So we finally had our last of FIVE baby showers this past weekend. Yes. I said five. I'm exhausted! We have so much stuff we don't know what to do with some of it! It's exploding out of the closet and the drawers on the dressers are rapidly filling up with clothes and blankets and sheets. We are extremely grateful to all of our generous friends. I'm still pushing through the thank you notes that I try to write in between grading papers and taking some time for myself.
We looked at our registry yesterday and there were several things that we still considered "essential" that we wanted to purchase. This included baby bottles, a second car seat base for Kendall's car, the changing pad for our dresser top (poopy diapers don't change themselves!), an extra cover for said changing pad (in case the poopy gets on the first one), Kendall's man bag, and one of those fleece covers that goes over the outside of the car seat so you don't have to put your kid in a winter coat all the time. So we checked our list online and then headed for Babies R Us with coupons and gift cards in hand.
When we arrived at the ONE AND ONLY store in the greater Dayton area (40 minutes from our house) we printed out our list to confirm the location of each item. I should start by saying that we checked at home that each item we wanted was still available in the store. We've had experiences in the past, buying for other people, where things just seem to "disappear" from the store and aren't available anymore. It's extremely annoying. And we weren't going to drive all the way down to the store if they didn't have what we wanted. Amazingly, the list said everything was still available.
What a load of crap! We we arrived and started searching, we found that the man bag Kendall wanted was just "missing". It was still listed as available in-store, but was nowhere to be found. No biggie. He compromised and got one that was very similar to the original.
Then we went in search of the car seat base. Nope. No base. The employee that we spoke with said that Evenflo bases were no longer being carried in their store. The Cincinnati store had 15 if we'd like to drive down there though. We would have to special order the extra base and it would take at least two weeks to get to the Dayton store. I was mad. We put that to the back burner, but we kept searching for the other items.
On to find the fleece cover. There was a rack for the covers. There was a price tag for the covers. But NO COVERS! Empty. Same for our back up cover that we had almost registered for. Now isn't it COLD outside? Shouldn't they have extras of these things ordered? Back stock?
At this point I'm super pissed. I'm 35 weeks pregnant with two swollen ankles and a stomach that sticks out to kingdom come. People have repeatedly asked me if I'm having multiples and I'm not having a good week (and it was only Tuesday). My doctor had just finished telling me that he wasn't even going to do any ultrasound until week 39 to determine if he's "too big". So not getting this item was the last straw.
I found an employee who was actually willing to help me and asked him to look in the computer for any back stock on my items. He was very friendly and apologetic. He suggested that I speak with the manager since NONE of my items was in stock. When he called her, she tried to HIDE in the back and repeat what we had already hear about our car seat base. He pressed her to come out and we waited. And waited. And waited.
When she finally appeared, she seemed irritated that someone might actually want to speak with her. I firmly, but politely told her that I thought it was ridiculous that three of my essential items were completely missing from the store. She tried to repeat that I could have them all ordered and shipped to the Dayton store, ready for pick up in two weeks. I gestured to my stomach and said, "Does this look like it's going to make it two more weeks? Furthermore, I live 40 minutes away. Can you have these things shipped directly to my house, since you have to have them shipped somewhere anyways?" She told me that I would have to PAY for shipping.
At this point I almost lost it and told her that I thought Babies R Us was ridiculous, inflexible, and unreliable and that it was obvious that the she and the store didn't care because they practically have a monopoly on some items. I told her I would rather buy the items off Amazon.com, where at least I could get free shipping during this holiday season. I think she just didn't want to have to deal with me anymore because she told the employee to just bill the shipping to her asst manager FedEx account.
Now why couldn't she have done that in the first place?!!?!?! I am thoroughly fed up with Babies R Us and refuse to shop there for any further items. I'm going to buy everything via the Internet or Target from now on.
10 comments:
I second that Babies R Us is totally unflexable! We bought a jogging stroller there when I was pregnant, but never opened the box until Ella was 3 months old. Then when we got it out to use it the wheel was all screwed up. We decided to try and return it for a different model, but b/c it was past 30 days they wouldn't even let us exchange it. It was a huge ordeal, going back and forth with the manager, but we finally ended up with another of the same stroller. So beware, if you even think you might need to return something do it ASAP or your SOL.
When Mike and I went to buy things from our registry some of the racks were completely empty. Not just the color we wanted but every color was gone! How does a store not keep up with their stock??? I don't understand!
I'm a dude, and one without kids at that, so I can't say I have much to offer on this one - just thought I would pop in and say, "Hi!"
yeah, their stocking leaves much to be desired. I'd check Toys R Us though as they carry much of the same stuff and there's likely to be one nearer to you.
Do you want me to get you some stuff here (if it's really what you want)?
That sucks--Let me know if there is anything I can do to help...I'll beat up the manager for you ;)
So I thought about this a little more--this is probably the worst store to have these issues, I mean come on-pregnant women shouldn't be having to make multiple trips anywhere. This store should be the best at stocking etc. Not to mention I wouldn't (as a manager) want to deal with the emotional outbursts of already hormonal women so I would keep the stock up for that reason alone!
I am sooo sorry you had to deal with this!
The words completely justified should be before outburst...
I agree that this is ridiculous, especially since you checked online to make sure the store had everything in stock before going. Any time something like that has happened to me, and the clerk tells me that I'll need to pay to have it shipped from a different store I press until they do an store-exchange or something.
And really, how is it that it takes 2 weeks to ship something from Cincinnati to Dayton?
Being a non pregnant person, I can't say too much about that store (i.e. is it different from any other store or is it just the b/c of the type of store it is - limited time for people?). However, I would probably have been so hung up and demanded a *real* answer to: why was it listed as being "in stock" in THAT store, when it wasn't?
The manager's JOB is to have to face the unhappy customers. They're never called over for a scenerio that's going smoothly! She knew exactly what she was getting into when she became manager of a baby supplies store! That's why she gets paid the "big bucks" (relatively, of course).
Target has HORRIBLE return policies. I'm wary of them.
By the way, office max is unreasonable, too. They have a schload of electronics that they do not have on display, and if you ask they will not open a box just so you can SEE, feel, etc it, either. That would be for things that cost even over a thousand dollars. And they won't take it back once you do open it unless there is an obvious manufacture's defect...
GOOD LUCK!
I didn't have to deal with the pregnancy/hormone thing, but I seriously hate Babies R Us!! We registered there, but I felt bad making anyone go into the store to buy us a gift!! I plan on boycotting it as well, but not until we use all of our gift cards and gift credit :)
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