the marker, I told him that I'd take care of it. I called the White House and, after telling the switchboard operator my problem, she gave me the direct phone number for the Secretary of Veteran Affairs. I called him and my problem was taken care of the next day.

Thank you all for listening and sharing your experiences!

On that note, I’d like to end by saying although it wasn’t always pleasant; the good part is all the pretty fabrics I've gotten! Life goes on….Hummmm I better get to making quilts but I just can't stop looking at all the pretty quilts everyone else is making :)

Ya’ll have a great day!

P.S. I love the lady who uses her JoAnn's coupons at Michaels!!! You go, girl!

Maybe we all need to write or e-mail JoAnn fabrics! Just a thought. Sometimes they will answer & sometimes they will not. Let them know how upset we are. Also which stores.

I have stopped shopping at Joann's. Tired of the way they do not appreciate their customers and how the salespeople are not friendly or helpful.

CRAFTY 1 I also had another bad experience @ Joanns sunday I cant believe the bad customer service & i got 1/2 yard fabric & the girl didnt get the decimal point so it showed up as 5 yrs well of course i had bought several things & when i got to the car i went over the invoice. naturally, there was a mistake I went back in to get back $24 & the cust serv gal says "good thing you found it b4 you got home" what?? i said"it's too bad i have to check my receipts for mistakes" good grief I dread going there but do so when items are 50% Just keep track of what goes on grrrrr

I live in West Palm Beach and have 2 JoAnns close by. I have made friends with one or two of the women who are always there and go to them when I have a problem. It works. My complaint is that sometimes when they have a great sale on quilting items they run out quickly and don't replace them. They use a "take a number" system and I have had some delightful conversations with other customers while waiting to have fabric cut (lovely material, making a dress, quilt, etc.)and no huffing and puffing over the number or amount of material a person wants cut. Guess I'm just lucky.

Has anyone let the corporate office know of your experiences? If I had more than one bad experience that is what I would do. Here is the web site.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....=irol-govboard Hope you can get this issue resolved.

I'm sorry to hear that. :( We have five or six close enough to where I live that I can pick and choose (one has more quilting stuff, one has scrapbooking, and one has knitting). Even with all those choices, you still get bad service once in a while.

I can relate!!! Thanks for speaking up!

Go to Mary Jo's in Charlotte area. Great store.

I sent the JoAnn management a link to this series of "vents", thinking they should know what is being said across the country about their stores. My own experience last week was that the register kept taking the 50% discount off the least expensive item. When I pointed it out to the cashier she tried several different ways to convince the register to do it on the most expensive (non-sale) item but couldn't get it to work. Finally the manager told her to ring up the most expensive item as a single sale with the discount. Had to run my credit card thru twice but at least I got the discount and the staff were helpful. Told the long line of customers behind me that I was sorry, but the savings was $20 and I wanted what the coupon promised!

I understand your frustration and I would be mad too, but the only way to change it, is to contact JoAnns home office.
Email them and tell them what keeps happening and how rude and useless the manager and employee was. Yes, customer service is lacking all over, because no one is bothering to take pride in their jobs and no one is informing the head offices to try to change it. I have worked in customer service at several different types of stores, WalMart, Quilt Shop, etc as well as on the phones with companies. I was taught to treat customers like you want to be treated and believe me when they don't treat me like I treat my customers, I call the head office on it. The more we put up with it, by walking away or not doing anything at all, the longer it will be this way. So contact Joanns and tell them---yes, you are only 1 person, but if each 1 person does it, that will add up to a lot of people and they will listen. Good luck and let me know what happens

Which JA's was this? I live in NC and the only store I can find is in Winston-Salem or Cary.

I used to work at JA' in FL and all they preached was customer service. I have to admit though we had an excellent store manager.

Our JoAnne's store is up/down, one day you go in and swear you will never come back, the next time you get treated like a queen! They are one of the few around here and their coupons make it worth the hassle, but I do avoid one certain lady at the cutting table!

On Apr 26 I ordered a large (96 pounds) part from Sears. Delivery was to be May 7. Kept trying until May 17 and finally cancelled order. Part was delivered on May 27. Called Sears for them to have UPS pick up return. Promised 3 days - June 3 called again - promised 3 days. June 7 called Sears Corporate in IL. Told them to pick up immediately or part was going on street with trash. June 8 part was picked up by UPS.

The experience at JA seems to be universal. I have gone there many times and to several and gotten terrible service. I used to work for Hancock's but they fired me because I believe they did not like customer service I gave. I believe that customer service is the most important part of any business. I guess that it is not to the companies

I'm so sorry you had such an awful experience. Hopefully there are other fabric stores in your area.
I feel kind of bad now, living close to one of the good Joann's and a clean, friendly Walmart. I didn't go into the Joann's for 2 years because of a car accident, and when I did go in the gal came from around the cutting counter and gave me the biggest hug, after mentioning to me she hadn't seen me in awhile, I wasn't going to mention it. I've been going to that Joann's since I was 10 (I'm 52 now), even though it's location has periodically changed. We joke they even put in the newer overpass over the highway so I could get to Joann's faster!
It's probably like a lot of places, only as good as the people they employ.

I think that must be the answer to the whole situation, and the people who advise letting the company know when the service is poor could be absolutely right. I'm sure they have had complaints, but like the old adage says, 'It's hard to get good help these days!!'

It took 2 years to figure this out?

Not trying to be a smart butt but the third time is a charm with me. I went to the JoAnns here and looked around noticed pretty much what you have said and I just turned and left. I never bought the first thing there. The Hancock Fabrics will take the JA coupons and the service there is superb.

I guess from me having to deal with straightening messes out like this I have no tolerance for poor customer service.

Billy

I'm not a fan of Joann Fabrics myself! I worked there for a month, during their remodel. The Corporate office was constantly in to check things...

I was on the morning crew for the remodel, and the night crew ALWAYS left us a mess to clean up, before the customers came... And the night crew always complained about us doing stuff that we did not do!

OH! And then they'll have a sale, and when it ends, they don't remove the signs.

I wonder, did you have a woman named Helene cut your fabric... lol... of course not, but I know what you mean about the fabric cutters being so rude. Helene, she works at the Joanns by me, is a b**ch. So is Rebecca, I only liked two of them. And half the time they don't even cut the fabric right! Talk about untrained.

OH! They let me go at the end of the remodel since they didn't have anymore positions. My dbil was hired on, which I'm happy he was, especially since he has a baby to support plus my sister as well... not that he gets decent hours. But then, there are people who are working there, that were not on the night crew or the morning crew... and started working about a week or two after the remodel... so NO POSITIONS MY A**!!!

I only go there if I absolutely have to... I've told my mother that we will have to start going to Hancock fabrics, I'm not going to Joanns... I'm done with them.

I have online sites that I can get fabric from as well.. and if I need to see what it looks like person, I can order a swatch of the fabric.

They tried that on me so I've begun to make the most expensive purchase first, take it to the car and come back to finishup, IF I want to finish

Right on the money! (no pun intended) I worked there too. JoAnn corporate does not value the fabrics enough to train staff. Our JoAnn was allowed 4 hours to train a new hire- for everything, including register!!!
Years ago we were rigorously trained. That was before "retailers" ran the company!

Wow, my Joann's is nice. I wouldn't put up with any garbage anyway. I would phone the head office and the manager would not have gotten off that easy....anyway, I am one to check them as they cut...while she cuts and puts it in the machine, I will repeat the price to her and so on, just to make sure as I can cancel right then and there if anything. I have it already all added up in my head when I check out more or less...I like joann's for the muslin and some things where I can used my 40% coupon as you can't beat it...

They wouldn't dare use my coupon on anything other than I tell them lol. I do shop for most of my fabric at Handcocks of Paducha, when they have a big sale on.

How about on the internet. Big sale on flannel fabric and of the 10 or 12 selections I made, as soon as I clicked enter into shopping cart, I got a message that it was out of stock and I could fill out the form and maybe get it sometime. This has happened several times recently. Why can't they just list fabrics in stock. The price is good and the ordering not so good.

at christmas i had my dh return some fabric for me to ours and they gave him nothing but crap "this isnt on this receipt which i knew it was but guess what couldnt prove it because they kept the recp gave him a gift card for WHAT they did return which should have been cash oh and got hung up on by the store manager because she had customers to wait on so i called corp office 2 days later received call from district mgr who apologized up one side and down the other AND made sure i had her cell number if this crap ever happened again dont know if employeed knew who it was or what or if it is because i am now in there so often but they are as sweet as pie now sometimes u just have to step on a few heads i have worked in cust service for 20 years and have NEVER treated a customer like i was treated there i was also a mgr and if a employee had treated one of my customers like that they would have been looking for a new job i was taught the customer IS the reason for your job! but i guess that is not important anymore its all about the profits. such a sad world we live in

I have never had that problem in either Miami-Dade County (my old neighborhood) or in West Palm Beach. Computer glitch somewhere? I did have a problem with a manager who who not accept multiple coupons for different items (one for each one). When I mentioned it it other stores, was told this was not true. Go figure.

The ladies and guys are great that actually cut the material at my JoAnn's; but then I have learned to ask them the price of each piece as they cut to make sure it is the correct price - 70% of the time computer is wrong and they correct on the spot.

I have also learned to write down each price of item as I put it in my shopping cart. The main registers are usually 95% wrong, so this helps immediately. It just about never reflects sale prices any more.

I also "have learned" to just give them my coupon items FIRST to ring up seperately. After I pay for them I then let them ring out the other items (as I watch the prices on register).

I like the items in the store, but before I started to do my Pre-Empted checking my receipt was ALWAYS wrong. One time I told the girl (right after I paid) that she charged me for 2 yards of something that I only got 1/2 yard of and she made me go to the service desk and even though I paid cash minutes before they had to give me a store credit. That was the last straw before I started to carefuly watch and do my check out a lot differently.

Karen

The JA near here must have a policy to state the price of the fabric before cutting it, they always do that. I must say in 42 yrs they and I have agreed

I have a JoAnn's superstore near me and I have been going there for years and I am happy with it. I do wish they had better quality fabrics like Moda but I know that will never happen. Try not to get so upset, you can't change anything and all you are doing is getting your blood pressure up. Take care.

Obviously JoAnn's Corporate bears the blame for the decline in quality of merchandise, the sales glitches & check out problems etc.
But reading these entries from all over the US, makes me also think that the MANAGERS of many JoAnn's stores are just indifferent to customer concerns. They just don't care to get it solved - OR - they have given up trying to get the store & stock problems corrected ...

I did go to Upper Management -- not any better. I wanted to buy a Sullivan Hobby Table with my 50% off coupon. Since our Joann's store is clear across town, I called to make sure they had it. They had only one, it was $149, and they agreed to save it for me. Since they usually put everything one might want on sale so the coupon can't be used, and since I would have to drive several miles, I checked to make sure I could use the coupon. She said, "Oh, no. That's the sale price." I pointed out it was $149 everywhere else, including Joann's online. When I asked to speak to the manager, he was less than courteous said the regular price was $229 and it was higher than other places because it was "specially made for Joann's," although I found no indication of such on the Sullivan site. I even called Joann's corporate office because this was the latest of many and the highest priced annoyance I've had with Joann's. No more productive but a little more courteous, To make a long story short (too late for that :), I used the coupon and got it for half price at Joann's online. Of course I paid a total of $26 for "special handling" and shipping, but got it delivered right to the door. I like it, but "Assembly time: 30 minutes" is a hoot. It took me that long to read the instructions.

Know what you mean about the assembly .... glad ALL your pieces were included !!

I think EVERY SINGLE THING that we've EVER bought that had to be put together, had parts missing ... DH says we're cursed by the Evil Assembly Gods !! :roll:

Please save yourself the stress and do not ever go in there again - it is SO not worth it!!