5Sept2008: Day 103: Toys R Us - I'm NOT happy!

It's Chris writing today.

We purchased this gate when we got here for Makenna since we were shipping over our gates from home, but we weren't going to get them for a few weeks. We ended up buying this travel gate at ToysRUs here in Rochester, Kent on the 229. It turns out this gate is a piece of junk. It is called the Bruin flexibarrier and it is made for BabiesRUs in China, of course, where everything is made now. Its problem is the fact that the pressure pads don't stay in the gate, so when it is moved, they all fall out. It was particularly annoying when you are trying to sneak into the babies room and move the thing silently and then all of a sudden one or more of these giant screw and pad things fall out of it and clamor across the floor or goes bounding down the steps. It is obviously a flawed design, there should be some threading in the molding to hold the pressure pad's screw in. I intended to take it back as soon as we had our own gates because of this flaw, but I misplaced the receipt. I should have taken it back anyway, but I thought I needed the receipt and I just wrote it off as something I would sell for $2 at a garage sale one day or just throw out when we leave back for the states.

Anyway, this last weekend I actually found the receipt so we decided to go back to ToysRUs and take it back and also get a potty training seat and step stool for Makenna as she can't reach the sink to wash her hands. So, we go into the ToysRUs and take it to the "customer service" desk and there I am met by a young lady who said she would talk to the manager. Fifteen minutes later I go back to the desk to see what their decision is. They began by telling me that there were missing parts and that they would provide them to me as a courtesy. In fact, the missing parts had nothing to do with the flaw in the design, they were some wall pad parts that are intended to give a cushioning spot on the wall where the pads would push when installed. I had to walk these nose-ringed teenagers through how this would not fix the problem at all and have them tell me that there is no problem because the other one they have does the same thing, which they showed me. The amazing thing was they had to take the "missing parts" from another box, which would only have to be sent back to get repackaged I guess, or they would just sell that unit with missing parts...seemed kind of stupid to me and I told them so. Just take back this one and get it repackaged with the missing parts! No. no...too simple.

So, they told me that since it was such an old purchase (3 months) that they could not refund my money. I pretty much knew that when I took it back, but the fact that these people were trying to tell me there was nothing wrong with the thing really, really, bothered me. I fought with them for quite some time, which is completely a-typical for me, especially when they were right about the refund. I guess I just felt insulted that they were telling me that there was no problem, when clearly there was. I talked with the manager and he just smirked. I told him he lost more money than what that gate was worth here and he just shrugged his shoulders and left. We left about 50 pounds worth of stuff in our cart. The gate was only 22 pounds so, their loss I guess. But, now I'm boycotting ToysRUs out of spite, yes, spite, I'm sorry to be such a sinner, but they really should have just recognized the flaw and taken the product back and given me store credit or something. I'm going to give them one more chance by calling the number in the paperwork that came with the product and see if they have a recall or something. It really is completely unworkable. It is even impossible to get into the doorway without one or two of these things falling out. So Teri was about to throw it across the room a couple of times.

Afterwards we went over to ASDA (Walmart) and bought food and looked for a step stool and potty, neither of which they had; potties, not food...they have plenty of food. We went home and had pizza and salad with croutons we just bought, and of course, their bad. Bad croutons!? How does that happen!? Well they have oil in them and they taste and smell like oil that has sat around for a year. So, I'll hopefully return them before 3 months from now and I hope I don't have to explain how they are bad to a pack of teenagers.