WHY JO-ANN FABRICS ONLINE STORE SUCKS!
I generally try to keep this a positive blog, centered on the projects I make, but I need to take a moment to vent. And perhaps you, as fellow craftspersons, will find this useful.
WHY JO-ANN FABRICS' ONLINE STORE SUCKS!
It was never an enjoyable experience, their in-site search engine was (and still mostly is) crap-tacular. You could type in the exact name they used for a product in the store and it wouldn't show up in a search of their online store. You'd have to figure out which department is was and do a search that way.
Also, their shipping prices only get higher the more you spend. Now, most places will give you a deal for spending over a certain amount. Did I want that? It would be nice, but was not necessary. It did make me angry however, that I could order extremely expensive, small, lightweight craft items and have to pay more for shipping than on yardage of fabrics. For fabric-only webstores, it makes sense that the more you spend, the more the package will weigh, and the more it will cost to ship. But Jo-Ann Fabrics carries a wide variety of products, and their shipping calculator should be programmed to reflect this, and be oriented to weight, not cost.
But that was all forgivable.
This, this however was not...
I ordered for a commission some of their premier velvet. 5 yards to be exact. Apparently, they did not have the 5 yards of fabric, although their site is supposed to reflect their stock and not let you purchase more than they have. Whatever, that's fine. Well, it's fine if they behave like fabric.com and contact you in a separate email informing you that the full yardage you ordered is unavailable, giving you the option of accepting what's available or cancelling your order. Because apparently, fabric.com (and other online fabric stores) understand that yardages required for projects is not negotiable. Jo-Ann's online store, however, thinks it's okay to just ship what they have and alter your quantity to a lower number (which I did not notice was not the full amount I ordered), and then email you later with a notification that states they're cancelling your order (of the one yard they didn't send with the rest because they didn't have it but never let you know they didn't have it).
So, that's enough to make me a little bit angry. But hey, I ordered extra fabric, just to be safe, so maybe I can still squeeze the project out of 4 yards... I open up the fabric today to start cutting... and oh, look at that... IT'S IN F%#&-ING PIECES! If you don't sew, you might not understand this. When you don't have one continuous cut of fabric, when it's in a yard here and a yard there, that means your pieces (that are longer than a yard) don't fit anywhere. That means, that much of the fabric is USELESS for your project (if not ALLof it, if I can't squeeze the pieces out of it that I need) That means you just wasted a lot of money on this expensive fabric... basically, that means JOANN.COM ripped you off hard core.
I'm not maligning the store. I love the real stores. The service is good, and they will always give you your fabric in one continuous cut or ask you if you want the remnant pieces. But their online store... FORGET IT! I'M BOYCOTTING THEM. I'M NEVER GOING TO USE THEM AGAIN! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!
I lodged a complaint online, tried to call (but they're customer service is closed on Sundays with no voice mail)... we'll see if they get back to me at all...
WHY JO-ANN FABRICS' ONLINE STORE SUCKS!
It was never an enjoyable experience, their in-site search engine was (and still mostly is) crap-tacular. You could type in the exact name they used for a product in the store and it wouldn't show up in a search of their online store. You'd have to figure out which department is was and do a search that way.
Also, their shipping prices only get higher the more you spend. Now, most places will give you a deal for spending over a certain amount. Did I want that? It would be nice, but was not necessary. It did make me angry however, that I could order extremely expensive, small, lightweight craft items and have to pay more for shipping than on yardage of fabrics. For fabric-only webstores, it makes sense that the more you spend, the more the package will weigh, and the more it will cost to ship. But Jo-Ann Fabrics carries a wide variety of products, and their shipping calculator should be programmed to reflect this, and be oriented to weight, not cost.
But that was all forgivable.
This, this however was not...
I ordered for a commission some of their premier velvet. 5 yards to be exact. Apparently, they did not have the 5 yards of fabric, although their site is supposed to reflect their stock and not let you purchase more than they have. Whatever, that's fine. Well, it's fine if they behave like fabric.com and contact you in a separate email informing you that the full yardage you ordered is unavailable, giving you the option of accepting what's available or cancelling your order. Because apparently, fabric.com (and other online fabric stores) understand that yardages required for projects is not negotiable. Jo-Ann's online store, however, thinks it's okay to just ship what they have and alter your quantity to a lower number (which I did not notice was not the full amount I ordered), and then email you later with a notification that states they're cancelling your order (of the one yard they didn't send with the rest because they didn't have it but never let you know they didn't have it).
So, that's enough to make me a little bit angry. But hey, I ordered extra fabric, just to be safe, so maybe I can still squeeze the project out of 4 yards... I open up the fabric today to start cutting... and oh, look at that... IT'S IN F%#&-ING PIECES! If you don't sew, you might not understand this. When you don't have one continuous cut of fabric, when it's in a yard here and a yard there, that means your pieces (that are longer than a yard) don't fit anywhere. That means, that much of the fabric is USELESS for your project (if not ALLof it, if I can't squeeze the pieces out of it that I need) That means you just wasted a lot of money on this expensive fabric... basically, that means JOANN.COM ripped you off hard core.
I'm not maligning the store. I love the real stores. The service is good, and they will always give you your fabric in one continuous cut or ask you if you want the remnant pieces. But their online store... FORGET IT! I'M BOYCOTTING THEM. I'M NEVER GOING TO USE THEM AGAIN! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!
I lodged a complaint online, tried to call (but they're customer service is closed on Sundays with no voice mail)... we'll see if they get back to me at all...
I have only ordered online from them once and that was for a dressform. I had no problems. I know they also have periodic coupons for free shipping over a certain amount spent. That said thank you for the heads up on ordering fabric online. I would not be pleased to receive my yardage in pieces!
ReplyDeleteThat's another thing I dislike... you can only use one coupon per order online, so you have to choose between 40% off an item and free shipping... not at all a deal.
DeleteThank you for the blogger-solidarity! I am simply going to spread the word to never order online from their store (And I know a lot of craftspeople, so they just screwed themselves over with their bad practices). I may redact if they actual respond to my complaints... but I don't see this happening.
ReplyDeleteLate to the party, but I'm ticked and searched out your post. :)
ReplyDeleteI've ordered twice from JoAnn.com. The first order went through fine. The most recent order, though, is a huge disappointment. That really, really sucks about the partial pieces. I would be really mad about that. I'm thankful my situation isn't as bad.
My frustration is that they just canceled three items on me, even though their website still shows them in stock. I understand there might be a lag, but we you start canceling items from people's orders you should update the site. What's worse is that instead of moving the 50% off to the next highest price item, it's attached to that item and will still be honored. Great, as if they NEVER have a page full of coupons for 40-50% off in the mailer they send to me every week. What they charged me represents a 6% fee on top of the underlying cost.
I would have never placed the order without the items they canceled, so now I'm stuck with a few items that I could have bought elsewhere for less, I still have to go out to a store (NOT JoAnn after this) to get the fabric I need, AND they charged me more than if I had placed an order for only the items they shipped.
I sent them a long e-mail explaining this. If they want to honor the agreement we had and ship the canceled fabrics for the difference (bringing me to the original purchase amount), I will accept it. But I don't think I'll ever order from them again.
They still suck. I ordered from them and wasn't informed until 3 days later that the item's weren't in stock, evenjoy though it still showed avaiable online. I gave them another try with a different item, it sais shipped but that was 8 days ago, only a shipping ID number with no record of items being accepted at a shupping facility.
ReplyDeletehow is it nearly a decade later and the site still has the exact same issues :')
ReplyDelete