Toysrus.com CEO Blames Snafu on Several Factors

Toysrus.com’s chief executive, giving a more complete accounting on Thursday of the online company’s holiday troubles, said the potential for late deliveries after Christmas affects less than 5% of orders and is the result of overtaxing a new system.

John Barbour said the company, which made its online debut in earnest only this season, suffered the triple hit of computer glitches, mechanical breakdowns and tremendous customer demand.

Barbour warned affected customers on Tuesday night that some gifts might not arrive as promised, in time for the holiday. The incident was a public embarrassment for parent Toys R Us Inc., which has struggled to create an online presence while battling sagging store sales.

The problems for the Web site began the first week of November, when a tenfold increase in Web traffic temporarily shut down the site, locking out hundreds if not thousands of would-be visitors.

Barbour said the company then faced a break in its new Memphis, Tenn., warehouse’s six miles of conveyor belt and a computer glitch.

Analysts suggested the company should have warned of its problems before a Tuesday night e-mail, but Barbour said Toysrus.com believed it could still deliver.

“Being a parent myself and having shopped on the Internet . . . I felt we should put it out there and pro-act,” Barbour said during a break from talking to unhappy Bay Area customers. “There’s no question there’s a number of people we’ve disappointed. What we’ve tried to do is minimize that disappointment by giving people time to react.”

Barbour sent $100 Toys R Us coupons to affected customers so they could make alternate gift choices. The letter, which he made public on Thursday, also assured recipients that they could cancel their orders any time.

“Satisfied customers are our lifeblood, and I would hope you could forgive us for this very frustrating experience,” Barbour wrote in his letter of apology. “As a father of two little boys, I can fully appreciate the annoyance and frustration that this letter will cause.”