Babies-R-Us Review

Babies-R-Us is a great store and have a very easy to use baby registry.  I would use this website again to look at items and will continue to shop in the store. Their customer service was marginal at best.  Ordering items from a baby registery is extremely easy.  The problem occured when my items were back-ordered for 2 months and the mom-to-be changed residences during this time.  I called customer service to check on the status of my order and the representative was not able to see the status online and did not volunteer to look into it.  As these items were for an expectant mother, I would think Babies-R-Us would be more accomodating to notifying shoppers of expected delivery times in order to ensure all items for baby are received before Mom delivers.  She also said nothing could be done to change the shipping address until the items were already shipped out--then I could request a re-routing of the items.  She said neither I nor the mom could make changes to the shipment address despite the item being on backorder unless I cancelled my order and re-ordered the item.  This really makes no sense because it costs the shopper and the company more money to make changes after the item is shipped.  About a week later I called customer service again, and the gentleman that I spoke with was much more helpful.  Although he could not view how long the item would be back-ordered, he placed a request for the warehouse to inquire on the status of my items and asked that I call back in a week.  He also confirmed that they could not change the address on my order prior to shipping and that in order to change the address after the item was shipped, the cost would be $25.00.  He said that due to the fact that my item had been on backorder for such a long period of time, the shipping change would be free of charge.  Upon the third call to customer service to inquire on the status of my order, the customer service representative was able to give me an estimated date of shipment for my order and asked that I call when I received my shipping notification to change the delivery address.  When my item was shipped, I was able to call customer service to have the address changed (with no guarantee that this would happen before the item was delivered to the wrong address).  The customer service representative again tried to charge me to have the address changed but waived the fee due to the long back-order status of my items.  I was satisfied with the overall outcome of my order (although the mom-to-be recieved her bassinett and monitor only 2 weeks before she had her baby).  I will most likely avoid ordering items from babies-r-us online to avoid back-order delays and stress on the part of the parents-to-be.  I will continue to shop in the store as they have some great items and I am guaranteed to be able to take them home.