Sorry, I can't sell this to you. What? Really?: Worst Company 2009

I had a recent unfortunate incident at Michaels. That would be Michaels Arts and Crafts store. More specifically the one in Leesburg, Virginia. I used to shop at this store a lot. Mostly when I lived in Leesburg now its either that one or the one is Sterling. Anyway, that is beside the point. The point is I WILL NEVER SHOP MICHAELS EVER AGAIN! (Unless I get some major ass kissing on their part). And the following is the reason why.

My family is getting ready to go to the beach this weekend. In preparation, I have been doing major laundry and lots of shopping for essentials and must haves for the trip. Not being big beach goers, the last time was on our honeymoon four years ago, we don't have some of the obvious. Most notably a sand pail and sand shovels. Why is this important? Because we have a toddler who has recently discovered the wonders of sand and would love to be able to make sand castles, dig in the sand and collect shells. CAN'T DO THAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A PAIL AND SHOVELS. So this week I ventured on my journey to find them. Realizing that I probably waited to late to shop for summer items, seeing that Halloween and Christmas items are already out in stores, I had hopes I might find something on clearance. After failing at Target I thought, Michaels. They sometimes have things like this in those bins that are usually like $1-$5. So I hoped in the car and drove across the street on the chance they might have something left. And HALLELUJAH they did! I thought I'd just hit the jack pot and our trip was saved. I was the cool mom who found the shovels that seemed to be evading us. So in the cart they went. Little did I know, what was waiting for us at the register.

Totally relieved that I finally found the beach shovels (three to be exact. One spade, one with holes, and one scoop) I placed them at the register. The lady rung them up and then all of a sudden she voids it all out turns to me and says, "I can't sell you these." Uh, whaa,whaa...What? She takes them away to the other side of the counter. I'm looking at her totally confused and just dumbfounded. "Excuse me. Why?" "They are under a certain dollar amount and we have a rule that anything under a certain dollar amount I can't sell to you." WHAT!? I'm thinking at this point that she is just full of shit and making no sense at all. Why would they not sell me something? The shovels were sitting in the freaking bins ready to be bought! She repeats the excuse. And I'm just like, this reason is so bogus. I could understand if the price was wrong and they needed to sell it at a different price. But to say that it's too cheap so I can't sell it to you. That's complete and utter BULL SHIT! Sorry for the foul language but I am PISSED OFF. I have been searching for these damn things and finally find it and she won't sell it to me. I tell her, "If it has to be like $1 a piece or something I'll pay that. I don't care. I WANT THESE SHOVELS." She refuses. "I'm sorry, I can't sell them to you." She then calls the manager, which I'm like THANK GOD someone who will make some sense. But then she flags down another associate and gives her the shovels and tells her to take all the other ones off the shelf before I even get to argue with the manager about selling them to me. She tells me the manager is going to tell me the same thing. She can't sell them to me, but I could try Toys R US. She is sure they would have it. At this point it's been like 20 minutes. The manager is nowhere to be seen, my kids are getting antsy, it's getting late, we've been out all morning. A few more minutes go by and I've had enough waiting. I leave the store. COMPLETELY IRATE.

At this point I've got the kids back in the car and I'm on my iPhone searching for Michaels corporate headquarters phone number. I'm logging a complaint and it ain't gonna be pretty. They would rather lose my business they sell me three beach shovels. HOW FUCKING RIDICULOUS IS THAT? So the rest of the day I am just fuming over this incident. Stupid Bitch. I keep saying over and over as each store I go to in desperation just looks at me like I'm retarded asking for beach stuff. Of course we don't have it, we have Halloween merchandise out now. But you could try..... Yeah, Yeah been there, done that. Hopeless. By the time I get home I am so frustrated, upset, confused and sad for Mason that I just want to cry.

Fred arrives home and I repeat the story to him. He then does what he does best and tracks down the complaint number and then dials it for me. I lodge my complaint. Even the lady at the complaint center has no idea what I'm saying. SEE. IT'S THAT STUPID. YOUR OWN COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT DOESN'T EVEN BELIEVE IT. She says she's filing my complaint with the district manager and he should be giving me a call. Of course I know deep down that he isn't going to call. Because that's just how these corporations are. They could care less about their consumers.

How do I explain to my son that he can't have the shovels because of some STUPID IDIOT lady at the evil corporation called Michaels? He was really disappointed and clearly didn't understand why we couldn't buy them. Though, he didn't have the tantrum I was expecting. He sulked about it, was sad and then carried on in the car about how stupid it was. "And the lady said we couldn't buy them. Why she do that? Stupid lady. Stupid store." That's right buddy. You got your momma's back.

I'm still baffled by the whole thing. Still irate. Still sad. Still fuming. STILL WANTING MY DAMN SHOVELS! So disappointed in the system. It failed. I honestly don't understand the issue. Just let me pay for the damn things and call it a day. Seriously. What was the harm? Now they've lost my business. Being a big scrapbooker (and hoarder of scrapbooking supplies) and crafter, that's a chunk of revenue you ain't gonna be getting anymore. I really should have stopped shopping there after the brilliant minds of the executives decided to close Recollections. A thriving, very active and popular scrapbooking store. Should have known they were stupid back then. Well won't make that mistake twice. Now we are heading to the beach in four days with no shovels for our beach pail.

Thanks Michaels. FOR NOTHING. My review of your company: YOU FAIL. MISERABLY. I know I don't have much clout because I'm not famous like Dooce (check out her blog for her Maytag experience) but I thought I'd try to use the power of Twitter, Facebook and my Blog to reach out to consumers and inform them of really crappy business practices of companies they might frequent. It's all I got and I need some sort of happy ending to this ridiculous story.