craym0nk

Sorry this is kind of offtopic but I thought ya'll might get a chuckle. Logged on to S@H for the first time in ages and it prompted me to update some details, notice anything odd?

Saw the 2 for $10 planet sets on one of their emails but all sold out online. Seems a more realistic price, they looked cool but no way I was paying $16ea.

Why are they going for so much?

My last one was like that, Australia Post from Sydney, but my previous orders have had Denmark or Singapore written on them and (I don't remember who) some courier delivered one once. Ordered on Monday night, shipped Tuesday. It definitely looks like an AusPost thing because allthough they call it a tracking website, the only entry is that it was picked up and then nothing.... It will then arrive without notice and maybe the website will update with a delivered status 12-24 hours after the event. AusPost, yay!

For delivery by December 25th: - Standard Shipping: 23:59 GMT December 8th. - Express Shipping: 23:59 GMT December 13th. Order left 4/12, says: "Description: eParcel Express", I thought that was an AusPost thing, no? No matter, not ordering presents. If the Emerald Night isn't circling the tree this year it can wait 'til next. Still have to build up Winter Toy Shop, YAY!

Free standard shipping from S@H when spending $100+ at the moment. Just used it to get the PF parts needed to motorise my Emerald Night, couldn't find them locally and didn't want to wait for intl postage.

Update on TRU Lay-buy saga: cancelled lay-buy, had to pay a $10 cancellation fee. Store manager said she couldn't waive it, I'd need to speak to head office, gave me the phone number, refunded my deposit. Rang TRU, spoke with customer service, complained that I was now $20 out of pocket (non-refundable setup fee + cancellation fee) with nothing to show for it. Explained that the lay-buy system was poorly organised, the staff weren't educated enough to sell it, the monthly fee structure was not properly explained to me, the contract was obscene, and that I was personally telling everyone/anyone to stay away from it. The girl was nice enough, said she would certainly be recording my feedback and passing it along. Said she could not refund the fees but she would send out a gift certificate instead. Case closed, I've learned my lesson.

EDIT: Found some chatter about this one back in Oct '10, didn't realise it came out so long ago. So apparently 8403 - City House was a Toyworld exclusive, going for AUD$70-$80. Has anyone seen them in the Perth stores lately? I was going through some of the newer City stuff on amazon.co.uk and this set popped up (not in stock) and I recalled wanting it at the time.

I used the Kmart online lay-buy system a few days ago, very easy online setup. Still had to go into the store to pay a deposit and confirm the order. Seemed that the online portion didn't save any time since the barcode on my print out didn't scan and the girl had to do it all from scratch. Didn't take long, didn't have to grab stock off the shelves. There were signs all through the toy section saying not to bother taking stock to the lay-buy counter, they had a special catalogue with the barcodes printed over them to scan in. Hope this doesn't result in people missing out on the less plentiful sets. Kmart have both the Pod Race and Sith Infiltrator sets and plenty of them.

OK, it gets worse. Just read through some of the paperwork and apparently I have also agreed to a $2.90 monthly account fee! This was not made clear to me by the staff. That's another $17.40 over 6 months. Turns out TRU have outsourced their lay-buy service to this 3rd party company Certegy. I rang them to ask about the T&C: apparently you can save on the monthly fee by paying it out early. But the terms also state that a 5 day warning before pickup may be required as they reserve the right to store the goods offsite. I asked about a "cooling off period" in regards to the contract and was told that I would need to take it up with the store. This is all sounding way too dodgy and costly. I think I'll march back to TRU and cancel the whole shebang. Probably loose the $10 service fee, though I will argue this with the manager. If I tell them I am still willing to pay for some of the goods right away (damn store exclusives), it might change their mind. I'd rather this Certegy mob not get any of my hard earned. I know, I know, shouldn't have signed something I hadn't read. But in all honesty, my previous experiences with lay-buys in other stores gave me a false sense of security. Sorry to take this further off-topic, but please let it be a lesson to all of you. DO NOT LAY-BUY WITH TOYS'R'US!

I went to TRU last night after calling both Innaloo & Cannington stores to check for stock, Cannington hadn't received their allotment of 8404 Public Transport. They both answered the phone "Hello TRU, we now do lay-buys, how can I help", excellent! Or so I thought... First, the lay-buy has a $200 minimum. OK fine, I went back and grabbed a Nerf blaster and a couple of smaller sets to make up the difference. Then they handed me a 4 page form to fill out. OK, only name and address on first page followed by 4 pages of legal junk and a signature on the last page. They gave me a copy to take home, obviously I didn't read it all before signing (tsk tsk). Then they ask for photo ID and fill in a bunch of stuff on the computer, following a laminated instruction sheet, SLOW! Next they had to print out 4 more pages of stuff, including another form to sign. But of course the printers are in the managers office, because apparently the stuff can;t be trusted not to abuse them. So the girl runs off to grab them, comes back empty handed & looking confused, realises she hit the wrong button and runs off to see if they printed this time. They offer 8wk, 16wk and 24wk periods and you can pay weekly or fortnightly, in-store or online. The girl suggested doing the in-store option and then setting up online payments myself at a later date. I haven't tried yet, but I think she mentioned direct debit which I don't like, prefer making manual payments. No idea if you can pay greater amounts so you don't have to do it each fortnight or pay it off early. Will have to read that form. So I pay the 10% deposit plus the lay-buy fee (about $10 I think, ouch), print 2 copies of the receipts from the till, attempt to staple it all together (the stapler breaks) and we're done. EASY! I'm pretty sure signing up for life insurance is a less convoluted process. Anyway I just thought I'd share my experiences in case anyone else is thinking of using their service and considering ducking in during their lunch break. Luckily I was in no rush, in a good mood, the store was empty and the staff were nice. We joked about the whole process compared to the other dept stores, they said something about converting TRU America's computer system and how they are trying to refine it. They really must, Dawkins forbid they have to do all that when it gets really busy. If you managed to read all that (tl;dr I know), consider yourselves warned!

Target catalogue has a couple of the Cars2 sets listed as "Save $20" but the price is still the same as RRP, missprint or ripoff? 8486 Mack's Team Truck on Lasoo and here on S@H. I can confirm my local BigW (WA) had a dozen or more Falcons as of Monday. Waiting to see if the price drops in their upcoming toy sale.

You can only try. If the register rings up 20% off the original price then some gentle persuasion with the checkout guy/girl will usually get the desired result. Having young kids in tow, capable of doing sad puppy dog eyes on command, may help your cause. "Sorry Billy, looks like you don't have enough pocket money for this THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS WORTH OF ASSORTED LEGO, this week." OK, maybe not, I don't have access to such tactical devices regardless.

TRU 20% off FULL PRICED ITEMS Saturday 11th to Monday 13th.

They arn't Toyworld exclusives. They just got the jump on the rest of the independants. We will be getting them in about 4 weeks i believe. The store owner made this claim, for everyone else's sake, I hope he was wrong as they are great sets.