Michaels — Local services in El Paso

Twice the Price, Twice the Drive, Half the Sense. Let me tell you, this was the most unnecessarily complicated retail experience of my life. I needed a large amount of cardstock—nothing fancy, just paper—which Amazon couldn’t ship fast enough. After driving to four other stores, I finally saw online that Michael’s carried it, had it in stock, and even offered in-store pickup. Hallelujah! Or so I thought.

I trekked to the far East side, found 10 reams of the exact cardstock I needed, and then noticed something wild: the in-store price was DOUBLE the online price for the exact same product. No big deal, I thought—surely, they’ll match their own online price. Right? Wrong.

The cashier kindly informs me that they can’t match their own online price. Instead, I’d need to purchase it online from my phone. Okay, great! That's easy enough. However—plot twist—I couldn’t just pay online and leave with the product I was literally holding in my hands. Nope. According to policy, I’d have to wait until tomorrow to pick up the exact same order.

I clarified: “You mean, if I pay online right now, and show you the receipt for the paper I own and have already physically collected, I can’t leave with it today?” Nope, no exceptions. Surely, I thought, this must be a misunderstanding. Maybe the cashier was new? I asked her to check with a manager, thinking common sense would prevail.

Nope. Another plot twist: the manager doubles down on this Kafkaesque policy. Online orders = next-day pickup, even if the item is already in your hand.

At this point, I gave up. I left the store empty-handed, drove 40 minutes home, and barely made it through the door before getting a text notification that my order (the one I’d just abandoned!) was ready for pickup. Cue facepalm.

Fast forward to the next day. I drive across town yet again, walk in, and—third plot twist—they can’t find my order. After several minutes of searching (while I stood there smh), someone finally located it. I left the store defeated but triumphant, vowing never to step foot in Michael’s again.

Two stars only because they actually stocked the paper when no one else did. But for the absurd policies, wasted gas, and sheer comedy of errors? Michael’s earns a solid never again from me.

UPDATE: Not long after this, I was at a different store, ordered an item at a lower online price from my phone, and went to pick it up immediately. Since they didn't have time to prepare it for pickup, I was worried they might pull a "Michael's" on me. However, they instead let me go grab the items from the store, scanned them at customer service, and let me leave within minutes. It can be...

My wife and I purchased a Cricut Maker 4 yesterday afternoon, or we thought it was. Needless to say, she was super excited and had been waiting months to get it. We get home Saturday afternoon and she decided to open it the following morning after my grandsons basketball game. We get home, open the box, get instructions and find out That it is the Explorer and not the Maker she wanted. So we put the instructions in, close the box and head to the store were we purchased it. The young lady who is attempting to help us out, does not know how tho process the exchange so she calls for help. Andrea, the manager, gets there. Inspect the package , sees that it was opened and quickly tells us that we need to go trough the manufacturer. She dismisses us and does not want to hear our story. I attempt to explain to her that we specifically asked for a Maker the day before and the associate mistakenly gave us the Explorer. She quickly responds, did you not see the box? I explained to her that my wife was excited and did not notice it. She stands in front of us with a smile, as if she was enjoying talking down to us. I asked for the store manager, she tells me her name, Julie Esparza. I asked her when she would be available for us to speak to her, she said next week. I asked what day and time would she be working, Andrea said, I don't feel comfortable giving you that information. I asked her, why not? I just want to see if she can help us out. She told me she could not tell me, due to store policy. I was in disbelief, so I asked for the corporate number, she told us, " you can get it on-line ". I asked, is it store policy not to provide it to your customer? She rolled her eyes smiling and said 1800michaels. My wife and I walked out of the store aggravated, got in our car, and called customer service, who gave us a case#, name of the store manager and the time she would be available to help us. She also mentioned since the item was unused and we had the original receipt, there was a good chance they could help. I will come back tomorrow and update on the meeting with the...

I always get bad customer service when I go. You can tell by the employees that they hate being there or helping out customers by the tone of voice or the look on their face. Once I used the curb side pick up and they never went outside so I got off instead and made me wait 30 minutes out by a little office and the cashier never told anyone that I was waiting until the person in charge of that office finally acknowledged me. A second time I used the curb side I had called and the lady that picked up the phone sounded rude and very rushed however she took all my information including my order number, later to see 3 more cars park next to me and they all get their orders and left for the exception of me and the representative didn’t even acknowledge me she just walked past my vehicle and I was parked in the designated area for curb side. I had to call again and talk to a manager to express how frustrating it is every time I order something with that specific location. She has responded that the employee was in a rush. If that’s the case they need to hire more people if they’re understaffed and have a pep talk about their attitudes towards customers. If they don’t like providing good customer service they shouldn’t be working there. Also, on their website they should list where they have the items by isle so we don’t have to bother the reps looking for something since it’s such hard work for them the way target has it would make a lot of the customers lives easier knowing that the website has the number isle of where you can...