Garanimals is Great!
I'm not usually a big brand name advocate, but a recent experience I had with a company changed my mind a little. Just enough to write this document and post it to be shared with all my friends and family. For all of you out there who have young children, newborn babies especially, I'm highly recommending that you put some money into Garanimals.
Now, primarily, Garanimals is a clothing manufacturer. They've been in business since 1972. The most I knew about them before this satisfactory experience of mine is that the only place I remember seeing this clothing line for sale is at Walmart. Then came Christmas.
My husband and I did nearly all of our Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving night. After dinner at the in-laws, we left for home and decided to drop by Walmart on the way to do some shopping while we had an opportunity. We were surprised to find a collection of baby toys in their toys department that fit not only our budget but also our preferences in types of toys.
What I didn't know at the time was that Garanimals had only recently started producing and selling toys, and only exclusively at Walmart. More on this story can be found here: Walmart and Garanimals Announce New Line of Play & Learning Pre-School Toys.
For our Lilah Bean, we grabbed up quite a few of these cheap toys. One of which was the $8 Pull-Apart Shape Sorter. Eight dollars! What a steal, right? We also picked up the $10 set of wooden letter blocks, which is equally amazing in price and quality. Some of the puzzles went into our cart too. Overall, we were highly satisfied with our successful Christmas toy collection. We went home and I could hardly wait to get them wrapped and under the tree.
The weeks went by and we hardly remembered what we had got our baby girl for her first Christmas. Every toy was wrapped, ready and waiting to be ripped open on Christmas morning. When the day came, we had a blast tearing the pretty packages to shreds, even if Lilah herself seemed oblivious to what was going on. After we put the baby down for a nap, we started unpackaging all her cheap loot to take her toys for a test drive ourselves. Ah, memories.
Only one of the bunch came with disappointment: the Pull-Apart Shape Sorter. As it turned out, we were missing one of the sorting pieces! There are a total of eight in the set, and each one is numbered. Amusingly, while we were missing one of the pieces, we had an extra of one of the other ones instead. So, we had eight pieces, but not one of each piece as there should have been.
I stewed about this mishap for a week or two. Christmas came and went. December came to an end. The new year rolled in with January. We started sorting Lilah's toys and again my attention came back to the Shape Sorter. I was annoyed. :/ It annoyed me that my baby girl wasn't going to learn the square shape or the color green because that piece was missing from her toy. She was destined to forever be lacking this one shape and never going to figure out which piece fits in that one square shaped slot. But we had already thrown away the packaging and the receipt, so I didn't know if it was possible to return the toy and get a replacement. Even if I did, what guarantee was there that I'd get a complete set and not another mishap?
So. I contacted the company directly. I didn't expect much. In fact, I didn't expect anything at all. Great expectations only lead to greater disappointments, after all. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to find an e-mail in my inbox one day from a woman from the company. She informed me that she had forwarded my message to their toy manufacturer and that they would contact me shortly. That put a smile on my day, and I happily (anxiously) awaited another e-mail from somebody else.
And I waited. And waited some more. A week went by. Almost two. Then I couldn't take it any more. Apparently these people didn't know the meaning of the word "shortly." So, I wrote this woman back. I told her I hadn't heard from anyone yet and was wondering if maybe she could do something about it or possibly give me the information to contact them myself.
Ten more days went by. Then I finally got another pleasant surprise in my e-mail from another person entirely. Finally! We were getting somewhere, and this time it only took two days to get what I wanted. ALL I wanted was the one missing piece that did not come with our Shape Sorter. I didn't know if it was possible. I mean, I don't know how, precisely, they manufacture their toys. Could they remove one piece from an assembly line? Would they? Just to ship it out to me? Apparently so, because now this woman has promised to mail me out the one piece I'm missing by Monday. :)
Through this correspondence I also learned something else. I mentioned that we had bought our toy at Walmart and in the follow-up e-mail I got yesterday, the woman wrote, "Apparently, several small companies are buying Garanimals toys from the shelf at Walmart and are re-selling them through Amazon.com for an increased price." Further research on the matter proved it true.
See, I had linked to the Amazon page where the exact same toy was being sold so that she knew specifically which toy I had. At the time I noticed that on Amazon it was being sold for $15, and some small part in the back of my brain thought, "That seems expensive." I didn't think much of it at the time, but when she informed me of the above it all flashed bright in my head again. I remembered buying all of Lilah's toys for super surprising cheap. Today I discovered the above linked-to Walmart Corproate article where it states the same toy being sold in their stores for $8. That made more sense. I knew we wouldn't have bought it if it had been as expensive as what Amazon was selling it for. The low price was an immediate draw for me to grab it off the shelf and dump it in the cart. We got most of our baby girl's toys for under $10, which is why she made out like a bandit.
My point is, these toys are awesome. They're sturdy and durable and, best of all, affordable. The people who work for the company (Garanimals) are friendly and courteous too. It really didn't take long at all for me to get a response from somebody. And it took even less time for my issue to be resolved. I expect we'll get our missing piece by the first or second week of February. :)
Buy Garanimals! But buy them from Walmart. Anywhere else you're getting ripped off.
Now, primarily, Garanimals is a clothing manufacturer. They've been in business since 1972. The most I knew about them before this satisfactory experience of mine is that the only place I remember seeing this clothing line for sale is at Walmart. Then came Christmas.
My husband and I did nearly all of our Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving night. After dinner at the in-laws, we left for home and decided to drop by Walmart on the way to do some shopping while we had an opportunity. We were surprised to find a collection of baby toys in their toys department that fit not only our budget but also our preferences in types of toys.
What I didn't know at the time was that Garanimals had only recently started producing and selling toys, and only exclusively at Walmart. More on this story can be found here: Walmart and Garanimals Announce New Line of Play & Learning Pre-School Toys.
For our Lilah Bean, we grabbed up quite a few of these cheap toys. One of which was the $8 Pull-Apart Shape Sorter. Eight dollars! What a steal, right? We also picked up the $10 set of wooden letter blocks, which is equally amazing in price and quality. Some of the puzzles went into our cart too. Overall, we were highly satisfied with our successful Christmas toy collection. We went home and I could hardly wait to get them wrapped and under the tree.
The weeks went by and we hardly remembered what we had got our baby girl for her first Christmas. Every toy was wrapped, ready and waiting to be ripped open on Christmas morning. When the day came, we had a blast tearing the pretty packages to shreds, even if Lilah herself seemed oblivious to what was going on. After we put the baby down for a nap, we started unpackaging all her cheap loot to take her toys for a test drive ourselves. Ah, memories.
Only one of the bunch came with disappointment: the Pull-Apart Shape Sorter. As it turned out, we were missing one of the sorting pieces! There are a total of eight in the set, and each one is numbered. Amusingly, while we were missing one of the pieces, we had an extra of one of the other ones instead. So, we had eight pieces, but not one of each piece as there should have been.
I stewed about this mishap for a week or two. Christmas came and went. December came to an end. The new year rolled in with January. We started sorting Lilah's toys and again my attention came back to the Shape Sorter. I was annoyed. :/ It annoyed me that my baby girl wasn't going to learn the square shape or the color green because that piece was missing from her toy. She was destined to forever be lacking this one shape and never going to figure out which piece fits in that one square shaped slot. But we had already thrown away the packaging and the receipt, so I didn't know if it was possible to return the toy and get a replacement. Even if I did, what guarantee was there that I'd get a complete set and not another mishap?
So. I contacted the company directly. I didn't expect much. In fact, I didn't expect anything at all. Great expectations only lead to greater disappointments, after all. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to find an e-mail in my inbox one day from a woman from the company. She informed me that she had forwarded my message to their toy manufacturer and that they would contact me shortly. That put a smile on my day, and I happily (anxiously) awaited another e-mail from somebody else.
And I waited. And waited some more. A week went by. Almost two. Then I couldn't take it any more. Apparently these people didn't know the meaning of the word "shortly." So, I wrote this woman back. I told her I hadn't heard from anyone yet and was wondering if maybe she could do something about it or possibly give me the information to contact them myself.
Ten more days went by. Then I finally got another pleasant surprise in my e-mail from another person entirely. Finally! We were getting somewhere, and this time it only took two days to get what I wanted. ALL I wanted was the one missing piece that did not come with our Shape Sorter. I didn't know if it was possible. I mean, I don't know how, precisely, they manufacture their toys. Could they remove one piece from an assembly line? Would they? Just to ship it out to me? Apparently so, because now this woman has promised to mail me out the one piece I'm missing by Monday. :)
Through this correspondence I also learned something else. I mentioned that we had bought our toy at Walmart and in the follow-up e-mail I got yesterday, the woman wrote, "Apparently, several small companies are buying Garanimals toys from the shelf at Walmart and are re-selling them through Amazon.com for an increased price." Further research on the matter proved it true.
See, I had linked to the Amazon page where the exact same toy was being sold so that she knew specifically which toy I had. At the time I noticed that on Amazon it was being sold for $15, and some small part in the back of my brain thought, "That seems expensive." I didn't think much of it at the time, but when she informed me of the above it all flashed bright in my head again. I remembered buying all of Lilah's toys for super surprising cheap. Today I discovered the above linked-to Walmart Corproate article where it states the same toy being sold in their stores for $8. That made more sense. I knew we wouldn't have bought it if it had been as expensive as what Amazon was selling it for. The low price was an immediate draw for me to grab it off the shelf and dump it in the cart. We got most of our baby girl's toys for under $10, which is why she made out like a bandit.
My point is, these toys are awesome. They're sturdy and durable and, best of all, affordable. The people who work for the company (Garanimals) are friendly and courteous too. It really didn't take long at all for me to get a response from somebody. And it took even less time for my issue to be resolved. I expect we'll get our missing piece by the first or second week of February. :)
Buy Garanimals! But buy them from Walmart. Anywhere else you're getting ripped off.