Michaels Stores review: racial activity and goods not accepted 5

Thank you Stealth Pilot! I was thinking the same thing. I don't see how anything that Balony just wrote deals with racism?! Maybe I'm just not seeing it. They probably got irate because the manager refused the return. Therefore, the manager felt threatened and called the cops. Good luck with that case in court!

Sorry, I TOTALLY agree. There are two "southern" type manangers in the store at pembroke pines, FL and they come off as extremely racists. I was discriminated against and I have my reasons why. In fact, I have been considering a lawsuit myself. I definitely have grounds. HORRIBLE people work here and truly shouldn't.

I'm trying to see how there's racial discrimination here. A return barcode must be scanned at the time of the return. If the barcode is missing, a receipted return cannot take place. The next best thing to do would be to do a nonreceipted return, or try to do a return by scanning the original debit/credit card, if the purchase was made with a card. If it was made using cash, then a nonreceipted return is the only option.

This is store and company policy. But apparently, those things are now racial discrimination. And I'm getting the feeling some information is missing here. I'm sure you gave the manager a valid reason to call the cops, if they did indeed call the cops.

I clicked on this post, because I hate racism and discrimination in general (I am disabled myself, and have experienced my share of being discriminated against because of being a wheelchair user, especially while travelling around the world, luckily not much here in Norway where I live though!). Of course I don't know for sure if you were being discriminated against because of your race, but there is NOTHING in your post that indicates to me that you were being so! If there were things about your experience that you did not mention or did not explain well enough here, I think you should work on this post (or post a new one if it can't be edited), so people have a chance to understand. As your post stands, I can only see one thing out of it, you received poor customer service, nothing racist about that. I know one thing, from my own experiences as well as the experiences of many people with disabilities (through organization work for almost 30 yrs) and experiences from being a social worker working with refugees from many countries new to my country: It is very easy, when you have felt discriminated against many times in your past and also when you feel (more or less) "different" because of belonging to some minority to blame problems occurring when interacting with others in society on the fact that you are "different" - e.g. being Indian looking while in reality being an American citizen, just as most of the population. So when you experience a problem or conflict, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the other person "singled you out" for being Indian looking/foreign, even if that is not the case at all. I think the REAL ISSUE here very well may be that Michaels Arts and Crafts simply have bad customer service! In fact, the reason why I did my google search for people's experiences with Michaels, it was because I just had read some of their policies for their online store, and one sure was shocking reading for me. It says:

"Product Description; No Refunds or Exchanges
We attempt to describe the items offered on the Site as accurately as possible; however, we do not warrant that the descriptions or other content on the Site are accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free. All sales made through the Site are final. No refunds or exchanges for items purchased through this Site will be made."

Basically, if you buy a product and their description was totally incorrect, it does not matter - you will still not be allowed to return, exchange the product or get a refund - you are stuck with it. I still can't believe that a store can get away with pushing the responsibility for their own mistakes/errors onto the customer (should be against the law!)! If nothing else, that is ROTTEN customer service! I was looking at the site to see if I could possibly order some items from there, to be shipped to me in Norway, but after reading that, I'm not so interested anymore! I did get curious re. other people's experiences with the site/stores though, as I could imagine there would have to be some frustrated people out there... Obviously there are, both customers and employees...

If your whole story is described in your post, I really, really do not believe you have anything to sue them for. I do not think you have a discrimination/racism case at all (would be a sad waste of time and money for you!). It really does not sound as if their actions towards you had anything with your race to do at all, it simply sounds like you got bad customer service, which any other person in the same situation most likely would get. For the future: I think you should try to be aware of one thing, what is REALLY discrimination and what is really something else - especially for your own sake, but also for the greater good! People "pulling the racism card" (or "discrimination card") when racism is not involved, makes it a lot harder for those who really are being discriminated against, since the other cases work a bit as "crying wolf" (Remember the old tale about the boy who cried wolf over and over again when there was no wolf?)... It makes people not likely to react when a reaction is appropriate - when real racism IS happening! That is horrible, and I am sure that you have no interest in contributing to that! Racism (and discrimination in general) is despicable and something we all should take a stand against/fight against! I realize that you probably have experienced being discriminated against over and over again in your past, which is why it is easy to jump to the conclusion that this was what happened again, but it really does not seem to be the case now. Unless you left important details out of your post, if that is the case, I hope you post again, because I am sure that if it is a real case of racism against customer groups, there would be a lot of people who would like to know (and because of it, participate in a boycott)! As your story stands now, I don't think many would boycott the store based on it, and they shouldn't either, IMHO (may be other reasons for it though)!

Good luck! :)

I work at Michael's and I cannot say they are racist but yes there are situations that are questionable on the discrimination side. I am almost 52 years old and have been at Michael's almost 3 years. I have been turned down twice for an open management position. I honestly believe that this is mostly due to my age when compared to most of the employee's that are hired. Both times the person that was hired did not meet the requirements stated in the MIchael's handbook. If I thought there was a good reason not to at least give me a try then I would not be here now. I have worked in almost every department. I have been employee of the month, I was made head of jewelry department, and have received numerous safety awards. I am dependable and have experience as a supervisor of a warehouse for many years. I have many years in a customer service type posiition.. I do not have a college degree but neither does either of the 2 employees that were given the management position. In fact I knew more than either one of them about the overall store and its operations. I am heartbroken over this because I really enjoy working there but also because now I will have to find another job and start all over again trying to work my way up. Of course, by the time that happens i will be 2 or 3 years older than I am now.and if other companies do like Michael's then I just do not know how I will be able to take care of myself iwhen that happens. I do not think I could prove this in court but hope that my manager will lose his job after filling out a report to the HR department.