Registry Feedback

mabapunta · March 2012

I'm thinking early on this since we are not getting married til April 2013, but before I even sign up for registries, I want to know who is actually worthwhile.

We have lived together for a couple years and have a home together, so we are less concerned with what we actually request. We don't have a particular store that we want. I just don't want the registry to be a total headache when it's supposed to be super easy.

My question to you is -- Which store registries have you worked with and how would you rate them? I am particularly interested in whether they sent you the correct items and how they handled returns.

Thank you all!

SCogs18 · March 2012

I registered at BBB, Williams-Sonoma, and Macy's.

I LOVE our BBB registry and their customer service/return policy is excellent.

Williams-Sonoma has a lot of high end/unique products.

We just started our Macy's registry so I don't have much feed back yet. There are everywhere though and that's nice.

LeiselEB · March 2012

Crate and Barrel has been great - they package everything up so nicely, we actually ended up keeping the original shipping box that our stemware came in for when we move. I was happy with that. No discontinued items, very easy to update online.

Macy's has been fine, except for my fine china being discontinued by them- we had already gotten two place settings so we had to register for the rest at Bloomingdale's. That was just a little bit of a pain, but otherwise no problems.

FutureMrsPaulG · March 2012

We have registered at Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, and Cutco Knives. All three have been great so far. Anything sent to us is packaged securely so nothing gets broken. I highly recommend all three.

hoffse · March 2012

I've barely started registering and haven't received anything yet but crate and barrel is WONDERFUL. I love playing with their website - it's by far the most user friendly out there. And I noticed they just added a feature where the item fades and moves to the bottom of the list once it's been completed so people's eyes aren't drawn to it. It's sort of cool. I also like that Macy's adds things in the order you do - so you can reorganize the order of the lists so that like things are next to each other. I have visual ADD and have a hard time looking at lists that aren't well organized.

From a guest's perspective, I love it when people register at Amazon because I have prime shipping, and it's free. Same deal with places like Kohls where free shipping is over a fairly low amount. CB and other places like that do sort of frustrate me as a guest because I have to remember to take into account an $8-$10 shipping fee in my budget, and that's money that gets cut out of the value of the gift. But I mean, it is what it is, and that's a choice couples make when they register at those places.

jessicabessica · March 2012

We registered at Macys, BBB, and Amazon. Macys and BBB were easy. Their return policies are great--we never had trouble returning without a receipt or returning an item because we weren't happy with it (we registered for a few things, like a cocktail shaker, that turned out to be pretty poor quality, and we were able to return them after we used them). BBB doesn't give gift cards for their store credit, they give you paper receipts, which is a PITA--I was worried about losing them or having the ink rub off, although the store said they could look it up by my DL number. Macys gives easy exchange cards or something, much easier to keep track of.

Amazon is annoying with returns, since you have to pay shipping unless they made a mistake. We received one duplicate cookbook, and we decided just to regift rather than dealing with returning it. The universal registry function is nice, though.

We had a few things on our universal registry from Williams Sonoma, and we liked their stuff a lot. We had one issue where someone bought us a gift from them (not from any registry) and we moved. Instead of waiting for the items to be returned by the shipping service, WS sent us new items. The old shipment ended up getting forwarded to us at our new address, so we ended up with two sets of items. We returned one set and explained that we weren't owed credit or anything, since it was a duplicate--they seemed surprised at our honesty, but we were surprised that they were willing to reship so quickly--impressed by their customer service.

amymaysa · March 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_registry-feedback?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:34Discussion:87c8c53d-7632-43ce-95df-48866a405399Post:beb51720-3860-4953-a9b2-f024c9b77da9">Re: Registry Feedback</a>:
[QUOTE]Crate and Barrel has been great - they package everything up so nicely, we actually ended up keeping the original shipping box that our stemware came in for when we move. I was happy with that. No discontinued items, very easy to update online. Macy's has been fine, except for my fine china being discontinued by them- we had already gotten two place settings so we had to register for the rest at Bloomingdale's. That was just a little bit of a pain, but otherwise no problems.
Posted by LeiselEB[/QUOTE]

We plan on doing Macy's and Crate and Barrel.

I know just from being a loyal C&B customer that they are just awesome with service and returns.

BTCarolus · March 2012

I had to register totally online due to my location. I loved Crate and Barrel, especially their live-chat option which let me get questions answered immediately. I tried Macy's, and found parts of the site really confusing (bed linens, I'm looking at you), so switched to JCPenney. JCP was annoying as well, but I could navigate it better. I think that if I could have gone in to Macy's it would have been different, but I generally don't jive with them anyway (I can never find anything I like), so maybe JCP was inevitable.

JaxInBlue · March 2012

We registered with Bed, Bath and Beyond and with Target. BBB was a great experience - easy to add to the registry online, few problems with discontinuations and a lot of variety in price points. All in all, no problems. Things arrived in great condition and generally shipped promptly.

Unfortunately, we were registered at Target during the period in which they revamped their website. The technical glitches were pretty horrendous and I spent 45 minutes on the phone with them the week of my shower when their system "ate" our registry for the third time. It was incredibly frustrating, and had there been warning that they would be doing this massive upgrade, we probably we have gone elsewhere. The few things we did get from that registry did ship promptly and in good condition, but we also lost a lot more stuff when items went out of stock or were discontinued. I wouldn't say to rule them out completely, but I can't recommend Target for anything you really want.

rlavach · March 2012

We did Target, BBB and Kohls. The majority of our gifts came from BBB. We haven't received anything that we needed to return, so I can't comment on that. Kohls does give you a gift certificate at the end for 10% of what was purchased off of your registry. Thing is, if your guest didn't bring the registry to the cashier (or the cashier forgot to scan it), you don't get the credit. Oh well.

clcranda · March 2012

We registered at BBB, Target, CB and Cutco. So far no problems with the registries- only the people buying off of them! I have our house as the shipping address, but there is an option to change it so the person can have it shipped to their house if they want. My guests seem to be having trouble seeing the link (it isn't hard to see... really). I have already taken a few boxes to my parent's so they can distribute them to the buyers so they can wrap and bring it to the shower. No biggie, just a pain.

mabapunta · March 2012

I've been leaning toward BBB or Kohl's already, so we may end up there. I found the Amazon registry and thought that was awesome! But good point with the shipping costs - I didn't think about that. The other stores sound great, so I'll just have to check out what items they have that we would like.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences!

msowena · March 2012

BBB & JCPenney

Like a PP said, I often don't like thing's at Macy's. I also know that when things don't get bought off my JCPenney registry (15% off up to 90 days after the wedding), that they often have great coupons that I can stack on top of the 15% off and get better deals on the stuff I want. Also I find JCPenney to be slightly cheaper than Macy's to begin with

racholas · March 2012

Williams-Sonoma - awesome, expensive stuff. one item arrived completely shattered and they're sending a replacement no questions asked. they offer some pretty good bonuses to the bride and groom (discounts for buying items off your own registry post-wedding, free stuff from certain vendors, etc).

Amazon - a good way to get some of the expensive WS stuff for cheaper.

Heritage House in San Francisco - crappy website, AMAZING selection, great pricing on fine china, silver and crystal. Also, super flexible about not shipping until after the wedding and letting us reallocate funds to round out our place settings / decide what we actually get.

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