Issues R' Us

While we were at dinner in Lake Geneva over the weekend my sister, and I were talking about the blog and some improvements/changes that could possibly be made. I did not inherit the creative writing gene that my sister did and she is a great writer herself; so I really do appreciate any suggestions she might have. I will admit that I am not a very good writer and very long winded (hence the length of this post) so, I can’t promise huge improvements in that category, but I can change the content of the posts. One thing she suggested is that I should offer more opinions on various topics or how I am feeling about certain areas of my life. Well, I don’t know if this conversation jinxed the experience Matt and I had at Babies R Us on Sunday or what, but Kristi, this post is for you!

Just to get my feelings out in the open right off the bat, I am completely annoyed and frustrated with Babies R Us.

On Sunday, Matt and I headed to Babies R Us to exchange and return some items that we received for Baby Hunt; the main item being the Bumbleride Indie Stroller my mom’s Bunko group so graciously gave us. Why, you might ask, are we returning the stroller? There were two reasons why, really. The first reason was to support Grow, a local children’s shop in our neighborhood. They have been extremely friendly and helpful every time we have been in there to look at the Bumbleride. It would be nice to know that if we ever had any problems with the stroller, we could walk down the block and know a friendly caring face would be willing to help us out. The second reason we had talked about exchanging the Bumbleride was to possibly purchase the Bugaboo Frog. While I have had my eye on the Bumbleride for some time now, the Bugaboo is quite an amazing stroller; made well, stylish, easy to push, etc. The only problem is the hefty price tag, which is why we ultimately ended up registering for the Bumbleride.

Anyway, after schlepping the 25 pound box to Babies R Us and waiting in line for 25 minutes, we get up to the cashier only to find out that we can’t exchange the stroller because we don’t have a packing slip or “proof” the stroller was purchased from Babies R Us. I use the term proof as loosely as possible because one, it clearly states on the box that the stroller was shipped from Toys R Us and two, because it is on our registry. I should clarify that you can return items to the store, without a receipt, that were purchased online only if the store carries the item. You will get the lowest prices, but you can still return it….more on that one later. This particular item is not carried in the store, only online, which created all of this havoc. So, what am I annoyed about?

There are a couple of things, really:

• First and foremost, the stroller was on our registry. Shouldn’t you be able to return any item with or without a receipt if it was on your registry? I sure think so and I am pretty sure that is what the registry “expert” told us when began the registry process.
  We received the stroller as a gift off our registry. Why would we have the packing slip? It would be extremely tacky to include the packing slip with a gift as it clearly states the price paid for the item.
• Don’t tell me that I should try to return the stroller to Toys R Us because that is where it was shipped from. Huh? I thought you didn’t know where it was shipped from, thus requiring proof of purchase.
• If I would have known that you can’t return online items to the store without a receipt, I would never have added items online. What is the point of offering that service if the company does not make it easy to return. I pity anyone who did their registry completely online. Better hope they receive packing slips or gift receipts for all their items.
• The lowest price theory…..I will give Babies R Us the benefit of the doubt on this one because I do agree that if you don’t have a receipt for the item you should only get back what the current price is, even if it is one sale. With this said, I don’t believe you should screw people. Example: we were returning a pack of onesies that really I just wanted to exchange for a different size. I didn’t have a receipt for them so they gave me the current price, which was a sale price. Fine, totally understandable. When we went to purchase the same onesies, in a different size, they charged us $1.50 more. What? It is not that I care about the $1.50, but I do care about them making money off of me in a way that is completely unfair.

Needless to say, I will be happy after Baby Hunt arrives and things are settled with items we receive at showers. I do not plan on shopping at Babies R Us once all my gift cards are spent, unless I absolutely have to. I think their customer service is terrible and their registry policy is even worse. The bad thing for them, if we had decided to exchange the Bumbleride for the Bugaboo that day, they would have made a lot of money since the Bugaboo is almost double the Bumbleride. Hmmmmm, if only they would have known they were going to make some more money from us. Too bad, so sad!