My mother lives in nearby Canby, so whenever I am in town, we happily drive over to Hollyhill quilts to spend not only our money but a pleasant couple of hours.
This past July/August, we both spend a great deal of money on one of our anticipated adventures into Hollyhill. Some of our money was spent on yardage but most was on kits. Hollyhill truly has some very nice and creative kits.
One of the kits was a bit difficult for my Mother to figure out (the cutting). To help her out, I brought the kit home with me with the intention of cutting the fabric and mailing it back to her for assembly.
The first thing I do when I have a kit is to verify the included yardage against the pattern listing. For the first time ever - after more than 20 years quilting for me and 30+ years for my Mother and many, many, many kits - the kit was short yardage in one of seven pieces of fabric.
I called Hollyhill and spoke to Christine. She indicated that the owner was out of the store due to a death in the family, but that the lady who puts the kits together would call me back. No return call, so I called the store again (the day after my initial call).
Brian answered the phone and proceeded to treat the issue like it was all my fault. Rather than listen to what I had to say, Brian immediately berated me for calling back, that ""I was told the owner (his mother) was the only one who would look into the issue and she was out"", ""all of our kits are complete"" and then HUNG UP on me! He told me I was not listening to him and had a bad attitude.
I have worked in customer facing positions for over 25+ years in the high tech industry and find this type of interaction unacceptable. Consumers have plenty of alternatives for spending their money, so to be treated in this fashion is unnecessary, bad business practices and shows a lack of focus on customer satisfaction.
I strongly recommend that you not do your shopping in this store. You work to hard for your money to be treated in such a bad manner. Besides, if you have issues, who wants to listen to the first response of it's all your fault, we are perfect.
12/8/11: UPDATE
I sent a detailed email to Hollyhill with photo's of my concern/question. Janice, the owner, replied to my email overnight with an explanation.
Janice replied even though she was out of the store due to a death in the family. I was most impressed with her taking the time to reply to me.
Janice's reply was professional.
Her explanation was that they wanted to save customers the price of excess fabric thus changed the way the border was cut. Rather than have to purchase fabric sufficient to NOT piece the outer border, i.e. one piece as suggested in the pattern (used length of fabric) they decided to put the kit together with the outer border pieced (width of fabric). The only notation of this change was via a file folder label on the fabric.
An OK substitution. I would have preferred to make this decision on my own. But at the very least, clearly stated, not via a cryptic label on the fabric.
I am pleased with the response from Janice.
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