2 Little Monkeys – Spoil Your Kids, Nieces & Nephews Rotten At This Site!
Written: May 03 '05
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| Full Review |
Once again, shopping for my nieces and nephews [born and still in the womb] took me to another kid site. I have these little index cards and Post-It Notes all over the place with things that they like, things they love and things they detest on them. When a birthday or special event starts to draw near I don’t have to call and pester them with questions – just find the card and start shopping. One of my nieces is a shy little creature; she rarely talks to anyone outside the family but she has a true love of clothing and playing dress up. I started searching Google to try and find her a costume she wanted and this site showed up in the results. It took me a little while to get to the section for costumes and by time I’d gotten there I’d already added some other stuff to my shopping cart for the other kids.
Selection
The site carries everything from artwork to clothing, furniture to strollers and diapering needs to rockers. The site isn’t huge but it can take you a while to make your way through it if you are the kind of person that window shops or has to check out things that pique your curiosity. The site also has a sale section that is ever changing and a great place to start once you hit the site. Some things can be as much as 70% off so if you are a bargain hunter, this is the place for you to start. The furniture that they carry is nice but its just not feasible for me to order this for my nieces and nephews since it would have to be shipped overseas and that would cost a fortune. The smaller stuff like blankets, toys and baby items are all great, there are some run of the mill items at the site that you could find locally if you looked hard enough but the more unusual things are definitely worth checking out.
I was really impressed with some of the things that they carried – things like bathroom accessories [cups, tumblers towels], picture frames, bath and hooded towels, potty stools and bedding. Since I was shopping for my very shy niece, I wanted to get her something special and the costumes that this site carried are just too cute! I was torn between two designs so I ordered them both knowing that she’d make good use of them long before Halloween arrives. For the other kidlettes I picked up some cool things like a night light, collapsible toy carrier, pacifier holder and treat carrier for the stroller. Like I said, some of the things they have are pretty unique and some are rather common types of goods that could be found anywhere. It might be a good idea to look around locally for things and if you can’t find them, then order them from the site.
Customer Service
Good luck trying to find information at the site about where they are located – they keep it more of a secret than where plutonium is stored. But thanks to my sleuthing skills I found this address through a reverse look up … if you are curious about who Lisa Rabin is [the person that the phone number is listed under .. she’s one of the of the founders of the site [2littlemonkeys.com/aboutus.cfm]
RABEN, LISA
8313 E Sharon Dr
Scottsdale, AZ 85260-3539
8313 E Sharon Dr
Scottsdale, AZ 85260-3539
480-361-2656 – customer service
480-361-2657 – fax
www.2littlemonkeys.com
info@2littlemonkeys.com
www.2littlemonkeys.com/contact-us.cfm
Payment Options
Curious enough, the site has a banner for MasterCard, Visa, American Express and The Discover Card however their site notes say that they only accept MasterCard and Visa for purchases. Since I don’t have an American Express or Discover Card it doesn’t really make that much of a deal to me but if I were shopping at the site and saw the banner saying they accepted it then found out otherwise after I spent time picking things out – chances are I wouldn’t go back to the site again no matter what prices they offered or what they carried. I used my debit MasterCard for purchases and had no problems getting the purchases approved, processing them or being billed something that was different from the amount shown at the time of my checkout.
Shipping Fees
This is probably the most confusing part of placing an order – well, if you are ordering large stuff that is. They ship most of their stuff out via the United States Post Office [USPS] or by UPS Ground. If you are ordering furniture or anything that is oversized or needs to be drop shipped by another company then they won’t charge you shipping; that will be a separate fee that you will have to pay to the freight carrier that delivers it. Most of my orders were small so the shipping fees were well under ten dollars but I did have to call them to find out how long it would take for them to arrive. For some reason I wasn’t getting email notifications from them when an order was shipped out. That could have been their mail server or just Yahoo acting funny. If you have any questions about shipping fees then you will have to call them and ask how something will be shipped or if you need it faster how you can get your order expedited.
Return Policy
The site only accepts returns on things that are defective or if they were shipped in error but if you are getting something that is a special order then no returns are allowed. If something is defective I am sure that something can be worked out but you will have to deal with the parent site or the company that shipped it to you. I went into this knowing that anything I bought wouldn’t get returned, I am not one to want to bring on stress so I flat out told my relatives that if they didn’t like what they got to just donate it to some worthy charity. If I were looking to buy furniture for a kids room I’m not sure if this would be the best site because if there is something wrong with it or it gets damaged you might have to fight between the delivery company and the company that manufactured it – that could mean a long battle to see who pays for the replacement and to me, that just seems like a lot of potential work and aggravation.
The Bottom Line
The site is fairly easy to navigate, there’s no pop up advertising and they do have some pretty interesting things listed. They are a bit stringent in regards to their return policy but if you can deal with that then this is a nice site to shop at. I already mentioned my hesitation about ordering furniture from them but I guess if you have your heart set on something for your little prince or princess then you might as well give them a try. All the things that I ordered arrived quickly and barring the small snafu with the email confirmations everything else went off without a hitch. This is a small site but it’s run professionally; you could do a lot worse when it comes to shopping for baby goods but as much as I hate to say it, you could do better if you shop around and scout for the lowest price possible.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Other awesome sites for kids gifts …
BabyAnt
Sanrio Online Store
Lego World Shop
Lilypad Baby
SnoopyStore.com
Plush Dreams
Bare Babies
Recommended:
Yes
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