A Toy Story

Late 2007, maybe around September, I was having a garage sale. I was putting out a bunch of old Barbie and Polly Pocket toys when my neighbor, (who always get's first pick of all my garage sale stuff because that's what neighbors do) told me that some of my stuff had been recalled by Mattell. Went on-line and sure enough, 4 of my heavily used items were recalled for lead paint and small magnets. So, I pulled those puppies right out of my sale and filled out the internet form to get the free mailing label to return the toys to the company.

Waited the suggested amount of time (several weeks) and then submitted another internet form because still no mailing label. After waiting another several weeks to no avail, sent an email requesting my label. Customer service emailed me back to say they couldn't help me on-line and I would have to call.

Called the number in the email and got an endless loop VRU that kept directing me back to the website. Called back and madly hit zero at every VRU option until I finally got a customer service rep.

Customer service rep said we had a bad connection and I would have to call back. I thought htis was odd because I could hear her okay. I moved to another room closer to the phone base and asked "Can you hear me now?"

Rep immediately responded- "Nope, still can't hear you. I think you will have to call back."

No. I am not making this up.

Proceeded to not hang up and insist on getting my mailing label. Rep informed me that they had been having trouble because Mattel emails the labels to customers (don't ask me what you are supposed to do if you do not have a printer!) and many times people's spam filters delete them. I explained that my filter didn't work that way and since I had recieved their customer service response from the same address, that must not have happened in my case.

She offered to snail mail me a label and after gathering the spelling of my last name proceeded to read me back my address. Seems they had my information readily available.

Anyways, several weeks later I recieved the mailing label. I put the toys in a big box and mailed them back to Mattel. This week my persistance paid off. Got a voucher in the mail for $66 for my old garage sale junk!! ! Woohoo!

Now here is Mattel's revenge. I have to use the voucher by April 30th and I have to spend the entire amount in one pop because no change can be given. And, the good stuff - American Girl - is excluded. HMMM. :(