Unable to exchange a broken item at Toys R Us

I too am in your same situation. My brother-in-law bought my daughter
a Dream Dazzlers Stylin Guitar for Christmas. She LOVES it - but 10
days later, some of the buttons stop working. I tried to do an even
exchange, but they won't without a receipt. The real kicker is - Dream
Dazzlers is a mark of Geoffrey, LLC which is a subsidiary of Toys R
Us. So there is NO WAY it could have been purchased elsewhere. The
manager who dealt with me was incredibly rude and I did bring up the
point that I could "in theory" purchase another one, and return this
one. He reluctantly said "I guess you could", which was my plan, but
the store was out of them. This afternoon I called Corporate, and am
waiting for a call back regarding manufacture information, but
seriously - this is rediculous. I feel like stores like Toys R Us
should have a more reasonable return policy for things like this,
ESPECIALLY around Christmas.

when you hand over cash, get a receipt. Put the receipt in the same
part of your wallet or purse where you keep cash. When you get home
and go through your wallet, take out receipts and put them in a safe
place, drawer or desk.
NEVER leave receipts in the bottom of the shopping bag, too easy for
them to get thrown out.

my son got a diego chair for christmas last year. it was a rocking
chair - hard wood - probably cost about 30 bucks. the screws that hold
the chair together were missing - the box had never been opened. i
didn't buy it, but a family member bought it for him. i didn't want to
call the family member to ask if they had a receipt, of course.

i just looked on the box for the manufacturer's contact information. i
called them - told them that when i opened the box, the screws weren't
there. therefore, i couldn't put the chair together.

they asked my address - sent me the screws - problem solved. i'll bet
if you call the manufacturer and tell them the sink was broken -
they'd send you the sink. try it!

i know it's annoying when stores want a receipt for an exchange that's
even. walgreen's is that way and i hate it - but that's the way it is.

Its printed on the reciept...no exchanges or returned merchandise
without said receipt. And understanding that you did pay cash, may
have thrown the receipt out by mistake or misplaced it there are
hundreds of people with the same issues returning items to various
stores.
Some stores have eased up on their return policies but that does not
mean that all stores have.
Toy-R-Us is one place that absolutely requires a receipt with all
returns/exhcanges...been down that road many a time when my son was
younger.

As anothe poster suggeted contact the company directly, tell them how
disappointed you were when you opened the package and was atempting to
assemble is and found that the sink was broken. Tell them no store in
the area has these in stock any longer and ask how you can go about
replacing just the sink.
You may luck out and they will send it to you...or you may have to pay
S&H only...can't hurt to try.

I agree with Kitty C. Call the manufacturer and see if this can be
resolved through them. That's what I've always done with missing or
defective parts.

I personally think that taking the first kitchen back with the second
receipt is wrong. Their policy is that you must have the receipt
period, end of story. You don't have it. It sure would have been
nice if they had made an exception. But I no longer blame stores for
not making exceptions. Especially this time of year. Stores get a
bad reputation if they have too strict a policy, but then those stores
with lax policies have people returning items to them that were never
theirs.

I have all the respect in the world for stores that stick by their
policies. I know that when I walk in to Target for example, whatever
they tell the woman ahead of me at the CS desk is what they are going
to tell me. Their policy is their policy and they don't divert from
that.

Since you can't return it to the store, call the manufacturer-usually
an 800 numer, to order the part for it. Alot of times they ship it
right away for no cost or just shipping.

I LOVE Michelle O's suggestion just below me here.

Also, I would just say, while I was never a girly girl, I did love my
kitchen playset I got around age 3 for Christmas. I remember playing
with it, I remember the sink had WATER in it! It was awesome. I hope
this gets resolved for your daughter.

You can easily look up cash purchases just as easily than credit or
debit.

And your comment about buying the item and returning it, is just
wrong.

You can justify it all you want, but it is still wrong.

My soul is not worth a toy


Good Day

That is what the receipt is for.

Since you cannot prove you bought it there, you should try the
manufacturer.

That is the policy. It is quite simple. You "thought" you had the
receipt? Did you check to make sure you had the receipt? I always do
before trekking back to a store to do a return. I put all my
Christmas receipts in the same place just in case something needs to
be sent back.

Most stores do not do an "even-Steven" return any more, if you do not
have proof of purchase.

Such is the benefit of paying in cash.

I would do this, go to the makers website, try calling customer
service. Talk with them. If that doesnt work, ask them about
"replacement parts". Many companies offer this as well for toys.
Worst case is you might be out a few dollars to replace the sink on
the kitchen, but worth it in the long run.

good luck.

If I were in your position, I would be really, really upset. No
question. This is a huge thing to go wrong.

But it sounds to me like the person you dealt with at Toys R Us went
way out of their way to help you too.

If Store X requires a receipt to return an item or to exchange a
defective version for a new one and Store Y doesn't, then some people
who receive gifts that were bought at Store X and that turn out to be
broken but who do not have receipts are going to end up returning or
exchanging it at Store Y, and it's going to cost Store Y more money to
make the product available than it will cost Store X. That means that
either Store Y sells the thing at a higher price -- meaning that even
more people will go buy at Store X and that Store Y will end up
accepting even more of Store X's merchandise for return or exchange --
or store Y brings in a smaller profit than it would otherwise.

So, yeah, these days a store like Toys R Us pretty much has to insist
on some proof that the toy was bought there before they take it back.
Even if nobody else around there had them in stock, they still don't
know that the item wasn't bought online or sent to you by a friend or
relative in another part of the country. People who lie about where
they bought an item look and sound just like everybody else, so Toys R
Us can't let its employees just look at you and make a call about
whether or not you're telling the truth. It sounds to me like the
representative did her very best to help you prove that you bought the
kitchen there. But it didn't work. You seem to be confusing the
effort expended to help you with the outcome, and I think that's
unfair to the representative who kept trying to help you even after
you discovered you didn't have the receipt with you.

Wanting a replacement from the store where you bought the original is
perfectly reasonable. Anyone in your position would want the same
thing. And anyone who couldn't get a replacment would be very upset,
just as you are, especially if they couldn't afford to just buy
another. But at the same time, Toys R Us is within their rights to
want proof in light of the problem of scammers.

The manufacturer, on the other hand, does know -- unless there are
very good counterfeiters out there -- that the kitchen you bought is
one of theirs. There is proof of that in every piece of that kitchen
and in the box itself. They don't have to worry that someone with the
right kitchen but without a receipt might be trying to get them to
replace some other manufacturer's defective kitchen. That's why you
are being referred to them. And that doesn't seem at all unreasonable
to me. Sure, this should be resolvable at the store level -- and it
probably would have been, if you'd showed up with some kind of proof
that they sold you the kitchen in the first place.

I hope your little girl gets to play with her kitchen soon, and I hope
that next year you are able to give your kids enough gifts that one
defective product isn't as big a deal as it is this year.