Toys R Us Forced My Girlfriend To Buy A Protection Plan

I think you deserve nothing. If your girlfriend felt cheated, could
she not have gone somewhere else to make her purchase? It's not like
TRU is the only store that sells XBox 360 systems. I'm not agreeing
with their tactics and I think it's lame that they would even try, but
lets face it, she was not FORCED.

I am in complete awe at what humiliation your loved one is
subjected to. You should file a report with the Depatment of Justice,
their complaint form is on the internet, just google Dep of Justice
and you'll find it. Good luck with your complaint.


One note, however, I am not convincing you in any way to file a
complaint, I mean, if the salesman was a cool American kid, then I
would urge you to forget about reporting it. If, however, the
salesman was some mean Hindu, who is selfish for money, then I say
report him to the state, or federal government.

you should be glad she purchased one, b/c in 3 months if it hasnt
happened alreadly, your xbox 360 will break down. There is no way
she was forced into anything. With the plan she purchased for you,
you will call the number provided, and set it up for service. If it
cannot be repaired, guess what... you will be reimbursed the money
for the cost of the system (not the plan) so you can buy a new one.
So be thankful one was purchased, b/c if one was not purcased, I bet
you would be crying over how the system broke down in such a short
period of time. Grow up and stop acting like a spoiled little brat.

While the salesperson seemed very pushy, there was no forced purchase.
Your girlfriend needs to learn to stand up for herself and "Just say
NO!" or walk out of the store. If she was willing to fork out
additional money for a protection plan in lieu of being inconvenienced
by traveling to another retailer, that is her mistake. This reaction
is typical of what is called "negative post purchase behavior"; Ill
feelings can surface when someone makes a large purchase and has
regrets about the amount of money spent. Your girlfriend probably
won't return to that store, but then again, who knows? Bottom line,
she paid for the item and got suckered into the sales pitch.

I don't understand this at all - it seems like there is information
missing here that would explain how/why this happened (all the more
reason why it would have been better coming from your girlfriend).

If the salespeople at TRU were on commission, I could see them caring
about "adding on" to the sale, but these people are hourly workers.

I have never heard of a company REFUSING to sell merchandise if you
don't purchase more. Offering is one thing, requiring it is another.
The practice is shifty to be sure, but I can't recall one law that
would prohibit it because, as another poster said, by buying it
anyway, you were agreeing to the terms of sale.

I would say the best you can hope for is to maybe contact Microsoft
and complain - I doubt TRU will do anything.

Simple
1.) Return the protection plan and get your money back.
2.) Next time say no and call a a manager over and talk directly to
them.

There is nothing illegal about a seller offering a package in place of
a single item. Ultimately this is still free trade and in no way
forces a buyer to purchase this package. As a consumer, I still have
the right to say no and purchase the merchandise elsewhere. The
release of the XBOX 360 is an excellent example. How many retailers
were only offering what they had along with other accessories or
warranties? This was a common practice prior to Christmas last year.

The cases against Microsoft are an entirely different arena. The
government was contending that Microsoft had an unfair advantage as
the sole producer of an operating system required by the majority of
software packages. They were then bundling additional packages, which
were putting other software producers out of business.

I am not aware of any judge that would accept the argument of retail
packaging as a form of anti-trust.

I'm just curious. Not flaming you - just curious.

Why didn't your girlfriend write her own letter? Can she not fight
her own battles?

i mistakenly posted this as a reply a previous message but am
reposting it as a reply to the group not just to one person.

i see your point. my thoughts were that they wouldn't return a
protection plan the same way they would an actual product. others
have mentioned that they will so i will have to look into that. i'm
surprised at the number of people that think i am actually trying to
get something for free. it's not the money or trying to get free
products its the principle of this matter that really irritates me.
when someone takes advantage of someone else it really ticks me off.
i know she could have said no, i have heard that one several times. i
know there is all this skepticism because i wrote this and she
didn't.
her feeling was why waste the time it won't help anything. my
feeling was let others know what happened and maybe someone might
just
say "hey, that's a pretty crappy thing to do.

if i don't deserve a gift card that's fine. but honestly, how hard is
it for corporate america to simply say..........."oh sir we are so
sorry for this incident. it won't happen again."

(this is a new part i am just adding)
i recently read a book that talks about how poor customer service is
in the US. i really see it out there on a regular basis. i am
shocked after looking through several of the shared letters at the
number of times you responders discredit the customer and completely
back the company no matter what they have done. i guess if you always
get bad service you just learn to accept it and don't question whether
someone should be ethical on the job. one responder actually said
"since they have a hot product they should try to get the most out of
that they can." even if their tactics are illegal (and yes i know i
didn't know that for certain until some one else posted it.

You had me until you asked for gift cards.

Why not ask them to reimburse the cost of the protection plan? If you
actually bought it, the record is there, and they can appropriately
reimburse you. This makes it sound more like you never actually
bought anything, and you're hoping Toys R Us will just comply with
gift cards to keep you quiet without actually checking their records.

Just sayin'...it looks a little shadey.

All that said, if they really did tell her they wouldn't sell it to
her unless she bought other products...that's pretty messed up! I
definitely wouldn't be shopping there again anytime soon, if I
experienced that.

Your girlfriend should have written this letter, not you.

Why isn't your girlfriend the one writing the letter? If someone
bought me something for my birthday but then I had to be the one
writing the letter to complain about something that happened during
the purchase, I would be a little miffed. "Happy Birthday, can you
write a complaint letter for me?"

Have your girlfriend write the letter. It needs to come from her, from
you it's just heresay.

I'm really torn over this one. Until Gerald provided us with excellent
facts I was gonong to jump all over the OP now I'm not so sure what to
think.

I find it ridiculous that someone could be forced into a sale. Quite
frankly if you are that easily convinced of things you're better off
not going into public. That being said it does seem like what TRU did
was illigal.

As another poster stated your best best would be to compile any info
on these laws and send them a a new letter ( as well as the Attorney
General) via certified mail to let them know you're not fooling
around.

I've found that Toys R Us is really good at saying that you can't buy
something unless you buy something else with it. All you have to do is
tell them that you are going somewhere else or threaten to get a
lawyer. It doesn't matter if most things are actually illegal or not
they will often back off if you threaten them with that.

It's simple, just return the extended warranty. A warranty is just
like any other purchase, you have the right to return it within the
return policy time frame (usually 14 days for electronics).

I agree that something should be done about the employee and manager
doing this sort of thing, but you don't deserve a gift card. When you
get right down to it, your girlfriend could have told them 'no' with a
side of 'bite me' and walked out of the store.

I know that the X-box is a popular item and is usually sold out, but
unless someone is holding a gun to your head they cannot force you to
buy anything. Isn't there anything like a waiting list that you can
get on. We have a gaming store here in the mall and you can get on a
reserved list. It is long but you can be guarenteed one when they
come in.

Hmm.. If she didn't want to purchase what they were "making" her
purchase.. she could have gone to Best Buy or something.Besides, a
protection plan is a good idea these days for any electronic.

I almost don't blame them. Why? Because the Xbox360 is a HOT item
right now and there are other people that would be more than happy to
get it with three games in order to have one.

The protection is actually a good thing to have though because so far,
the Xbox360 has been notorious for breaking (either by oh let's see,
faulty HD, burning holes through the dvds, overheating etc. etc.)

The terms of the sale ARE ILLEGAL!!!! Then again if you go to any
authority it will be your girlfriend's word against that of the
store's.

What this store did is known in business law as a "tying agreement".
In order for you to purchase one item you must purchase another.
Tying agreements usually are associated with manufacturers and
suppliers. It is rare that it involves the ultimate consumer such as
what happened to your girlfriend.

For example: Let's say you have supplier "A". Supplier "A" is the
only company in town that supplies computers to retail outlets.
Supplier "A" also sells CDs to go along with the computers. The price
for the CDs are $10 per 100. Supplier "B" also sells CDs (their only
business) and their price is $9 per 100. However, Supplier "A" has a
"tying agreement" with the purchase of their computers. A retail
outlet must purchase 10,000 CDs if they want to purchase computers
from them. Supplier "A" is therefore using its dominate position to
an unfair advantage over Supplier "B". This not only hurts Supplier
"B" it also hurts the consumer.

This sounds like a one time incident (one Xbox left) so I doubt if
anyone (i.e. a consumer advocate, the attorney general's office or an
undercover TV news operation) could get a repeat performance from this
retail outlet. I'm hoping you get a response back from corporate on
this but like I mentioned before it's your girlfriend's word against
that of the store's.

Here's a novel idea. She could have said no.

She made the purchase, therefore she agreed to their terms.