Zac and I have decided that a) all this baby gear makes us otherwise pretty intelligent people feel really stupid and b) Babies R Us might just be the best company we have encountered when it comes to returns.
Three examples:
1. Zac's aunt and cousins gifted us with our twin bassinet pack n play for the shower which they thoughtfully got delivered directly to our house. Zac put it together before I got home this weekend and admittedly did so without reading the directions. Somewhere in the process of making part J snap into part Q, it broke. I packed it back up and dragged it back to BRU truly dreading the complicated explanation (and perhaps white lie) as to why I needed to return it, where they exchanged it with no problem.
2. A few months ago, we thought we'd get ahead of the game and buy our car seats early. After the sticker shock that ensued at BRU, we went for two economical seats that seemed to fit our needs. We brought them home where Zac did the first-time dad ritual of trying to install the car seat base by jamming his knee in the middle of it, pushing down on it until his face turned red, then pulling on the straps with all his might. We weren't real satisfied with the fit but figured it was due to our own stupidity and put them away to be figured out later. Last week, we decided we better make sure we could make it work and after numerous Youtube videos, we realized we had done everything in our power to get them to fit and they just weren't going to work. The dilemma: we had two car seats with no boxes as well as a double stroller that matched the car seats with no box. What kind of store is going to take all that back after three months? Babies R Us!!
We loaded it all up into two shopping carts, pranced right
in and emerged with $400 in BRU store credit which we then used towards two
more highly reviewed car seats. We ended up buying the double stroller at this
consignment shop today, and ,
thanks to my BRU coupon revelation (see below), were left with a nice size
chunk of change. All is well that ends well!
3. Mom and I realized the other day
that BRU will let you stack coupons. This was quite an epiphany because those
mile long receipts and loads of coupon mailers from BRU I had been loathing and
promptly throwing into the junk pile soon became quite valuable. Getting 20%
off virtually every product in the store took BRU from being over-priced to
actually being cheaper than Walmart. Who knew?!
i love babies r us, too! although, i do get moderately overstimulated when i walk into the store, i've found the following tidbits to be useful:
ReplyDelete1. they have at least three trade-in events during the year, where you can trade-in any car seat, stroller, other big item and they will give you a dollar amount to put toward your next purchase. keep this in mind when caroline and nolan will be ready for their big-kid car seats! :)
2. watch for their extra 75% off clearance days. this is the CHEAPEST you can find clothing anywhere, and it's worth snagging a few items for next year's seasons.
3. they put their baby food on sale - like big time sale and it's often cheaper than what i've found on amazon, wal-mart, grocery stores, etc. however, the sales don't come around often, but when they do it's definitely worth it to stock up! :)
good luck nesting!!!!!