 "Supply and Demand Price Gouging" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from Yuma, AZ USA |
| This firetruck was roughly $250 when it was carried in the toy stores a little more than a year ago and now Amazon rapes you for a sale price of 450+ because they are the only place you can get it from. This truck is no where close to being worth the inflated price (actually almost $300 higher than MSRP). The only reason I did purchase this truck was because I told my little boy that I would get him this truck when he got big enough to play on it; I was over the barrel on this purchase. When I got the truck I had to spend 6 hours fixing the forward/reverse control lever since it was sheared off at the base upon opening an undamaged box. When you are on the line at Christmas you will do whatever it takes to have a fully functioning firetruck Christmas morning and trying to get a new control from the mfg 2 days before christmas is not my idea of coming through on a promise. My son oblivious to the cost and repair that had to be done enjoyed this truck immensely and in reality that is all that matters. Would I have bought this truck if the promise did not exist? Probably... but that is only becuase I love to spoil my son and I have the money; for someone who doesn't this price is no better than the gas gouging that was going on from the oil companies... supply and demand. My rating is based off of my sons enjoyment and not my dis-satisfaction of the gouged price or broken part. |
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 "Can't find a battery?" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from Massachusetts |
| I got this for my son 2 years ago. It was great to see the expression on his face and worth the $$$. But now the battery is dead and I can't find one. I called Kid Trax and they told me to google "12 volt battery" so I did, but I can't find one that has the same plug in device on the side. So basically I am left with a hunk of plastic in my garage that I can't sell, or give away, because the battery is next to impossible to find. There are definitely less expensive ways to see that smile on your kids face, we play lots of board games indoors and I shoot hoops with him in the yard. Definitely think twice before spending the money. |
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 "Hard to find replacement battery!" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from Duluth, GA |
I would have rated this more stars if the replacement parts were easier to find. It's a cute little truck and my kids love it...but when I started trying to replace the battery after it died, I started finding all these reviews similar to my own about how the batteries wear out and can't be replaced. The battery is made by Safety First and is a 12 volt battery, which in itself isn't hard to find. But they have a proprietary plug on it so that you can't just get any generic 12 volt battery...you have to get that brand and its impossible to find...even if you go to the Safety First website you can't find it. If you are lucky enough to find one, they cost about $90 plus shipping/tax.
I did have an excellent customer service experience at Battery Giant, however. I found a generic 12 volt battery and they asked me to send in my old Safety First battery and they retrofitted the plug for me onto the new battery from the old one so I could use it! For FREE! It was $40 plus shipping and I had to pay a few bucks to ship the old battery back, but it saved me a lot of money on buying the Safety First brand and they shipped it back to me very quickly. [...]
I now check to see how easy the battery replacement is when I buy toys like this. |
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 "Don't waste your money!" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from Texas |
| We received this as a Christmas gift and it was great for the short time it actually worked. Like other reviewers, we had similar battery issues (not available at any retail stores, took months to recieve the replacement, battery very expensive, etc.), but also other mechanical problems. Suffice to say, my kids now enjoy just "pretending" the thing works and playing in the fire truck and on the fire truck, since the fire truck itself hasn't run for over a year. Defintely not worth the money. |
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| "Kids love this!" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from san antonio, tx |
| Our 4 year old loves this firetruck. The 2 year old rides along - there is so much for both of them to do on the truck. They enjoy the water feature as well. Would recommend for ages 3 and up. It does go really fast. |
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 "My boys love this" | |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User from cape coral fl |
| Great time had by all. The only down side it how expensive a new battery is. My boys rode this so much we had to replace the wheels and the gears, but the company shipped them out to us free of charge. They were really easy to deal with. My boys still play with this fire truck. |
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