My local TRU sucks...Their TF section STILL has atleast 10 mudflaps...they have YET to get any voyagers past him. They also have about 15 of the 1st BW 10th wave still. They have not had any alternators since December worth buying. The only thing TF wise they stock is Deluxes. They do not even have any Supremes , yet they have not put primus out?!? You think they would. They must have them if the other two TRU's near me do.

 

OS-1:

Well, are the $21.99 alts the old stuff? In that case, I can understand the desire to keep the new stock and clear away the old, and $8.48 is a good price for any Alt., much less than the $12 final clearance Walmart uses around here.

To be fair, our local TrU (Erie, PA) has prices comparable to Target and only a few cents above Walmart, and they have been very good at stocking recent stuff and clearing away the shelfwarmers. Our TrU is on the whole an excellently run outlet, the best toy store around here, and I'd never buy TFs anywhere else if they were a little closer, and if I didn't make so many of my purchases at clearance sales. (Our local Kaybee, OTOH, needs a clue badly...but TrU being in the same mall probably doesn't help them. )

And I'm glad you didn't throw a fit. The best way to react when this happens (since the cashier had a good explanation; the sale didn't include all the alts) is to say thank you, return the merchandise to the shelf, and generally try to hide your disappointment. Seriously, some of the public views toy collectors as immature basement-dwelling freaks, and we need *all* the positive publicity we can get. Retail work is deadly at best to one's opinion of his fellow man; a single Transfan-customer from hell gives us all a black eye.

I wish the posters at a certain four-letter board beginning with 't' and ending with an air circulator would think of this before encouraging people to return their pet-damaged items to get new ones...sigh.

 

I was at my TRU yesterday, and noticed the "sale" on Alts (it's technically a clearance.) All of the old red boxed Alts were marked down to $16.98, while all of the new white-boxed Alts were still full price at $19.99.

The reason for the difference is simple: TRU assigned different SKNs to the two assortments of Alternators. The old assortment, containing the blue and red boxes, is now on clearance, while the new assortment with the bubble dome is not.

As soon as I realized the difference, I knew TRU would have major problems, because the average shopper wouldn't know about the different SKNs, they'd only see that Alts were marked down and assume that meant all of them. (My TRU, however, had put clearance price tags on each of the red boxes, to indicate that only those were on clearance. But I can't see every TRU doing that.)

 

Well I couldn't use the coupon for 20% of Primus, but i got him anyway and will take the reciept in on Sunday when the coupon works and get $10 back

 

With it being as hard as it already is to find new stuff, I'll be damned if I boycott ANY store.

Except Kmart, they just plain suck it, always, all the time.

 

How odd. Even if that weren't $2 more than most retail stores charge for alts, all alts have always been at the same price point. There's no price difference between the old boxed ones and the new bubble ones, even if it makes sense that they'd be clearancing only the old ones.

 

There's no price difference between the old and new box alts, but the SKN number is different. The sale was for the old box alts, and that's why the new box alt didn't ring up at the sale price.

 

Wal-Mart is my first place to go (because it's local), Target is my second choice, and Toys "R" Us comes in at a distant third. The ones closest to me usually wait until Hell's froze over to stock new stuff, and when they do...they overstock so the following waves have jackshit for sales space.

 

Hey Autobus Prime, I frequent the Erie TRU a lot at least once a week. I live in Jamestown, NY so whenever im in Erie, I always (well after stopping by the millcreek mall for a strawberry julius   ) visit the ol TRU. Sometimes when I go near buffalo i stop at THAT TRU on the way.

 

That sounds like the Bellefontaine wal-mart.

 

At this point in time, I hate all stores since they have jack shit...

 

I love Toys R Us!! IM a Toys R US KId!! Look at all the Transformers I can Play With!!

My toys R US is Cool.. just the other day.. I was talking to the guy employee about the new primuses with unicron heads they got in.. but that i couldnt get one till after work... so he opened up the Top Shelf Flap and told me to stick one in there so i can pick it up later!!!.. Also about 3 months ago when Rollbar and richochet came out.. they werent in the computers yet.. so the lady at the check out told me that she thinks she knows they were 19.95 each but she told me i could get them for 9.95 each because she was to tired and hot to check!!! LOL!

 

My TRU has a lovely selection of Alternators. Like Battle Ravage and Windcharger.  

 

I dont usually shop at my local toys r us, because the people there are HELLA rood.. I usually go to the one further away, because the customer service is hella dope.

 

TRUs in this area have very old stuff...as for the customer service...last time I was in the Dublin store one of the employees brought a customer over to ME to answer her questions...I haven't seen a paycheck that says Toys R Us on it in nearly 2 years and was in the store as a customer! It made both the customer (Who realized I didn't work there by my look of WTF!) and me uncomfortable and I haven't been back since.

 

HAHAHAHAHA... Remind me not to ask any questions when I go there then... 

 

Man; your average American owned stores in the US seem to be so much worse the our Canadian equivalents... At least the employees in my neck of the woods are friendly... A couple of cute cashiers even asked me stuff once... I forget when though; it was a long time ago though.  

 

I'm sorry, but this is just plain ridiculous. You should've asked for a manager and expressed your grievance to the manager IN PERSON instead of taking some sales clerk's second-hand info and then acting like a jerk to her. She was only relaying what she was told.

You lost a chance at getting a great discount on an Alt because your approach was all wrong. If a product is shelved improperly at TRU, their policy dictates that they have to sell you that product at the shelf price. That's how I got Cybertron Optimus Prime for $19.99 because some careless stocker had slammed a whole shelf full of Cybertron Primes and Megs but neglected to remove the $19.99 Voyager Class price tag on the shelf.

If you'd talked to a mgr in person, he/she would've had to listen to you and you would've gotten your discount. After all, the customer is always right. And did you even listen to what you were told about "only the $21.99 Altnernators are marked down." Did it not occur to you that ALL the Alts were that price? In other words, that *included* Sunstreaker and therefore it was "on sale."

But no, you had to give the clerk attitude, like the whole thing was her fault. And now you're trashing TRU in a public forum?

Then again, I wasn't there and perhaps there was more to the story. However, as you told your side of the story, Omega...it kinda makes you look bad, not TRU.

I'm glad I didn't take your advice and shopped at TRU on Saturday night. Otherwise, I wouldn't now own my very own sweet Cybertron Primus (with Unicron head!). I also wouldn't have found Dark Crumplezone, Nemesis Breaker, all the new series of LOC's, and even a few of the new TF Titanium figures.

Oh, and BTW, selling toys $2-5 higher (on average) than Walmart and Target does not make a retailer a "price gouger." TRU is a toy superstore--a specialty retailer--and thus has more overhead cost than both those competitors, and hence the price differences. And as for their prices on TFs, they're actually close to WMT and Target prices, at least in the Atlanta area. LOC's are only $3.99. Scout, Deluxe, and Voyager class have barely $1-2 difference.

Heck, I paid $49.99 for Primus, and when it finally shows up at WMT and Target it will probably priced around $45-ish. And we don't even know that all the stores are even going to get the ones with the Unicron head either. I'd gladly pay that extra $$$ to make sure mine had one.

Save that kind of name-calling for the ones who truly deserve such labels, like ebay scalpers and comics/collectors shops that turn around and sell toys at a 10-50% (and higher) markup over retail (especially when it comes to "limited quantity" items).

 

Good for you? I mean if you don't mind throwing down extra money that is already added to money spent on gas for your hunting that's fine. Though, I am out to find my collectibles at MSRP and not having some company add a little to the top. A store works because it pleases it's customers. Having poor employees and management makes it's higher prices not worth it. I also don't buy from Kaybee for the very same reasons, the higher prices do not equal the quality of the store. If a company show me that it earns the price it wants to charge then I understand. Though if they want to pull this crap and not honor their pricing mistakes then I refuse to buy from an overpriced store. That's my opinion, not fact and even if you don't like it you better respect it.

 

Really? That sucks. Helpful employees at my local TRU are the reason I have Primus and Metroplex (when he first started showing up on shelves). They had no problem with holding these items for me when I called looking for them.

These are GREAT employees who are really helping their company look GOOD.

It would be really disappointing if TRU sacked the helpful, good employees.

How about sacking the ones that tell me, oh I don't know...something like: "No sir, we are out of Energon Windstorm" When I told him I was looking for ALTERNATOR WINDCHARGER, who I also mentioned was at a $19.99 pricepoint. Now those guys are really helpful