When I found out I was pregnant I was super excited to start my baby shower baby registry. I was puzzled when I noticed that between the end of December and the end of January they have a blackout period on their Rewards Program. Concerned,I brought this to the attention of an employee at Babies R Us. I was assured that this must be an online purchase policy and that the store does not have any such restriction.
Had I known that this blackout period was an all out company policy I would never have registered with Babies R Us or possibly would have postponed my baby shower for a later date. See, I was due on March 8th and so my shower was planned for the end of January. Needless to say I did not receive any rewards on any of the items my guests purchased for me. Now here is the really funny part. In the beginning of February I returned several items I had received at my shower for one reason or another. Lo and behold,my rewards card was “debited” for these returns. So I asked,how can you take something from me that you never gave me to begin with? I ended up with a negative $500 plus dollars towards my reward earnings. I tried emailing and calling corporate only to be connected with much confused representatives that could not process what I was explaining to them. I wonder how many people have been duped by this scam they call their blackout period and don’t even know it! The final result, it‘s a computerized system and nothing could be done to fix it. Well, I fixed it, I opened a new rewards account.
On April 6th I somehow managed to take my sleeping 1 month old to Babies R Us to buy some diapers. They were running a special on Pampers and if you spent $100 you got $30 off. I bought 2 boxes of Pampers Swaddlers Size 1 (210 ct) and a Pampers box of wipes. The total came out to just a little over the required purchase amount. Little did I realize that with the other diapers we had at home, little Baby Em’s would quickly outgrow her size 1’s. I finally made my way to Babies R Us on July 6th with a cranky 4 month old in tow (and 2 boxes of Pampers). The cashier and supervisor at the store were really nice but advised me that I could not exchange them for a bigger size because it had been 91 days since my purchase. Turns out that since May has 31 days I came in 1 day too late and many dollars short. I asked for them to call into corporate to see if something can be done to work it out. After speaking with the first customer service agent, being asked for all of my info (no clue why if you can’t assist me), then put on hold for 10 minutes (baby Em‘s still cranky and crying – and so am I at this point) a supervisor by the name of “Michelle” finally gets on the phone. Why am I surprised to be told there is NOTHING she can do. All I wanted to do was get a box of Pampers Size 2 and Size 3, was I really asking too much? This wasn’t even a return but an EVEN exchange!
If Babies R Us wants to enforce their 90 day policy they should put a “return by” date in BIG BOLD letters on their receipts like Target does, even Target will take things back after their 90 day policy.
Taking into consideration the name of the store and the clientele they are supposed to be catering to, pregnant woman and new moms, you would think they would be a little more lenient or accommodating to their customers. I have spent countless dollars with this company. I will NOT be shopping there anymore. Their prices are not competitive enough (unless it‘s on sale – but only if what you need is not part of their long list of exclusions), their policies are not accommodating, they do not accept coupons printed from the internet, their shelves are always empty or poorly stocked (months and months before they restocked the Avent Phillips Soothie Pacifiers), their rewards program is poorly set up, and the new thing I learned today…their shopping carts aren’t car seat friendly! Really? How do they expect customers to pull around a stroller and a shopping cart?
I am going to cash out my VIB Card (still have not been able to verify if they properly credited it), ensure that all my gift cards are depleted, pay off my Babies R Us credit card, and close my account. Adios Babies R Us….There are far too many stores with real customer service and better options out there than to deal with your nonsense. No pregnant or new mommy should be treated like this!
Bottom line: Read the fine print, then read it again. Then verify what you read with an employee. Still confused, just give up because when you shop at Babies R Us, you lose!
Sincerely,
Mama
Comments (7)
Thanks for sharing your experience. This is a similar story I hear to often with Babies R Us/Toys R Us. They need some serious competition to level the playing field. Maybe that would be the only thing that would make them shape up their bad behavior!
I was scheduled to have the twins January 30th, with my baby shower on the 7th….yeah I was pretty pissed when I found out I wouldn’t be getting any rewards on anything we bought or anything that was bought for us off the registry. I also was not too happy when I found out that the rewards I had earned did not come in lump some (I was wanting to get my Moby wrap for free with my rewards) but came separately so I still ended up having to go out of pocket on items I still needed. I do like that they are now UPromise, and I do think they have fabulous customer service, but their rewards program sucks! oh and now you cant even get diapers, formula, and other items where you get buy 10 get one free…now you have to be a part of their VIB card….no thanks!
wow I can’t believe they took reward points away when they never gave them to you in the first place. That’s crazy
I only recently discovered Babies R Us for myself, and I loved the way the online registry was set up, and our local store was well stocked and the reps were all very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a single item from my gift registry. Or maybe not so unfortunate, given your testimony, and the fact that I was totally broke after giving birth so I couldn’t afford to buy anything new anyway. One thing, though – I am a blogger, and I recently gave away a $50 gift card to Babies R Us on my blog. Once I had a confirmed winner, I purchased the gift card online and had it emailed to her. Well, almost a WEEK later, my PayPal account has been debited, but my winner has STILL not received the card, which was supposed to be delivered within a few HOURS! I have an email complaint in with customer service right now, and I am hoping they handle this quickly. It’s just so stupid! 🙁 I’m sorry you went through all of that, and I hope that you get all of the money and rewards you earned before you move on to a better store.
Wow. What an experience you’ve had. 🙁 We’ve never had a Babies R Us in our town and our Toys R Us closed years ago. I actually worked there for a bit opening the store. The building is now our local Harley Motorcycle dealership. 🙂
You sure have been through the wringer. What got me the most was the shopping cart not being car seat friendly! Obviously people will be there with with babies it’s a BABY store! I have no tales good or bad as I live on 700 a month and I can’t even afford their sales. I believe we ordered something online when my oldest granddaughter was a baby.
oh my.. well i havent tried it yet since in our place they dont have the membership thingy. 🙂 but it is really indeed a big dismay of what toy r us acting to their customers :/