To: Charles Sonsteby, Interim CEO and Lewis Klessel, Co-CEO
Go to the wizard and get a heart, Michael's
Michael's Stores, please use common sense when dealing with people who are grieving and know that they may not always do what you expect. If you want a person to call back, tell them; if you are going to throw away irreplaceable items, tell them that. "I'm calling to remind you that you have an item that needs to be picked up" is insufficient to indicate you will be trashing something so valuable.
Why is this important?
When my husband died, my daughter and I made up a poster-size tribute to him, including pictures and many craft materials from Michael's. We dropped off the tribute to Michael's for framing and paid the framing cost in advance. Sixteen days after my husband died, I fell and broke my back, ribs, etc. Although I received calls from Michael's reminding me of the "tribute" I needed to pick up while at the hospitals and the nursing home, they never told me they would throw the tribute away. I opened an envelope that told me that in front of the manager of the local Michael's AFTER I'd gone in to pick it up. I wanted to PROVE to him that I'd never received this notification. They refunded me the cost of the framing (but not the materials I'd bought there, the photos, the poster, or anything else), and told me it is corporate policy to discard materials not picked up after a period of time, even if they are prepaid, and even if their paperwork says it is a "tribute" so they know loss is involved.