Registry and Gift Forum

Best/Worst stores

We are registering this weekend! We are going to use Macy's for one since the rewards program seems awesome. We were going to use Sears or Target for the other but people have told us to stay away from both due to terrible return policy.

What are you and worst store experiences for your wedding registry??

Re: Best/Worst stores

  • I hated Target.  We spent 2.5 hours in the store to come home and find some of our stuff wasn't on our registry and we found stuff we had not put on our list on there (you should have seen my fiance's face when I asked him why he put a bunch of baby stuff on the list? lol) 

    I love amazon's universal registry.  I went there and was able to add anything fron any other store (including the cool things we found at target) to our registry.  Then your guests can choose to order from Amazon, the store (such as target) or go to the actual store (like target) and purchase your gift.  When they do that, they can "reserve" the item so it will show as purchased, but they didnt' purchase it through amazon.  Does that make sense?  :)
  • I love crate and barrel!
  • egm900egm900 member
    First Comment
    We used Macy's, BB&B, and Williams Sonoma.  Our families are scattered all over the country, so we were trying to find stores that were close to a large number of guests.  We loved Macy's rewards program and we'd heard good things about BB&B returns.  Williams Sonoma is my favorite store, I only expect to get a few things from there since it's really only accessible to a handful of people and online, but they offer e-gift cards (gift card emailed), and we did get some of those for our engagement party (and I've since sent some when I didn't have time to get a gift).

    I've heard great things about the Amazon Universal Registry, I guess it really depends on what stores you like, what you've heard about the service of the store, and which stores carry the things you want.  All of ours have been great to deal with, although I've only had to deal with WS to add things to the registry, haven't had to make a return or anything.
  • rlavachrlavach member
    5 Love Its First Anniversary First Comment
    I did Target and had no problem with it. Everything we scanned appeared online. Nothing more/less. The website can take a while to load sometimes, but I was always able to go in & edit online when I wanted to. It worked just fine for me.
  • kimandjosh22kimandjosh22 member
    First Comment
    edited May 2012
    We initially did Target, Kohl's, and William Sonoma.  We shut-down the Target Registry about 3 months ago because things were constantly going out of stock or there were items that were only available in some stores and we didn't want our guests going to a store looking for a specific item and not be able to find it. 

    We've also had issues with the online portion of Kohl's.  No guests have had a problem shopping in store.  The Online issues are 1.) Guest's only option for shipping is to ship directly to us (there is a way around this that customer service was happy to explain to us)  2.) Items go out of stock, but they appear to be available until a guest has gotten almost all the way thru the check-out process, then they get an error message stating that there are items in their cart that are no longer available.  I've complained to customer service about this but there isn't a quick fix for it, Instead I spend my monday mornings clicking thru things on my registry to make sure the size/color still appear to be available. 

    William-Sonoma has been fantastic, multiple shipping options for guests, and I get notification e-mails with alternative products if something on my registry goes out of stock.
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  • LizzyRBLizzyRB member
    5 Love Its First Anniversary First Comment
    Wow! We were hoping to put something like a grill and grill accesories on ours but the only place we can think of to do that was Target and Sears
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_bestworst-stores?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:34Discussion:76e7c487-60bc-403b-9519-0cfe4f5b0c99Post:70ba3a74-6d6f-4c64-b8f4-659223c47932">Re: Best/Worst stores</a>:
    [QUOTE]Wow! We were hoping to put something like a grill and grill accesories on ours but the only place we can think of to do that was Target and Sears
    Posted by LizzyRB[/QUOTE]


    Yea when we decided to shut down our target registry the only items we couldn't find on the other 2 were a grill and the stainless steel kitchen trash can I liked.  We found grill accesories at kohl's and william sonoma, and we're hoping we can use any cash we get instead of gifts to buy a grill.
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  • egm900egm900 member
    First Comment
    I had a friend with an Amazon Universal Registry that had a grill on it.  When we bought a grill at a store last year, FI had to assemble it anyway, so whether it's bought at a store or online, it's going to come in a box.  Grill accessories are available at all the stores I registered at, although I think they're considered seasonal in some areas.
  • hoffsehoffse member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer Name Dropper
    I LOVE macy's, crate & barrel, pottery barn, and williams sonoma.  All of their registries work really well both online and in-stores.  I hate Target and Kohl's registries, and I'm not a huge fan of BBB registries either but mostly because I don't like that store generally.
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  • aragx6aragx6 member
    5 Love Its Combo Breaker First Comment
    We love our Crate and Barrel registry.
    Lizzie
  • We did Crate and Barrell and BBB. We LOVED Crate and Barrell, and they were amazing to work with. We just liked the affordable selection at BBB, and that's where most people end up registering.
  • I shut down my Macy's one because we didn't have anything on it that BBB didn't have for a better price. For example, we wanted a serving piece that both Macy's and BBB carry. It was priced at $99.95 on the BBB website (and at every other retailer I'm aware of who carried it).

    Macy's had it priced at $150 but every so often they would put it "on sale" for $99.95. This happened with multiple things, so I get the impression that they're falsely marking prices up and then when they do sell them for actual suggested retail prices, claiming that they're "on sale" to make customers think they're getting a great deal when they're not. That feels dishonest to me, and I have a problem with it, so I closed my registry with them.
  • egm900egm900 member
    First Comment
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_bestworst-stores?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:34Discussion:76e7c487-60bc-403b-9519-0cfe4f5b0c99Post:a6528a34-b721-4f28-8392-3dde4c2e2854">Re: Best/Worst stores</a>:
    [QUOTE]I shut down my Macy's one because we didn't have anything on it that BBB didn't have for a better price. For example, we wanted a serving piece that both Macy's and BBB carry. It was priced at $99.95 on the BBB website (and at every other retailer I'm aware of who carried it). Macy's had it priced at $150 but every so often they would put it "on sale" for $99.95. This happened with multiple things, so I get the impression that they're falsely marking prices up and then when they do sell them for actual suggested retail prices, claiming that they're "on sale" to make customers think they're getting a great deal when they're not. That feels dishonest to me, and I have a problem with it, so I closed my registry with them.
    Posted by sbelle85[/QUOTE]<div>
    </div><div>At first this irritated me too, but then I realized Macy's has a sale every other day, their sale price is the BB&B price or lower, and they also typically have a coupon and always have free shipping for purchases over $99.  It's a business strategy, JC Penney quit having sales and coupons and have found their sales decreased and it's been attributed to people like to feel like they're getting a deal. My mother frequently checks my registry, and at this point, my casual china is on sale more often than it isn't at Macy's.  I decided to continue with them because I know how to play their game and the reward program is good, but I did move some of the more expensive items that aren't usually on sale to BB&B. </div><div>
    </div>
  • I did Target, Macy's and JC Penny. JC Penny was fine but not exceptional. I loved Macy's because they're everywhere and people didn't have any issues making purchases, returns or exchanges. It was great! They didn't set up my account correctly the first time and I had to go back, so that was my only issue.

    Target was my problem child - we spent over an hour scanning and when we got home, the registry only had a few of the items we put on there. However, on the 360 registry, everything was on there. When I tried to delete the items, it wouldn't let me. It took about 4 months for the site to work correctly and let me delete them off both Target and 360 which is just absurd IMHO. I finally just left the grill and 42" tv on there and when they were both purchased I didn't add anything else.
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  • I've had 0 issues with Sur la Table.

    Macy's has been mostly OK, but their website generally isn't the best. Things like how they list sets v. individual items. Also, yesterday I wanted to add a bookcase and a TV to my registry, and it just didn't have an "add to registry" option when I was looking at these items online. If you're logged into your registry, both Sur la Table and Macy's try to direct you to certain products, but only with Macy's was it like I just couldn't add certain in-stock things to the registry.

    But I also wasn't interested in spending a ton of time playing with it.

    I agree with what everyone else has said about Macy's and sales.
  • We used Macy's and C&B.  Happy with both.  Have been using my Macy's card often because their registry rewards program is awesome- 10% back for everything you buy at Macy's on your card and 5% for everything your guests buy at macy's from your registry (I should be recieving a $700-something gift card to macy's after the wedding!)
  • I made registries for BBB and Macy's before I really knew anything about anywhere else. I found that I had a hard time coming up with things to put on them because the FI and I have been living together since last summer so when we needed something we just bought it, or I just didn't like anything. That's when I found the Amazon Universal Registry and I absolutely love it! I'm able to add things from any store I want so there's no need to have multiple little registries.

    I didn't know you could delete the registries, so I might do that with BBB...I've found a lot of stuff on Macy's to add over time so I might keep that one open.
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  • We loved Macy's, Crate&Barrel, and BBB.  All accepted returns (C&B even exchanged broken glasses, they broke when my dad dropped the box) with no problems, although BBB does give you store credit.

    I've read a lot of bad things about Target over the past couple of years on TK.
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  • PLEASE do NOT register at Sears!! I just posted the other day about our horrible experience. They were rude to us AND our guests that shopped there. My family purchased gifts from 3 different Sears stores across Wisconsin and all of them had issues with customer service regarding the registry. The staff refused to take the items off our registry. Which doesn't even make sense... So we got multiples of some things. When we returned the item they didn't seem to care about our guests experience.

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  • I registered at BBB after successful and pleasant experiences purchasing gifts for others from their registry.  My only issue with them was that many of the things I wanted were not available in store for where my guests live, so they were stuck paying shipping (and BBB doesn't have a free shipping offer for minimum purchase, like Amazon has).

    I also registered for my casual dinnerware from JCPenney, only because it wasn't available anywhere else.

    I did a Target one, too, but it saw no traffic.  None at all.  When I did make a purchase for someone else from their registry, it wasn't as easy as other stores..I had to have a printout of their registry number, rather than being able to just give their name.  Plus, I've seen some gross reviews of it on here.

    If I could do it again, I would put some of the items from BBB on an Amazon registry, since they DO offer free shipping with a minimum $25 puchase.  This would be to better accomodate my guests....kinda stinks to spend $100 on a gift to then turn around and have to spend abother $20 on shipping;-/  But I'd defintely stick to BBB.
  • RunDogRunDog member
    First Comment
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_bestworst-stores?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:34Discussion:76e7c487-60bc-403b-9519-0cfe4f5b0c99Post:70ba3a74-6d6f-4c64-b8f4-659223c47932">Re: Best/Worst stores</a>:
    [QUOTE]Wow! We were hoping to put something like a grill and grill accesories on ours but the only place we can think of to do that was Target and Sears
    Posted by LizzyRB[/QUOTE]

    Crate and Barrel has grilling accessories. <a href="http://www.crateandbarrel.com/outdoor-furniture/barbecue/1" rel="nofollow">http://www.crateandbarrel.com/outdoor-furniture/barbecue/1</a>. They only sell one grill though.
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  • We were registered at BB&B, Macys, and Sears and didn't have any issues with any of them.
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  • So far, so good with Crate & Barrel and BBB.  I really love Crate & Barrel.

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