ThinkGeek

As a Candian, I give TG one star. I’d give it zero stars if I could, because their shipping policy to Canada is the equivalent of a giant middle finger.
Shipping to Canada starts at $ 20 USD (regardless of whether you’re buying $ 10 or $ 100 worth of merch). You will also pay more at the door or later billing (which can add 50%-80% of the purchase price to the total) for brokerage. So, for a $ 30 – 40 USD order, you’re looking at somewhere around $ 70 – 80 USD total (plus the exchange rate).
I find this frustrating because I don’t understand why they don’t use USPS. USPS is cheaper to start with, and the customs fees are minimal. Many other US-​based companies know this, and provide USPS shipping to Canadian customers. I am not sure why TG refuses. I expect it is a hassle for them, and/​or they are making profit from the $ 20+ shipping they charge.
Anyhoo… Canadians, avoid. You’re better off shopping locally or on ebay/​Amazon. You’ll pay more for a specific item but you’ll save in the long run because there’s no shipping, customers, brokerage, and exchange.

I love this site for the variety of merchandise and some really cool exclusive items. My husband and I have both been shopping for years and its usually a good experience as long as you don’t need customer service help.
While agents are helpful, they are hard to get a hold of with long hold times for live chat and phone and several days wait to get a reply via e-​mail.
Today I was on the phone for over 45 minutes, most of that on hold due to Think Geek’s error processing an exchange where the replacement they shipped out was the same size as the item I had returned. The agent was friendly but clueless on what could be done and a lot of time was spent on hold waiting for her to figure out how to fix the problem. In the end, the problem was solved (I hope) but not after a considerable waste of time for me.
I don’t see myself ordering again from them anytime soon. As much as I love their products I just don’t have the time or patience needed to deal with customer service so often.

Biggest ordering and customer service clusterf*** I’ve ever encountered. I ordered an item off of someone’s wishlist on this site and found out shortly after from this person I was buying the gift for that they’d already purchased it themselves! Tried to cancel the order and was told it was too late because it had already been processed. I explained to them that since the order had just been placed and couldn’t possibly have been shipped yet that it shouldn’t be too late to simply cancel it and refund my money but apparently it’s completely impossible for them to do that. I also pointed out that this happened because their website didn’t show the updated quantity on the recipient’s wishlist or any other indication that the item had already been purchased. Not to mention the confusion over where the package was actually being shipped to. I assumed it was set up so that they had the wishlist recipient’s mailing address on file and would automatically send it there when I placed my order. I mean, why would I order an item off of somebody’s wishlist for MYSELF? Nope, the package was sent to me.
I actually went through this whole mess again when I attempted to order a second item, entering the recipient’s shipping address myself, only to yet again find that I’d ordered something that had already been purchased! So now I’m just waiting for the person I gifted the second item to to send it to me so I can send both back to ThinkGeek. Way too big of a hassle and not even worth it in the end. If they can’t cancel orders after sending them on to the shipping warehouse then maybe they should cool their jets on processing them and leave us a little more time to send the cancel request when it’s needed. Also, someone needs to fix the wishlist quantity function on their site and maybe the shipping address thing too?

Fraud Alert! I made a purchase last week and a few days later, I get an email saying that they cancelled my order and that I should try to re-​order it. When I call to re-​order and figure out why they cancelled the order, they have no reason for cancelling my order, they have increased the price of the product, and tell me that they can not honor the price from a few days ago. They’re running some kind of scam. I will never do business with them again.

I ordered 6 gifts in early November to be delivered for Christmas. I had them shipped out of state to my parent in laws where we would be spending Christmas. Low and behold, the one thing (out of checked baggage and multiple online purchases) that didn’t arrive was my 6 items from ThinkGeek (which I stupidly relied on for an individuals whole gift).
So I called to find out why I was never notified at the beginning of December that my gifts were not delivered (they were sent BACK to ThinkGeek. Again, please remember that 20 other packages had absolutely no problem reaching this destination). Now they were out of 4 of the 6 gifts, but gave me a refund (gee thanks, that helps a TON on Christmas Eve eve in the middle of nowhere), a small store certificate (which wont even cover shipping of anything on there site) and a «replacement» for the two items in stock still. I explicitly repeat at least 3 times that the order now needs to be shipped to the billing address and NOT the original shipping address as we are not residents of that state. Representative Garrett agrees and says they are going to my state of residence. Disappointing, but workable.
Then comes my first full day back home on December 29^th. I receive delivery confirmation that my ThinkGeek gifts were delivered to Ohio. Where we don’t live and then I would be responsible for shipping them to myself AGAIN (a service I have already paid for). I call to have them solve it and Stephanie gave me a refund after 90 minutes on hold listening to the same obnoxious music… Anyways, wasn’t pleased and don’t plan to order from them again.

Update: think geek got back to me via Unilocal and refunded me for the item I sent back quickly and responsively which I very much appreciated!
I will leave 4 stars because of the customer service bump! Hopefully their updated shipping charges will prevent anything like this happening again in the future because they do have so many interesting and cool things for sale. Thanks to their customer service department for taking care of this for me!

Continual descent into crap.
I have been a Thinkgeek customer for years and today finally did it. They lost a customer (two actually if you include my husband) for life.
I pre-​ordered the life-​size BB-​8 plush months ago. After repeated payment issues through the weird service they used for it, the order FINALLY processed! Yay, right? Hell no.
I received an email from UPS stating that multiple tracking numbers were generated for the package, so when they received it from ThinkGeek they could do nothing with it. The package never even it made it out of Columbus (their warehouse).
I contacted ThinkGeek immediately to see if they would send another because I needed this for the movie première as part of a cosplay costume, and the customer service rep informed me that because the warehouse «wasn’t doing things as fast as they should» he couldn’t guarantee that a replacement would make it to me on time even with overnight shipping… in other words, they admitted to their own complete incompetence.
Ever since the recent acquisition by GameStop, Thinkgeek has become worse and worse. Never again.

I am going to have to agree with all the other reviews throughout 2015. Their products are cool, but their customer service is terrible. I purchased 125.00 worth of items from their website and then chose expedited shipping, hoping that I would get it the next day. I realize that it takes time to process an order so I watched it, I saw the next morning that the order still hadn’t been shipped — it was still in «processing.» I clicked chat and got Leslie. I asked her if we could simply remove the expedited shipping from the order. If I wasn’t going to get the items the next day, I really wasn’t in a hurry, the standard shipping was fast enough, if I wasn’t going to get the items for another 5 days, I really didn’t want to pay $ 25. Leslie informed me that it wouldn’t be shipped until Monday, so they have ALL KINDS of time to fix this. Leslie said she had no way to contact the warehouse and change the shipping option — she said she didn’t have the phone number… It was clear that she didn’t even want to try, and REALLY, you guys don’t have the number to your warehouse? If I was trying to opt out of purchasing an item, I guess I could imagine that they wouldn’t want that, but something as stupid as shipping charges? I can’t believe that they were willing to lose a customer over something so silly and easy to fix. Call the warehouse, change the shipping option. They don’t lose anything. If they don’t have the number to the warehouse… then they need to get it.
I need to update this, shortly after I posted this review and took one of their internal customer service questionnaires, I was contacted by Heather and they issued a gift certificate for the shipping costs. I have to say, nice save. I will give them another chance. It looks like they are working on their internal controls so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again — hopefully I won’t need any customer service on my next order.

If I could give this negative stars I would. Why have a «Chat Live» option if the people tasked with «assisting» the customer not only have no clue what the company offers, but then blame the customer for not knowing? The quoted text is an actual copy and paste from a live chat (less the names of the parties involved, for privacy reasons):
«C: Let me look that up for you
Me: thanks
C: It sounds like you get the same one for some reason but that shouldn’t be unless
you have to select one and then the other
Me: so
Me: is there any way to do a manual order, where an actual person places the
order for two different ones
C: If you would like to place a call
Me: but then i cannot do paypal correct
C: like I said, try to select one and see if another option appears for the second one
Me: wow
Me: its obviously not going to work
Me: get someone else on the chat who can actually assist me
C: I gave you an option but you can just call and ask
Me: put someone else on the chat unless you are in a room by yourself, you have
someone who is above you in title
C: If there is not another selection for a second choice then odds are you get the one. I
am sorry.»
I found my items elsewhere and will never even consider this site again.

Like another reviewer, I too ordered an inexpensive item from Think geek… that $ 40 item ended up costing me $ 115 !!!
It wasn’t THAT cute ! I contacted the customer service line at Think geek, and was told that I would NOT be getting a refund if I refused the item at the door… (The customs charge was $ 35)
I asked to speak to a manager… and the agent said that he WAS a supervisor… yea right !
So…I asked again, if I did not want the item, what I could do… he said either pay the $ 35 at the door to the shipper for customs fee, then pay to return the item (which will cost more than the item was worth to start with)…or refuse the shipment, and still end up paying $ 85, because Thninkgeek will not be refunding me !!!
THIS IS RIDICULAS !!! How many companies flat out refuse to refund you, if you return the item ???
I WILL NEVER SHOP WITH THEM AGAIN…
****** I Encourage my fellow Canadians to NOT shop with them *****

Had an issue with a R2-​D2 USB car charger. It had been a gift a long while back. I had tried putting it in my MINI (but of course nothing really fits in my a MINI), so I just left it unplugged for a long while. Just today I fiddled with things and decided to try get it situated and working. The unit was malfunctioning however (R2 would not stop twittering and his dome span constantly) so I thought I’d try customer service — really just to see if I was doing something wrong.
Lesley on the other end of Live Chat was great. Very, very helpful. She managed to look up the long time ago order and offered to send a replacement. A really pleasant surprise. Thank you!

Just contacted them over an order with a mistake, and it’s probably one of the best customer service contacts I have ever dealt with. I ordered a r2d2 can cooler, got sent a metal earth flat pack instead, this is a present for my nephew and they dealt with the situation quickly and I’m just waiting for my replacement cooler now!

VERY disappointed, orders cancelled, web site not up to date, terrible customer service. STAY AWAY!

I ordered a gadget and for some reason it «didn’t go through» after I checked out with Paypal. Got a long confusing message about that which urged me to try again. I thought it was odd that they couldn’t somehow figure out how to make this transaction work but I persisted — I definitely have a problem with buying equipment that I kind of need. I decided I would not be deterred. Well, I assume the same random vortex happened the second time but I will never know officially — after I realized a week or so had gone by with no shipping notice I checked Paypal and lo and behold the second transaction was mysteriously cancelled, this time with no announcement to me.

Love their stuff — I think they are original but some of their policies are misleading. Please read below — I contacted them over this and the support simply disconnected like they don’t give a s***.
Kayla: Thank you for contacting ThinkGeek! My name is Kayla. How can I help you today?
Marcia Trein: Hi Kayla
Kayla: Hi Marcia!
Marcia Trein: I’m placing an order and even though my total is over $ 75 it is still charging me shipping
Marcia Trein: I had a $ 10 discount voucher
Marcia Trein: What is wrong?
Kayla: The reason the free shipping would not apply is that our promo codes don’t stack with free shipping or each other.
Marcia Trein: But it is still over $ 75 after the discount
Kayla: Our discount codes do not stack with free shipping. If you apply a discount code, it doesn’t matter what the order total, it will take the free shipping off.
Marcia Trein: I see. So basically my $ 10 discount is a $ 3.05 discount
Marcia Trein: Since I’ll be billed for shipping at $ 6.95
Marcia Trein: Ok
Marcia Trein: Won’t place the order then
Marcia Trein: I do not like misleading information
Kayla: I apologize for any confusion. If you would like further information regarding this policy, you may find it at
Kayla: Is there anything else I may assist you with today, Marcia?
Marcia Trein: Nope. I’ll write a nice review about this.
Marcia Trein: Thank you!
Kayla: You’re welcome. Have a nice day.
Marcia Trein: Have a great day. Think Geek has missed out on a $ 150+ order.
Kayla has disconnected.

I’m in agreement with all the other bad reviewers on shipping. Ordered a Zelda Journal, paid $ 7 for regular shipping (which is overpriced) and the book was a bit overpriced as well but I didn’t care, it was nice and I was purchasing it as a gift. A month goes by and it never arrived after 3 times contacting customer service and them shipping another journal for free that ended up at the UPS store 20 miles away. Absolute nightmare and complete waste of my time and money. I got a refund. I don’t see what’s so difficult about a company putting a book inside my mailbox when I paid for the book and their overpriced shipping fee. Incredibly incompetent company, I have no idea why GameStop advertises them on their website.

I noticed that the bad reviews were mostly from the 2014 Christmas/​holiday season. Yes, the shipping etc at that time was awful and I myself almost ended up with one gift short for Christmas. Having said that, the customer service agents that I talked with (3 at that time) were trying to help as best as they can and I like how attentive and friendly they were. When I contacted them again in the new year to asked about the promised gift certificate it took them 3 weeks and 3 e-​mails to reply, but when they did they solved it in a satisfactory manner.
PROS: The products are affordable and unique, and as gifts they were definitely a hit with the people that receives them. Much better than shopping the average Amazon/​Walmart gifts since ThinkGeek products are pretty much pre-​selected.
CONS: The wait and difficulties on contacting the customer service. The only way to get to them quickly is by phone on their land line number, and not even their 1 – 800 number. Live Chat took forever and e-​mails are very slow in response. This is the only reason I gave them 4 stars instead of 5.
I already planning to buy more items from them though. Love their products!

they definitely have some cool and unique things on the website, but seriously, their customer service– especially around the holiday season– really scared me off for good. I’m regretting that I bothered shopping here in the first place.
My problem is that I didn’t receive my order even thought tracking said it was delivered on December 16^th at 6pm.
Here are the number of customer service contacts/​emails I’ve engaged with:
1. Emailed them– no response within 48 hours
2. Live Chat — took so long to get a response. When I did get a response, it seemed automated and didn’t answer my original question. In the end, they took so long to respond that the session was disconnected.
3. Went on Facebook and emailed a different address, which does respond within 48 hours, however their customer service reps don’t seem to communicate with each other on the information or they don’t update their client accounts to reflect any progress.
— This rep told me they would give me a partial refund, and ship my in-​stock item free of charge/​shipping (however they did not choose to refund my original shipping costs), as well as a $ 10 gift card
4. Got an email the next morning stating that my in-​stock item was now out of stock. However, no information about getting that refunded to me. So I emailed again to request the remaining refund… why pay when I literally got NOTHING?
–Response: «Sorry for the confusion! Check your local post office. Here is the tracking number. It is sitting at the carrier».
OK, WTF does that mean? Does that mean no partial refund anymore? And Hello! I checked the tracking– it said it had been delivered but it wasn’t, or maybe it was and someone stole the box sitting outside the apartment entrance. Who knows! So they are basically giving me information I had to begin with.
5. Suddenly got ANOTHER email from a different rep, answering my the same question I had about refunding the remaining balance. He said he would refund it, and give me a $ 20 gift card.
–At this point I have no idea what to believe, because everyone says something different!
*****BTW: still haven’t seen the refund reflected on my statement. Emailed them again, and NO RESPONSE after 48 hours still. Oh… and those gift cards they said they were offering for the inconvenience… yeah…where are they? What a joke. I think I’d be more inclined to order from Amazon, even if it were more money.
Good luck when you shop here. Maybe they are better with customer service when it’s not a holiday rush, but I don’t plan on finding out.

I ordered an item on December 2^nd. They said it billed/​shipped December 6^th. I have not received anything. I emailed them and waited two days, no response. I called, but the wait time was 2 hours. I went on chat with a representative and waited an hour only for them to tell me that it was going to take another few hours.
Never again.

I placed an order on ¹²⁄₈ and paid for expedited shipping. I tracked my package and it is not slated to arrive until the 15^th? That is definitely not the 3 day shipping I paid for. I attempted to contact Thinkgeek for 2 days to no avail to see if we could come to some resolution about this issue.
There are plenty of websites that you can order quirky items from and I will be gladly using them moving forward.