Complaint Review: Toys R Us

My family took the annual Christmas Trip to Toys Are Us this year on Monday, December 15. We picked up an ad when we entered the store. Among several requested items were the little wooden Thomas the Tank engine trains. In the ad we noticed that they had some Thomas trains on sale.

The ad did not show the packaging. It pictured several engines and train cars set up as if in three little trains. It said "Buy 2 and get 1 of equal or lesser value free." When we arrived at the display there were several different tank engines, cars and related other vehicles in a peg board hanging display that were in about 6 columns and about 5 rows. The larger items were on shelves to the right. We noticed that in the column to the far left there were plastic train sets, the rest were wooden. The ad was on the end of a peg on the top of the middle of the wooden trains.

Since we were not sure about which ones were on sale we requested a salesperson to help us. The salesperson looked at the ad and stated that it probably meant any of them, because it was advertised in the center of the display and because of the "equal or lesser value" We picked out several trains and continued our shopping.

About $560.00 later we felt that we had gotten everything we came for. I went to collect the other children while my husband went to check out. When he the cashier started ringing up the trains, after several other items had been rung up, they did not show the sales price. When my husband enquired about it the cashier stated that she hoped that we had the right ones; that she had already had issues with confusion on the items today, the sign was in the wrong place and they were suppose to move it.

Sure enough, the trains we had selected were not on sale. I arrived and explained to a customer service lady that came over to help that we had stopped someone and asked and that the sign made it appear that we had the right items. The customer service lady walked back to the display with me and agreed that the sign did make it appear that I had the right items. She did at that time point out that it said "Tomy" in smaller print further down in the text of the ad. Obviously I was not the only one who didn't realize that this referred to a brand (since customers earlier had trouble and even the salesperson couldn't figure it out!)The customer service lady also agreed when I said that this was false advertising but stated that she couldn't do anything about it. She asked if I would lie to speak with a manager.

The Manager basically had the attitude take it or leave it. She refused to acknowledge any fault on the behalf of Toys R Us. When I told her that if she didn't do something to make it right that I would go elsewhere for everything she said that's fine.

I called their customer service and filed a complaint. The people that took the complaint were very nice but said I would have to wait to hear back from the department that handled that sort of thing. I heard back from them today and they basically stated sorry about your bad experience but the store has made their decision and we can't over-ride it. I am left with the feeling that calling them was a waste of my time.

Toys R Us lost at least $560 in sales that night over about $40 (retail value) of merchandise. In addition, I will not be back; we have successfully located everything on out list at other places. (Target had one hard to find item much cheaper and even helped us load it!) I feel strongly that Toys R Us is guilty of deceptive advertising; they knew from experience earlier that day that the placement of the ad was deceptive and misleading and had failed to fix it. Further if the ad was so unclear that a person working there couldn't get it right then what hope is there for the consumer?

Rhonda
Kodak, Tennessee
U.S.A.