The Joys of Customer Service

Before Christmas, there were a LOT of toy recalls, and I read many posts about having a "China Free" Christmas...it's something that we didn't participate in. That's right...my house is full of toys that were made in China and even though my (almost) 3 year old's toys are made almost entirely of Fisher Price, we somehow managed to skip the recalls entirely. There were items on the list that we had in the house, but the date of manufacture was always off. I didn't mind one bit, and I continued with my Fisher Price indulgence right through Christmas. So did the rest of our families.

Elsie received a set of Dora's Cuddle n Care Twins from her grandparents, which are really quite cute. Anyway, the first day she received them, paint from the boy's hair managed to rub off on the girl's face. I tried to wash it off and was annoyed when it remained, but my daughter is 3 so the chances of something else happening to make the doll look less than perfect was likely to happen anyway so I just let it go. Fast forward to a few days ago when this little boy doll came in contact with the nice, clean face of one of her Bitty Twins (also from Christmas). I'm surprised I didn't have a meltdown because I'll gladly admit that my indulgence in an American Girl doll for my 3 year old is ALL mine. Yes, she was thrilled to run around the store and check out all the cool things...mostly pushing the dolls in the stroller, but in reality, any doll in any stroller would be fine for her. I *had to have* these. When I asked my husband if I could purchase them, he asked if they were for me or for Elsie to which I responded, ME! Still, I bought them anyway.

So, I promptly got on the internet to look up customer service numbers, and of course Fisher Price was closed until Tuesday because of the holiday. I did get through at American Girl though and they gave me some tips for what might take it off. I tried those to no avail. The customer service there was GREAT though! Anyway, I finally remembered to call Fisher Price this morning, and I got to answer fun questions like:

Is the paint supposed to come off? "Um, I would assume not." The girl actually put me on hold to confirm that the paint wasn't intended to come off! LOL!

Then, she asked where I purchased it, and when I told her it was a gift, she asked me how much it cost. Now, I'm sure she was just following a script in front of her, but that doesn't make it any less amusing.

They should be sending me out a voucher for the Dora dolls, and someone else in the company is supposed to call me about the Bitty Twin. That would be awesome if they would pay for the $26.95 plus shipping it's going to cost me to send that baby off to the Doll Hospital for a new head!

Overall, the call really wasn't a bad experience. Actually, I've had favorable responses from customer service lately. Two months in a row, I had to call Sprint to get a $75 casual data usage charge removed from my bill. Apparently, I'm using the internet on my phone without even knowing it. That's right...I've left my bargain hunting skills behind to pay $75 a month for internet services on my phone when I'm at home 90% of the time and already paying $40 a month for internet on my computer. It makes perfect sense that I'd rather use my phone and pay nearly twice as much instead! But, they credited my account so I'm not complaining! Also, when Claira was born, she had trouble nursing so I pumped exclusively for about the first 5 weeks. During that time, I accidentally knocked my pump off the chair and it broke the faceplate where the tubes connect so the tubing was always falling off. I called Medela to order a new faceplate, and they mailed me a new one and new tubing for free!

The Bandits:


The Victim: