ericcarroll.org

Well, things haven't gotten any better at our Toys R Us.

Silly us, we decided to give them another shot. We wanted to get our son a radio control truck or car for his birthday and there wasn't much of a selection except at Toys R Us. So we bought one there (yes, I know... we're gluttons for punishment). He was pretty excited to get it. It was a Tyco RC Toyota FJ Cruiser. It came with the rechargable battery pack, charger, etc. It seemed like a pretty nice truck. Everything seemed fine.

<Cue Suspense Music (Dun Dun Dun)>

Because Duct Tape Was too Obvious

About a week or two after the party, he was playing with it and it wasn't working quite right (he hadn't played with it much at all since he made quite the toy haul from his friends at his party so he had been busy with other toys). He brought it to me and I tried looking at it. After turning it on and off again and trying to drive it, it would go super fast in reverse, but would just creep along going forward. When I picked it up to look it over more, I noticed the thing had been glued back together with hot glue.

I was not happy, at all.

Now, I know this could have been a case of a customer breaking the toy and then dishonestly returning it, but it certainly didn't help our view of Toys R Us. When we went back to Toys R Us, they told us they don't give refunds on electronic items so they were going to give us store credit. The problem with this is that we don't trust them anymore, since you can buy a stroller and get Legos. How are we supposed to know that the next item we purchase isn't broken, either?

Maybe There is Hope

My wife had put in a call to Toys R Us customer service (corporate). The guy she spoke to seemed appalled about the Lego stroller, terrible wait times, poor service and so on. We thought we might get somewhere. They put someone on "the case" and would be returning her call to take care of the situation. Well, someone called back and she was anything but helpful. The woman on the phone kept saying, "But the issue has been resolved, right? You got your refund?" Obviously, she didn't get it and didn't care.

Maybe We're Living in the Past

Once this went back to the store for handling the issue, the manager kept saying, over the phone, "But these happened last year." My wife emphatically told her that they happened this year. Apparently, the issues we complained about like the long wait times, the Lego stroller, etc. were somehow put down as happening last year. Now my guess is that the manager didn't want it to look like it happened on their watch so they back-dated the incidents (She even stated that this type of thing would never happen on her watch). Once the lady got it through her head that these events were recent and things went back and forth for a several days, we got our full refund.

Maybe Never

Bottom line, Toys R Us doesn't care and doesn't want to do anything about what goes on in their stores. From now on, I think we'll shop at Target or any one of the four Wal-Marts we have here (We have a K. B. Toys, but they are like Toys R Us only smaller and crammed in a small spot in the mall.).

So this begs the question...
WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD TOY STORES GONE?