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Original poster

Fisher Price - When 'Try me' does not reflect the actual toy!

16 replies

Blueskythinker · 08/03/2008 22:51

Has anyone else experienced this?

I bought the Fisher Price 'Fun sounds flip phone' for my 10 month old DD. In the shop, the packaging said 'Try me', which I duly did, and heard all types of satisfying beeps & sounds.

I got home, gave the toy to my DD, and all of a sudden, could hear only the faintest noise from it. I checked the instructions, which said 'when the noise becomes faint, it is time to change the batteries'. I popped off the Sainsburys, spent £4 on batteries, inserted them, . . .and the noise was still faint. Seriously, you can hardly hear it at all.

I phoned customer support at Fisher Price, who explained that 'the noise you hear in the shop is demonstration mode only. When you take the toy out of its packaging, the volume is automatically reduced to conform with European decibel levels for childrens toys'.

So basically, when the packaging says 'try me' this bears no resemblance to how the toy actually works normally. In what way does this not constitute false & misleading advertising???

OP posts:
bookwormmum · 08/03/2008 22:54

How does the toy know to reduce the noise level?

Phoenix · 08/03/2008 22:54

A v-tech mobile phone we have is the same. I emailed v-tech thinking it was broken and they said toys that go near a babies ears have to be at a certain level. You can hardly hear it. They should put it on the box or something.

paddingtonbear1 · 08/03/2008 22:59

I don't remember having this problem with the toys dd had when she was a baby. Most of them were too noisy for my liking Phew! we said when the batteries ran out. Maybe they're spinning you a line and the thing's actually faulty!

SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner · 08/03/2008 23:00

I have a fun2learn FP phone and that is pretty quiet, although I have to say that I don't know what the demo did.

Pheonix has a good point - if they are putting them to their ear it can't be too loud as risk of damage.

As for reducing the noise level - that is done the same was as all of the other demo functions - when you pull the demo tag out it flicks a switch to turn it to "full use mode"

SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner · 08/03/2008 23:00

Paddington - most toys are not intended to be held at the ear...

paddingtonbear1 · 08/03/2008 23:01

We had a vtech phone which was loud enough, it had 2 volume levels. Mind you it was for 12 months plus, could that make a difference?

bookwormmum · 08/03/2008 23:02

I took the batteries out of my dd's pull along phone after it started talking to me late at night on 'extended play' .

Hearing a random 'hello' said in a Leslie-Phillips voice when you're on your own is not good. Even if it is from a plastic toy .

Have you contacted Trading Standards? Always worth giving them a shout so they can build case-files up.

paddingtonbear1 · 08/03/2008 23:04

yeah SlightlyMad I was thinking of other toys as well, good point. Come to think of it, dd had a Bob mobile phone which was fairly quiet - you could hear it though. Mind you again, it was for 12 or 18 months plus.

SlightlyMadSecretSoundWinner · 08/03/2008 23:05

The Fun2Learn phone I have which is quiet is 2y+

Original poster
Blueskythinker · 08/03/2008 23:16

I don't mind the phone being quiet (dear knows, we have enough noisy toys!), and appreciate the sense in having decibel levels for childrens toys, especially for those to be held near little ears. I just think it is cynical / misleading for Fisher Price to have a significantly louder demo than the actual product. Really, you can hardly hear the thing at all.

Had I known the volume was all but indiscernable, I probably wouldn't have bought it.

OP posts:
sazm · 08/03/2008 23:18

yep toy phones are like that i remember my lo falling in love with a phone in woolworths one day and me paying £15 for it,to then get it outside,open it and discover it was so quiet we could hardly hear it,lo was so dissappointed (and me too that id spent £15 on a rubbish toy)

LIZS · 09/03/2008 07:40

Are you sure there is no plastic piece to remove to allow it to work properly.

BexieID · 09/03/2008 07:51

I would take it back to the shop and say it's faulty. Worth a shot!

HappyNewYearFeet06 · 09/03/2008 08:27

We had the same with a VTech phone. Dd loved it and it made loads of noise so I bought it. Pulled the tag out and it went quiet. So I put the tag back in and put a plaster over it so it couldn't be removed. Keeping it at a volume that my dd could actually hear rather than when the tag was pulled out it was a faint 'fizz' of a sound!!

It should say on the box though or at least have two volume settings for parents to choose??

sazm · 09/03/2008 15:36

our phone said on the inside of the battery compartment but not on the box,unfortunately i had chucked the tag in the fre or i could have stuck it back in too lol,

NickiSue · 09/03/2008 15:39

I've heard of that before, they are supposed to go quieter apparently.

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