Creative Brains Online Store: Either My Brain is Addled, or This Was a Mess
Written: Aug 10 '04 (Updated Dec 28 '04)
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My son is just reaching the age where planes, trains, and automobiles are his favorite things. His older sister has had Thomas trains for a long time, and since he was starting to steal hers away, I decided he needed some of his own for Easter. At the same time, I was shopping online for my nephew's birthday, which is right around Easter, and was thrilled to find a store that had both Thomas trains as well as the I Dig Dinosaurs set I wanted for my nephew's gift.
~&~ The Basics ~&~
The Creative Brains Online Store is apparently a web storefront for a brick-and-mortar operation in Texas, which they for some odd reason split into several stores within the Yahoo Store storefronts: Creative Brains, Creative Trains, Creative Infants, Creative Construction Toys, and Creative Kids Furniture.
The Creative Brains Online Store actually has links to all products sold at the other stores as well; the left side menu features the following sections: Shop by Theme, clearance area, monthly sale, Brainy Chat (with site news), new arrivals, items coming soon, books and videos, Construction Toys, Dolls and Plush Toys, Games & Puzzles, Outdoor Fun, Playtables/Furniture, Pretend Play, and Trains.
Shipping is free for orders totaling $30.00 or more, for orders under $30.00, shipping is a flat $4.99. Shipping can also be upgraded from UPS Ground to USPS Priority Mail or UPS 3-Business Day Select for additional fees, and by checking a box, you can request a tracking number. Gift wrapping is available for $2.99.
Payment can be made via Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover. Like all Yahoo Merchants, you can request that an email be sent to you after your transaction is completed to rate your experience.
~&~ My Rating ~&~
I have to start out with how utterly confusing this site is. Is it one site? More than one site? I honestly had no idea. I ordered an I Dig Dinosaurs Kit from what I thought was the Creative Brains Online Store along with a few trains for my older son and daughter for Easter, and then got an order confirmation from Creative Trains. Of course, I thought I had remembered the site name incorrectly, but to this day, I'm still not sure how they decide what store you ordered from.
The prices and selection at the Creative Brains Online Store, no matter what their name, were excellent. I was able to find some trains I couldn't find locally for excellent prices. Best of all, with the gift for my nephew, shipping was free, and sales tax is only charged if you are a Texas resident.
My order arrived promptly, and it was packed very well, with no damage to the items whatsoever. However, when I opened the box (which seemed awfully small and light to have everything in it), I discovered that the I Dig Dinosaurs Kit was missing. A quick glance at the packing list had a handwritten "Backordered" on it, which was upsetting, considering that the first kit I tried to order was listed as out of stock on the site.
I checked my bank statement to see if possibly it was shipped and billed separately, and discovered that my check card was debited for the entire order at the same time, so that I was effectively paying for an item I had not received.
I contacted the Creative Brains Online Store support personnel, to be told that the kit would be back in stock "in a couple of weeks" and would ship then. Huh? So you get my money, I get no kit, and we miss my nephew's birthday? No way. I had to cancel my order to get them to credit my account back and then go buy the kit from another online store.
~&~ Overall ~&~
The price and selection are right, but the customer service and way of doing business seem to be sadly lacking. If an item turns out to be out of stock after an order is placed, my opinion is that the customer should be notified and given options to change the item, wait for the item, or cancel the order. You definitely shouldn't have to pay upfront for an item on backorder when there are other items in the order that are already being shipped, as you know the customer's credit card is good. All the great prices and selections in the world can't make up for poor customer service, and I would really hesitate to shop the Creative Brains Online Store again.
::: Update December 2004 :::
I have to admit; I ordered from the Creative Brains Online Store again for Christmas. Santa was bringing the boys the Nilo table and storage bench for Christmas, and he found that with the pricing and free shipping at Creative Brains Online Store, the total was going to be $50 less than the next cheapest store. With fingers crossed on both hands, Santa placed the order and hoped for the best. The items arrived quickly, even with a drop ship on the table and bench, and the other items ordered that came directly from Creative Brains Online Store also arrived in a timely manner. Since my last review, I discovered that while the web page might show an item in stock, if it truly is out-of-stock, it will shop up as a zero quantity with a note about backorder status in your Yahoo shopping cart, so the situation that took place with my last order has been rectified.
Their prices on wooden train sets really are hard to beat, and I will probably order from them again after this much-improved experience.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
pippadaisy
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Reviews written: 1086
Trusted by: 177 members
About Me:
Divorce seriously cuts into the amount of time for reviewing.
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