I agree that it's a bit underhanded on the consumer end, and tricky is a polite way of putting it. However, part of me believes it's justified in the case of TRU, who won't honor their sale prices on returns and won't offer rainchecks if they're out of stock.

If you look at it from their perspective, the sale worked, because I bought the last three peg warmers at their store and hauled them around town with me for two weeks, allowing them to reorder.

Still, there seems to be such an aversion to keeping these figures on the shelves. If every store had full pegs of them, but they just weren't the ones I wanted, that'd be one thing, but here in Albuquerque, almost every store I've been to has at least one empty peg for the line.

I've never had a problem at TRU

Well, I certainly hope this is 100% true, as evidenced in the rest of the thread. I went to a Walmart today which had absolutely zero Marvel Universe figures on the pegs.

Either some kids got hot for some Iron Men, or someone's trying the trick here, moving stock on their own from one Walmart to another.

I also wonder, there are specifically Walmarts in town who have stopped stocking MU. If I were to buy some at one that did, and return them to the one that doesn't, what happens to them there? Are they reduced to clearance immediately? Am I forcing them to make shelf space for them in the regular area?

The only truly bad experience I've ever had at a TRU is when they sent me a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase of toys. I went in, found $50 worth of toys I wanted and my wife found a few things for my daughter, including a lap tray/activity table. The things my wife wanted didn't count towards the $50, but the toys I had picked were more than enough (even bought a pegwarmer to pad out the total).

So we go to the checkout, everything gets rung up correctly and I get my $10 off. I'm also stoked about the toys I just bought. After we get home, my wife discovers that the lap tray thing didn't work like she thought it did. Plus, it was missing a "leg" bar.

So, receipt in hand, we went to TRU to return the lap tray thing for a refund. They told my wife that they would only refund the cost of the tray minus its portion of the $10 off. Even though there were items on the receipt that didn't count towards the coupon, the $10 was applied to the entire purchase anyway.

Needless to say, my wife was pretty pissed about it (more on principal than anything else). Now she refuses to set foot in a TRU. As for me, I probably wouldn't have bought the damn lap tray to begin with (I thought it was a silly purchase, because my daughter already has tons of activity books and a kids' table & chairs set where she can play with those books.

I can't agree that there is any justification, partial or otherwise. Sales should be honored and any advertised sale items should be in plentiful supply for the consumer to take advantage of the reduced pricing. If the item is out of stock, a rain-check should be issued.

Regarding TRU, I will not shop there unless I'm completely out of options looking for an item. The only one that's sort of near me is just awful. The inside is filthy, it's in a high crime area and the parking lot surface is cracked and full of chuck-holes. Also, there is little to no restocking and customer service is on a continuous coffee break.

Apparently I'm not the only one who dislikes TRU as the parking lot is constantly 99% empty on the rare occasion that I have been in there. You'd think the management would take the hint and try to get some better business practices put in place but it never happens. Maybe when they're out of a job the light bulbs may come on but I have my doubts about that occurring.

Most TRU locations are a sad shadow of what they once were. When I was a kid there were parents chasing around their kids because the place was so busy that children were filling aisle to aisle. It was like a giant playground where you're supposed to buy stuff. Now it looks like any other retail store, just with inflated pricing and no real clearance items (everything on clearance is suspiciously overpriced anyway and sits there for years). It's a horrible little place where only old people actually expect to find anything. And they don't, not to my knowledge anyway.

You know I have never acounted for a store being in a high crime area when I am deceding to check said store. Some time the ones in the highest crime areas have the best stuff cuz no one wants to go there to check

...or everything cool was stolen because it is a high crime area. haha
I thought going to a Walmart in the city was a good idea when I was looking for DC Crime Syndicate sets, but when I got there all of the Owlman figures were stolen out of the boxes. I then tested the same theory on a TRU with scary online reviews a few towns over with my best friend and they had nothing.

That's very true in Albuquerque. It's also the stores that are far from residential areas that are the most 'full'.

I've also found that high-crime area stores of every type are much more prone to have items 'hidden' in adjacent isles or shelves.

I found two $4 MU figures in a clearance section of a Walmart which was chalk-full of hidey holes amongst the wreckage. It took 2 hours to go through all three hurricaned clearance isles, but I did find two figures out of it...

Well, I guess I must live in a Bizarro-world type area because there is never anything of significance at TRU. Whenever I've been there looking for Cap figures or MU figures they either don't have them or there are two or three peg-warmers and that's it. Bait-and-switch is the name of the game there.

I'll pass on the high-crime area stores. Having my car vandalized is not my idea of having a nice day, no matter how good the potential is for finding a rarity to add to my collection.

Yeah I have found a lot of stuff hidden in lcearance messes

Im for L.A so I think I know a thing or two about high crime areas. I have never heard of a car being vandalized on G.P except rumors and urban legends lol. But I guess its a risk vs reward type thing. If a person deems something too high a risk for the possible reward then maybe avoid it.

I would normally agree, but if the store states in the advertisement "no rainchecks" and/or "while supplies last" as part of the sale conditions, then the consumer has no ground to stand on. Always read the fine print, or so I have learned.

Regardless, in this particular case the OP bought the remaining stock they had, took advantage of the sale AND asked for a raincheck for a future purchase, since now they didn't have anymore left.

You can't expect a store to give you a raincheck when you already got the sale price that same day. A raincheck is for when there is no remaining stock of the sale item before you walk in the store. At that point, you're attempting to game the system and by no means an innocent consumer tricked by a greedy, underhanded retailer.

Those are both very good points. I certainly was not expecting them to honor both, but at least honor one. As collector's toys, I shouldn't be tied to only what they have in the store at the time of the sale, especially if they haven't restocked in more than a month.

Maybe I'm too used to 'above average' customer service.

I just saw a sign at my local TRU CS desk that said

We Do not Hold ANYTHING