I am a full-time HR blogger and full-time kitty mom. It’s obvious that I live a peaceful and charmed life.
- I blog about workforce issues without having a real job.
- I spend more money on catnip than I do on regular food.
- I can’t remember the last time I got truly angry about something in my life.
I keep things pretty chill around here because there’s no reason to get excited. When I am really upset, I eat ice cream. When I want to punch someone in the face, I take a nap with my kittehs. I don’t allow math, science, or interpersonal conflict to complicate my life.
Unfortunately, I had a craptacular encounter at a local fabric store, this week. You may wonder, “What the hell is a punk rock HR blogger doing at a fabric store?”
Let me tell you:
- I needed new patio furniture cushions. It’s not a very punk rock story, but I picked out a bolt of fabric that didn’t look too grandmotherly and I asked the girl at the fabric store to estimate how much it would cost to buy the fabric and to assemble eight cushions and one footrest.
You would have thought that I took a crap in a bucket, put the bucket on the counter, and asked the store clerk to weave a rug of gold from my feces.
“We. Don’t. Make. Anything.” she said to me. “We are a fabric store.”
Oh, you’re a fabric store? What am I thinking? Obviously, it’s my fault. I’m the idiot who assumed that someone around here could sew.
I asked, “Can you recommend a vendor who can sew my cushions together?”
My mistake was asking for a vendor. The girl rolled her eyes and said, “There’s a phone book at the front of the store.”
Oh snap. So that’s how you’re going to play it? Well I’m certainly smart enough to learn how to sew. There are eight-year-old kids in China who make these cushions. If they can do it, I can do it.
I walked to the front of the store and caught sight of the store manager — an older woman who was trying to fix a broken cash register. I asked, “Do you have a list of sewing classes?”
Again, it must be me, but the manager rolled her eyes.
“We don’t offer sewing classes.”
Oh, my bad. You’re only a national chain that advertises classes on its website. Let me apologize profusely for wasting your time. You obviously don’t want my money or my patronage.
I have nothing but empathy for employees who work in low-wage, high-stress environments. I worked at a unionized candy factory, a shampoo factory, and I once had an office in the same factory that stored the highly flammable chemicals for a hair restoration product (rhymes with ROW-GAYN). I know what it’s like to work hard, tolerate mediocrity from co-workers, and still need a second job.
Your job at the fabric store? It’s not that bad.
What’s worse is that I am the nicest customer and probably the best HR practitioner you’ll ever meet. I’m smiley, perky, and I’m not asking for spectacular customer service at a fabric store — especially from slow-witted employees who earn less than what I spend on cat toys.
What am I asking for? Very simply, I am asking for people to stop rolling their eyes at me. Oy. I still need patio furniture cusions, too. Do you know how to sew? Seriously, I pay more than the sweatshops.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
The only thing that makes me want to absolutely flip my lid is horrible customer service. Otherwise I am a nice guy…it reminds me of the scene in “Scent of a Woman” where he threatens “To take a flame thrower to this place”…I am not saying I would do that….I am just saying I think about it after someone rolls their eyes at me and trying desperately to give them my money.
Laurie, if you have an Obby-Hay Obby-Lay near you, they have lots of classes and might have what you need. Or Ichaels-May. I had a bad experience in an Oann-Jay Abrics-Fay and have not been back since. (Names changed to protect the innocent and dimwitted.)
Now, if all it needed was upholstered you can do that with a staple gun and a little patience. But the actual cushions? No way I’m tackling that one myself.
@Dan APESHIT doesn’t even describe how I felt. I was so steamin’ mad.
@Kelly The experience was at Oanne-Jay and it was redonkulous. I’m writing a letter, of course, and I found a smaller & local fabric store that might be able to recommend seamstresses who live in the area and do this work for a fee. I can reupholster with a staple gun, no probs, but I need to assemble the actual cushions and stuff them with the batting & shit. It’s a little too martha stewart for me to tackle w/o some training.
While I’m not much into “guy” things – like camping and fishing (those things are yucky) – I’m also not much into sewing and “girl” things either. So I’ll just talk about the stuff I do know a little bit about…human interaction…
One of the most maddening things in any human interaction is one person expressing disdain for another. It’s one of the key things marriage counselors will pick up on – that rolling of the eyes is apparently one of the strongest indicators that a marriage WILL indeed fail. If that disdain is strong enough to pull marriages apart, certainly it’s enough to utterly destroy a consumer relationship….and result in that overwhelming feeling of “APEWAY ITSHAY”
OOoooh… that rolling-of-the-eyes thing.
I recently had a customer service guy at Air France (hey, I’m not protecting anyone here. That’s A-I-R F-R-A-N-C-E) laugh derisively at me (that’s phone-language for eye-rolling.) I immediately decided to take them for everything I could, and proud to say I’m now $4600.00 richer because of it. (derisive laughter RIGHT BACK AT YOU, Ape-Air -France-Face guy.)
Of COURSE fabric stores take custom upholstery orders (that includes CUSHIONS) They also offer classes. I AM a girl, I DO sew, and I’ve been in A LOT of fabric stores.
Report ‘em to the Better Business Bureau, I say. Use their NAME in your blog. Write a letter to their general manager. You’ll feel better, and the world will be a better place for it, too.
I’m anti-Joanne’s myself because someone is always re-stocking the scrapbook area when I’m there and they act like I’m an a-hole when I politely ask them if I can look at the items they are blocking with their restocking cart.
The crap in a bucket imagery made me laugh out loud while laying on the chiropractor’s table. I had to read your post to all of the nurses and doctors in the room and we all shared bad customer service stories. There’s nothing that can unite a group of strangers like hating on bad service!
The only time in my life I wish I were an anonymous blogger is when I have bad service. I want to explain the story and then suggest what the company could do better next time, but I’m always fearful that company is a customer. Maybe I should start a second anonymous blog where people can come complain about poor service.
Funny I distinctly remember taking a sewing class at Joanne’s. I’ve only been in the store once in 3 years since their selection of thread was despicable for a fabric store.
Auntie Robyn here – as I’ve gotten older, I’m less patient with such displays of terrible customer service and am more likely to rip the manager a new asshole on the spot and promise her that not only will I write a letter to the president of the company AND the board of directors as well as the local newspaper, but I will splash the store’s dismal behaviour across every forum I visit and may even start my own evil company website.
That said, I recommend looking in online pattern books for what you need (McCalls, Simplicity and Vogue have online presences), and you might also find an “open source” version on one of the many sewing sites.
Online yellow pages for tailors, Craigslist, or place an ad in a college board (some kids are awfully good at sewing), particularly at fashion schools, and small quilting-focused stores.
I often sew by hand for fun and because that’s how I learned in the days before sewing machines were invented. It’s easy and can be gratifying.
Hope that helps!
I love this – when I get that kind of customer service, I say in my best HR voice, “wow, you must LOVE THIS JOB. You have been SO HELPFUL.”
Since you are down south of my, I second Robyn’s recommendation of college students. Some of the best sewers on campus work for the play productions sewing costumes. We also have two costume artists and they are award winning seamstresses. I would recommend Craig’s List too or WMU. They have a great student employment board.
I also sew and I also abhor JoAnn’s, and yes, I will use their name in my post. I have never been in the store when I haven’t either gotten NO service, or been treated like a total a-hole for asking where the rick rack is. But, I do have some insight.
I worked in a different craft supply/ fabric store with a whole bunch of really nice ladies and a whole bunch of catty gossip ladies. I am not exaggerating when I say that I worked with three sisters who were so bad that when they had family functions, they wouldn’t leave the table without the other two because of the way they talked about each other. I’m not really sure if this phenomenon is directly related to one’s ability to use a glue gun or bedazzle the bejeezus out of a pair of jeans and a denim vest, but I suspect that part of the angst that is felt by these employees, and consequently by customers (I’ve sure felt it), is the angst of unrecognized and unappreciated bow maker, glue gun, bedazzler talent.
The other part is this – not only are these folks underpaid, work every holiday, etc. but they also get yelled at by crazy ass customers. I am again, not exaggerating, when I tell you that I was once the subject of a full on psychotic tirade from a woman who was disappointed that we did not have the kit that would make her mailbox into a cow. See, it was on TV, so surely we must have it. And eventually, we did, but not until well after I was cursed and screamed at over some cow shaped wooden pieces. Apparently, I was a moronic idiot and a horrible person because in fact, the kits weren’t due out until a month after the TV show. Seriously. Not joking. Because wooden bovine parts are worth having a self-induced brain aneurysm.
None of this excuses poor customer service, if anything, customers like us should be draped in rick rack and pom pom ball trim because we’re not screaming about wooden dowels, Styrofoam balls, and pipe cleaners. But this kind of customer service is, I think, a symptom of a general inability by the public at large, customer and clerk and sibling, to be polite and civil to one another.
I know that was a long way to go for that, but damn, do I love that cow kit story. Don’t go to JoAnn’s anymore and if you want to have a go at the cushions yourself, try the Sewing for Dummies patterns – they really are great.
Jackbuilt
You guys, these are all excellent stories.
@MO Good parallels with marriage advice.
@ALMOST meh, I’m not that mad at JoAnne fabrics, anymore. I run hot/cold. I get pissed off but then I get distracted.
Air France can suck it, though.
@Breanne That’s an excellent blog idea. Bad customer service stories. You could do that in a heartbeat.
@RachL I checked the website and they do offer classes. Not at that one, though. There’s a sewing store in town that offers private lessons, though.
@Robyn That’s really good advice. I did look at some basic patterns, last night, to learn basic stitches & lingo. I could make a pillow or a sock monkey.
@HRMaven I took your advice and put an ad on Craig’s List, last night. I received a response in HOURS and found a great woman. Isn’t that awesome? We’re negotiating a price, right now. Hooray!
@Jackbuilt That cow story? Best thing I’ve read in months. Hysterical.