David Cameron's Diary

Where do I begin!! Please read for an example of absolutely appalling customer service. It is an epic story, but I encourage you to read on and decide whether you would trust ToysRus.co.uk.

My last blog entry hinted at some problems, but we were sure that we would resolve our problems very easily in-store and I made relatively light of them. How WRONG could we be!!

Because I thought that we would quickly sort out or problems in-store, I made little of it in my last blog entry talking to safety issues. Unfortunately ADRIAN, the manager at Nene Valley ToysRus store chose to make things extremely difficult and completely ignored published ToysRus policy for returns; he was patronising, rude, arrogant and ultimately a FOOL!! (and that is extremely polite to him in the circumstances).

It is my daughter's birthday tomorrow 1st December and she has her heart set on a "bike with gears".

We shopped around and saw a delightful "Sparkler 20" bike in-store in Glasgow when we were on a brief break and Lindsey loved that bike.

As a result, we ordered the bike from ToysRus.co.uk website on Wed 21 November and paid for special delivery on Friday 23rd November, paying £6.95 for the privilege. We were advised that delivery could be all the way up to 9pm, which was not a problem as it would give us a clear weekend to unpack and build.

YOU GUESSED IT..... no delivery!! We then checked their website and it still showed that despatch was outstanding.

We phoned the day after the delivery failed to show up (Sat 24 November) and after around 20 mins wait (it is never less than that!!), ToysRus customer service were very apologetic blaming their courier (DHL) for failing to deliver and agreed to refund the delivery charge. We pointed out that the house would be unoccupied on Monday 28 November were they to turn up and asked that delivery should be scheduled for Wed 28 November. ToysRus agreed to arrange this

We should have expected it, but later on Sat 24th November we received a despatch notice from ToysRus pointing out that a different courier company was going to deliver the bike on (erm?) yesterday 23rd November.....Clearly the first indication that ToysRus had actually lied to us about the delivery!! They kindly provided a tracking link via the different Courier (NightFreight), but unfortunately NightFreight only permits certain IP addresses (ToysRus only?) to access the tracking information and I did not have that permission.

By good fortune, I aborted a 4 hour round-trip journey to work on Monday 26th when the roads were blocked because of an earlier accident, because ToysRus completely ignored our new delivery instructions and delivered the bike on Monday instead of Wednesday.

I thought that this was good fortune until evening when I brought the parcel into the house to build the bike.

When my wife and I set about constructing the bike we were absolutely appalled.... the underside of the frame had paint scraped off and the brakes were in shocking condition (see here for full details of the horror story). I then realised that same range of bikes is available through CostCo, Argos, JJB Sports and Woolworths. Unfortunately, when you check the manufacturers website (http://www.chitecheurope.com/), you will find nothing but a shell site containing next to no content.....not even a "contact us". That is not the mark of a quality vendor.

Because ToysRus had messed us up, we ordered a new bike from a local bike store (CycleLife - Wellingborough store). I cannot praise them highly enough. I ordered a branded bike - Raleigh Krush around 11am yesterday by phone and they agreed on an honour basis to build a bike and have it ready by 4pm.

Contrast that with our experience of returning the defective bike to the nearest ToysRus store at Nene Valley Northampton...........?!!????????? What a nightmare!!!!!!!

ADRIAN, take a bow for being the most obnoxious, arrogant, condescending son of a b*****!!

ToysRus website explains that you can take goods back to your local store, accepting that you might not always get a delivery note. Obviously no-one ever told ADRIAN, because he did everything possible to deny my return......

• We are a different company from ToysRus.co.uk.....LIAR!!
• You can't being ToysRus goods back to a store for a refund....LIAR!!
• You must have got get a delivery note.... Patronising, and not our fault if ToysRus don't issue it!!
• You need a delivery note to get a refund here.....not consistent with ToysRus website policy which at least recognises that delivery notes are not always sent out.

ToysRus, if you are listening, you need to sort your act out and either retrain ADRIAN or SACK him.

I am very much out of pocket and disillusioned through your screw-ups:

• A Friday taken on annual leave for nothing
• ToysRus telling lies about DHL delivery problems when DHL didn't even have the consignment
• Selling potentially dangerous goods with dangerously frayed brake cables
• Selling goods from a supplier who doesn't care about their website presence
• because of time constraints, spending £35 extra on a branded bike
• spending around £9.00 on fuel returning the defective goods to store
• Having managers (ADRIAN) keeping us hanging around for an houe, obviously didn't care about customer service OR Toysus own advertised returns policy

The one thing that I will give ADRIAN credit for is to have a go at getting through to ToysRus website customer service. I now know that he gave up after 15 minutes hanging on the line, but it was incredibly rude of him to ignore my wife during that time, not having explained what he was trying to do for her. Even his own staff were embarrassed and approached her SEVERAL times to make sure that she was being attended to.

The end of my story was that I ultimately got my refund with the patronising comment from ADRIAN that he would give me it "on this occasion" as a concession and that "in future" I should go through ToysRus.co.uk. To her credit, my wife pointed out that ToysRus would be lucky to see any "next time" ad that our purchases were likely to go elsewhere as a result of his treatment.

ADRIAN obviously did not care one iota that we had tried to give ToysRus my business and that it was THEIR fault that we were dissatisfied and only wanted a refund..... he was perfectly happy to keep us jumping through hoops to get that refund; I am not sure that we would have had we not been resolute in standing at the customer service desk.

I am passionate about getting customer service. This was not anything to be proud of at all.

I will be honest.... If I could have found the email address for the CEO of ToysRus.co.uk, I think he would have had a big email rocket...unfortunately, he appears to be in Internet hiding. I have two kids aged 6 & 7 years old, so there is potentially several thousands of pounds of spend on toys available between now and when they grow out of that, but right now ToysRus will see none of that spend......and I would hope that many of you now will now think twice and withhold your spend from them.

Consumer power is king and I implore you to sit on your throne and not get off. I am disgusted with ToysRus. Maybe it is a rogue manage in-store that has completely disillusioned me, but I can't stand being lied to by the corporate division either.

It would be superb to get a response from ToysRus (the order # was O1364296). I would welcome feedback on anyone else's experience of ToysRus, especially if any ToysRus management are watching and would like to explain policy.

Labels: Adrian, customer service, Nene Valley, Northampton, ToysRus

I have just spotted an offer worth up to 20% off shopping at Selfridges between 30 November and 2nd December.

Note that this is for in-store shopping only and is not valid for web orders as you need to physically hand over a printed voucher.

The offer does not seem to be personal as the voucher and conditions are available on their website, but please recognise that I cannot guarantee that it will be valid for you, though I have no grounds to believe it will not be.

The details are on the website at : http://www.selfridges.com/index.cfm?page=1286

Labels: Discount, Offer, Selfridges Christmas

See over at Santa's Page

HP are offering free delivery until Dec 9th, but for TODAY only (29 November) there will be an additional 10% taken off the entire basket value. I don't believe that anything is excluded from the offer.

I have just recieved a bike from Toys R Us which I ordered for my daughter's birthday, the order and delivery from Toys R Us not going without problems.

As is customary for delivered bicycles, the bike required some construction, having been packed (wedged!!) into a fairly flat box. The bike looked great in the shop demo version, but now appears to be a mass-produced import. The exact model was a 20" Sparkler Full Suspension Bike.

When we unpacked the components and looked to start to assemble the bike, we were horrified to find damage to both front brake cables - with one the plastic sleeving was stripped, leaving the cable exposed and liable to rusting. The second cable is in even worse condition, with the wire braiding of the cable frayed and like wire wool, with obvious risks that it could deteriorate and snap at any time.

I shall be returning this bike to store and will be asking for a full refund. I don't want a bike from a manufacturer that could care so little about the way the bike was packed and could recklessly endanger my children.

But the funny thing is that we were lucky....had we gone to a store that pre-built the bike for us, I doubt that we would have noticed these problems as we needed to give it a thorough going over to spot the defects.

So...whether you are putting the bike together yourself or getting a retailer to pre-build it for you, the moral is to check it and to keep on checking it over yourself for any damage or wear and tear that could pose a safety risk.

I truly believe that the brakes on this new bike could have failed quite quickly with disastrous results and I caution all parents to be vigilant this Christmas for any hidden dangers within the wrapping paper.

Have a happy, but safe Christmas,

David Cameron

Labels: brakes, safety, sparkler, Toys R Us

Apologies for continuing to depart from my usual Victor Meldrew-esque rants, but I know that there are a lot of people in the UK desperate to get hold of a Wii, so want to ensure that as many people as possible know that there are still some around if you are content that it is a free gift linked to taking out a new mobile phone contract.

The following is re-printed from http://www.santaspage.co.uk/.

"e2save have reverted to me to clarify that they will be dropping the interval for gift despatch following entering into the phone contract from 28 days down to 14 days in order to allow Wiis to be released in time for Christmas delivery.

e2save have a wide selection of gift options - including the Nintendo DS Lite, which is also disappearing from shops quickly... I think that Santa Claus (ahem!!) has been clearing all stocks of these extremely popular consoles.

If a Nintendo doesn't appeal for Christmas, then maybe you are in the market for a phone upgrade anyway; Christmas is one of the most popular times to treat oneself to the latest, greatest phone. e2save will allow you to tailor a deal with a gift of your own choosing from cashback (even automatic cashback) to laptops, Sat-Navs and TVS.

Why not try out their interactive deal creator here and get yourself a free wii or another gift of your own choice, but don't delay. e2save have done their part to help get gifts out in time for Christmas, but don't leave it too late or you will be hitting the peak delivery period for the couriers and risking a Christmas disappointment if your gift ends up stuck in a courier warehouse.

Merry Christmas

Santa Claus
webmaster of Letters from Santa
where you can order a personalised letter, set of text messages or even a phone call from Santa Claus.

P.S. Sorry that I haven't left too many Nintendo's available in the shops, there were rather a lot of especially good boys and girls this year.

But maybe I am not entirely to blame for the shortage .... many mums and dads realised how great they were as entertainment for the entire family with Wii Sports straight out of the box suitable for ages 3 - 103 (actually I am many hundreds of years old and still manage a game or two in between supervising the elves and their toy-making and packing), making the Wii a much more suitable console for the family than the PS3 and Xbox 360 with their complicated controllers. The Wii can also form part of a fitness regime with some energetic games involving the Wiimote and Nunchuk controllers,. For all these reasons, I am sure that mums and dads have bought large amounts too, creating unprecedented demand that continues around a year after it's UK launch.

May all your Christnas wishes come true.......

Santa."

I hope that there are not too many disappointed kids around this Christmas with the big scarcity on popular games and toys.

David

Labels: DS, e2save, Nintendo Wii

Well... a very quick response from e2save following my earlier entry at free-nintendo-wiis-available-in-uk.

E2Save have reverted quickly to advise that order placed quickly WILL BE GUARANTEED that their free Wii will be delivered in time for Christmas.

Whether you are in the market to upgrade your phone, to buy a Wii or potentially you were in the market for both, this makes for a great deal when you consider the high prices commanded by eBay profiteers.

So don't delay if you want a free Wii in time for Christmas. E2Save have been unable to advise as yet when the guarantee will be withdrawn.

Labels: e2save, Free, Nintendo Wii

As you know, I have been writing about the difficulty in sourcing a Nintendo Wii anywhere around the RRP within the UK. There are lots of people wanting to charge double the RRP and there are people (fools?) prepared to pay that.

I have since realised that mobile phone retailer E2Save are making them available for free as an inducement to buy a new mobile phone contract.

E2Save are not necessarilly the best known mobile phone retailer, but as they belong to the CarPhone Warehouse group, you can be assured that this offer is absolutely genuine.

Christmas is a time when many people like to treat themself to a new mobile phone, so why not get a free Nintendo Wii if you were going to enter into a new contract anyway? If you don't actually want the Wii, then you could always eBay it yourself and recoup some of your mobile phone outlay.

E2Save current terms are that they automatically send out their inducement gifts 28 days after entering into the contract. Whilst we are just about (maybe) inside that time limit, I have written to them to ask whether they can reduce this window to guarantee Wiis will be delivered by Christmas. Even if they can't do this, it has got to be better to explain a few days delay to kids than to spend an absolute fortune on eBay profiteers.

Click here to view the Free Nintendo Wii Offers

Best Regards,

Santa Claus - your Letters from Santa Webmaster

Reprinted from Santa's Blog

Labels: e2save, Free, Nintendo Wii

This is a follow-up to my earlier article Wii's available...how much are you willing to pay? where I revealed that despite the scarcity of the console in the UK and the high prices demanded by people trading in them in entrepeneur fashion, it was still possible to purchase from Amazon on the continent at the RRP. I reported availability in Germany, but it appears that Amazon France were also shipping to the UK.

Unfortunately, it appears that Amazon UK Marketplace sellers are being supported in demanding high prices by other European Amazon sites refusing to accept orders from the UK, not just Germany, but also France.

Shame that because it was working out same price delivered from the EU compared to the RRP here.

I don't believe that there is much anyone can do about this, as it will typically be for the retailer to set their own terms of trade whci we can accept or decline, but we cannot insist on a retailer agreeing a sale with us.

There has been much discussion on boards regarding Restrictions on Free Trade, but as this is just a Retailer deciding which markets they will service and not Governmental border issue, there does not appear to be any legal axe to grind.

However, it is curious that the Wiis have good availability on the continent yet no-one has the wherewithall to move stocks to the UK where the consoles are scarce.

And who loses out because of the incompetency?

• Kids - some parents will refuse to buy at the premium prices, though I accept that there is still some market at these high prices.
• Nintendo - same reason as above - the sale might be deferred until next Christmas or Birthday, however with Christmas approaching the sale may just go to Sony or Microsoft instead.
• Games Manufacturers (including Nintendo) - with a finite budget for Christmas, if people have paid premiun prices for their console, there will be precious little cash left to buy additional games & peripherals.

Is there anything that can be done in future to stop this abuse? Well, I have an idea that would possibly improve things overnight......What if it were to be made illegal to sell goods above a manufactures RRP (or a set percentage over it) for a given country? There are certain complications with this idea, but in principle if those practicalities could be worked out, it could stop the entrepeneurial purchases that are potentially creating a stock shortage at a decent price and give us back credibly priced goods.

Labels: Amazon, Nintendo Wii, Wii, Wii availability

So hot, that at least one retailer has suspended its commissions to affiliates, presumably because it does not need affiliates to move the consoles. They go out of stock as soon as they come in.

So what can you do to secure a Wii if your kid has set his or her heart on it

Well, not surprisingly there are eBay sellers capitalising on the shortage..... you can check here to see current consoles on sale at a premium price.

Of course, in a capitalist society it is not surprising that someone is looking to make a fast buck via eBay, but are there other options?

Well, there are options to pick up a Wii at recommended pricing if you have a smattering of German language at your command, which I don't!! I actually suspect that a number of the current consoles for sale in the UK are German imports, because amazon.de has shown excellent availability of the consoles for some time whereas amazon.co.uk has no consoles available themselves at the RRP of £179.99.

Instead we have marketplace sellers selling at the minimum price shown below (deliberately left dynamic to see latest pricing). The best price appears to vary minute by minute (hit F5 for the latest best price).

Good luck to you if you can obtain a Wii from Germany.... to be honest, I would have been quite happy to go abroad and order from Germany (let's face it, Christmas is an expensive time of year) as it would appear that Wii's are selling for a £100 premium on eBay over Amazon.de prices with only the expense of a modest (around £4?) continental->UK adaptor plug required to have full UK usability, but I have yet to find a translation tool that will allow me navigate page to page with translated German to English pages and complete an order.

So..... the answer is that you CAN find reasonably priced Wii Consoles, but I fear that many of us simply do not have the nouse to order from a foreign language site and we will all be suckered in to paying inflated Amazon.co.uk (marketplace) and eBay prices.

So you managed to pick up a console........do you need to buy additional games straight off? In my opinion you do not, as the standard Sports game is actually a collection and contains a multitude of games already (e.g. Golf, Baseball, Bowling) with 10 pin Bowling being my absolute favourite.

To be honest, there are weeks of entertainment straight out of the box if you can only get hold of the console in the first instance.

If you do figure out how to order from Amazon Germany, please do let me know how, as I do not want to pay UK prices......though I fear many of us will end up paying the inflated price to avoid disappointing our kids.

Alternatively, you might just be lucky and get a right-priced UK Wii by looking at consoles on Kelkoo via the search box below, but do shout if you find availability!!

Labels: Amazon, eBay, Nintendo Wii, Wii