It all started with a MC Donald's happy meal. There was a number on the children's happy meal box to phone to claim your free book on the new film called cars, so when we got back I rang the number and they took my details and joined me to a book club called Grolier. I thought it would just ... Read review
Advantages: Free books when you join Disadvantages: Quite expensive
It all started with a MC Donald's happy meal. There was a number on the children's happy meal box to phone to claim your free book on the new film called cars, so when we got back I rang the number and they took my details and joined me to a book club called Grolier. I thought it would just be a free book sent to me but when I received the package It contained seven books from Disney and a free gift witch was a light blue plastic book shelf with ... ...because I found it rather useless, it may be ok once filled with books, but at the moment it keeps falling apart.
The letter in the box full of books says, welcome to the Disney book club! These delightful books are full of timeless tales and bright illustrations they will bring the magic of Disney into your home.
It also says, here are five books and a gift to start you on this superb series, all yours to keep free ... more
It all started with a MC Donald's happy meal. There was a number on the children's happy meal box to phone to claim your free book on the new film called cars, so when we got back I rang the number and they took my details and joined me to a book club called Grolier. I thought it would just be a free book sent to me but when I received the package It contained seven books from Disney and a free gift witch was a light blue plastic book shelf with Mickey mouse on. I shall add a picture of this because I found it rather useless, it may be ok once filled with books, but at the moment it keeps falling apart.
The letter in the box full of books says, welcome to the Disney book club! These delightful books are full of timeless tales and bright illustrations they will bring the magic of Disney into your home.
It also says, here are five books and a gift to start you on this superb series, all yours to keep free whatever you decide. For a start there were seven books in total and the statement didn't tell me which ones were ours to keep free of charge. As you already know I am a bit of a bargain hunter, and I only wanted the free cars book for my daughter Jazmin so I had to get on the phone and ask what the free ones were. It turned out that I could keep five books and the free gift. The five books stand 9 inches tall and 6 inches across and I would say no thicker than half a centimetre. The books I got are;
The jungle book Cars Tarzan Toy story 101 Dalmatians
The other two books would be £8.98 to buy and they are:
Chicken little The wild
As I had no intention of joining this book club I will be sending them back and have to pay nothing, from what I can work out at the moment it is not free to send them back.
You have a seven day trial for the books you need to pay for but I have put them up because you know what children are like. If I had gave them to Jazmin they would probably get ruined in some way or another.
I got a little booklet in with the books, a guide to customer benefits. This tries to explain what the book club is all about. They have a unique range of exclusive Disney products for children of all ages.
Disney babies Disney first readers My first winnie the pooh Disney princess Out and about with Pooh Wonderful world of knowledge DVD and video Disney collectable ornaments.
Some tips from Grolier for reading with your child__
Make reading fun. Read with plenty of enthusiasm. Invent voices for the different characters and encourage your child to repeat catchy phrases or fill in words with you. Let your child hold the book, touch the pictures or turn the pages.
Read in different places. As well as at bedtime, try reading during bath time. Maybe you can find a secret reading place but remember, there is no better place for your child than in your own lap to provide security and confidence.
Praise your child's effort to read. Even the youngest children like to pretend they are reading. Encourage and praise them while you are reading together.
Have a regular time for read. Whatever time suits you best, it is important that reading becomes part of you child's daily routine.
Have a special place for books in your child's room. Children love choosing and browsing through favourite books from their own shelves in their own room.
Special offers__
As a Grolier club member I will have the opportunity to receive special year books, calendars and supplements, as additions to selected series, or other occasional special offers, also I will find other super offers on line at www.grolier.co.uk
What do I make of Grolier__
So far not a lot, it is not explanatory enough for my liking, I had to call them again to find out which books I would be charged for, I didn't really want to become a member of a book club and be sent new titles every four weeks and I cant seem to find out if I am under any obligation to buy a certain amount of books. I did not receive any kind of catalogue to see what else they had on offer, just a few books in the welcome booklet. I do remember that when I rang them up the first time they said I could cancel my membership at any time so we shall see in the very near future what happens. I think that £8.98 was quite expensive for two books. They are hard back and have lovely colourful pictures in them, not too much writing and have 45 pages in. Jazmin has attempted to read a couple of books on her own and has come across a few words she didn't know but I think they are a good read for 8- 10 year olds. She has been copying pictures out of the books rather than reading all morning. I think if I had joined this book club because I had wanted to I would think more of it but because it was a con in my mind, all I wanted was the free book I didn't expect to be joined to a book club, I now don't think much to it at all and will be cancelling my membership before they send me any more books. Lets hope I have no obligation to buy a certain amount and that will be the end of Grolier book club for me. I would recommend it to anyone who is actually looking to join a book club but not if you just want a free gift its too much hassle just for a few books.
Advantages: None Disadvantages: They lied to me, Terrible customer service!
After giving birth, I realised that the parent and baby company called 'Bounty' was trustworthy. After all, they see you in the hospital and give you lots of freebies in a bag and seem really nice and understanding of your needs as a new mother. So when you get a call at home from someone who says he is from Bounty, you assume that you will get great service. This happened to me and it turned out that this guy was calling from a company called Grolier. ... ...a Disney DVD collection, to which I said no. He wouldn't accept this response and insisted that he would send them anyway and if I didn't want them, then I could return them with no charge.
They arrived and I immediately rang to return them, they asked why I asked for them when I didn't actually want them. I said that I said I didn't want them, but he insisted he would send them anyway. The advisor told me they did not do this, and refused to accept ...
hazel210482 24.05.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Grolier.com
Advantages: NOT ONE!! Disadvantages: Stress, time consuming, terrible customer service, very frustrating!
About 3 months ago i purchased a magazine with a flyer in for Grolier books. It said i could get a welcome pack with 2 free bob the builder books and dvd's and in with these would come the next 2 in the series for me to look at. If i liked them and wanted to keep the books i would be charged for them and would recieve the rest of the set, 2 books at a time, every 4 weeks or so. Sounds good i though, 2 free books, nothing to pay and no commitment ... ...a month later i hadn't received the first pack with the free books but in the post came the next 2 books with a statement which charged for the 2 books that should have been in with the free ones. The ones that had never arrived. I logged onto the website, registered my details, its the only way you can email them and phoning costs money, and sent them an email. I received no reply but a few days later i did get a prepaid postage label so assumed ...
emmalouise2004 05.10.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Grolier.com
Advantages: pretty pictures Disadvantages: incomprehensible for target audience
This opinion is not all about Grolier as a whole, but their offer on Thomas the Tank Engine books.
My mother-in-law gave loads of books bought from Grolier book club to my 3 year old Thomas-mad son for Christmas. Clearly she had seen the offer and thought that it would be perfect for him. And in theory this would be true.
However, here are a few words of warning since I have now myself seen the marketing material for these books and think that ... ...The offer states that the books are all about the 'enchanting world of rails and steam... of puffs and whistles'. It also says that the books offer 'Two traditional stories in each book'. Both of these statements are completely true. Problem is that these books are the original stories as written by the Awdry chap. The parent of the average Thomas age child these days will be used to the easy books written by his son and, lets be honest, the kids ...
maibee 26.02.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Grolier.com
Advantages: absolutely nothing positive about this company Disadvantages: this is a faceless, unethical, sales driven, money grabbing machine
Grolier - Dont be fooled this is a diabolical company that cant be trusted.
It makes its business by contacting couples who have just given birth (a emotional and happy time in their lives) and offers them free books for their new child. Few couples refuse. Its now only a matter of time before Grolier's faceless, unethical, money grabbing machine kicks in. You dont want to keep the books? Thats fine, just pack them up, take them to the post office ... ...to Grolier in Norwich but dont forget to pay for postage (just try claiming the postage back and see what happens!)
Any delay, for what ever reason and see the flood of threatening letters arrive through the door demanding payment, promising escalating charges, the threat of legal action and a poor credit rating. These letters by the way are designed to be received on a Saturday morning, so as to cause the maximum amount of trouble and stress to ...
09876 14.09.2008 (13.09.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Grolier.com
Advantages: Free books Disadvantages: Unclear terms and conditions
As a special treat I took my daughter to a fast food resteraunt for a 'kids' meal.On the side of the box was a voucher for a free book. The free book was chicken little. This movie was surronded by hype at the time and all I had to do to receive my free book was fill in my details on the grolier website. I did this and got the chance to receive an extra seven free books on the grounds that Grolier would send me nine and if, after seven days, I didn't ... ...them back and keep the other eight as a 'thank you' for trying out Grolier. I'm a sucker for anything free so I ticked the box and a week or so later a parcel arrived.
The books were all based on Disney movies. My daughter is only just beginning to get into disney and Chicken little was her first experiance of the hype surronding the release of the movies, hence me ordering the books in the first place. I read the two I had to send back first and ...
twinklestar1 18.06.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Grolier.com
