A Product Review: Elmer's Go Paint! Products

I had an issue with K-'s Elmer's Go Paint! Travel Pad when we were on vacation. The product itself did exactly as was promised. The problem? The portion that held the paint pens closed to easily and didn't open without prying on it with two adult hands. Not a good product designed for a child for self entertainment while in a car during long vacation drives. "Mommy! It closed again!" Yes, I heard that a lot on our vacation.

Then K- was given the Elmer's Go Paint! Mess Free Dry Finger Paint. It comes together as a kit and I've seen it at Target for $7.99. I'll tell you exactly what it is. It is powdered eyeshadow to rub all over paper to crumble and make a giant mess. Now, I'm not bothered by a child making a mess. I have a sweeper. I have cleaners, but this was chippy, chunky and in her bedroom. Had I known that it was going to be such a chunked up mess, I would have had her do it in the kitchen. It said mess free. Who would have guessed?

So, I wrote to Elmer's. I told them that I had contacted them previously and hadn't gotten a response. Here's what we have going on:

-----Original Message-----
From: questions@elmers.com [mailto:questions@elmers.com]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 10:31 PM
To: Comments
Subject: Elmer's Web Site User Question 1/26/2009

Sadly, I'm very disappointed in your Go Paint! products. I contacted your facility not long after our vacation to let you know that the travel pad is insanely difficult to open, but way too easy to close. I loved that product, but it kind of defeats the purpose when down the road you keep hearing, "Mom, it closed again!" It was hard for me to open!

My daughter received the dry finger paints as a part of a Christmas gift. She just used them this evening. They are absolutely horrible. I would hardly term them as mess free. The powder falls free from the container and chip-chunks very easily. Not to mention that it doesn't show up on the paper very well. It isn't as dark as your front package photo would suggest. Huge bummer.

I was very sad that I hadn't heard back from you on my last feedback. Crayola e-mails
with answers to questions and even follows up. Perhaps you should take a chapter from
their book.

Unsatisfactorily yours,

Amy - - - -

Dear Amy,

Thank you for contacting us regarding Elmer's products. Unfortunately our database does not show any record of the previous email you mentioned.

We are sorry that your recent purchase was unsatisfactory. At this time, it is difficult for us to say what might have happened to cause the Go Paint products to fail as you described.

We want to assure you that our quality assurance personnel make every effort during the manufacturing process to ensure that only the highest quality product is released to our customers. This includes several inspections at various steps in production and a final check of sample product after it has been packaged.

We appreciate you bringing this situation to our attention and assure you the appropriate quality and manufacturing personnel will be informed. We will be happy to send you some replacement products, which should arrive shortly. We appreciate your past patronage and look forward to serving you as a satisfied consumer in the future.

Sincerely,

B-
Consumer Response Analyst

I have to tell you that Crayola is absolutely rockin' with their customer service. I've had to contact them on two different occasions-- one that we had a kit missing parts and another was about markers we received from Toys R Us in the Geoffrey's birthday celebration. (I couldn't figure out how to make them work and they required special paper, which was provided but I didn't know since K- had them in two different places.) Not only do they answer your questions, they make certain that you are happy and follow-up! Way to go Crayola!

So, I'll keep you updated on my Elmer's Go Paint! resolution. In the meantime, I don't suggest it as something to purchase. The paint pad is great, but had packaging issues. The finger paints just flat out sucked.

P.S. I give up on the spacing issues. I've gone into HTML and can't figure it out. Just look at it as a change of pace today.

Edited to add: I received a package from Elmer's on February 2. What did they send me? The exact items that I complained about. Apparently, they are very confident in their products and really want us to try them again. I'm happy to have another travel pad, but the dry finger paint? Mmmm. The disaster it was is still too fresh. It might take me a while to give that one a whirl again. However, they do get a thumbs up for trying to resolve the issue. Very speedy.