Toys R Us Shopping: Not so "Rewarding"

Despite the fact that I am more than a week behind on my reader and have mountains of work due tomorrow, I still sit here and feel the need to tell you of my exasperating shopping experience this morning. You know, because my middle name hasn't changed from "PROCRASTINATION".

My mom (AKA: The Mack Daddy of Grandma's who spoil the grandkids) wanted to do some Christmas shopping for the A's this morning. So, after dropping the kiddos off at school & having a planning meeting for an upcoming event, I picked up mom and we headed to Toys R Us. We knew exactly what we were going for, so after filling a buggy with many expensive items, we ran to the checkout, for what I was expecting to be a seamless transaction. Mistake #1.

The child running the register appeared to be just out of high school and came complete with the snotty attitude and reckless disregard for customer service. Oh joy, it's my lucky day. She rang up our copious items and just before she was about to wrap up this transaction, I asked her about the "Rewards Program" that I saw advertised on some signage. She reluctantly hands me a brochure explaining the virtues of the rewards. Just as I ask her if we can sign up, she says yes, but that what we just purchased will not count. *Crickets.* As I feel my blood pressure start to rise, I ask her to verify that the mega-bucks that we just spent cannot be applied to the card. Wisely, she asks the manager to come over and verify this. With a wry grin, he confirms this policy and says "sorry".

Now, in our current economic climate with stores closing left and right & people losing their jobs due to poor retail sales, I must be crazy to think that a store might actually WANT to keep my business. I guess this isn't the case at the Toys R Us here.

So, I tell the manager that we're returning the entire purchase, so we can activate the stupid rewards card and re-purchase everything. He says ok and begins the tedious process of returning and voiding and re-keying, blah, blah, blah. In the meantime, my friendly cashier shoots me dirty looks, eye rolls at her fellow cashiers and loudly directs customers behind me to other lanes. Not because she's trying to make me feel unwelcome or anything ludicrous like that.

I wish I could say that the story ends here, but alas, that would be too easy. The manager voided the first transaction and then re-keyed the second purchase, when my mother's credit card was declined due to "suspicious activity". At this point, I said "forget it" and loudly proclaimed this whole situation avoidable if the idiot cashier had just done her job and asked every customer about the rewards program, like I would imagine the corporate office has instructed them to do. I even heard her tell a brand new employee that she only asks certain customers certain questions because she doesn't want to be bothered with "hard to handle" customers. GAH!!!

Moral of the story: If you're making a big purchase somewhere, ask about free rewards programs BEFORE you pay for anything. And Toys R Us is now added to my "Do Not Shop" list along with Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Congrats Toys R Us! It takes a pretty big gaffe in customer service to land you on THAT list.