Nov 25, 2008

Toys R Us - how NOT to run a business part two...

Back in September, I had THIS run in at Toys R Us. Well, I had a similar occurrence today. How does that saying go? "Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me." Well, they've burned me twice and I'm done.

When you add it up, I attempted so spend nearly $300 with them since September but they don't seem to want my money.

Today, I ran into to pick up a couple of scooters that were normally $119 but were half price. The ad has a preview today and then runs all weekend. So, I went in to get TWO of those scooters. It was like the Rip Stik episode all over again - I thought I was in a movie.

Now, I KNOW they have only had ONE type of these particular scooters because I have been looking at them there for months. They are the type with the little pump bar in the back to accelerate them. So, I assumed it was THAT scooter. But, when I scanned it, it came up at $89 and wasn't on sale. So, I went clear up to the front of the store to ask and I got, "Uh, they're back with the bikes." I said, "No, they aren't". So, they had to call someone who then walked around looking very perplexed. I said, "There isn't even an empty spot on the shelf for the $119 scooter and I've never seen them here." He assured me they had some at one time. I kept saying, "No, you didn't". He finally said, "We don't have any, sorry." My response was, "What are my options? Can you sell me the $89 one for half price?" His response, "No".

So, the lesson here is two-fold:
  1. Don't lie to the customer - they never had any in the first place
  2. Don't advertise what you aren't going to have. This ad is good all weekend. I was there within an hour of the store opening on the first day of the ad and there wasn't even a SPOT for these scooters let alone a price label or sale tag.
So, I went to their website and found them for the sale price there, but they want to charge me $36 for shipping. I can't drive to a store and pick them up for the cost of gas, but I'm welcome to ORDER two online and pay nearly the savings in shipping.

Never again... It's no wonder businesses struggle and fail at times. Many would rather wallow in the swamp of their own stupidity than take a customer's money.

3 comments:

Musicmom-Amy said...

Too bad they don't let you purchase online and ship it to a store of your choice. Now THAT would be too easy wouldn't it?! Our Toys R Us went out of business YEARS ago. And the building still sits empty.

Anonymous said...

Good customer sense dictates that they ship them to you or the store at the sale price. If they don't then I will not feel badly that they struggle financially. In this economy no one can afford to lie to the customer. Their practices will directly sabotage their efforts to make a profit. Go somewhere else.

Anonymous said...

If you already knew that they never had those kind of scooters then why did you even go to the store looking for them? I'm sorry but they don't really seem that ridiculous to me. They can't just give you any random scooter for half price since they don't carry the one you were wanting.