Annoyed about no customer service agents today!

[mickeysaver]

In helping to prepare for Santa's visit next weekend, we went through a few of the things that we had purchased to ready them for the big day. I have not one but two issues with Fisher Price products that are supposed to be under the tree.

The first issue is minor. The Fisher Price Zoo Talkers Safari Truck came with two animal figures, a Giraffe and a lion cub. The box made it sound like both animals should work with the Zoo Talker sound base on the Fisher Price Little People Zoo Talkers Zoo. The giraffe does work. The lion cub has the circular opening on the base, like it should work, however it is a very snug fit, at best, after forcing it on and it still makes no sound.

The second issue is a bit bigger. I had purchased the Little People Independence Day Train too. I was put fresh batteries into it and it won't play the music or make sounds like it's supposed to when there is a Little Person in the engineer's seat and then you push down on it.

I tried to call customer service, but they are closed today and won't be open until Monday. I went to the website and their live chat is down until Monday also. So, I am forced into the land of emailing for customer support. I am kind of not happy with them. This is the weekend before Christmas. Mattel, the parent company of Fisher Price, is a HUGE maker of toys. Why in the heck are they not open this weekend?!?!?! They have to realize that there are more folks besides me putting things together and finding that things are not quite ready for Santa to deliver, right?!?!?! GRRRR!

 

[richmond282]

Can you not try to exchange the items in-store?

 

[stsomewhere]

I would return them to the store.

 

[vicki_c]

I would return them to the store.

Agree. Unless there's some obvious thing you are doing wrong (highly unlikely with 2 different toys), the only thing they're going to do on the phone is tell you to return them to the store or else possibly have you return them direct to F-P and send a replacement (not sure if F-P even does that). If that was the case, you probably could not have replacements by Christmas at this point.

So I would be returning them where you purchased them.

 

[mickeysaver]

The train was purchased through the Fisher Price store website. The safari truck was purchased at Walmart. I was there last night and they had no more safari trucks in stock. I am thinking that I am going to need to deal directly with Fisher Price if I am going to get the lion cub issue fixed.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I could have written this myself. Not with FP, but with a company that makes balls you sit and bounce on. We blew up the two for our boys, but one has a big hole in it.
No customer service until Monday. We emailed. Gosh I hope we can get a replacement by Christmas! And to think DH was going to wait until Christmas eve.

 

[mickeysaver]

I could have written this myself. Not with FP, but with a company that makes balls you sit and bounce on. We blew up the two for our boys, but one has a big hole in it.
No customer service until Monday. We emailed. Gosh I hope we can get a replacement by Christmas! And to think DH was going to wait until Christmas eve.

Well, as they say, misery loves company. "Hello, company!"


I wish you the best of luck in getting your toy bouncy ball situation resolved quickly before Christmas. I almost wrapped that train without putting the batteries in. I was to the point of just wanting to just be done with the wrapping as I had been doing it all morning. Since the baby is visiting at her paternal grandmother's house this weekend, I have time to do stuff without the little one around to accidentally spoil her surprise(s).

I am fortunate in that the baby's birthday is in January. When Christmas shopping, I went ahead and bought enough stuff to use for her 2nd birthday gifts too. I have decided to hold the train back and use it for her birthday. The lion cub may be a baby that gets born and makes his first appearance one morning out of the blue. She is now getting a Princess Tiana musical jewelry box filled with Princess Tiana jewelry for Christmas instead of for her birthday. I think this is a good gift trade out.

 

[squirrel]

I avoid purchasing Mattel toys and games.

I had trouble a long time ago with a Disney Trivia 2 game that I purchased. One of those metal box games with about 3 or 4 boxes of cards. The game board had a problem in that there was no blue squares on the game, so you could never collect the blue chip. I called them up and they happily sent off another even after I told them it would have the same problem.

Sure enough the new game board arrived in the mail with the same problem double the purple squares and no blue squares. I called them up and told them there must have been a problem with the colors when the boards were printed as the new one has no blue squares either.

I was told to send the game back to them. I asked if they would refund me the shipping costs as well as the price of the game. The CS agent said no. I said that I wouldn't bother sending it then as it would cost me about half of what I paid for the game to send it to them.

Mattel waited exactly 1 yr or maybe 2 yrs and re-released the game with version 2. I called them up and asked them to send me a new gameboard. The CS agent said we don't have extra gameboards. I told the CS agent they knew about the problem with the earlier version of the game and they should have printed out more gameboards this time. I was told the last time I talked with them I was sending the game back to them. I told the CS agent that I wasn't going to waste $20 or more in postage that they won't refund me. I then told the CS agent that I will not by their products again.