Frustration

I have two sets of baby monitors. One for each kids' room and two receivers for each -- one set in our bedroom and one set in the basement. It took some tinkering to get them to work as the frequencies have be set just right to not cause too much static. The system has worked pretty well -- until the battery died in one of the Fisher Price receivers.

I spent part of yesterday going to stores trying to find a replacement battery. I went to Radio Shack first and then finally Wal-Mart. I finally bought something that looked and sounded right, but I got it home and it didn't fit. Damn.

Today I called Buy Buy Baby first who doesn't have any batteries in stock. Then I called Target. The nice lady on the phone (who most likely lives in India) took my information and product info and said that the Fairfax Target has 50 batteries in stock and if they didn't have it, certainly Fair Lakes or Skyline would. So I got to the store, full of convinction, only to find out that they haven't carried it in months. The not particulary helpful sales clerk begrungingly called Fair Lakes who had "something that might work" but he couldn't promise anything. Damn. I looked on Fisher Price's Web site and they don't offer parts. And the instruction manual says to call Fisher Price to get another battery, but naturally they're not open. Grrrr.

Why do manufacturers do this crap? Can't they just settle on a type of battery and make that the industry standard? And why do stores like Target sell products requiring batteries that they don't carry?

Update: Turns out, you can buy spare batteries through Fisher Price. Not that that's obvious on there. If you Google the monitor and battery replacement, the 19th thing that pops up is a Fisher-Price page where through the third page, you can buy replacement batteries for $3.50. I ordered two, just in case.