Update: Toys R Us Philippines Main Office acted on my complaint and thus my subsequent post: A Gift Certificate from Toys R Us Bacolod
Yesterday, March 24, 2012, we were at Toys R Us Bacolod because we were excited to buy a kiddie microphone with stand. During the last mall-wide sale this month, we learned that the item cost P1,299 but since it did not have discount at that time, we did not buy it immediately but rather bought other things. But yesterday, we wanted to get it already because we were given P700 worth of gift certificates, so at least, we will only pay a few hundred pesos more for the mic. We were also planning to buy a kitchen set with matching plastic food stuff for my hijada, whose birthday is coming up.
When we got there, hubby went with Dindin to go around the store while I went around to picking the items that we wanted to buy.
While doing some browsing, I happened to pass by the counter so I asked the lady manning the gift wrapping section if I can have my purchases wrapped using my own wrapper. They said yes, as long as it met the minimum purchase requirement. Okay, that’s good.
Finally, we were done and hubby paid for the purchase. When he got to the counter, he learned that the mic with stand actually costs P1,500 and the manager said that they were just not able to update the price tags. So we cancelled the purchase because we thought it was too much.
We just went on with buying the kitchen set (P529.75), pizza set (P100.00), plastic food stuff (P100.00), and several other cheap items for party giveaways (P220).
It was hubby who went to the counter to have the items wrapped. Actually, we were going to give the kitchen set and plastic foods to just one child, but we thought of having them wrapped separately–the kitchen set in one package while the two plastic food sets in another–because they just did not look nice if they were lumped together. I bought four pieces of Strawberry Shortcake wrapping paper from a different store because primarily, that was the theme of the party.
But instead of accommodating my request to have the items wrapped separately, the manager refused because she said that the minimum purchase is P300 for the item to be gift-wrapped. So I told her that they will be using my wrapper and they will just have to wrap it and well, spend for the tape. She said no.
I would not have bothered about it if my only purchase was worth P200. But we paid a total of P949.75 for our entire purchase and if we asked them to wrap all the items in a single box, they would have accommodated because it was worth more than P300. It is just plain crazy that because I opted to have the three items separated into two packages so they would look nicely packed, the manager would no longer entertain the request, even if the three items already cost P729.75. The effort would have been much easier if they separated the packaging that if I had it done in one big package.
So my husband’s bet is that, the manager was pissed that we did not get the microphone. But it was not our fault that we were misled into thinking that the item cost much lower that it actually was.
This post is really not to discredit Toys R Us. It is a favorite hang out of ours ever since I got pregnant with our child. And I couldn’t even keep track of how much we have already spent on that store even before my child was born. Big or small, we just keep on buying things from there for our child, our friend’s children, and for party favors.
But I think that this matter should be looked at by the management. Their staff should be trained about customer relations, especially the matter. While I do not question the minimum purchase requirement in order to avail of free gift wrapping, I do question the manager’s call not to accommodate my second gift. It was already her call–something that should not really reach upper management, but obviously, she was not equipped to handle such situations.
I had work with service companies before and on my end, I made management decisions on situations that I deemed would help the image of the company but would not mean extra cost for my employer. That is customer service–going beyond the call of duty to please customers.
If it was not for the mic that made us go to Robinsons because it was not available at SM, I would have shopped at Toy Kingdom for the gifts because the staff are friendlier and they do not have a minimum purchase requirement for wrapping gifts. And I get bonus points for shopping, too.
I do hope that the Toys R Us Bacolod management will look into this in order to improve their services.
