It's a sore toy store story

Elaine Pritchard, of www.HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk, wants to round-up the brains behind the latest toy shortage lark and teach them a lesson.......they can start by ringing for cinema tickets.

Being a mum is the most stressful job in the world, researchers have confirmed.

So the last thing we need is people who make our lives even more difficult, right?

Tell that to certain elements connected with the latest cinema blockbuster Toy Story 2.

My hit list as it stands at present is:

• The brains behind the automatic telephone ticket-ordering line at my local cinema

• The toy companies and their PR sidekicks who think we're stupid enough to fall for that: "Whoops, sorry we haven't made enough" -excuse.

• Toy stores who make money hand-over-fist out of us already and yet don't do anything to stop us being at the mercy of either of the above.

My saga started when I tried to book tickets to take my daughter and two of her friends to see Toy Story 2.

Knowing it would be busy I rang the automated telephone order line at my local cinema to book tickets by credit card.

I sat there for ten minutes listening to all the options and pressing number 1, then number 3 etc. etc. as instructed.

I keyed in my credit card number and its expiry date, the date I wanted to go, the time I wanted to go, the number of tickets I wanted...I listened as my chosen options were read back to me.

"If this information is correct, press the number 'one'," said the voice.

I pressed.

Then came the killer punch: "I'm sorry this line is being updated. Your credit card has not been debited. Please try again later".

I tried three hours later.

Exactly the same thing happened.

I tried next morning. This time the telephone number rang out unanswered. Not even the nasty recorded voice came on the line to torment me.

With just four hours to go before the start of the showing we wanted to see, I was back on the telephone, this time pressing number 1, then number 3 etc.

Half way through, a second recorded voice joined in, repeating everything approximately 20 seconds behind the first voice. But I was told me selections were confirmed, my credit card would be debited and my tickets would be waiting for me.

They were. Just twice as many as I wanted.

"It's gone through twice for some reason," the cinema worker helpfully explained.

"I'm not saying it's your fault,"he added.

Too right, you're not matey!

Anyway, LOVED the film. It is better than the first Toy Story, as the critics say. But now my second vision of hell began to unfold.

My daughter was 10 three days after the cinema visit, and when I was struggling to think of an extra present the week before, my on-the-ball husband suggested a Jessie the Cowgirl doll fromToy Story 2.

"It was the must-have toy when the film came out in America," he said.

I ummm-ed and aah-ed, and decided against it. At 10 I thought maybe she was just too old.

Then I saw the film, and tears pricked my eyes as feisty, rootin', tootin' Jessie showed her softer side with a poignant song and flash-back all about how her owner had grown up and grow out of her.

Thinking about my own about-to-be-in-double-figures, pre-teenager sitting next to me in the dark, I began to crumble.

(It's a "mum" thing, all right!)

I knew then I HAD to buy her a Jessie doll - for me as much as for her - as a last goodbye to the childhood almost gone for good.

Which is why I spent Sunday morning chasing round every toy store - when I could have been listening to The Archers omnibus - getting the same answers everywhere.

In Mickey's Magic Kingdom, otherwise known as The Disney Store, one peppy assistant came close to getting his lights knocked out when he said: "It's like Buzz Lightyear all over again. They haven't made enough. Some more have been ordered. We're expecting delivery in about six weeks."

Then it all came flooding back to me. I didn't fly to America for a Buzz Lightyear doll when the first Toy Story came out - but I know parents did. Then there were Power Rangers, Teletubbies, Furbies - and before that Tracey Island and Cabbage Patch Dolls.

Do they really think we're so gullible that we will believe THEY are that stupid?

A plague on all your houses, I cursed as I stomped out of Toys'R'Us after another failed foray.

But the day was saved by the wonder of Woolies. With no hope left I mooched into good old Woolworths for inspiration...and there she was, smiling down from a shelf..Jessie in her cowskin trousers and stetson. Waiting for me.

And yes, my daughter loved her when she opened the box.

I sighed with relief.

This was surely the last toy trauma I would face with my daughter.

The only problem is...she's got a 15-month-old little brother.

Anything that really gets your goat, or just pushes your buttons? Heaven or hell, tell us about it.
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