[US] Toys R Us Buy 2 Get 1 Free (B2G1) Sep.16-22

cloaked7

^ Yup, I agree. But, you know I will see people putting LEGOS in their cart at TRU seemingly without any regard to the price. I mean, without regard that they can get the same set at WM or Target for less. And, our TRU has a Target literally 5 minutes from it.

One would think that most people would find out after a bit of comparison shopping that TRU has their LEGOS marked up a lot and would simply go somewhere else. But, not everyone is like me or us. Although we all think other people think like we do, they don't. The truth of the matter... I don't know how the majority of the public thinks.

red237

For those looking for advent calendars, this is a deal....my relatives will be happy kids Dec first!

hleonffu

^ I agree. I was at TRU today and ran into someone buying a LOTR set. Gave them the suggestion that Target (5 min away) was cheaper (only $3.00, but still cheaper). They proceeded to purchase from TRU anyway. As LFT would say, "time is money" and I would guess the $3.00 savings is not very large. I can appreciate that. Each of us have our own "price point".

graphite

I tell someone pretty much everytime I'm at TRU that what they are looking at is available at WM and Target for cheaper. All 3 stores are within a 1/2 mile stretch. Today when I went to get the 3 series 2 planet sets I was pondering some LOTR for parting out and was watching another guy shop around LEGO. He had bikini bottom in his hand and I was waiting to tell him it was cheaper at Walmart but wanted to see if he was looking to take advantage of the 3 for 2. Looked like he ended up with Uru-kai army and shelob sets. Not the greatest 3 to take advantage of it but at least he got something free.

nkx1

cloaked7 said:

^ Yup, I agree. But, you know I will see people putting LEGOS in their cart at TRU seemingly without any regard to the price. I mean, without regard that they can get the same set at WM or Target for less. And, our TRU has a Target literally 5 minutes from it.

One would think that most people would find out after a bit of comparison shopping that TRU has their LEGOS marked up a lot and would simply go somewhere else. But, not everyone is like me or us. Although we all think other people think like we do, they don't. The truth of the matter... I don't know how the majority of the public thinks.

Good point. I think people approach toy-buying, and basic money management, from many different perspectives. Some people have a ton of money and simply don't care how much a toy costs. It's convenient to buy at TRU, and perhaps that's mostly what they care about. For all other people, buying at TRU at full price is probably an unwise decision lol.

Pitfall69

"It is unwise to lower your DEFENSES!"

Yeah, you are at Toy r Us for something other than Lego and you think, "I'm here, what the hell, why not"

tamamahm

cloaked7 said:

^ Yup, I agree. But, you know I will see people putting LEGOS in their cart at TRU seemingly without any regard to the price. I mean, without regard that they can get the same set at WM or Target for less. And, our TRU has a Target literally 5 minutes from it.

One would think that most people would find out after a bit of comparison shopping that TRU has their LEGOS marked up a lot and would simply go somewhere else. But, not everyone is like me or us. Although we all think other people think like we do, they don't. The truth of the matter... I don't know how the majority of the public thinks.

Yes, this is the part that always shocks me.

It isn't just Lego that is over-priced at Toys-R-Us, but plenty of other items. I guess that is why I do not see Lego being even more expensive there as a black eye for Lego.

All it takes is a bit of comparison shopping, a few moments of googling, doing anything really, to see that Toys-R-Us is often more expensive. They tend to operate on the mode of have weekly sales to get people in the door, but upcharge the normal price. There are several common retailers that work on that principle, and one simply has to do smart shopping at those places to get good deals.

As the above person stated, though, not everyone probably thinks like this... I think too often people see 'sale' and think an item is a great deal, without having done any analysis.

Tammy

LegoFanTexas

^ Yes, JCPenny used to do this, until 6 months ago when they changed their business model to "always low prices"...

Hasn't worked yet, but it takes time to retrain customers... I was used to seeing "sale" signs everywhere there (we use JCPenny Portrat Studio for family pictures), now there are none, or very few...

Looks... "full priced" now, even if the prices are really close to what they used to be on "sale"

Amberyl

I think that a fair chunk of the time, someone shopping at TRU is not shopping for their own kid -- they're shopping for a birthday party for somebody else's kid, for instance. And they need the toy Right Now. So they don't want to go over to another store which might not have it in stock; they just want to complete their errand and go, and as long as the toy is in the price range they wanted to spend, they'll buy it.

Between my various experiences ordering online from Amazon, Toys R Us, Walmart, Target, and [email protected] (and getting stuff off eBay -- I haven't tried Bricklink yet), I will generally buy things from Amazon unless they are substantially more expensive, because Amazon has consistently, reliably had smooth transactions, fast high-quality shipping, and good customer service, as well as very good buyer protection when transacting with third parties.

For buying in-store, none of the stores seems to have online-accessible inventory that's entirely reliable. That means shlepping to a store only to find that it's out of stock. I'd rather save myself the time and trouble.

By the way, Toys R Us still has not cleared through the order that I placed at 9 am yesterday morning. It is apparently held up at the warehouse level, for some reason -- even though I went to the physical store where I was supposed to pick it up and had them pull the sets for me. Their customer service (which was actually very polite and tried to be helpful) had no idea why the order could possibly be held.

staffmark

Just got off the phone with TRU - I pleaded my case that indeed the sale claims ALL sets are included and they concurred- they let me order a Town Hall (which I needed) and 2 diagon alley's, total $370 out the door. Can't beat that with a stick. If you have 30 min, call and plead your case!

cloaked7

Yup, the TRU ads appear illogical. On one line they read "ALL LEGOS on Sale", then immediately below there are exceptions. I guess they are keying on the word "Sale" and not "ALL". I guess all of their LEGOS may be on sale in one way or another? All of them are definitely not B2G1HO. Free shipping, slightly discounted below the marked up price, or some such may be considered on sale? Long ago I stopped trying to figure their sales out. I just take what they give me, and go on.

cloaked7

Also, I have seen Target mark up sets above RRP. Not very often, but have seen LEGOS marked up now and again. I don't think I have ever seen WM mark anything up above RRP. Course, WM is the world's largest retailer. They take advantage of economies of scale and a huge distribution network. They make money on volume, not mark ups.

Penkid11

^Not very often? You obviously have never been to my Target. Every set is at least $1 above RRP. Unless I find something rare, I don't budge.

doriansdad

Tempted to try for 3x10188 by phone after work today but this set looks like it will hang around for a few more years yet. Might be fun trying tho...I'll post my results.

gmpirate

^^^ I'd say look more closely in regards to Target. They are not quite as bad as TRU but they are consistently marked higher than RRP now.

^ I see no sign of the DS discontinuing either.

Pitfall69

I'm going to call and place an order today as well. They need to be more specific when it comes to their sales and promotions.

staffmark

Pitfall69 said:

I'm going to call and place an order today as well. They need to be more specific when it comes to their sales and promotions.

Good for you. I know it's a pain in the butt, but do it anyway. It's the principle of the thing IMO.

Pitfall69

If you scroll up you can see my last run-in with customer service. This time it should be fun too :)

cloaked7

For what it's worth, I called TRU C/S two years ago during a B2G1 sale. They weren't as restrictive then, but did have one item that I wanted #8265 excluded from the B2G1 deal. When I called the C/S rep was very nice and had no explanation for why that set was excluded so he gave me the discount and I got 3. I still have them.

In retrospect I think TRU had that set excluded because they had few in stock and knew they wouldn't get any more of them. Because 8265 ended up being a set that had a short production run. Course, due to that the after market price is now more than triple RRP. And, since it is such a nice set I fully expect it to go up and up. That's why I still have all 3 sets.

doriansdad

I contacted them by phone but they were unwilling to help. Don't have the time to throw a hissy fit to get them to honor the deal on 3 Death Stars. I got my Hogwarts and I am happy with those.....hoping for a better sale next year!

Renny

Just received my first shipment notification from my early morning orders (prior to markup). Odd thing but they are shipping the 3 Jabba's Palace sets in 2 separate boxes (each with their own tracking number).

graphite

^ Why is that odd? The boxes TRU typically uses are big enough and deep enough for either 2 of the normal depth sets (JP, malevolance, helms deep etc) or 1 of the thicker sets. So 2 in one box and 1 in the other.

gdelahousse

With my recent experiences with TRU shipping, I would not be surprised to receive 1 set packed in 2 boxes ;-)

The_Mack

^ LOL...

Renny

I just figured that they would have a box big enough to house all 3 sets. No big deal, but I would think it would save them a ton on shipping costs to just use a bigger sized box.

cloaked7

^ Yup, I understand. I figure they box the shipments very quickly and don't spend too much time deciding on the box size. And, it seems that they don't have a lot of different size boxes. Unlike Amazon, which seems to have a different size box for just about anything.

Also, it probably doesn't cost much more in shipping to ship 2 boxes or 1 box to the same address for a company that has UPS contracts.

graphite

^^ It likely all comes down to the logistics of stocking and ordering another box size over the percent of the time they need to use another box for certain orders. A place like Amazon does magnitudes more shipping than TRU so the cost of more box sizes is justified.

lulwut

You can call CS and try to have them generate a 30% coupon or risk it all talking to a supervisor to get the B2G1.

dragonhawk

The confirmation email for my after markup order arrived a couple of hours after the order was placed. However, my the confirmation email for my before markup order has not arrived yet...

dragonhawk

Renny said:

Just received my first shipment notification from my early morning orders (prior to markup). Odd thing but they are shipping the 3 Jabba's Palace sets in 2 separate boxes (each with their own tracking number).

Your order was probably handled by 2 different fulfillment centers. Operation the size of TRU has got to have more than 1 fulfillment center.

itsnotme

dragonhawk said:

The confirmation email for my after markup order arrived a couple of hours after the order was placed. However, my the confirmation email for my before markup order has not arrived yet...

I just (finally) received the confirmations for the second and third orders I placed Sunday morning. The first (and cheapest) was confirmed an hour after I placed it. I too was starting to get concerned but it appears that all is well.

Pitfall69

You have to have a degree in mathematical science to read the confirmation emails.

AnthonyC173

i passed on this since my goal was to get the modular. Well lets hope black friday will be kind to me, since i just got my first job and got $$$ to spend!!!! *plus i get a 10% employee discount at target :3

dragonhawk

Aarghh I just got an email saying my purchase is back-ordered. This is what I get for not doing store pickup :(

AnthonyC173, does your discount work on target.com ?

scotty12

I'd like to get a Grand Emporium, Pet Shop and maybe a Fire Brigade for the kids but it doesn't qualify for the B2G3 free. Is there any way around this?

Pitfall69

Call TRU and complain.

madforLEGO

sidersdd said:

^ You're looking at LEGO [email protected] Australia, and Australian dollars.

On the US site, it's $119.
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Jabba-s-Palace-9516

I swear the LEGO site is playing Region roulette with new viewers unless you log in to your account. Mine kept going to UK every time I went to the site, at least until I logged back in.

I was one of the lucky ones and caught the Jabba's palaces for 120 before they climbed back up.. did not realize that TRU had these for 150.. that is insane.

The really frustrating thing is no modular sets on sale, or Technic, or big SW sets.. ridiculous. They had the LEGO parking garages on the sale and when their price was 120 per, but then the prices increased and Im not touching those with a price increase especially since they should be out for some time

cbaker1974

Well, just got first 20 or so of my items delivered and 70% of them were damaged boxes, 3-4 of them like someone sat on them.

Also ended up with 6 of the items being the wrong thing.

I think I'm done with TRU online, just not worth the hassle compared to paying a few bucks more to order from Amazon.

Renny

Yikes, sorry to hear that. Hopefully you have a close store that you can possibly exchange them with.

nkx1

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cbaker1974 said:

Well, just got first 20 or so of my items delivered and 70% of them were damaged boxes, 3-4 of them like someone sat on them.

Also ended up with 6 of the items being the wrong thing.

I think I'm done with TRU online, just not worth the hassle compared to paying a few bucks more to order from Amazon.

That is so weird that everyone complains about TRU shipping. I ordered a bunch of stuff from them last holiday season and all packages arrived in perfect condition. Probably just pure luck.

Just curious about the wrong items you received- were they of higher value than what you ordered? That still sucks either way, I guess (unless they were of much higher value).

I've also had good luck with Amazon US regarding good shipping. Amazon Europe (.it, .uk and .fr) is a bit of a crap shoot, though.

dragonhawk

Renny said:

Yikes, sorry to hear that. Hopefully you have a close store that you can possibly exchange them with.

Has anyone successfully exchanged damaged on delivery items with the store ?

Amazon US has good shipping in general. Walmart on the other hand....

Renny

I actually have at TRU but it was only for a damaged Captain America Cycle set. I had no issues picking out another one and getting the exchange done. I even got some money back somehow (girl told me there was a price adjustment).

cbaker1974

dragonhawk said:

Has anyone successfully exchanged damaged on delivery items with the store ?

Amazon US has good shipping in general. Walmart on the other hand....

I just exchanged 2 of the Apple Tree houses that were smooshed in store...they had to do it as a return (of 3, since I got 3 on the original receipt) and a rebuy of 3 (at the current price). So you can do it, but if you bought them at cheaper prices online you could have an issue.

graphite

Got shipment confirmation on my 6 sets woot!

gdelahousse

dragonhawk said:

Has anyone successfully exchanged damaged on delivery items with the store ?

I recently exchanged 2x 3677 in store, I just needed to invoices. They had to call the manager to apply the discount and waived the difference in taxes.

cbaker1974

nkx1 said:

Just curious about the wrong items you received- were they of higher value than what you ordered? That still sucks either way, I guess (unless they were of much higher value).

I got Jabbas Palace and City Garage in their place (so someone out there probably is waiting for those...) so they were similar TRU value...

I just called in to another rep and they are having me send the misorders back and will send the replacements whenever they get stock in again...hopefully that wasn't TRU's last supply on the 4842.

BuriedinBricks

Finally got confirmation on my one order (3x Uruk-Hai Army before they jacked the price back up). I don't really care if they show up smooshed as they are all going to be opened and used to beef up Helm's Deep.

tamamahm

I can attest to the fact that they have monstrously huge size boxes. A playmobil order came in a Christmas tree sized box. It was truly massive.

I have also returned merchandise with a crushed box to a retail story for an exchange. It was the Lego Harry Potter Game. It was strange, because the outer box was fine.

My orders in the last year have been fine from them. Two years ago, I had several shipments where the boxes had barely any tape holding it together.

Pitfall69

Yes, just got my 3 Jabbas Palaces in HUGE boxes. Yes, one of the boxes were damaged. So, what do you think? Wait awhile and return the set and get store credit for the current price $149.99??? Will they do that? With gas at over $4.00 a gallon, it will cost me $9.00 just to go to TRU and back. Now wondering what condition my other 3 sets will be?

1265

Pitfall69 said:

Yes, just got my 3 Jabbas Palaces in HUGE boxes. Yes, one of the boxes were damaged. So, what do you think? Wait awhile and return the set and get store credit for the current price $149.99??? Will they do that? With gas at over $4.00 a gallon, it will cost me $9.00 just to go to TRU and back. Now wondering what condition my other 3 sets will be?

What would a dishonest person do.........buy Jabbas Palaces at TRU at regular price and minutes later return damaged - bought at cheaper price - and say, "I changed my mind," to collect the difference. Or......just return damaged item for original cost or substitute for another in store.