Complaint Review: Toys R Us - Wayne New Jersey

I bought my son a bicycle at Toys R Us back in May when they had a rebate for bikes up to $59.99 ($10) or over ($20). I bought a bike on sale for $59.99 and sent my rebate to Bridgeport, CT (which I believe is where Panasonic rebates go and wait forever to be paid). I never got paid (or rejected), and when I tried to call the number on the rebate form, it just hung up on me (the form did say it would only be operational until 7/31.

I emailed TRU corporate the other day, here's what I wrote (I am separating my text from emails with lines of ----.

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I purchased a bicycle at your xxxx, NY store in May of this year. There was a $10 rebate advertised (it was a Toys R Us rebate) that I submitted to the Bridgeport, CT address on the form, but I never received the check (or a received a rejection which would have been incorrect, anyway)and when I call the number on the form, it hangs up on me (the form says it was only valid through 7/31/06, so I guess that was to be expected). How can you arrange for me to get the $10 rebate that I am due? I can fax the information to you if you'd like. Thank you..

Their amazing response:

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Dear Mr. xxx:

Thank you for contacting the "R" Us Family.

Mr. xxx, we would like to inform you that Toys "R" Us has nothing to do with rebates. You would need to contact the manufacturer of this product.

Thank you, Mr. xxx, for contacting the "R" Us Family.

Well this just amazed me, so I wrote back:

That is absolutely absurd. The rebate form (which I am attaching to this reply) clearly says Toys R Us across the top of the form. And on the bottom of the form it says "offered by Toys "R" Us, Inc, One Geoffrey Way, Wayne, NJ". And it was advertised in your circulars and in your stores. So unless someone else is putting stuff in your ads and in your stores, you most certainly DID have something to do with this rebate.

So please save your lie for someone gullible enough to believe it and tell me how soon I will get the $10 that you owe me.

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I got this response today (even more amazing than the first reply):

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Dear xxx,

Thank you for contacting Toys "R" Us.

Mr. xxx, I regret to inform you that the reply that was sent to your prior concern was correct. Toys "R" Us does not handle the rebates. However, I was doing some research on the copies of the receipt, ticket and the rebate form that you attached to your e-mail. While researching this matter, I found that the amount of the bike you purchased was $79.99. $89.99 after assembly. While researching your rebate form, I noticed that you checked the box for bike purchased at $59.99 or less.

Mr. xxx, Because the purchase amount on the receipt did not match the box that you checked on the rebate form, it became a breach of contract and therefore was voided. I do apologize for any inconvenience and the confusion that this may have caused you, however, we do not the means to credit you for the rebate. The amount on the receipt and the box checked on the rebate form must correspond. I hope this will clear things up a little bit for you.

If you have any further questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to contact our customer service department at 1-800-869-7787.

Thank you, once again, Mr. xxx, for contacting the "R" Us Family.

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So I responded

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First, your initial response was NOT correct. You told me that you had nothing to do with the rebates. That is wrong. Maybe you didn't process the rebates but you funded the rebates, and the rebate form SAYS this. If I went to the manufacturer they would have no idea what I was talking about because they truly had nothing to do with the rebate.

Second, the form says "Bike purchased at $59.99 or Less". As you can clearly see from the receipt, I paid $59.99 for the bike. It was on sale from $79.99. Furthermore, the rebate form clearly states "For bikes on sale, the price for determining rebate will be deemed the amount paid at purchase (i.e., the sales price less applicable sales tax and assembly charge, if any), RATHER THAN THE REGULAR PRICE." What you are claiming COMPLETELY contradicts what the rebate form said, and it says that "$59.99 or less" was indeed the correct box for me to have selected. And if you want to start pulling legal terms out of your hat, that puts YOU in breach of contract.

If you don't want to pay me the $10 that I am owed, then I suppose I have no choice. However, I can assure you that I will get more than my $10 of satisfaction, by posting my notes and your replies to every consumer message board I can find, where I can warn future customers not to purchase products with rebates offered by your company (or maybe any products at all). I am sorry to see that the days when Toys R Us was known as a consumer friendly company are long gone. To be honest, I probably should have bought the bicycle somewhere else anyway, as I had to bring it back twice for safety related issues due to careless assembly (and the second time the assembler admitted they don't always do things as carefully as they should).

And I might add that other companies I have had rebate problems with have made an effort to satisfy me, rather than making sorry excuses.

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I am just amazed at the lies they are telling me to get out of paying a measly $10 rebate. I was tempted to call this person a lying sack of s**t, but I thought better of it. I figure Fatwallet is a good first step in my promise to post my story. Maybe I can find a consumer reporter interested as well. I always say "don't get mad, get even".

William

Yorktown Heights, New York
U.S.A.

Click here to read The *EDitorial: The Marketing Rebate Rip Off ...Manufactures invent reasons why not to pay the consumer