Hey kids, want to spend the summer with five of your friends in your very own backyard pool? Then stay the hell away from Banzai’s Wild Waves Water Park! David Ng juxtaposed Banzai’s box art with a picture of his disappointed kids standing next to the fully assembled “water park.” He wasn’t the only one deceived, according to the reviews on Amazon…
Here are several representative snippets:
“I have two preschoolers (ages 2 and 4) and this pool is just the right size for them.”
“It is the worst product I’d ever bought from Toys R US and I’ll never go to Six Flags! Don’t buy it.”
“One person can’t slide down the slide while one person is in the pool let alone have 2 people sitting in it! The slide is so small and when you turn on the hose to let the sprinklers come down the orange top collapses and has no use!”
“As every one else has said this pool is tiny maybe good for 1 or 2 toddlers. Picture on the front is NOT accurate. A 6 year old can’t go down the slide with his legs out because they hit the wall. My 3 year old hardly fit. Buy a sprinkler for $5.00 my kids had more fun with that.”
The box admonishes buyers “product may not be as appears on image;” a gross understatement for a gross distortion.
SPIN SPIN SPIN [Popper Font] (Thanks to Paul!)
Banzai Complete Water Park [Amazon]
(Photo: davehwng)
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@mythago:
The problem with the Consumerist is that the consumer is labeled as a victim in every post. Sometimes the consumer is just plain wrong or was at fault for the problem they had.
That is not to say that this consumer should not be cheesed over the paltry pool he’s got, but not being able to point out that some people are knobs and that the customer is not always right should be looked upon as a differing viewpoint, not as a bane to the site.
@tc4b: I don’t agree with what sean said (see my above post) but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be able to say it either. It’s getting kind of annoying when asking anything that could even hint at the OP having responsibility in the matter is shut down.
@sean77:
From an Amazon review:
” The dementions say the pool is supposed to be 74 inches long 54 inches wide and 13.5 inches high. However blown up at best the outside measurements of the pool are 70 inches long, 51 inches wide and 10.5 high and that’s being generous. There are 4 ring tosses in the picture, 2 on the actual pool. “
[www.amazon.com]
I’ve read all 38 reviews on Amazon, and a few reviews of Bonzai’s other products, and really, this company is not one you should defend, they mis-state the dimensions on many product packages in addition to photoshopping the pictures. And many people complain about calls to customer service numbers never being answered.
And also get off roz’s back she was right. RTFReviews.
@Kirk Douglas: I must be reading Bizarro Consumerist, because I’ve seen plenty of posts where the consumer is not “labeled as a victim”, and plenty of comments where people have (correctly) pointed out that the OP was an ass, or was at least partially at fault. See the Papa John’s thread for a pretty huge example.
That’s a far cry from insisting that the OP is at fault because they were not clever enough to see past deceptive advertising. sean77′s comment that there was some kind of “life lesson” in getting screwed by Bandai makes it clear what he’s talking about – if you get ripped off, you deserve it and shouldn’t be a moron next time.
I can’t get over the $90 price tag on amazon. That alone is ridiculous.
As Mp3dog said above, I studied that photo for a while, and all my experience in Photoshop tells me that they did not Photoshop down those kids… they photographed a completely different product for the box. I would savor every moment of my chargeback after buying this product.
@mythago:
sean77′s comment that there was some kind of “life lesson” in getting screwed by Bandai…
sean77′s original post never said anything about a life lesson. That’s a previous poster’s mistake in assigning the comment to him/her. Here’s the whole post in its entirety:
It has the dimensions on the box and on amazon.
74″L x 54″W x 13.5″H splash pool with 48″L x 21″W x 21″H slide
Next up on consumerist, baby food doesn’t actually contain babies like the picture implies!
Take sides… flame… just make sure you attribute the posts to the correct users, ok?
Knowing the dimensions is not helpful to the average person, not when it comes to such large objects. 74 X whatever X whatever…that doesn’t mean anything when you’re trying to eyeball it based on a picture on the Internet. Blame the education system for the average consumer’s weak grasp of math, but this post is not about the education system.
This deception is appalling and blatantly anti-consumer. The Consumerist exists to call out companies just like this.
@Ubermunch: Yes, I was referring to sean77′s subsequent post, which is in response to dtracker. Here’s the whole post in its entirety:
I maintain it wasn’t the product that was photoshopped at all. It was the kids. The shrink ray hit the kids in this photo, not the waterpark.
@AllenK: I totally remember that feeling of disappointment as a kid – I don’t know what it is about children’s products but nothing I ever got did what it was supposed to! I saved up money for weeks to buy a radio controlled car, and it crapped out on me after like a day. Ugh.
This is exactly the kind of thing that would have happened to me. I can just imagine me and my cousin making those same sad faces as those kids in the photo.
I feel like “Do not return to store” is a load of junk. Yes! return it to the retailer if It doesn’t suit you. (They shouldn’t sell this junk in the first place)
This box puts the “deceptive” back into “unfair or deceptive trade practice.”
Although the similar product I bought said “can not be returned to the store”, wal-mart took it back no hesitation. I emailed customer service as requested in the enclosed information but never heard back.
I am most impressed they got the ‘arches’ to stand up. They always just flopped over when we had this thing.
@Consumerist-Moderator-Roz:
Wow, that’s ridiculous. Sean77 was just pointing out some useful information. Don’t try to silence people who point out accurate, *relevant* facts just to make your stories seem more controversial. This is exactly the kind of thing the Consumerist is supposed to be against.
Someone reading this story could easily think that the rest of the box was misleading – he wasn’t blaming anyone (not that I really agree with your policy anyway, provided people tell nothing but the whole truth). He was just pointing out that the correct information was *also* available, in addition to the misleading “photo”.
You’re right. There were way more kids on the box…or do I have to supply my own?
@jiminator: Maybe the product is actual size in the box photo and they used the shrink-ray on the children?
@sean77: Like anyone ever looks at the dimensions, and not the picture.
@PurpleSfinx: Please. Blaming the OP for relying on the DECEPTIVE PHOTO ON THE BOX is “useful information”?
That’s one of the saddest pictures I’ve seen in a while for some reason ._. I’ve seen things that are supposed to be sadder, but that one just kinda speaks to me a bit, I dunno.
As for the ‘don’t blame the victim’ rule, I think it’s a good one. It just needs to be fine tuned so that it’s only exercised in cases that should apply, like here. There are cases when the OP of a thread is going a little overboard, but this isn’t one. Obviously, Banzai knows what it’s doing there, and the average consumer will take the picture for what it’s worth. Deception is wrong, plain and simple. …Unless a woman asks you if her dress makes her look fat. Then it’s 50/50.
That’s not deception. The grocery shrink-ray is expanding into new markets!
My wife purchased an even similar version and she was disappointment to find out how small it was for our 3 year old. But that pool was $15 so I didn’t expect much. This pool is $90 from Amazon; at that price I would expect to get the product pictured on the box.
“STOP: Do not return this product to the store!” is a common inclusion these days. (It’s on the quick install guide of my TV, my DVD player, and even the cheapo bookshelf I bought at WalMart.) It doesn’t mean you CAN’T return it, it means the manufacturer is asking you to contact them instead, allowing them a chance to resolve your problem. As stated in earlier posts, returning an opened product to the store is usually not a problem for the consumer, and the retailer will get a credit from the supplier.
@Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy:
It was a lucrative line of work before CGI was invented
@yso:
you must have a pretty small CD collection
haha look at the picture on amazon. That surprised me, but is awesome.
@mythago: No, but pointing out the product dimensions that are, is.
@aaron8301: 90s? Try 80s. [www.ycdtotv.com] The show went off the air in 1990.
I like the one kid on the box taking an NBA 3-pointer. There is no chance in hell that even Michael jordan could hit a shot on that hoop.
@radleyas: Yup, that show was filmed in Ottawa back in the 80′s, kept alive by Nickelodeon (Allanis was once on the show). As a kid at the time, I loved it. They invented the whole “slime” thing that Nickelodeon took to the bank. Actually, as much as anything, this show helped put Nickelodeon on the map. Another Ottawa native, John Krikfalusi, created Ren&Stimpy, without which there likely would be no Sponge Bob. The Ottawa thing is likely coincidence except people in that city can tend to be a little… interesting when it comes to humor.
Looks like fraud to me.
Give the vendor exactly one chance to refund it. When they make noises about their disclaimer, tell them that your next step will be an immediate charge back for fraud.
Carry through the chargeback if they refuse to RMA the stupid thing.
t hs th dmnsns n th bx nd n mzn.
Nxt p n cnsmrst, bby fd dsn’t ctlly cntn bbs lk th pctr mpls!
@aaron8301: 90s? What 90s were these?
With the dimensions shown, it is just over 6 feet long with a slide 1′ 9″ high. That photo of the real kids looks about right.
The remarks that people are terrible judges of size is definitely true. I used to work in a toy department at Walmart. I hated when people bought the 12′ and 16′ pools and then brought them back because it was too big for their yards. Of course, once opened and laid out, it was nigh impossible to get those back into the box.
I started counting off the floor tiles, showing then how big across the pools were to give them an idea of just how big one of those pools were.
I just wanted to chime and and let you all know that every product this company makes that is enclosed in a box and has a photograph suffers from this syndrome apparently.
I was shopping at Menards this weekend and they had a 50% off sale on all water toys and I was checking them out. Bonzai has a LOT of stuff on the market and many different versions of water pools and all photos look doctored and all suffered from this enlargement issue.
With such widespread tampering on all their enclosed products could we be predicting a class action here?
Has anyone checked out Amazon.com lately? The box/reality photo is the photo that is shown when you view this on Amazon now. Haha. I’m sure that someone else posted this same thing earlier, but I didn’t have 42.3323 days to read all of the posts.
[www.amazon.com]
@Diet-Orange-Soda: Completely agree- I’ve grown to like this site- please don’t mess it up with overmoderation. We’re (most likely) all adults and the kids that hang around here are pretty sharp.
They got the Bonsai version of the water-park, what’s the problem.
the box tricked me at first too. I kept looking at the pool, thinking “oh, the real photo is just shot from a different angle”…
…until I realized how much larger the kids were in the real photo!
Usually, products that say “Do Not Return to Store” are instructing you to contact product support if you are having a problem. You can always try, and if the store won’t take it back, it’s the store’s decision, not the manufacturer’s.
mythago – That’s why food has to have the ingredients on the label. There are laws that ensure if the jar shows a baby eating peas, there are peas in the jar, and not babies. There are no such laws to guarantee kiddie pools (aside from product safety laws)
You can file a deceptive packaging claim if you want, but the amazon reputation should speak for itself. I’ll check a product out on amazon while I’m out shopping B&M if I have reservations.
I came across this at Failblog, and I was reading some of the comments… I think it’s funny how so many people are complaining about the dimensions and saying it is fraud on the retailer’s part… Why would you make a major purchase like that (I believe this particular slide is at least 200$?) without checking the dimensions first? And the retailer has nothing to do with it, it’s the manufacturer. Retailers have the right to refuse service to anyone, and they will, especially if the box says do not return to store. I used to work at Toys R Us in returns, and I pissed many a customer off because we were NOT allowed to take pools back. Especially once they were opened. So next time you see a slide like that in such a small box, check the damn size before buying it, Honestly, yeah, it might be considered false advertising, but I honestly think it’s your own fault if you don’t check things out properly before buying something like that.