Michaels — Local services in Mission Viejo

I spent about 15 minutes inside the store.

Pros: Clean environment - The aisles were clean and the items were in their places. It didn’t look like a bunch of moms showed up with their kids to wreck the place. Then again it was just noon. Variety - They had everything I expected them to have plus some items I hadn’t seen before. Mainly, I was there to see what the sketching/painting section looked like and had to offer. The usual selection of items was present such as fine and broad-tipped markers, paint markers, oil-based markers, acrylics, etc.

Cons: At the time that I walked into the store, I was given a rude and creepy look by a staff member. I walked in and noticed him standing to my left behind some items supervising the floor I think. I managed to catch him looking at me in a rude manner while he said something but I couldn’t hear him so I took off a headphone and asked what he had said. He repeated that he had said “hello” and how “I was doing”. I responded politely and even asked about supplies for etching glass but I was told that the supplies were illegal in California and that they did not carry them. I said “thank you” and continued inside. As I made my way around looking for the paints section, I noticed this particular guy following me around. He was white, chunky, shorter than me at about 5’6 blue eyes and scrappy looking. I felt a bit uncomfortable but I figured that maybe he was just doing his job and I may be overthinking things. I finally found the paint section to the right side in the back of the store. As I was browsing and checking out the new items, old nostalgic ones, and still looking for that etch cream that I suspected they still carried, I saw him still around me trying not to stare too hard. Everywhere I went I looked and sure enough, he was close behind. At this point, I became annoyed. I looked around, found the etching cream and felt it was too expensive considering I was babysat, disrespected, and the bottle cost $32.00 on top of it all. I left the store and looked on Amazon and found the exact same bottle for $17.00 pretty much immediately.

Conclusion: I’m not a big fan of Michael’s. The quality of the items inside is good but honestly, Amazon and online competitors have the very same thing for much much cheaper. Regardless, I had every intention of buying the etching cream because it’s a gift for a friend that etches projects and I will be seeing him today but the experience itself completely made it all too expensive to be worth it. I won’t be coming back. Customer service...

I just had the oddest experience with the cashier at this Michael’s. It was a slender woman with long dark hair and glasses, probably in her 50’s. I was buying a bunch of non-custom frames and she asked me maybe 7-8 times if I wanted to add protection to the frames I was buying. I told her “no thank you” about 7-8 times. Each time she proceeded to tell me the benefits of this. “If the glass breaks, you can get a new frame for 12 months”. I finally asked her since I was curious, “Does the glass break all the time on these frames?” Her response, “well these shadow boxes have very thin glass!” She kinda went on ad nauseam about frame damage, glass breakage, we won’t accept ANY returns if the plastic is off unless you buy the protection plans to all of these frames. She then brought over another employee to tell me how important it is for me to invest in this protection plan. She kinda started treating me like I was an idiot for not buying the protection plan. “At least buy it for this big frame!!!” Once again, “no thank you!”

I have 4 little kids, been buying frames for years, hanging frames for years, nerf bullets at my walls for years, bumping and banging into frames for years. No issues. Did Michaels all of a sudden start making their frames WAY cheaper? Or did Michaels start incentivizing their employees to sell these dumb protection plans?

If a frame falls and breaks in my home, I’m not going back to Michaels a year later with a receipt and demanding they replace the frame, I’m going to buy a new frame.

Gird up your loins at check out when you have frames...

My mom, sister, and I went to this Michaels to get some pictures framed. While looking, I got an employee to help me find the correct size. After 2 minutes she told me she had to help another customer. Instead of helping another customer, she was just talking to another employee. We then decided to get our pictures costumed framed. The employee at the framing counter was very unclear on prices, not helpful at all, and kept saying she had to go to lunch. We were going to spend about a $1,000 on frames, so we were going to take a bit of time to pick our frames. We told her she could go to lunch and that we will be here when she gets back. After about 20 minutes of looking and matching colors and styles to pictures (and no help help from the employee) a guy comes in to get some of his own pictures framed. The employee then tells me and my family that due to social distancing we had to leave. My family and I took our pictures and left. On the way out we stopped to tell a manger what happened. The manager just had a blank expression on his face and gave some terrible excuse for his employee's behavior . I don't think I have ever seen such poor customer service before. I will never go back...