MacKenzie-Childs Aurora — Attraction in Town of Ledyard

We have been shopping with MacKenzie Childs for years and love ever single item we have purchased. We have worked with many wonderful people in the retail store in Aurora and have always felt welcome, valued and treated like a good friend. However, recently there was a large turnover in the staff and although we miss many of the people that are gone we also really enjoy the new people in the store. The new store manager (Luna) is wonderful! I am not sure what brought Luna to MacKenzie-Child, but she could not be a better fit. She always has a smile on her face and is always so joyous! She is one of those people that just makes you feel good talking to her. I look forward to working with her for many years to come!

On a side note.. In my previous review which I removed, I had complained about extremely long shipping delays. That issue has been corrected. Telephone customer services does still seem to be a challenge for them. The agents do not provide the level of service that you would expect from a high end retailer and some of them are down right rude. This may be one case where they need to think about outsourcing it to get a better quality work force (like Jet Blue did). I won't even call anymore.. I just drive the 58 miles to the store. If i was rating the Phone customer service center I would give it a negative 5 if that...

We used to love the iconic barn sale- it was a yearly family tradition. This year we got emails and a postcard in the mail to go to the "in-store and online" barn sale. This was a major disappointment- we drove over two hours to the "in-store" barn sale, to find out it was in the small shop there. We were told outside of the shop to get on the website and look up the prices of things we want... nothing in the store had the "barn sale" price tags. Some of us couldn't even read the small print on tags to be able to look up prices... There was no one even helping us with prices in the store. And told to order it online (and pay shipping) if we want something not in store... Our whole purpose of driving to the store was to not be staring at our phones/online shopping while standing in a messy store. This was an awful experience. Just say its online only if that is the way it is going to be while standing in the store. We were told at the front door that the classic barn sale was too much of a hassle to ever do again- beyond disappointing. Besides this, the prices aren't discounted even closely to how they used to be. We left empty handed because it was such an awful experience for high priced items. We sadly do not plan on purchasing again because it is not the same brand as it used to be. So...

My wife and I decided to visit the McKenzie-Childs store in Aurora which we have done many times. We were disappointed with the lack of Christmas spirit from the staff at the store and was not even acknowledged when we entered ( it wasn't busy at all). My wife has been an avid collector of M-C pieces throughout the years so my wish was for her to choose exactly what she wanted for Christmas. Right away we noticed the prices have increased significantly from a year ago especially when they are over-priced to start with. In addition the store is expecting us to pay full price when their website is discounting just about everything between 30% to 60%, Where is the logic in that? What a disappointment for a customer to find out they paid full price for an item at the store when the same item on the online store is 60% less. This is a ridiculous marketing strategy, especially when the store sits right beside the factory. So with a combination of exorbitant prices, product made in China and poor customer service, we left without buying anything and will not return. Why should we. Seems like this company has lost direction on customer appreciation. I can see the problems with McKenzie-Childs, why...