Ugh, where do I begin?? The Babies R Us (BRU) location my husband and I go to is in Amherst, NY. When we walked in, we had to walk around and find someone to meet us at the registry desk. The girl who registered us FLEW through the process. I like stuff done quickly, but if you're talking so fast that you're slurring words, you need to sloooooooow dowwwwwwn. There was no fire, no lines at the register, hardly any business in the place at all. She signed us up for the BRU rewards card, which had us excited- if someone buys an item off our registry, the reward points go on our card! That was cool to know. (Short-lived excitement.) Then some of our papers got jammed in the printer but instead of reprinting them, she handed us the small stack of accordion-folded papers (uh, thanks?). Once she flipped through all the info and stammered through what we were getting in our kit, she sent us on our way.
We had no problem using the scanner. The girl had assured us that if there were two items alike, but one was blue and one was pink, if we scanned the item itself (vs the shelf tag) it would register in the system as that particular color. (We know that we are having a boy, so we scanned blue items). Keep this in mind- I'm revisiting in a minute.
Towards the end of our "session" here at BRU, I remembered that I had a coupon for a free Bumbo seat tray with the purchase of a Bumbo seat. We thought this was a great deal so we found the aisle, picked out a Bumbo seat (of which there were only two left- green and pink), and then looked in the aisle for the tray. Well above the empty Bumbo seat section was an emptier section of shelving that we could only assume was where the trays were supposed to be. *sigh* Well, maybe we can get a raincheck. So we grabbed the green Bumbo, topped off our registry on our way to the register, and got in line. The girl checking us out was the same girl that did our registry. We had been shopping for less than 45 minutes. She did not recognize us. Really?
Whatever. We told her about the lack of Bumbo seats and that we had a coupon but there were no more trays.
"Oh, we're getting more in tomorrow," she said.
Ok, but the coupon is good for one day (today) so can we get a raincheck?
"We don't do that."
Fabulous. We left the Bumbo seat, and the coupon, at the register.
Later that night, I hopped online to check our registry. This is when I found out that my password didn't work. I triple-checked my original paperwork, typed it in exactly as I had written it (and I have very clear handwriting) and still no luck. So I requested that my password be sent in an email. It took a half hour to receive the email. I found out my password had been registered all in CAPSLOCK! She never double-checked that the password she typed in for us was correct- uh DUH. I got into the registry, found that my due date was also entered wrong (I am not carrying this baby for an extra three months, thank you) and ON TOP OF THAT, half our items listed were PINK or had GIRL in the description!
Are you kidding me???
So I went through each item, deleted it if it was wrong, searched for it on the website, re-added the correct item (if I could find it on the website), and moved on.
One small issue I have with editing the registry is that when you click something that refreshes the page (i.e. deleting an item and then the page refreshes) it doesn't take you back down to where you were. You have to manually scroll down to your previous spot. May not seem like a big deal, but when you're constantly refreshing the page by deleting an item or updating an item, it's a pain in the you-know-what to have to scroll back down each and every time. After replacing many items, I called it quits, saved my changes, and logged off.
The next time I opened my registry (maybe a day or two later) ALL the items I had previously changed to BLUE or BOY, were back to PINK and GIRL!!!!! (AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!) I still change them back every time I log into my registry, which is a HUGE hassle, but I hope that one of these times the changes will stick! It is so frustrating. If I get a pink bottle brush for my baby shower, I'm going to scream.
So be forewarned, moms and moms-to-be: BRU may seem like a great, knowledgeable user-friendly place to set up a baby registry, but IT IS NOT!! Though I kept some things on my BRU registry, I ended up registering at Target also, which was MUCH easier and hassle-free. Just be sure, with any registry that you view and update online, that you read the specifics on each item you add- some are only available online and may not be very convenient for guests to buy if they try to find it in the store.
I wanted to share my experience with everyone. If you have had a similar experience, or one completely different, I welcome your stories! BRU needs a good refresher in my book!
***I will add that I was impressed with some things in the store itself. There was a special "mommy room" in the back of the store that was dimly lit and had comfortable places to sit and nurse if you needed to, and there were also special seats attached to the stalls in the restroom to buckle-in a young child when you have to do your business. There were also special parking spaces close to the doors just for expectant and new moms in the parking lot. I think all big-box stores should incorporate these conveniences. (Maybe not the mommy room, but the other things at least.)