BBB question

jaycee7389

I'm getting fed up with our BBB registry. They are constantly going out of stock with certain items, and I'm never sure whether or not to replace it with a comparable item or leave it alone because the actual store may still have the item.

Did this happen to you and would you recommend replacing it or leaving it?

ElisabethJoanne

BB&B enjoys an excellent reputation on theknot. I don't like shopping there, so I didn't register there.

I'm registered at Macy's and Sur la Table. I feel obliged to check them weekly (and my invitations won't be sent for months). I've had trouble with Macy's having different brands online v. in store. For example, at the huge store, they had 1 brand only for a white tablecloth in the right size. Online, they had a different brand, and only that brand. Some things have also been discontinued, and sales end, and I just won't have certain things on my registry above certain prices. I left discontinued things on, hoping someone will get an equivalent elsewhere. They weren't things where brand matters. But that's probably a pipe dream.

Sur la Table discontinued a whole bakeware line I had registered for. I got an e-mail 2 weeks after the discontinuation that they'll automatically replace the discontinued items with the new line in another 2 weeks. It was all old news to me. Haven't had any other issues at Sur la Table.

jaycee7389

I just went through a good majority of my items that we chose online rather than instore and 95% of them are not available in Pittsburgh. Awesome.

ElisabethJoanne

I made it a point to register in-store for in-store things because I have lots of guests who never shop online. Though I do most of my shopping for myself online, I prefer to buy wedding gifts in-store.

Your job is to make sure all your guests have lots of options. If most will be shopping online, it might not matter that things aren't in the store. If they're like my guests...

AurorasEnvy

I haven't had any problems with my BBB registry, but we only registered a month and a half ago.  I've already had one shower, and my other one is next weekend.

BetsyGIles19

I had some of those same issues as you.  Since stuff just went out for my showers I wanted to clean up the registries of doubles and stuff that was out of stock, have had to deal with stuff like that before and it stinks!  

I actually went into the store (at a not busy time period) and had them look up certain items that seem to have gone out of stock.  The person who helped me said that if the item is in a store anywhere in their system it can be ordered for delivery so he suggested I leave them on there.  A couple of items were not available at all anymore so he just removed them for me.  If you really like those items I would suggest doing that!

rlavach

I think the issue is that you chose the majority of your items online. I went to my local BBB and picked out everything I wanted. I then had to go to a larger BBB branch to pick out my china. There wasn't one thing on my registry that wasn't available in-store. Fortunately for me, every item bought was taken off of the registry & I received no duplicates. 

If you have a good number of internet savvy guests, then it is OK to leave some of the online-only items on there. They'll know how to get it to you. For the items that you don't 100% have to have that exact one, switch it to one available in-store. Yes, it's more work for you now, but then at least you have a better chance of getting the items you wanted!

reggiesmommy

I just started having the same issue!  Part of my bedding and ALL of my china placesettings are showing as unavailable for online purchase today.  They were all there yesterday.  

sbelle85

We are having the same problem with our BBB registry. Pieces of our china will sporadically show up as "unavailable online" for weeks at a time. Our sheets are now unavailable. We had to completely change our bedding and bathroom items because pieces of the sets suddenly went out of stock online and were not available at any stores in our area. We didn't want a situation where we get incomplete sets that we are not able to complete afterwards because the items are being randomly discontinued or listed as 'out of stock'.

We've had similar issues at Pottery Barn, but because our PB registry is mostly decorative and not 'necessities', it's not as big of a deal.

We haven't had any problems with Williams-Sonoma or Macy's.