Ambassador Toys

While this store has a wonderful selection of toys their customer service is horrible. I purchased a small remote control helicopter as a Christmas gift. It didn’t work– at all. I lost the receipt but fortunately (I thought) had left the price tag which clearly said «Ambassador Toys» on it. I paid with a credit card. When I went to return they would only give me store credit.
It was defective merchandise that they sold to me. I should have been able to get a refund.
An earlier experience I had with them was when I asked a salesperson if they had any doll carriages. I was told no and then turned around and saw one clearly on the floor.
I’m not giving them any more business.

The crew at Ambassador Toys in West Portal made shopping for my boys exceptionally easy and pleasant. Ask about their frequent shopper program.

Great toy shop with products I feel good about buying. I don’t have kids of my own, but I come here to buy presents for the kids in my life. I just ask the sales clerks for help, and trust their opinions. So far, so good.

Ambassador toys is A-​okay! Tons of selection, friendly service, open days a week and free gift wrap! In response to the gentleman one star rating below about not accepting $ 100 bills– in their defense, and owning a retail business– those fake pens don’t always work Sir. I have received $ 100 bills that mark as legit and ended up taking them to the bank and lost money. When you own a small business, a loss of $ 100 hurts, so as I do understand your frustration when you have been burned year after year, it takes a toll. I stopped using those pens about two years ago. Stop in at Ambassador Toys, fun for parents, fun for kids!

Very sorry to have to write this review but, my experience was not good. I like to support small local businesses like this one-It’s close to my neighborhood and I’ve used it for years. Plus they offer gift wrap .
I went in search of supplementing my godson’s Thomas the Train collection. I met a really nice sales associate who was knowledgeable and very nice. I selected two sets which totaled about $ 160.00 bucks certainly not inexpensive but, they are made of wood. I went to pay for the two parcels and the sales associate said I’m sorry we don’t accept hundred dollar bills. What? Hmm… Just one of these toys is a hundred bucks. How can you not accept $ 100 dollar bills. Don’t you have a marker to test for fakes like every business in San Francisco? I had the exact change. One hundred dollar bill and three twenty dollar bills. It couldn’t be simpler.
She asked if I wanted to go to the bank to get change and come back? No, You’re kidding right? You have the audacity to ask me to go get change to give you the denominations that you prefer for your pricey goods? I think not. Maybe you should go get me change? Remember I’m shopping in your store–
The request could only have been more annoying if she’d asked me to pay in shells or rolls of coins. We live in a modern and very expensive city-​Cash is frequently in large denominations. Make it easy for your clients to pay in cash-​as a business owner you should welcome it–
There is no processing fee dipping into your profits-​like there is for credit cards.
Invest in some markers that detect fake bills. This was such a turn off-​I won’t go back. I’ll take my business to Corte Madera-​A Child’s Delight-​where they take large bills.
What a waste of time. Really frustrating. Not smart business. I hope the owner reads this post.
The’ve lost a good customer and all of the people that I won’t be referring.

My experience is that adults unaccompanied by children get poor service. Today, I went into this store to buy 3-​D glasses and magnifying glasses for 4 nephews and nieces. I had phoned two days before to make sure they had these in stock, and been assured that there was good selection of cards and books with 3-​D glasses included, and that they had real magnifying glasses.
When I walked in this morning, I was ignored by both saleswomen, who effusively greeted people with children. When I asked for help, I was brushed off. First the salesperson showed me some very ugly brightly-​colored plastic magnifying glasses. Then she said they had no 3-​D glasses. I said I’d been assured over the phone that they had cards and books in stock, and she very grudgingly took me to a card rack with ONE card, which had tear-​out paper-​framed lenses attached, and hurried back to the absorbing task of re-​arranging toys in the rack nearest the door. When I asked about the books, she said that she knew nothing about those; the other woman silently shook her head.
This is the second time I’ve had such poor service at this store, and the last. I can get excellent service and high-​quality stuff from Growing Up, just a few doors down on West Portal, so it’ll be that and
in future.

The store fits perfect for meeting any child’s toy needs.
There are lot of board games, action figures, dolls, balls, and stuffed animals to choose from. When you walk into this place you immediately notice the bear to the left, cool! The store is spread out well in that you go from section to section.
The board games are cool. There are a lot of new games that I have never heard of but I think they are a lot more challenging in that they require a lot of critical thinking in order to win. I read a few of the boxes and the seem interesting. I was actually looking for CLUE but they did not seem to have it here at this store.
The toy trucks are fun. Tonka trucks are always fun for outdoor play and outside fun.
The dolls are an interesting mix here. There are the high end dolls and then everything else. The high end dolls are in a glass casing and they are very nice and they the other dolls are spread out through the store.
I really liked all the stuffed animals. I saw a stuffed lion in the back of the store that was hanging out like the KING of the shop.
The science section is the only area that could use some expansion. The size of the store is already small but expanding this section could be beneficial.
A solid toy store with lots of options. Bring the children here and let explore.
#fun

I love supporting my local businesses and this store was no exception. I frequently shop at the Embarcadero store for gifts for my nieces and nephews. Today I decided to shop at the West Portal location. I had somewhat of a negative experience.
I asked for a gift receipt (as I always do) and was told something about how they don’t need one and can scan the barcode. Ok… that sounded like BS to me, because I ALWAYS get gift receipts from the Embarcadero location.
Then the employee wrapping the gifts asked me if the puzzle was mine. No… I purchased a doll. I really hope she wrapped the correct toy and that I went home with the correct gift.
On top of that, I just checked Amazon and for 20 percent LESS I could have gotten the same toys and free shipping. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind ordinarily because, as I said, I support local businesses, and I have loved my experiences at the other location of Ambassador Toys. Their customer service was always top-​notch. But today leaves me feeling angry. Why did I spend more on toys to have less than good service?
Will I go back? Maybe. Perhaps it was an off day. Maybe the employees were new or not well-​trained. Maybe next time will be a better experience. But I won’t be going out of my way.

For the sake of the environment and our local communities, I am a big supporter of brick and mortar stores and try to really limit my online shopping but I’m really struggling these days to justify:
Fighting traffic on 19^th, looking for nonexistent parking, parking 3 blocks away, dragging my 2 year old said 3 blocks, to pay 20% more for an item compared to online retailers, to be told my potty trained 2 year old cannot use your bathroom.
Next time I’ll tell my kid to pee on your floor. Sort of serious. You kind of deserve it. I will do my best not to visit your store any more for our 4x weekly birthday party, baby shower, etc etc obligations. Thanks!

Overpriced toy store, limited selection of toys, and poor customer service.
2 stars for location and free gift wrapping.

Great childhood memories. This store has everything my kids like. Old school to new school.

This has to be THE if not one of the BEST toy stores I have been to!
The most unique selection of toys you will ever find! Lots of toys that go back to when I was a child and enjoyed myself.
The staff is also beyond amazing here. Caitlin, the manager is such a delight and really knows her stuff and products in her store extremely well! She is also very friendly and interacts amazingly well with all of my kids (ages 2 – 10). She even gave my 2 year old daughter an Ambassador Toys sticker! She was thrilled, so nice! I’ve been in many times for my 6 year old son, 92 year old mother and everyone inbetween and there has never been a time that I have not found something great with her help. I would rather pay a little more for the great experience and interaction with staff and the store then go to a chain store where nobody cares.
I also had an incident at the Embarcadero store (do not go to this one!!) with an employee who didn’t seem to know at all what she was talking about, extremely rude! I had to say hello THREE times in order for the girl to look up from her cell phone! She didn’t even seem to want to be there at all!
When I arrived to West Portal Caitlin and her staff apologized for my experience at the other store and encouraged me to come back. Although I will never go to the downtown location again I will definetly go out of my way just to go to the West Portal store from now on!
Thank you Caitlin! Best location BY FAR!!!

After an afternoon at Clancy’s Pumpkin patch, my son and I decided to head over to Ambassador Toys to spend the rest of the afternoon. I told him he can choose 1 toy since he’s been doing well in school. He has always been into cars, planes and trains since he was a year old. But since we have a zoo membership and we visit a lot, he loves little zoo animals so we found a great farm animal set with the help of a really friendly sales associate and settled on a small kit for him to bring home. He is so in love with his toy set and shows me each zoo animal and mimics the sound each one makes.
We ended up leaving with two toys (farm animal set and truck) and then headed out for pizza.
After pizza, we passed by the toy store again and he wanted to go back in. This time, he found a 49er’s airplane and since we are HUGE niners fans, he picked it up and asked if he can exchange the truck for the plane. I went ahead and made the exchange and my son loves this plane so much we brought it with us to our mini weekend getaway a couple days later and he carries the plane everywhere.
This toy store has many different selections of toys that you can’t find at your local target or toys r us. Adorable store and I love stopping by when I’m in the area. So does my son. Metered street parking is available but on weekends you may find yourself circling around the block a few times to find a spot. I docked one star because it is a bit pricey but definitely worth it because you find high quality toys.

Cute store with lots of great choices. Overpriced and poor customer service. Will not shop here again.

This store if I was a kid would be heaven! Legos! Airplanes! Stuffed animals. Rockets! Kites! Coloring books! You name it. They got it!
Huge fan!

love every thing about this store, i bought some fuzzy dolls and sticker books for my nieces, the store manager was nice and tried to help us aswell.
they could add more action figures from different brands tho.

Came here after I went to Growing Up. This is my go to store for my younger cousins, since I live around the corner. They don’t have a wide variety of Legos, but since I was shopping for my younger cousin I was looking for something cute, or fun, or both.
I settled on a stuffed animal of a dog since she’s always telling our family how much she loves dogs.
I like this store because I can go in and browse and not feel pressured to buy anything. I mean, sometimes I just want to see what’s the latest and greatest toy for kids, since I like to spoil my cousins.

Came here for some Christmas shopping and was pleased with so many choices.
I was looking specifically for some magic toys and was pleasantly surprised to find a large selection!
For those looking for more mature toys, science related things, there’s a cool dark section in the back dedicated for science experiments, glow in the dark stuff.
The only irk I have is the service. There’s a lot of newer student staff here and one of them especially just has a nonchalant indifferent attitude every time I ask her for some help. It’s not very obvious where you can react in retaliation and really call her irritating but she certainly showcases a mentality where she’s just working for an hourly paycheck and is waiting for her shift to end. These are the type of workers that really kill a family friendly store.

Very cool toys store for children. Not really adult or teen friendly as the selection is not so exciting to me.
That said, there was a few item I purchased for myself and my son that were very cool. I got the BAT from the last Batman movie! YEH
But the 3 items we got were almost all the cool stuff for my age and 9 year old. Friendly staff, Great selection of baby to 7 years of age?
There is a cool little black light room in the back with some cooler stuff but need to enlarge it so kids like me will spend more cash.

THIS IS A REALLY GREAT TOY STORE. They also have books and games to expand the mind.
it is as near perfect as you can get.