The Melissa & Doug toy company helped Tracey’s daughter pick up the pieces after she accidentally crashed her month-old block plane into the ground, breaking off the metal pin that held the wheels together. Tracey emailed Melissa & Doug to warn them that the broken pin could potentially cause a choking hazard. She quickly heard back from Chris, who told her that she could either receive a replacement toy or pick out a new one. Just in case something wasn’t in stock, he said, Tracey should pick out two toys…

It’s Above and Beyond, so you can guess how this ends. Tracey writes:

My daughter got this set of toys for her birthday. These are heavy, solid wood toys; only the wheels and airplane propeller are plastic. She dropped the airplane on the floor and the metal pin that holds the wheels on broke and fell apart. We had the set for less than a month when it broke.

So I e-mailed the company one evening explaining what happened. I just wanted to make them aware of it because the wheel and pin could pose a choking hazard.

They got back to me the next morning and wanted me to call. I called and spoke to Chris, who told me I could choose another toy or replace this one.

I asked him if he was giving me free reign to shop on their site and he said “within reason” and told me to choose 2 toys in case he couldn’t get my first choice.

OK. So her vehicle set retails for $20. So I thought since I’m only sending back 1/3 of the set, the plane is worth about $7.

So I sent them an e-mail back with the following choices:
A picnic basket which retails for $20

And a wooden stacking toy which retails for $7.

I also mentioned that I would be equally as pleased if they just replaced the broken plane.

A few days later a box arrives. It had BOTH the picnic basket and the stacking toy!

They asked me to package the broken airplane in the same box and give them a call so they could arrange UPS to pick it up. I did so, and UPS came the following day.

Needless to say, Melissa & Doug have a customer for life. I was really happy with their customer service and how quickly and easily they dealt with my problem.

Great work, Melissa & Doug!

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