As if Toys R Us were not quickly fading from relevance already, they’re failing at the customer service game, too.

A relative bought a small gift for my son — something that I thought he wanted, but apparently something he already had. It had a Toys R Us sticker on the side, so on December 26 we headed over to the nearest Toys R Us to return it.

We were greeted with the following sign.

No Receipt
No Return
No Exchange
No Exception

Toys R Us are certainly within their rights to establish whatever return policy they’d like. Unless the item was misrepresented or defective, they don’t have to take returns at all. Most stores accept returns mainly because if they didn’t, they’d have no customers at all.

Consumer friendly return policies help stores attract customers. Nordstrom famously has a liberal return policy and once allowed a customer to return snow tires to the store — and Nordstrom doesn’t even sell tires.

When I worked at Macy’s as a teenager 20 years ago (wow, was it really that long ago?) we had a decent enough return policy. With a receipt, we’d take anything back for cash 30 days after purchase. Without a receipt or after 30 days, we’d give an exchange or store credit. We once took back an item that hadn’t been sold in the store for years. The couple of days following Christmas, we relaxed this policy even further, mailing checks to anyone without a receipt and giving cash refunds for items under a certain price.

The easier you make it for a customer to purchase from you, the more they’ll buy from you. Smoothing over customer objections and concerns will help them feel more comfortable buying from you.

Toys R Us has increased my concerns. What if I buy something from them and it turns out I don’t need it. Will they take it back? What happens if I misplace my receipt?

Toys R Us can do whatever they want with a return policy. They’re well within their rights to reject returns for any reason. But I also have choices where to shop. You can bet I’ll do all my shopping at a store with a friendlier return policy in the future.

I blogged and tweeted about issues with Comcast and Vonage. Comcast responded via twitter, tested my line, found a problem, and said they needed to get a tech out. When the tech called, he tried to sell me Comcast voice service instead.

So now you’re all caught up.

Frank Eliason (@comcastcares on Twitter) followed up on the issue and found the rep that called had a different story. You don’t say. My notes — typos and all — from all my calls with Comcast thus far are after the jump below.

Frank managed to get someone to call me back. It was the same guy who had called that morning and tried to get me to switch to Comcast Voice. This time, however, he was much more professional and simply arranged an appointment. A Comcast tech would be at my house this morning between 8am and 10am. Al the Comcast rep told me that they’d be calling in the morning to confirm and that I needed to answer the call or they wouldn’t come.

At 8:30, caller ID announced an incoming call from 866-Comcast. I answered on the second ring and was greeted with the click of the caller hanging up. At 10am I tweeted my disappointment.

Within minutes, I had a reply from @comcastbill offering to look into the problem. Nice, they’re monitoring Twitter for mentions of Comcast. An hour later, I’d still heard nothing from Comcast and left to run some errands. When I got back a little after 1pm, I sent a tweet to @comcastbill and asked what was going on.

Bill had earlier escalated to some managers, but this didn’t elicit any responses. So after my second inquiry, he emailed a Comcast VP. Within an hour, I had a call from the Comcast executive offices. They tracked down a tech and had someone at my house in under half an hour.

He’s outside right now installing a new cable. I still don’t know if the changes will solve my Vonage issues, but at least they’re working on it.

Tara recently pointed out how fantastic Twitter was at resolving a UPS problem. Through her Twitter network she was indirectly connected to a UPS VP and they completely solved her problem.

That’s sort of what happened here, too, and it’s great that Comcast has someone watching for these sorts of problems and working to resolve them. But it can’t scale. There’s no way that a couple of individuals at Comcast can possibly resolve every issue. And the fact that they had to escalate to a VP to get a problem resolved points to another scaling issue.

Not everyone knows a startup CEO that happens to have lunch with a UPS VP like Tara did. Not everyone is going to know that tweeting @comcastcares will connect them to Frank. These companies need to improve their regular communication channels and train, educate, and empower their customer service agents to resolve customer issues without having to get a VP involved.

All this service via social media is very cool. Forward thinking early adopters heading off problems using social media can only go so far if the execution on the ground is shoddy.

Incidentally, I wonder if @comcastcares and @comcastbill were hired by Comcast as social media customer service or if they simply showed some initiative and did it on their own?

Update The tech that came over left his cell phone number in case more problems arise. Syed from the executive office called back about an hour after the tech left to check and make sure he’d come by. Syed also left me his number in case I need it. And Frank (@comcastcares) tweeted to make sure I was being taken care of. Frank’s on vacation, but is following Twitter anyway.

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After two months of intermittent phone problems with the unholy duo of Vonage and Comcast I tweeted my displeasure.

Comcast tweeted back (on Christmas day!), suggesting that they might have a line problem and would test it out.

Today I get a call from a Comcast tech. I didn’t catch his name because I was jumping out of the shower to answer the phone, but he was calling from an east Bay area code.

He explains that the problem I’m having is because Vonage doesn’t work with Comcast. Vonage, he says, is an analog line and won’t work on Comcast internet because Comcast is a digital internet connection. His solution? Start using Comcast’s phone service, since it’s 100% digital.

Dumbfounded, I explain to him how voice over IP really works. I point out that there’s no such thing as an “analog internet” and a “digital internet.” He then tries to tell me that 100% of every phone conversation, on both ends, is 100% digital with Comcast. So I explain the PSTN and how every call, unless it’s between two Comcast subscribers, will eventually pass over the phone network. And that once the call gets inside the caller’s house, the signal is converted to analog since phones are analog.

I ask him why the service works fine on AT&T DSL. He tells me that he used to be an AT&T tech and that AT&T service is analog, so that’s why Vonage would work.

At this point, there’s not a chance that I’ll believe anything this idiot tells me. He’s lost all credibility.

Finally, I ask him why Comcast and Vonage would announce they’re working together if Vonage was fundamentally incompatible with Comcast. The tech tells me that it’s not true that they’re working together. He’s seen the story on message boards and blogs, but it’s not real. There aren’t any credible publications that reported it. You know, like the Wall Street Journal. Or Comcast’s own press release on the matter.

I started with a positive reaction to Comcast. @comcastcares did a fantastic job of responding to my issue and getting a resolution started. But this single tech was either stupid or lying and blew Comcast’s credibility.

The only choices for broadband at my house is Comcast. But I’m carefully watching other providers and the moment they offer service, I’m switching. I won’t use a company who messes with my packets if I have a choice.

My son’s been making videos for the last year or two and posting them to YouTube. Many of them have been music videos in which he records himself on Club Penguin doing things and “singing” one of his favorite songs. Like this one.

Some of his videos have been very popular, gaining thousands of views — not bad for a niche product.

Recently he’s started getting notices from YouTube that a copyright holder has asked them to pull the video down.

A twelve year old loves a song so much that he spends hours recording, editing, and uploading a video featuring the song and he’s slapped with a DMCA takedown notice.

What a way to treat your fans. Way to slap that free promotion in the face. Apparently some of these labels have all the customers they need, so let’s make sure to keep people from hearing and talking about a song.

They’re not all clueless, though.

Indeed.

The only broadband available at my house right now is Comcast. I’d had Comcast in the past and had issues with Vonage, but a switch to AT&T DSL made the voice problems a thing of the past. Now that I’m back to being stuck with Comcast, my Vonage connection stinks. Poor voice quality, dropped calls, and phones that are randomly not working for extended periods of time.

Gah, I hate Comcast.

What are your family Christmas traditions?

In addition to the obvious, like hanging lights outside and putting up a tree, we do a few things that are more unique to our family.

Each Christmas, every family member gets a new ornament for the tree. Often the kids get more than one each. The ornaments are dated and initialed so we can remember each year who they belong to and when we got them. In a few years when the boys move out on their own and get their own tree, they’ll take all their ornaments with them. Their first tree will be hung with ornaments they’ve had for their whole lives.

We have a party each year where we decorate the tree. We turn on some Christmas music and make finger foods and eat dinner as we put the ornaments up. Everybody puts up their own ornaments. Years ago when the boys were very little, after they went to bed, we’d re-arrange the ornaments to spread them out a bit from the toddler-height clusters they started on.

A few years ago we started going up the mountain to cut down our own tree at one of the dozens of family owned tree farms. We make a day of it, complete with a stop for coffee and hot chocolate. We always get a tree that’s just a little taller than we need. The bottom branches come off and are available for wreaths and decorations. The foot or two of extra trunk is cut off and stored for the next year. On Christmas morning we have a fire fueled by the bit of last year’s trunk.