A curious situation at TRU
 

I ran into a rather curious situation at TRU today. As I was about to open up my NECA Predator two pack to shoot a video review I noticed that the plasma gun on the City Hunter figure was broken off the shoulder mount in package. "Ok", I thought, "no big deal as I bought the set earlier this month. I'll drive over to TRU and get an even exchange."

As I'm in their reward program, I had purchased the set with a $3 off coupon that I had received via e-mail just after the holiday season. Granted, it's not a huge savings but every little bit helps, especially when buying an item like this.

When I got to the store, I had the dis-pleasure of speaking to a customer service rep who really could care less about the job, smacking her bubble-gum loudly, etc. After showing her the defect, she said I could go back and get another set if there were any left. Thankfully, there were 5 on the shelf.

I found one that appeared to be defect free and returned to the customer service desk. As she examined the receipt, she said "Did you buy this with a coupon?"

"Yes I did", I replied.

"Well, you're going to owe the store $3 since the coupon is non-refundable".

"I'm not trying to do a return", I explained, "I just want to do an even exchange."

"That doesn't matter", I was told. "You have to pay $3 if you want to do an exchange".

Needless to say, I got a bit irritated. I asked for a manager, who in turn re-iterated what the gum muncher told me.

As I was in a bit of a hurry, I gave up and paid the $3. Needless to say, I was perplexed and a bit annoyed that this incident had occurred.

Granted, $3 really isn't a large amount of money. But the principle of using one of their reward coupons and then being penalized the coupon amount during an even exchange is a bit annoying.

Mental note to self: Next time you shop in TRU, make sure to examine the item thoroughly before heading to the cash register, especially if using a reward coupon to purchase it.

Yes, the stupid dated a$$ rewards are more like coupons, and what's even worse is if you return it, you don't get any of it back $$$. So make sure what you're buying is final or your screwed. As much as it's cool to get the $ from them, at the same time seems to be a pain with the stipulations they have on them. Ironic though if you used a coupon at Target and return the item you get the coupon amount back as well. I've done it a couple times.

tru sucks.

Report that shit to their corporate office, and be a jerk about it. It won't change anything, but the idiots you had to deal with will probably get chewed out.

Never knew TRU Rewards was that flawed.

I highly doubt that the store representatives would be disciplined if a formal complaint were to be made. As was discussed over in the Best Buy thread this type of employee behavior is rapidly becoming the new norm for brick-and-mortar retail stores and the customer service that goes with it.

I have two more TRU coupons left, one for $5 and the other for $1. I wish I could use them online as they have some stuff on their website I would like to have but unfortunately that's not allowed.

in that case i would have just bought/paid the full price and returned the old one for a full refund.

I agree send that off to corporate along with I may never shop here and will tell my friends and family not to shop at your stores unless some type of compensation is met, like a complete set of marvel legends. lol.

....and tell them you told an entire internet community of toy enthusiasts, and now we're all pissed off.

guess thats why they say read the small print, That sux donkey balls

Oh, yeah. It's really screwed up. And some parts of their rules/restrictions make absolutely no sense.

For example: the coupon is applied to the entire purchase, even if there are other items that don't qualify. So if you return ANYTHING on that receipt, you lose whatever small amount was discounted from the coupon. Even if the remaining total of qualifying merch was still enough to use the coupon.

Say you had a Rewards coupon that says you get $5 off any toy purchase of $25 or more. So you find a MU Sentinel on sale for $49.99, a TF DOTM deluxe for $12.99 and a Gears Of War game for $49.99. While waiting in line, you grab a Mountain Dew Code Red for $1.39 to add to your purchase. You get the five bucks off and head home, chugging some Dew and making plans for a kick-ass diorama using your new Sentinel.

After a few maration GoW sessions, you decide you don't really like the TF you got, you never opened it and now want to return it. Your original total before tax was $114.36. Minus the $5 off, it was $109.36. So if you return it, you should get the full refund of $12.99 + tax, right? The Sentinel toy alone still qualified for the coupon and you kept that. Nope. You'd only get back $11.74. $5.00 split across five items comes to $1.25 off each item, whether they contribute to the qualifying total or not.

A similar event happened to me and my wife several months ago. Needless to say, my wife was livid about the whole mess. To this day, she refuses to set foot in a TRU. Any time we needed to go there, I would be the one that would go in, and we'd only buy that one specific thing on its own receipt (no using coupons, either).

Ha! Yeah, that's the ticket. ;)

Seriously, it doesn't matter how many people they get riled up. For every one customer lost, there are that many more to take their place. It's the corporate rule of thumb IMO and it sucks.

The way that Toys R Us has their Reward program arranged, it comes across to me as more of a shell game than an actual reward. I think it's a rotten practice on their part to penalize a customer any amount of money for something as simple as an even exchange. This may not be true for everyone on here but to me, paying $35 + tax is a bigger than average expenditure for an item like the Predator set so if I'm ponying up that kind of money, especially for an exclusive offering, you can damn sure bet I want the best one I can find with little to no flaws present.

If I remember correctly Toys R Us was in bankruptcy some years ago with several stores being closed so I can only guess when they emerged from bankruptcy that's when they got greedy and slick with their programs and offerings. For example, take Marvel Universe. At a newish Toys R Us that opened here in my area, albeit a fair distance from me and a PITA to find a parking spot, a Marvel Universe figure was $7.99 each. I go to the TRU I was at yesterday, the same figure line is $8.49 each. I don't see that occurring at Best Buy, Target or Wal-Mart, so how can Toys R Us justify this practice? It makes absolutely no sense to me.

Furthermore, Toys R Us spread the 10% back holiday rewards out over two dates. You get part of it that has to be used by a certain date and the other part later. Again, that makes no sense to me at all.

Amusingly enough, I just got an e-mail from Toys R Us that I need to hurry up and use my remaining reward coupons. Run, don't walk blah blah blah... the e-mail said. lol

how about: A Curious Smell at TRU

front page.

Target is like that as well with difference prices, I asked them and it's because it depends on how in demand the item is.

Agreed. It's like I want to spend the whole dang thing at once!!!

Yep target has done that here as well. Not in a long time though. They said the items were in higher demand in the other location. If they wanna play games ther are always loopholes. You can just return the item at the lower priced store and buy it back.
As for TRU I try to use the entire amount of the coupons on one item.

Actually it's easier to just buy whatever figure at the lower priced store, take the higher paid receipt and return it with that, same scenario as the Disney/TRU policy=) Less eyes turning up. But I'm not teaching you guys that ;)

And don't get me started on Target/TRU's awesome return policy :P