Toys n Joys = SCAMMERS & rip-off punks

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Sun May 03, 2009 4:09 pm

Toys'n'Joys are rip off scammers who advertise that new games are in stock, then take your money and ship junk, if anything at all.

I hope nobody minds that I took some quotes from a Trading Station thread, but this public service reminder needs to have a little more visibility than in the trading section.

So, if you weren't already aware, here are a few testimonials:

Ganelon wrote:You absolutely need to Google online shops before buying from them. Because by 2005, Toys n Joys was already known as a pretty shitty company. Go for a chargeback ASAP because they sure as hell won't do anything until you do.

ST Dragon wrote:I Paid promptly, waited for weeks with no reply, wasted even more money on phone bills calling over to Hawaii and speaking to some mongrel scum and in the end I received jack squat from them, nothing!
Probably some of the worse online scammers out there!

ST Dragon wrote:Toys N joys, yeah those jokers never sent me a Macross model I had paid for 4 years ago!!!
For stealing my hard earned money, they'll burn in the fiery pits of Hell and be tormented there for all of eternity!

hermosaguy wrote:Toys and Joys is a place that definitely isn't upfront about their stock. Waited over 3 weeks for even a response...

riffbear wrote:I HATE ToysnJoys.
Wish theyd blow up and die.
I ordered a LE Gamecube years back,
2 months later i get a used trashed one!

Was meant to be new.

Toys'N'Joys screwed me around too.
I ordered a couple "new" Famicom Mini games from them.
After 10 days or so, I started making phone calls - the appropriate person was never 'in', so they took my phone number and said they would call me back ...never did, after the second time they did this I demanded to know the status of my order or threatened a claim with my credit card company. I was assured they were in stock and would be shipped.

So both games; Kid Icarus and Mario 2, were used, and I mean heavily used ...like in 100 years I don't think I could trash the outer packaging of a game that much! Kid Icarus did not have the instruction sheet, and Mario 2 had filthy (dried melted chocolate?) smudges on the outer cart case and some black marks on the connectors inside the cart. It did not even play until I took it apart and thoroughly cleaned it.
When I called to complain, they insisted they shipped me 'new' copies of the games.

To hell with Toy'n'Joys.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sun May 03, 2009 4:19 pm

Sorry to tell you this, but this is VERY old news. They should be avoided like H1N1.

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Sun May 03, 2009 5:03 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:Sorry to tell you this, but this is VERY old news. They should be avoided like H1N1.

No need to be sorry.

Since this topic came up in the Trading Station it is evident some people are not aware, or may have forgotten, or thought that things have changed.
Not to mention there are lots of new members of this forum who may not be aware of this very old news.

You'll notice in the first quote in my post, Ganelon points out that it was known since before 2005.

I was aware of their poor customer service as early as 2002, but wasn't actually ripped off until around 2004 or 2005.

Fenrir · Post by **Fenrir** » Sun May 03, 2009 5:28 pm

I don't understand. Why is it still open and the owner was not convicted for fraud?

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Sun May 03, 2009 5:36 pm

Fenrir wrote:I don't understand. Why is it still open and the owner was not convicted for fraud?

That is a very good question...

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Sun May 03, 2009 5:39 pm

It's been obvious for years - perform a search for the obscure, oop game of your choice and you can almost guarantee that they'll claim to have it in stock. I think I first noticed it when I was searching for a guide to NGPC Cool Cool Jam and came across them. I never even attempted to buy anything from them and I'm glad I didn't, given everything I've heard since.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Sun May 03, 2009 6:17 pm

Koa Zo wrote:
Fenrir wrote:I don't understand. Why is it still open and the owner was not convicted for fraud?
That is a very good question...

All it takes is a whistle blower to alert the BBB and they can check 'em out. If enough complaints are brought up against them...they just might have have to shut down the business for good.

You might recall of the infamous BuyRite2000.com site shucksters back in the early part of 2000. I ordered a brand new PC Engine Tennokoe Bank Rom-Ram card from them and they didn't ship it out until I emailed them about it, then finally I did get a package parcel in the mail with said brand new PCE Tennokoe memory card as promised on the site. It's like some shady dot-com business folks are just sitting on their asses twiddling their thumbs and doing jackshit about shipping out said merchandise.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Sun May 03, 2009 6:26 pm

PC Engine Fan X! wrote: All it takes is a whistle blower to alert the BBB and they can check 'em out. If enough complaints are brought up against them...they just have have to shut down the business for good.

You might recall of the infamous BuyRite2000.com site shucksters (...)

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I'm glad you brought up BuyRite. There was a case where they'd been ripping people off for years. And yet they continued to do business.

As for the BBB (Better Business Bureau) ...like you said: "enough complaints"...
It took years before BuyRite was shut down.

Zeether · Post by **Zeether** » Sun May 03, 2009 9:51 pm

Yeah, this is OLD news.

The n00b · Post by **The n00b** » Sun May 03, 2009 10:07 pm

Yep toys n joys always claims to have the exact thing you are seeking when nobody else does. Their prospective customers probably already know better but the temptation is always just too great.

These assholes put me through the ringer when I tried to buy an xbox arcade stick from them. The sad thing is that I knew better...but they were the only shop, at the time, that had the stick in stock.

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Sun May 03, 2009 10:48 pm

ZeetherKID77 wrote:Yeah, this is OLD news.

Koa Zo wrote: (...)
So, if you weren't already aware, (...)

Its good to know you didn't need the reminder, ZeetherKID77.

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Sun May 03, 2009 11:08 pm

these guys sound like buyrite videogames..

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:26 am

E. Randy Dupre wrote:It's been obvious for years - perform a search for the obscure, oop game of your choice and you can almost guarantee that they'll claim to have it in stock. I think I first noticed it when I was searching for a guide to NGPC Cool Cool Jam and came across them. I never even attempted to buy anything from them and I'm glad I didn't, given everything I've heard since.

you would think that, but do you want to hear something really bizarre? i stumbled across their website when i was searching for a ps2 copy of mushihimesama and their website said that they had the LE in stock....for $75. this was when they were going for about $120 on ebay. so i ordered 2 copies. about 3 weeks later i got a box in the mail with one copy of mushi LE and a note that the other copy was on backorder. 2 weeks later i got another box in the mail with the second copy. surprised the shit out of me.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:47 am

brokenhalo wrote:
E. Randy Dupre wrote:It's been obvious for years - perform a search for the obscure, oop game of your choice and you can almost guarantee that they'll claim to have it in stock. I think I first noticed it when I was searching for a guide to NGPC Cool Cool Jam and came across them. I never even attempted to buy anything from them and I'm glad I didn't, given everything I've heard since.
you would think that, but do you want to hear something really bizarre? i stumbled across their website when i was searching for a ps2 copy of mushihimesama and their website said that they had the LE in stock....for $75. this was when they were going for about $120 on ebay. so i ordered 2 copies. about 3 weeks later i got a box in the mail with one copy of mushi LE and a note that the other copy was on backorder. 2 weeks later i got another box in the mail with the second copy. surprised the shit out of me.

You lucked out on getting two Mushi LEs from the toys 'n' joys shucksters then. Others haven't been so fortunate though. You learn the lesson the hard way and don't patronize them ever again. There are better and more reputable mail order import gaming business to spend your hard-earned $$$ at. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Jon · Post by **Jon** » Mon May 04, 2009 5:29 pm

Shocked and a bit sad to learn that they are still around.

Koa Zo · Post by **Koa Zo** » Tue May 05, 2009 1:05 am

Jon wrote:Shocked and a bit sad to learn that they are still around.

That's exactly why I started this thread. ..well, not to make anyone sad, but
it is shocking that they are still around.

The n00b wrote:Yep toys n joys always claims to have the exact thing you are seeking when nobody else does. Their prospective customers probably already know better but the temptation is always just too great.

These assholes put me through the ringer when I tried to buy an xbox arcade stick from them. The sad thing is that I knew better...but they were the only shop, at the time, that had the stick in stock.

I almost let that happen to me recently (after not hearing anything about them for 3 or 4 years)
A month or so ago, I was looking for the Hudson Shooting Collection for GBA, and lo and behold "Toys N' Joys" comes up in my search.
Even though I knew better, their price of $29.99 for a brand new copy was too good to pass up. I rationalized in my head how it could be that they were still in business, and decided, based on the newer layout of the website, that they must have changed their practices... after looking around the site a little more and after seeing so many uncommon items for sale, I came to my sences.

and now, just weeks later, someone in a Trading Station thread mentions some issue with Toys 'N Joys.

Once a year we should have a week of rememberence of all the bad or shady dealings people have had, so everyone is reminded who not to do business with.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:11 pm

Why go to them? Are their prices so inviting?

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:17 pm

if i'm reading it right, it's because they claim to have lots of rare out of print items in stock

thanks for the thread, news to me

CStarFlare · Post by **CStarFlare** » Tue May 05, 2009 6:31 pm

Wow, I remember people telling me that TNJ was shady back when I started playing Bemani... 7 or 8 years ago.

Some things never change, I guess.

hermosaguy · Post by **hermosaguy** » Tue May 05, 2009 8:17 pm

I have tried their number on their website numerous times...no matter what time I call on either number I have never gotten anything aside from voice mail. My claim has been filed and still no action has been taken, but I'll post updates as to what happens.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Wed May 06, 2009 12:24 am

Did you file a charge back with your credit card?

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Wed May 06, 2009 1:16 am

Strider77 wrote:these guys sound like buyrite videogames..

I remember them way back when. I stumbled across them back when I was trying to find Thunder Force Gold Pack 2. All those games on their site, some decent prices, and so many complaints it was almost funny. Thankfully I never got stung by them, and Gametronix had TFGP2 just waiting for me when I found their site a few days later.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Wed May 06, 2009 2:11 am

I would suspect any site of foul play that has hard to get items in stock. Especially if they are Saturn wares. Ebay (I hate to say it) is probably a much safer option.