The Pain in the Neck of Trying to Use A Coupon at Joann Fabric Online
Posted: 14 Jun 2020 12:20 PM PDT
Have you ever found yourself in a big box craft/art supply store cluching a coupon in a death grip in order to find the best item to get a discount on? Come on, admit it, everyone loves a bargain. Unless, it is not a bargain.
I find it difficult to believe that Joann Fabric would try to pull one over on their customers. Why would Joann Fabric which sells to crafters and artists accross the nation want to mislead their customers? Especially during this time of illness, fear of illness and major social problems in our country. In my imagination, I see the gentle people who work at Joann Fabric gathered together on a porch somewhere trying to figure out how to distribute tall iced glasses of lemonade to all of the stessed out public who shop with them.
On Thursday, my friend mentioned to me that all Simplicity and Butterick sewing patterns were on sale at Joann Fabric for $1.99 each. This was good news, because I’ve been sewing dresses while in quarantine and discovered that pattern prices had skyrocketed since I last made clothing 15 years ago.
I raced to my laptop and hurried to the Joann Fabric website. Would you believe there is a Joann Fabric app? Of course, I downloaded their app and signed up for everything in order to obtain my bargain patterns. I studied the ad which Joann was so kind to include on their website. I learned I was limited to 10 patterns at the $1.99 price. I was okay with buying 10 because I don’t want Joann to loose any extra $ while offering her customers the lovely treat of bargain priced patterns.
I spent a lot of time studying the pattern choices provided by Joann on a direct link that I was taken to from their ad which said clearly shop online. Since the ad said I could only purchase Simplicity and Butterick patterns at the $1.99 price, I carefully selected only those brands of patterns. I settled on 6 or 8 patterns to purchase. Imagine my surprise when I went to the check out page and the price of the patterns did not reduce to $1.99! No problem I thought and googled how to get the correct price. Would you believe there was no info out on the net or on the promo code websites on how to obtain the advertised bargain?
Not really wanting to bother the folks at Joann but needing to find a solution, I called the customer service phone number listed on their website. I listened to a recording telling me that they were overwhelmed with business, not excepting phone calls and that I should email them at customer service instead. A normal person at this point would have 1. bought fewer patterns at the regular price, or 2. given up. However, I have mentioned in this blog before that I am trying to build my character during these trying times and one of the things I am trying to do is follow thru on what I think is fair. * There are a lot of big issues out in the world now that I need to follow thru on as well, but little issues are necessary too, especially when I feel a corporation may be taking advantage of artists and crafters.
After several emails exchanged with a nice man at Joann Fabric customer service, I did not get the discount code. In fact, the lovely customer service rep told me first that I was wrong, second that the discount was not available to me and after the third email, that I had to go into the store to obtain the bargain pattern price. Nowhere in the ad does it state that you must shop in the store. At that point I consulted Rick who affirmed I was right to follow thru on this issue and he suggested I contact the CEO of Joann Fabric.
I searched online for the CEO’s email which did not seem to be posted anywhere. I did learn a lot about Joann Fabric after searching many corporate websites as well as reading thru the disgruntled customer complaints on the Better Business Burea website. Finally, I found a website that gave me addresses to try to email the CEO and the V.P. of Marketing and Sales. So I sent an email to them yesterday afternoon and an hour later I received a response from the Joann Fabric CEO.
The CEO whose name is Wade, was very sorry that I had difficulty obtaining my bargain patterns. He is turning my request over to his customer service head to help me get satisfaction. I haven’t heard from the Customer Service head yet, but it has just been a little over 24 hours and he is probably busy elsewhere. I will let you know as soon as I hear from him