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Old 05-21-2018, 07:16 PM   #11
WereDragon EX
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

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Originally Posted by BludChylde View Post
Never bother.

A long time ago on the Fwoosh forums, there was a story on why not to call stores looking for toys. Tried to google it so I could link it here, but it looks like "Marble Leggings" may have been purged from the site.

"Marble Leggings"? What story is that? Can we get a short gist summary version if you care to share it? Much appreciated.
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Old 05-22-2018, 08:12 AM   #12
evenstaves
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

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Calling ahead was an invaluable tool back when I had a sweet Xmas Eve raincheck pricing on POTP leaders, I was calling that TRU literally at least once every two days
Didn't get it until right near the end of the 90 days (re: early 2018 drought of POTP leaders), but ultimately did
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Unfortunately, I've had instances whereby sometimes, the customer sales reps will say over the phone that a given item is in stock at the store, then I go to the store, and discover that not only is the item not on the shelf or in the back, it's supposedly either in transit or on some truck that has yet to be unloaded and it's still entered in the system as "in stock". Very frustrating to experience this, since it essentially means that I made a wasted trip and gas/public transit isn't cheap.
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It hasn't helped me any unless I was talking to someone I knew at TRU. Usually I would just go in person.
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Originally Posted by BludChylde View Post
Never bother.
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Originally Posted by Shockwave 75 View Post
Long ago I came to the conclusion that trying to get a staff member at Walmart to find something in the toy aisle for me was an exercise in futility.
Sorry, I should have specified, I have only ever done this with TRUs - I have never attempted to call a WalMart to verify stock, I pre-emptively judged that the staff would either be too busy or don't care to be thorough
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Old 05-22-2018, 12:35 PM   #13
BludChylde
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

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Originally Posted by WereDragon EX View Post
"Marble Leggings"? What story is that? Can we get a short gist summary version if you care to share it? Much appreciated.
I forget which Marvel Legends wave was out, but it was somewhere near the end of the Toy Biz era.

Someone on Fwoosh had called their local Wal-Mart looking for the build a figure wave that was current at the time. The response they ended up getting from the employee on the phone was along the lines of "No, we don't carry marble leggings."

It became a runaway joke until spell check gave the forum "Froosh Walama Lomos." (Again another story that appears to have been lost in a forum purge but the 3 words were Fwoosh, Wal-Mart and logos, not used at the same time but someone decided to combine them as another joke.)
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Old 05-23-2018, 12:56 PM   #14
WereDragon EX
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

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Originally Posted by evenstaves View Post
Sorry, I should have specified, I have only ever done this with TRUs - I have never attempted to call a WalMart to verify stock, I pre-emptively judged that the staff would either be too busy or don't care to be thorough

Yeah, somehow, I sense that Wal-Mart has that "atmosphere" about it where you're just better off in general coming to the store yourself to verify if something is in stock or not.


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Originally Posted by BludChylde View Post
I forget which Marvel Legends wave was out, but it was somewhere near the end of the Toy Biz era.

Someone on Fwoosh had called their local Wal-Mart looking for the build a figure wave that was current at the time. The response they ended up getting from the employee on the phone was along the lines of "No, we don't carry marble leggings."

It became a runaway joke until spell check gave the forum "Froosh Walama Lomos." (Again another story that appears to have been lost in a forum purge but the 3 words were Fwoosh, Wal-Mart and logos, not used at the same time but someone decided to combine them as another joke.)

Ah, ok, that was hilarious. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 06-30-2018, 01:30 PM   #15
WereDragon EX
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

Recently called a Wal-Mart to ask about availability of a figure and gave the UPC. Was told that they have about 20 of it. I can't really tell if they mean 20 figures of that wave/assortment (meaning a couple of them are the figure I want) or 20 figures of the one that I wanted. I find the latter very implausible, though, since I've never seen 20 of the same figure in a store before, let alone in a Wal-Mart.


As mentioned before, I'm also uncertain if the figure in question is even on the shelves or simply in transit but logged in the system as being in stock. The person I spoke to on the phone said it would be on the shelf, and I don't mean to doubt her, but from prior experience, you know...
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Old 07-03-2018, 12:36 PM   #16
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

Anybody have any luck ever getting someone from Walmart to check in the back?
I was at my local Walmart this morning, found nothing new, and was wondering if it would be worth the effort to try to ask someone, assuming you can find them, to see if there are any cases in the back. I've heard many times that Walmart says they don't maintain a huge back stock, and that everything they get goes on the shelf if there's space.

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Originally Posted by WereDragon EX View Post
Recently called a Wal-Mart to ask about availability of a figure and gave the UPC. Was told that they have about 20 of it. I can't really tell if they mean 20 figures of that wave/assortment (meaning a couple of them are the figure I want) or 20 figures of the one that I wanted. I find the latter very implausible, though, since I've never seen 20 of the same figure in a store before, let alone in a Wal-Mart.


As mentioned before, I'm also uncertain if the figure in question is even on the shelves or simply in transit but logged in the system as being in stock. The person I spoke to on the phone said it would be on the shelf, and I don't mean to doubt her, but from prior experience, you know...
Well, I took that pic someone shared from their Terrorcon find at the Ottawa Walmart and had my Walmart look up the numbers on the shelf tags, and they were able to tell me how many they had in store, as well as a few other stores. Unfortunately the 6 in stock at my store were all Dreadwind (still are too!). So it seems like those numbers just seem to apply to the deluxe assortment in general and are not wave specific.
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Old 07-03-2018, 01:49 PM   #17
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

Called TRU a couple times and they have always been very helpful especially if you have the SKU.
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Old 07-17-2018, 06:28 PM   #18
WereDragon EX
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

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Originally Posted by Shockwave 75 View Post
Anybody have any luck ever getting someone from Walmart to check in the back?
I was at my local Walmart this morning, found nothing new, and was wondering if it would be worth the effort to try to ask someone, assuming you can find them, to see if there are any cases in the back. I've heard many times that Walmart says they don't maintain a huge back stock, and that everything they get goes on the shelf if there's space.


Well, I took that pic someone shared from their Terrorcon find at the Ottawa Walmart and had my Walmart look up the numbers on the shelf tags, and they were able to tell me how many they had in store, as well as a few other stores. Unfortunately the 6 in stock at my store were all Dreadwind (still are too!). So it seems like those numbers just seem to apply to the deluxe assortment in general and are not wave specific.

Well, I went to that Wal-Mart to check things out, and not only was there not even 20 figures (of the size class, character, line, assortment, wave, whatever) on the shelf, it was totally bare. Called again a couple of days later and was told that they had 10 "on hand". Went to the Wal-Mart again to see the same sight.


Recently, I called that Wal-Mart again for a different figure and was told they had 10 "on hand", but I went to the store and there were none. By this point, I've made 3 wasted trips to that store and went to customer service booth, but they were generally uncooperative, saying that if it wasn't on the shelf, they didn't have it in stock or that someone could have snapped it up before I came (which I find implausible, since I made the call to the store right before going there). They did check the UPC I gave them, but only verified that the item was in their system, but no information about quantity or whether it was physically in the store or in transit or on some truck parked in the carpark or whatever. Very infuriating experience all around.


That said, there were some Wal-Mart stores I called who have put me on hold or told me that they would call me back (and they did!) while they went to check for the item I was looking for. When they got back to me, they said they had none in stock. Admittedly, it was disappointing, but I suppose I have to give them some props for getting back to me and telling me it wasn't in stock, which is likely, since I was looking for a very sought after figure. All in all, I have to say that my experiences with calling Wal-Mart to inquire about stock is somewhat spotty at best.


I've never been able to get staff at Wal-Mart to check in the back for stuff, since they will always tell you that everything they have in stock is on the shelf. I also don't really want to say too much either, since the store has security guards, and the last thing I want is to have said guards called on me by any staff member who can simply say that he or she "felt threatened".


Does anyone know if you can reserve items for hold at Wal-Mart? The staff at the aforementioned customer service booth said that if I didn't "reserve" the item, then someone could have gotten it already before me, and went on to say that customers can reserve items over the phone and the store will hold it for them, provided they come to the store and buy it within a day of reserving it.

Last edited by WereDragon EX; 07-17-2018 at 06:33 PM.
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Old 07-17-2018, 06:33 PM   #19
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

Walmart is all kinds of terrible for toys. Mine is always somehow both a cluttered mess and also barely has anything in it at the exact same time. This is why I'm very glad TRU Canada managed to stave off death for at least the foreseeable future. Can you imagine if we only had Walmart to rely on?
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Old 07-17-2018, 06:38 PM   #20
WereDragon EX
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Re: Inquiries about stock over the phone

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Walmart is all kinds of terrible for toys. Mine is always somehow both a cluttered mess and also barely has anything in it at the exact same time. This is why I'm very glad TRU Canada managed to stave off death for at least the foreseeable future. Can you imagine if we only had Walmart to rely on?

Well, given that TRU is a dedicated toy store, your business is probably must more important to them than Wal-Mart, who probably could care less if they piss off a small number of toy customers, since they have so much more other stuff they can sell. I even heard somewhere that toys are a loss leader for Wal-Mart, though I dunno how true it is.


It's especially irritating where PotP is concerned, since TRU has been slow to stock Wave 2 and now there are issues even with Wal-Mart where Wave 3 stock is concerned. I can't help but wonder if the TRU bankruptcy in the US is a big factor in these stock issues, though.
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