My frustration with TRU and what they did about it...

amnesiac · 2013-10-08T11:58:25.000Z

When I started seriously investing in Legos my trips to TRU became more and more frequent and so did my anger and frustration with their pricing. TRU seems less like a toy store and more like and an airport gift shop. I mean does anyone there know what they charge EVERYWHERE OUTSIDE OF THEIR STORES???? With the internet so readily available and even the average consumers becoming ninja-like in their ability to find the cheapest prices how can a bunch of suits sit around in an office and think they can get away with marking up their prices sooooooooooooooo much??? If this wasnt the worst bit of it then comes the sales??? I ask what is the point of a sale when any and everything thats worth buying is significantly marked up before said sale??? This and the worst is a con and and its best is an outright lie. Anyone here who's bought Legos for more than two months knows all too well what I'm speaking about. What I decided to do about it was write an email to their customer service. Heres what I sent: This is an email concerning the general frustration I have with your store/website. I'm always getting survey request when I purchase things from the physical location so I hope the fact that I've taken time out to actually write up an email and send it is reason enough for somebody to take note and actually give me a written reply instead of a canned statement. Whatever the response I will be posting this letter and the reply to my various social media accounts. Ok just so it's understood, I LOVE Toys R Us. I always have since the first time I went there as a 6 year old child. As a child all that mattered to me about your store was getting in, finding something I wanted, then completing a strategy to get my parents to purchase whatever it was that I found. Times were a lot simpler then. As an adult, however, more and more things about your store and its policies are making coming there to shop more and more frustrating. At this point I am making the trip to your store simply for the nostalgia as your policies and prices are bested by just about every other retailer out there that sells toys. First lets talk pricing. Your in-store pricing is on average 5-20 dollars more expensive than the Target right across the street, the Walmart down on the corner, and 5-35 dollars more expensive than their corresponding websites. Now with the invention of the internet its hard for me to find a reason for this other than to milk parents who would do anything to quiet a screaming child. Is it to take advantage of individuals who aren't savvy enough to check pricing before they make purchases??? This is something I would expect of a theme park gift store where vacationing zombies think little of pricing but are more focused on relaxing. These ridiculous mark ups are particular to your store and has relegated me to purchasing things from you ONLY when there is a sale or promotion and only when that promotion beats the competitors, which is rarely the case because your prices are already 10% more on average. Which brings me to my next point. Coupons, sales and other discounts. I recently called RewardsRus to find out why points that I had earned had not been transferred over to my account in the form of coupons, of which I had earned 20 dollars. I was told that on average it takes 4-6 weeks for points earned to be converted into coupons. 4-6 weeks??? How can ANY retailer say 4-6 weeks to a consumer and it be ok??? NOTHING I've ever had to do at a store has EVER had me waiting 4-6 weeks for results. Again, with EVERYTHING being computerized how can such an archaic policy even be in place??? Today I received an email stating 20-25% off a complete purchase from now until the 21st. "GREAT!!" I thought and hurried to your website to purchase the most expensive thing that I wanted which was a Lego Superstar Destroyer that retails for 399 (which is one of the few Lego items on your store website that sells for the same price it does everywhere else). After I had it loaded into the cart I tried to apply the coupon and found that it wasn't applicable to this item because it was a "HOT DEAL" item. I literally laughed when I saw that this item was a "HOT DEAL". "No it's not!! This is the same price it is EVERYWHERE ELSE!!!". This is as close to being an outright lie as I've ever seen. Then when I saw most of the other items I wanted were all HOT DEALS it basically makes this promotion absolutely useless for me. I love being in your store. The look of happiness on childrens faces, the smell of all that plastic and your super friendly employees. It would be the place that I would want to purchase toys from for the rest of my toy purchasing days. However, your policies and pricing have pretty much squashed that possibility. Nostalgia isn't enough of a reason for me to pay a 10+% premium. Coupons that I cannot use are wasted paper and junk-mail. And rewards points that take 4-6 weeks to be able to use is just nonsense when most other points progra