Thursday, June 5, 2008

my experience returning bottle to BRU

So yesterday I only had my little one with me because my mom took Charlie for the day, so I thought, "this will be easy, I'll just scoot in and return these bottles real quick!" HA! What was I thinking.

BRU did take back all my bottles, but just so you know, they take 33% off if you are missing the nipples (who saves old nipples??). So here is how my experience went.

The first girl I approached told me I could return them in exchange for anything on the feeding wall (meaning sippies, pacis, spoons, whatever). Sweet! But then she is quickly corrected by the assistant manager that is next to her that I can only exchange bottle for bottle. I have no need for bottles right now, so I wasn't exactly thrilled with that news.

So, they tell me I have about $30 worth of credit (they won't tell you the exact total until you are up there with what you want to buy). So determined to out smart the system, I pick up a handful of the Nuby 3 Stage Nursers because each of these "bottles" contain a sippy spout inside of them.

So I get back to the counter and am ready to do my exchange when another assistant manager is there and he corrects the first saying I can get anything off of the feeding wall. So I keep a couple of my Nuby sippies that I have already choosen and go back and get a Foogo Thermos Cup and some of my favorite Sassy spoons for Gracie.

So I am finally ready to check out. I have four Nuby cups, a Foogo cup and a set of spoons. The girl at the register says "These don't say BPA free". I'm like, I know, but they are. I start rattling off a list of the BPA free cups and she looks at me like I have a third eye. She's like, "don't you want to just get BPA free bottles". So I attempt to explain to her that none of my current children are using bottles at this point, so I would rather use the credit for things we can use now and buy BPA free bottles when we are ready for them. She is highly annoyed with me at this point, so I quickly (HA!) finish up and then annoy her some more by asking her to just reuse my plastic bag that I brought the bottles in.

So that was my experience. I know this post was long, but not near as long as the forty five minutes I spent in BRU trying to return those bottles!

post signature

18 comments:

Kimberly said...

I am glad you were able to return them! I have been telling everyone to try it. Unfortunately, I threw out all my Avent bottles the day I had my BPA panic attack! I promptly switched to Nuby soft spouts whether my barely one year old was ready or not! LOL Now I am kicking myself with my hasty trashing. ;)

Anonymous said...

So, just Avent and Dr. Brown can be returned?? Bummer...Thanks for the heads-up though...

greenkiddo said...

heather-

you can return any bottles wtih BPA, they took my playtex ventair and my gerber nuk bottles too (we had several brands when trying to find one for Gracie!)

Katie said...

Sounds like BRU could use some training on BPA returns & how to not be annoyed by your customers!!

Stephanie said...

Did you have a receipt? I tried to take mine back but they said I had to have the original packaging or a receipt. I didn't keep the packaging and most of them were gifts. I'm not sure where you are located but I'm in GA and I've heard that not all BRU's are accepting them.

deemonty said...

Not fun...

On the sippy cup front... we LOVE LOVE LOVE the Foogo cups! I put Vinnie's milk in there the other day and it was ICE COLD 4 hours later! There is also a food container made by Foogo and it claims to keep cold food cold for up to 7 hours and hot food hot for 5! I can't wait to use it for lunches!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Stephanie. I might have some vent-aires that I did not throw away. I will have to go check.

PS LOVE your blog - check it out all the time.

Mom2ethanpaul said...

Are they taking back Playtex Nursers?

greenkiddo said...

I did not have a receipt and I am in GA. You shouldn't have to have anything, they have all the info they need to do the return. They are not taking drop in playtex nursers b/c they are BPA free.

williamskal said...

Every BRU store is different. I am in Raleigh and had no problem returning my bottles for store credit as long as they had all their "parts." However, they wouldn't take any sippies. The store in Durham is taking sippes in addition to bottles. My sister's store in Pittsburgh is not doing ANYTHING, and my other sister's store outside DC will take back BPA bottles but you have to exchange them on the spot for a new bottle.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to take my avent's, ventairs and gerber nuby's in! I'm going to insist on getting items from the feeding wall!

Anonymous said...

It would probably be easier to return bottles if people weren't returning bottles that they haven't used in 2 years. It makes sense to me if there hadn't been a recall you would still have a bunch of bottles. If you want to return BPA bottles you should be exchanging them for BPA free bottles not getting the benefit of using these bottles for a year and then exchanging them for other items. Basically you used the bottles for free. I'm sure BRU is not in the market of bottle renting.

Kimberly said...

I took mine back tonight. The lady wasn't very friendly. She said I could only bring back $50 worth of bottles. I told her my husband could take back the rest. I bought the Nuby sippy cup/bottle things. Then I bought several packs of the Nuby bottles. They have gotten mixed reviews on Babiesrus.com, so I might take them back. At least I can take them back for store credit if needed.

Karen Masters said...

I tried this in MA yesterday. We returned 12 Avent bottles and 2 Dr. Browns - totaling about $50. We could only get bottles in exchange - the lady was very adamant about that. So we got a 5 pack of small Born Free and a 3 pack of larger Born Free bottles. This was almost the return value. I got a Nuby sippy as well, and after telling me I couldn't apply any of the return money to that she actually ended up just ringing it all up together, so I got about $2 off that.

I think it's OK to return old bottles - I imagine lots of people save bottles for future children (I'm only on the first so I don't know) and we're not going to be using bottles with BPA in them - especially not old ones.

We're working on getting little one (15 months) off the bottle, so haven't opened any of the BF packs yet, and hoping not to - they might get saved for a future baby or given to friends expecting soon.

Anonymous said...

So...some rules have changed since this all started. I went last week to one BRU and they told me the new rule (company wide) was bottle for bottle- this does not mean the same kind of bottle- just that you have to get bottles. That BRU didn't have any BPA free bottles, so I held on to mine and went to a different one today- same rules applied there- bottle for bottle. But...I was actually able to get nipples and extra lids, etc. The lady at the BRU was SO nice, but I couldtell this is something that is getting old for them- she told me that it was good that I came now instead of waiting b/c she didn't think they would be doing this much longer. Apparently they send the used bottles back to the company (Dr. Brown, Avent, etc) and the companies are not giving them anything in return- so they are giving away free bottle and making NO profit on them. So run now for the stores and hope they have a few BPA free items left!

Anonymous said...

I have contacted the BRU by my house here in NY and another one in CT multiple times over the past couple if weeks, spoke to different people each time (managers and employees) and was told each time that they are not accepting returns of any BPA bottles. The store in NY told me the manufacturer's recall was over, so BRU would no longer accept them, and the store in CT told me the recall hasn't begun, lol, so they would not be accepting them.

Run to your nearest store while you still can! But definitely call ahead - I would have been more annoyed had I packed them all up and dragged them all over town only to find out it was a wasted trip.

Anonymous said...

Amber H...I got the same story about a new company wide policy...I'm still toying with the idea of returning them to another BRU...I did "sneak" one foogo sippy in!! lol

Anonymous said...

i managed to return ours to a TRU and got general "store credit"... no problems here :) Thank you for filling me in on it... i have passed along the tip and another mom i know returned hers to a BRU and they did have the 'bottle for bottle' policy in effect (both stores were in upstate NY)