Kanan Jarrus (19) - Hasbro - The Black Series [Phase III] (2016)
Star Wars Collectible News, Photos, and Reviews

Like Sands In An Hourglass, So Are The Daily Dramas Of Collecting....

Posted by Paul | December 10, 2012 at 10:03 PM ET

Before you think my Star Wars collecting life is one big drama, I want you to be clear where I stand. I thank God for my health, my family and all the significant and important things in life, so I don't want this recent experience I had with Toys R Us to allow you to think that I feel any differently about these things. (more....)

But I experienced an unnecessary drama when I decided to go for the 50% off Millennium Falcon. Before I begin, let me be clear. Star Wars collecting is a fun passion. It's something a lot of us take way too seriously (including myself). But sometimes you can't help but get upset at the bad service, the ignorance and the unwillingness of others to help. I have to tell you about my recent Toys R Us experience and how all things happen for a reason. This is meant for encouragement, so I hope you receive it that way.

I was one of the many collectors to jump on the $125 Millennium Falcon deal. As someone who has ordered countless things from the internet, I have never needed to be concerned with the order confirmation number screen because an email would come into my inbox seconds after I place the order. This shockingly didn't happen with my Millennium Falcon order. (Oh cruel fate!) I waited and nothing came. I checked my credit card and no charges had been made. But I received an order confirmation screen when I was online. I am so confident about this detail that I would bet my collection on it.

I called Toys R Us customer service in a concerned state thinking it might be difficult to resolve but not impossible. (SPOILER: It ended up being impossible.) After waiting on hold/speaking with TRU customer service for over 80 minutes (yes I said 80 minutes) I was so frustrated I thought tears were going to start flowing. It's not because I couldn't get a Star Wars toy. No, I am a big boy and could handle that. It was because of the inability of TRU.com to give proper customer service despite my polite and kind manner and being the "victim" (I use that VERY loosely here) for something I had no control over.

They admitted to high traffic last night (a few items were on sale with heavy disocunts like this) and there was an outage that affected orders. They couldn't explain the outage and they weren't willing to do anything to help me. They couldn't find my order under my phone number or email address, so I was out of luck. (For the record, I have received three emails from other readers who also have claimed that TRU.com had NO RECORD of their orders either.) Count yourselves fortunate if you have a record of your order! What's crazy here is that I had been given an admission of an error. The kicker? I had to provide the order number as proof that I sucessfully completed the order because they had no record of it in order to grant the $125.00 price point. I asked if there was anything they could do and was told no. I thought that was a bit too much like a Catch 22 for me. I offered to email them a screen print of the sale price but that wasn't good enough. (Yes, I had that and not my confirmation number. That was stupid I know.)

I then respectfully asked for a manager who put me on hold for another 20 minutes only to come back on the phone and tell me the same exact thing. (Maybe that was my fault.) But then she said they were out of stock and couldn't do it anyway. Um, the Millennium Falcon has been in stock ALL DAY! I asked if they could call a local store to explain the situation and see if they could honor the price. I was told they couldn't call stores during the holidays. At that point I basically said thank you and I am going to see what I can do at the "brick and mortar" level. Maybe I pushed too much, but I was getting nowhere and I was losing my calm demeanor. I wasn't hopeful that the stores could help me either.

I went to my local Langhorne PA store and calmly explained the whole situation. I made direct eye contact and asked that while I am not entitled to the grace of matching the price online (from the day before no less), I would appreciate it so much. And they did. I walked out of Toys R Us with a $125.00 TVC Millennium Falcon. The best part was that it was case fresh and the box was in almost perfect condition, the best one I have seen to date. (I was worried about having one shipped anyway for this exact reason.)

I couldn't partake in that online goodness and I got the runaround of my life with customer service (I didn't even go into all of the details), but thank you Langhorne TRU for being so nice to me. I am forever grateful. My advice? Smile, make eye contact and politely ask if you experienced a similar situation. I would have said thank you of they DIDN'T grant that favor for me. I am still a tad bugged with online couldn't resolve the issue and all of their ridiculous excuses that didn't even make sense, but I am letting it go. I do think they need some fine tuning with the way they deal with the public. Clearly it all worked out and in my favor. I can tell you that I will never click out of a confirmation screen again with a deal that's just to good to be true like this 50% off Millennium Falcon. Just wanted to share this story with everyone.

       Digg!    

Related Links

Jedi Temple Archives comments powered by Disqus

-Click HERE to return to the home page-

Channels

 

Follow Us

JTA Info

Affiliates

Hasbro

Gentle Giant

Sideshow Collectibles

Hot Toys

LEGO

Mattel

Disney

Disney Store

Acme Archives

Hallmark

Trading Cards

Store Reports

Research Droids Reviews

Visual Guides

Books & Novels

Convention News

Movie & TV News

Rants & Raves

Special Reports

       Facebook

       Instagram

       Pinterest

       Youtube

       RSS

Home

Contact

News Archives

Site Search

Image Use Policy

Disclosure Policy

Privacy Policy

RDR Index

Visual Guide Index

Bantha Skull

Collector's Cantina

Jedi News

Star Wars Figuren

Star Wars New Zealand

Star Wars is a Copyright and Trademark of LucasFilm LTD. This site is intended for informational purposes only, and is not in anyway associated with LFL. All Visual Guides, images, and content are the property of JediTempleArchives.com, © 2004-2019 and may not be reused without permission. Please do not direct link to any of the content on this web site.