I wanted to share my experience with a couple of well know baby/kid companies.
First of all everyone knows about Toys R Us and Babies R Us. I think that these companies are amazing. I have shopped there so much for my daughter I think we own half their stores. They have great sales all the time. I always keep my eye on their flyer and websites to see what the latest sales are.
So this first story starts with my daughter and I shopping one day at Toys R Us. Well there was a Barbie sale. WOW! Gotta love when Barbie goes on sale. I am talking a great sale too. Buy one Barbie get one free and not just the dolls, but the ones with the scooter or pool and other such items with them. So I bought my daughter the Barbie with the pool and the Barbie with the scooter. I specifically purchased the scooter Barbie because it came with a helmet and my daughter loves helmets.
I typically buy items from Toys R Us and Babies R Us when they are on sale and then put them away at home until a special occassion or a just because my daughter deserves a gift type of day. So the Barbies were put away. Hidden for that special day. As a matter a fact the pool Barbie is still hidden away!
So one day I thought that my daughter deserved a special treat so out came Barbie with the scooter. I opened the package and what did I discover….the helmet was missing. I thought no problem because Toys R us rocks so we will just take it with the receipt and exchange it. So I hunted high and low for the receipt. It had been so long since I purchased the items that I no longer had the receipt. Oops! My fault! I knew in my mind that if I went to Toys R Us they probably would have looked after me and exchanged the item. However, I felt that was not fair to Toys R Us because they would be stuck with the unusable item. I figured it was better for me to call Mattel and let them know what happened.
This is where my story about Mattel starts. Well, the lady I had at customer service at Mattel was amazing. I told her what happened with the missing helmet that I had wanted so badly because my daughter loves helmets. She understood and placed me on hold to see if she could locate the item number and find out if they had the helmets in stock. She came back and informed me that she was unsure if they could get a helmet, but that I would either be mailed the helmet or sent a cheque for the amount of the item. I thanked the customer service lady very much and hung up feeling very respected and satisfied as a customer.
I actually had the missing helmet issue slip my mind until about four days later. I opened the mailbox and saw a letter from Mattel. I felt a bit disappointed because I had wanted the helmet for the Barbie, but what can you do. I figured the helmet was worth maybe a $0.50 coupon and that is what the envelope would contain. So I opened the envelope and what did I receive? I received $12.00 cheque from Mattel with an apology that they could not locate the helmet that I had hoped for so much.
I seriously could not believe that Mattel sent me a $12.00 cheque. But I did not argue and off to Toys R Us my daughter and I went to have a shopping spree. Yes, at Toys R Us the $12.00 was a shopping spree. We were able to get the Barbie car for just a bit more than the $12.00 Mattel cheque we had.
So my daughter and I left Toys R Us again feeling happy.
Thank you Mattel and Toys R Us.