June 18, 2010

Webkinz

Earlier this week, my daughter found five dollars under a sofa seat cushion.

"That's actually my money," I told her, holding out my hand.

She stuffed the bill in her pocket. "Finders keepers, losers weepers," she said.

I counted to ten very slowly. "Whatever," I said, pretending not to care. "Just do something productive with it."

Later that night, I found my daughter sitting on my husband's lap at the computer. They had just ordered a stuffed animal off of eBay.

"Here's your five dollars back," Camber chirped as she handed me the five dollar bill.


Yesterday morning, Mr. Quacker arrived in the mail. After two hours of begging, it became apparent that it would impossible to move forward in life until the stuffed animal had a birth certificate and was properly registered on the Webkinz website.

The process of registering a stuffed animal on the site in question is relatively straightforward once the site finally loads; a cartoon duck named Ms. Birdy asks your child to choose a name for his/her pet and type the name into a box.

An unfortunate typo resulted in Mr. Quacker's conversion to the Religious Society of Friends.

To make Mr. Quacker/Quaker's adoption official, all that was required by the registrant and his/her parental helper was the creation of a user name and password...and the plugging in of a secret code unique to each creature.

I wanted to poke my eyeballs out long before the website informed me that Mr. Quaker's secret code was invalid.

"The code doesn't work," I told my daughter. She took the news that she owned a fake Webkinz very hard.

"This isn't real?" she asked, holding up the stuffed duck in stunned disbelief. "It looks real!"

When the time is right, I will bequeath her my Jimmy Chew shoes. Until then, I will feign horror at the existence of counterfeit stuffed animals.

26 comments

Madeline said...

No way!!! People are such a**holes. Poor kid.

Rocket Ma'am said...

Webkinz is a clown-shoe operation- we couldn't get the site to register ours either, and it came from a real store. When I tried contacting them over our trouble setting up the account, they wanted my membership info before proceeding to the troublecall page. Of course I didn't have that because it wouldn't take- that was my problem. I finally went the the ganz website and engaged in a email tirade. They sent me a generic reply which might have been helpful if I cared enough to try its suggestion. By then, the owner of said webkin had moved on to other life issues.
Hopefully Camber isn't too devastated, but jaded enough to stay away from ebay for a while :o)

Kelly_cs said...

We've been Webbies here for several years. One time I accidentally selected an exclusive item when I meant to look thru the other choices w/ the child in my lap. Said child was devastated so I called them & explained my mistake & could they cancel the transaction & let my child pick what he wanted. They did agree to it THIS ONE TIME. Gee, thanks for helping me out. I pay for these stupid Webkinz. They should be Kissing my @ss.

Tiffany said...

Webkinz are the devil but I couldn't even get my ire up because I was too busy cracking up about Mr. Quacker's conversion! Did you already know the official name of the Quakers or did you have to look it up?

Anonymous said...

Hopefully this will sour them on the others on the whole Webkinz experience. Countless hours are lost at that site.

Anonymous said...

What are these things of which you speak? I am so clueless. Sounds like my memories of cabbage patch kids. Good times.

Emily Heizer Photography said...

Jana, I thought that was a duck billed platapus?

They have those at Hallmark. You could just go steal the code off one of the ones in the store, and thereby continue the circle of horror for parents city-wide as they attempt to register their children's pets.

I have two cows. They were forced on my at Christmas by my niece and nephew.

...Sometimes I play with them when I am supposed to be working.

Shhhhhhh!

Sinclair said...

I must admit that I gave in to a webkinz when my daughter was given one as a birthday gift. We now have five of them (four live in webkinz world in a shared townhouse complete with kitchen, bath, and outdoor garden) and the other is on his own but looking for a roommate.

I must further admit that the single pet is often looked after by yours truly, and that I find it really fun to log on and play there with my daughter. We love to do the gem hunt and "wheel of Wow" together.

I really hate the "fad" toys, but we got roped in and it has been fun. Maybe you just have to try again with a different pet? We got one (new) from Ebay and had good luck with it, but when buying from there, you never know for sure.

Allie said...

We love Webkinz at our house. Not only is it harmless fun on the computer (and NO, my kids don't spend hours a day there, maybe a grand total of an hour a week), but they also love their cute stuffed friends. The DO spend hours in imaginative play with the stuffed animals, dress them, sleep with them, etc.

Target has the 'Lil Kinz for less than $5. and they work the same way online.

We have never had any difficulty with logging any onto the computer. I hope you don't let a bad experience ruin Webkinz for you. They really are a fun toy!

Heather said...

Hey. It's not fair to sell fake things to KIDS.
My daughter does love Webkinz though and they seem like a pretty benign way to pass the time.

Will we be seeing your religious duck on a box of oats any time soon?

CSIowa said...

My daughter recently got one of these as a birthday gift. Her friend told her mother, "Let's get this because her mom would NEVER buy it for her!" I was thrilled when my husband set it up for her. I am still blissfully ignorant about the whole thing.

Cathryn said...

When you don't regularly visit your webkinz on the computer and feed it, bathe it etc they send the kids email that tease the kids if they don't come online to feed it IT WILL DIE!! I kid you not--"Your poor darling is starving to death and it's YOUR FAULT!"

Kids freak out if mom says NO, and then guess who is a bad guy!

I say, get the kid a real animal that earns it's keep and teach them real responsibility for life--not fake cyber life that produces nothing!
The ideas that we are giving our kids that their stuffed animals deserve couches, homes, toys, etc is really kinda sick and they are affected by it.

High Heels and Aprons said...

Jimmy Chews... {hahahahahaha} Love it!

Karen Mortensen said...

At least it is cute.

Madeline said...

Catherine - you really need to lighten the eff up. 'They' don't send an email of any kind. Where did you hear such drivel?
Another thing - My 4 girls have Webkinz to play with...you know..for fun. I didn't buy them to theach responsibility. That's what chores are for.

Vikki said...

ROFL! My DD8 has three of these little platypuses (platypi?). Blame grandma for the first that got her hooked. I can only imagine her drama if the code was fake! I so dislike E-Bay ...

Anonymous said...

Actually the webkinz does "die" after a year. You just have to buy a new one and register its code and use the same user name and password... About a year ago my son LOST it when he found out his poor frog passed away... he was in tears for a few days until we bought a new webkinz and he was able to play again with it... thank the lord he isn't into the webkinz anymore because I became addicted to it!

Anonymous said...

Cathryn-are you serious?? They really "die?" Did your child actually get emails like that? Others are saying you are making that up, but I mean...why on earth would you do that? That makes no sense to me that you would. Curious to hear from others on their experiences if you don't have time to keep up with it sometimes....

Anonymous said...

We love Webkinz at our house. There are fun games & some educational one too. The kids try to get enough $ to furnish their rooms etc. I never received an e-mail that my sons Webkinz died, he just couldn't log on until he bought another.

Julie said...

Too funny...Jimmy Chew!! My daughter LOVES these webkins. Luckily my husband has an obsession with those claw machines and we found one with webkins in them...got a webkins for 1.50 and the code works!

Jenny said...

My son has a misnamed Webkinz lion. He meant to name him Louis, but instead typed Loius. He gets a little riled up when I ask him about Loius.

webkinzgoogleslover said...

Webkinz don't die, they just become inactive. If you look at the news thing on the front page of the site it says "rumor" at the bottom and then it goes into how ganz would never hurt your pet. Yeah, i know it's addictive, but i can't help myself.

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Anonymous said...

I kind of know why it didnt work

Because you bought it from eBay.

If you bought it from a real store, there would be a lesser chance of this happening

The person you bought "Mr.Quackers" from probably used the code but sold it with Mr.Quackers. Where I live, you cant really steal the secret codes (especially me) because 1) the cashier has them behind the counter
2) It takes me FOREVER to take a code bracelet thing they put on the webkinz haha

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