Meet Hatchy…our naughy Hatchimal who refused to unlock and hatch. I guess just like babies, not all Hatchimals have the same birth experience.
In my last blog post, I shared Henry’s experience with receiving a Hatchimal and the magic of it hatching and “growing up”. This post is about Charlotte’s experience. She opened hers at the exact same time as Henry. However, hers did NOTHING. The egg didn’t light up or make one peep. It was not magical. Indeed it was quite sad. Having her younger brother running around chanting “MY Hatchimal LOVES me!” did not help the matter. My sweet brother-in-law was so distressed he offered to run right out to the store to get her a new one immediately. We all laughed because he has teenagers and no clue of the Hatchimals craze this season. If only it were that simple.
So we called Customer Service after examining everything possible. The phone line was not open on the weekend. We searched online for answers. There was no advice for what to do if your egg did nothing. So we finally packaged it back up with the hope of an exchange after Christmas. I took a final picture of Henry’s fully hatched Hatchimal and Charlotte’s in the box and tweeted the company as a last ditch effort.
The Twitter representative asked me to private message them immediately. I was finally in contact with someone! Based upon the messages we exchanged, I was under the assumption that we could not replace the Hatchimal if it was manually hatched. Therefore, we kept it packed back up in the box to await an exchange. Charlotte wanted to see it hatch. She watched her brother play with his correctly functioning Hatchimal all weekend and sadly kept asking if she would receive a new Hatchimal that worked. Charlotte was quite the trooper. She never once threw a fit.
On Monday I tried to call Customer Service at 10:00 AM as instructed but never got through. I tried again in the afternoon. I was on hold 12 minutes the first time to only be disconnected. Then I was on hold 27 minutes the next time before someone answered. Trevor the Customer Service Representative should receive an A+ for his customer care skills once we connected. He was kind, patient and understanding.
He explained that plenty of dysfunctional Hatchimals had indeed been returned and we would not have to mail ours back. Instead, we would have to “damage” it for an exchange. “Damaging” it began with manually hatching the egg and then writing our Case Number on the Hatchimal’s belly with a Sharpie so you could not resell it. We would have to email a photo of that and of he receipt in order to get a replacement. He opened our “case”.
Manually hatching the Hatchimal at home in front of Charlotte (who was now home from school) definitely took away from the magic of the toy. We did want a replacement at that point because it still was not responding and Trevor said it was most likely a faulty toy. I hung up the phone after receiving more istructions for our “case”. As one last suggestion (“but it probably won’t work”), I replaced the batteries…and it came to life. Of course.
At this point, Charlotte was very happy and immediately attached to her new toy. I explained the replacement process to her and as I moved closer with the Sharpie marker she flipped out. For real. Tears and all. She did NOT want me to write on the Hatchimal’s belly. But then when I explained that she would never see another one hatch, she cried even more. She was torn.
Looking back, I never would have made the phone call in front of her. I would have pretended to send it back so she wasn’t a part of that process. It tore her up. She couldn’t imagine “damaging” the old one. After thinking about it for a day, she decided she would rather keep the one we have that is now working with new batteries. She is too afraid of not getting the same one as a replacement because that was not guaranteed.
It’s a toy. She’s 7. She is very fortunate to have a lot of great things and not lack for much. But I must say, the customer care experience was less than perfect. Once I finally got to a human voice 48 hrs later after opening the egg that would never unlock or hatch, Trevor was great. These toys are THE hot toy of the season. Therefore, I truly hope Hatchimals does not leave parents stranded Christmas weekend if they receive a “dud” like we did.
The Twitter person mentioned receiving something “extra” if we manually hatched our egg to compensate for Charlotte losing that experience. I replied via email to the company explaining everything once we decided to not going forward with our “open case” for a replacement. I’ve yet to hear a response. That was days ago. At this point I don’t expect anything. It’s beyond obvious that the success of the Hatchimal product was way more than the company could handle. I hope they learn from all of it. I just want to forget it all.
So what do you do if you get a dud this holiday season? Good luck. If I were to go through it all again, I’m not sure what I would do. On the one hand, I wish we would have manually hatched it from the beginning so Charlotte could at least play with it. But we also got to see Henry’s hatch which was the coolest part of the whole thing. So part of me would have asked for a replacement without her even knowing or seeing the manual hatch process. Whatever you do…if yours doesn’t work, have a plan ahead of time! But here’s hoping NONE of you have this same experience.
We have a dud hatchimal too! And…of course…two kids. One worked perfectly, the other is dead. Customer service was not helpful to us. I think this company is going to have some trouble on their hands in 3 days when 50% of these don’t hatch.
Oh no! That’s such a bummer. I feel for you!!!
Had the same frustration but after 30 minutes I decided to put the key locks back inside and rotated a couple times and it started working. But if I took it out it would stop again, so I put them back in and it started glowing again. After 15 minutes of rubbing it started making a noise like wanting to rotate so I removed the pins carefully, then back in the back out slowly and it’s still working with out them. Hopefully this works for you guys. Good luck. https://youtu.be/zjpDqvJICXE
We just opened ours and it won’t do anything… think we got a dud, too. My daughter is so disapointed and customer service is closed.
Thank you for this post. My daughter is 6 and she received hers today. It started hatching and just stopped. She is being a trooper and playing with the egg 🙂 but I can tell she is anxious to see it hatch. Now I have an idea what’s in store, so thank you for sharing.
It’s Christmas eve and my daughter is crying ours is a dud too😭😯
Had the same frustration but after 30 minutes I decided to put the key locks back inside and rotated a couple times and it started working. But if I took it out it would stop again, so I put them back in and it started glowing again. After 15 minutes of rubbing it started making a noise like wanting to rotate so I removed the pins carefully, then back in the back out slowly and it’s still working with out them. Hopefully this works for you guys. Good luck. https://youtu.be/zjpDqvJICXE
We have a dud here on Christmas morning and not a lot of help from their online customer service who don’t understand that Australia and Austria are two very different places when providing customer contact information. They keep telling us ways to turn it “back on” without seeming to understand that it never turned on in the first place.
Well I have one very dissapointed little girl this Christmas morning. We must have a dud hatchimal too. No light, no pecking, nothing. Searched they instructions & online for g3lp but nothing. Don’t. Know what to do, hold out for & hope santa can bring a replacement or manually hatch it. Wish I had seen this post before now!!!
Such a bummer! Hopefully it hatched and you can still play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Same here! We got a dud! Also caused a HUGE meltdown from my husband AND my 8 yr old! What a way to start Christmas morning!! 😩😞
Such a bummer! Hopefully it hatched you can still play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
We thought our Hatchimal was a dud. It would not make a sound or light up. I took the two white keys at the bottom of the package and reinserted them into the bottom of the egg. I have them a turn. Only one side turned. The Hatchimal came to life right away. I removed the keys and my niece had a blast watching the egg hatch
It worked for us.
I hope this works for you too.
It worked for 10mins then stopped nothing now so very upset
What was the number you called? Email address you used?
I did everything the manual said that came with it. Not sure I still have that booklet… Check your box!!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
My daughters is hatching she is so excited my sons isn’t doing anything and my sister is trying everything to get him to start hatching and nothing!!!! Grrr
Our Hatchable didn’t work. So sick to our stomach as Santa only gives one gift. We manually hatched and it still didn’t work. We replaced batteries and nothing. I emailed this morning to get a case number and will call Monday.
Such a bummer! Best of luck with customer service. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Xmas morning and the ont thing my daughter really wanted wanted . Been loving it for an hour and nothing.
Such a bummer! Hopefully it hatched and you can still play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
We got 2 and one was also a dud.
Epic fail!!! Christmas morning our 6yr old daughter was so happy only to find it does nothing we got a dud !!! I guess the qaulity control on this toy is horrible
Ours is a dud too…my daughter is 7….its been pecking for 3 hrs….not cracking or hatching…I may just wrip it out of there…fortunately, my daughter doesn’t seem to care and moved on to amother toy.
Such a bummer! Hopefully you manually helped it and she can still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
My son just opened his….Christmas morning and the lights work and it is ready to hatch but won’t. 🙁
It is making a buzzing nose when the beak should be pecking the egg. No customer serivice on Christmas and I don’t know where my receipt is. Ugh!
Such a bummer! Hopefully he can still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
This is the same problem we’re having. It’s supposed to rotate and break the shell but it keeps falling asleep. It’s been over 12 hours in the hatching stage with no hatching! 😡
Oh no ! Christmas morning and we have a dud !!! Wish I would have read this sooner lol but happy I was able to find it so I didn’t hulk smash the thing lol
HA! Such a bummer! Hopefully you can still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Christmas morning and ours is a dud. So disappointed….
Such a bummer! I feel your pain. Hopefully you are still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
I have a dud as well. Christmas seriosuly ruined for my 7 year old. It’s the only thing she wanted and not a single thing happening
Such a bummer! Hopefully you are still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Thanks for your article. We have one good one and one dud. My daughter’s being a real trooper. We’ll have to contact them tomorrow and hope for the best. 🙂
Best of luck! Such a bummer. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Ours was a dud too. Hopefully,the reatiler will exchange it!
Customer Service did say we’d get one quicker going through them and not the retailer…but who knows! Good luck!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Us to only we have 1 kid and it has been very devastating to her to hear hers make noise but nothing happens she has tried for 5 hrs now tapping and rubbing and tapping only to hear it wake up make some noise then go to sleep.
Such a bummer! Hopefully it hatched somehow and she’s still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
I have a dud too over here with a 4 year old just wanting to ‘kick it’ to make it hatch. And no customer service for what probably 3 days?!!! 🙁
Such a bummer! Hopefully you are still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
I think we have one as well. She started hatching and now has gone completely quiet!!!! Christmas day no less!!!
Such a bummer! Hopefully it finally hatched for you. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Same here… No hatching… We hear it clicking in the egg but it’s definitely going through the motions but it won’t spin in the egg. Sucks that Spinmaster is doing almost nothing avout it.
Such a bummer! I agree. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Our 6 yr old daughter’so did not hatch this morning. Immediately out of box did a couple eye colors and noise for 5-10 min then NOTHING for 35 min. Then she awoke to rainbow eyes and music over and over and didn’t hatch for about 3 hours…finally took it out without even a pecking of the shell and she loves the toy itself thankfully…she mentions that she didn’t get to see hers hatch though:(
CHRISTMAS MORNING by the way
Such a bummer! But glad she’s still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
We’ve been working on ours for about 2 1/2 hours. And it will not hatch. My daughter is so sad and disappointed in this product. Bummer
Such a bummer! Hopefully she’s still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
I had the same issue. Waiting for about two hours, but still no life inside the egg. So I hatched it after reading your post “which was very helpful by the way”. Which only to find out that the batteries had died as well. I replaced the batteries and my daughter is very happy now. Even though we would’ve like to experience the hatching part, I am glad that she is happy. Thank you again for your post it really saved me a lot of hassle and stress.
Such a bummer! But very glad she’s still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
We have one and a 4 year old who is getting very frustrated that it won’t hatch, being Christmas Day haven’t even bothered to try the help line.
Absolutely disgusting product!
Such a bummer! Hopefully she’s still able to play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Such a bummer! Hopefully you can still play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Bith my son and daughter received their Hatchimals this morning…. my six-year-old cried because she was so incredibly excited!!! unfortunately hers is a dud wouldnt hatch out of it’s shell turn on or anything my sons on the other hand worked perfectly!!! Words can’t describe the sadness she feels being it was the ONLY toy she asked Santa for. I’m beyond disappointed at this moment and I’m sure by the time I get to call customer service tomorrow I’m going to be one of many disappointed parents with a heartbroken child!
How sad! I feel your pain. Good luck with customer service. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
HATE THIS! Such a bummer! Hopefully you can still play with it. Thanks for visiting Take 10. Happy Holidays!
Tricia recently posted…When Our Hatchimal Would Not Hatch
Had the same frustration but after 30 minutes I decided to put the key locks back inside and rotated a couple times and it started working. But if I took it out it would stop again, so I put them back in and it started glowing again. After 15 minutes of rubbing it started making a noise like wanting to rotate so I removed the pins carefully, then back in the back out slowly and it’s still working with out them. Hopefully this works for you guys. Good luck. https://youtu.be/zjpDqvJICXE
My daughters started to try and hatch then stopped so we manually haatched it but it still wasn’t working I’ve replaced batteries too still nothing I need to take it back to Walmart but I think I lost my receipt I hope the give her a gift card at least
What a pain! So sorry for your daughter. Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Hi, same situation here… it’s Christmas morning and it was a dud out of the box. Customer service was closed. I bought the warranty so took the chance of manually hatching it (sad moment) and changed the batteries…it now works! I’m wondering if there is a problem with maintaining battery life while stored.
Such a crazy problem for too many people. Hope your child still loves it! Thanks for visiting Take 10.
Same here my 4 year old is so sad. Opened box and it doesn’t do anything. Very disappointed. On Christmas no less.
Junk! 2 kids, 2 hatchimals and only 1 works. 1 wont even power up at all. pull the pins and nothing. Waste of Money! you buy these for the egg hatching experience and not a 60 dollar stuffed toy!
I heard our egg crying days before xmas as I was moving the box from one car to another. Today when she opened the box, it would cry but it did not hatch. We had to break it out of egg and all it does is make a shiver noise and eyes turn red and says huh me. No matter what we do, it just repeats it actions. I’ve tried resetting and also turning it off and nothing changes.
Hi Evelyn, i have exactly the same problem! Please let me know if yours comes right? i have tried everything from changing batteries to re-setting – still nothing! Getting slightly tired of hearing the same sound over and over again!
So my daughter is aware it is suppose to take about 30 minutes to hatch. So she opened it and started playing around 11:30 this morning. It is now 4:54pm and it responds, yawns, lights flash and she has not stopped except for about 10 minutes. So what do you do if it doesn’t hatch??? She sooo wants to watch it crack out of its shell. Any help.
We thought ours was a dud too. Almost all day after unboxing, it wouldn’t do anything. No sounds, no lights, nothing. My 6 year old daughter was ready to manually break the egg just to play with it. I didn’t want to go that route given that we woke up at 4 am and stood in line for 6 hours to get this thing. As a last ditch effort, I twisted/spun the egg in my hand so it would spin inside until the original holes that the key lock thingies (that’s the technical term in case you wondering) were lined up. I re-inserted the key lock and turned it several times. I did it to both holes and like magic, it started working. I think we pulled those locks out too fast when we unboxing it so it didn’t “initiate”. By re-inserting the locks and turning them, the batteries were able to make a connection. I hope this helps some of you because I was pulling my hair out over the whole ordeal. I totally understand your frustrations. Good luck with them because I know you all just want to see your kids happy and you probably busted your tushies to find one. Happy holidays!
Our Hatchimal comes on, plays for about 5-10 minutes, then goes to sleep! We dont turn it upside down or anything. When it goes to sleep, it is like totally dead, will not respond, will not do anything.
I stick the little key/screw thing back in the bottom, turn it, and it wakes back up. 5-10 Minutes later, it goes right back to sleep. We have spent about an hour now, repeating this process over and over and over, just hoping it will wake up. However, so far, it wont.
SUMMARY? We have a dud too! Pretty disappointing.
Piece of chinese crap!
So, we had the same issue, dead out of the box. No sounds, no lights, nothing. Decided after reading your post (thank you so much, by the way) to manually hatch it. Changed the batteries and it was still non functioning. I was about ready to give up when I remembered the plastic pegs that needed to be twisted when unpacking him originally. So, as a hail Mary of sorts, I tried manually inserting them into the bottom slots they were originally removed from. After a bit of feeling around one of the slots felt a bit “stuck”, for lack of a better word. I have it a stern twist, felt a pop and our hatchimal sprung to life!
Today I was crowned Super Dad, if only for a moment 🙂
Hello everyone. I saw this post and wanted to let everyone know what we did with what appear to be a dud hatchimal. The one we got for our daughter did nothing at all. Not a sound or anything. After reading this post we decided to manually hatch the toy. After removing it from the egg, the hatchimal did nothing. We replaced the batteries and nothing. We wanted to make sure that the locks where completely removed so look at the bottom of the toy and seems like the holes where clear but there is a little lever inside that you can see with a flashlight. I stuck a pin on the hole and pressed it and the toy came a life. Not sure if this will help others out there but maybe some of you can at least get the toy going even if it didn’t hatch.
Best help ever I saw a little metal thing in the egg and tried and tried to use the keys but they were getting shredded. Took out a meat thermometer and started pushing on it and boom a happy kid. Thanks
Same issue as many. 1 good egg, one bad. The “bad” egg worked for 15 minutes then stopped. We tried the company’s website troubleshooting for 3 hours. Then we found this page. After reading this page my son said he was willing to “help birth it”, as some hatchimals just may not be strong enough to do it on their own. Right as he peeled the top of the egg off the eyes lit up and it started singing! He is so happy now. Thank you for giving us the inspiration to try a “manual birth”. I feel for those where it did not work, having dealt with crying eyes for hours. Good luck to you all and God bless.
We took ours out of the box and it did mothing. It did not light up, make a noise, change colors..nothing. Did I do something wrong? Am I doing something wrong? Help!
We took ours out of the box and it did nothing. It did not light up, make a noise, change colors..nothing. Did I do something wrong? Am I doing something wrong? Help!
Had the same frustration but after 30 minutes I decided to put the key locks back inside and rotated a couple times and it started working. But if I took it out it would stop again, so I put them back in and it started glowing again. After 15 minutes of rubbing it started making a noise like wanting to rotate so I removed the pins carefully, then back in the back out slowly and it’s still working with out them. Hopefully this works for you guys. Good luck. https://youtu.be/zjpDqvJICXE
Mine also won’t hatch have read every trick on you tube and post very sad 4 year old begging me to call Santa to have his elves make a new and fix at her house 🙁
After 3 hours and one disappointed little girl, I shook the Hatchimal rather violently while cursing a tad bit. That little woke right up. I suggest giving this a try before sending it back.
After about 3 hours, and one disappointed little girl, I shook the egg rather violently while cursing a tad bit, then it woke up. I suggest giving this a try before sending it back.
We tried to hatch our hatchimal all day. It finally started hatching after 5 hours. It made 5 pecks and quit. After the rest of the afternoon trying to get it to finish, we manually opened it, replaced the batteries and got it to work…the only satisfying thing is our 5 year old grandaughter wanted a green one and that’s what she got.
We have two duds. For being the toy of the season it’s a huge frustrating disappointment. The company owes a lot of us explanations. Don’t waste your $.
One of the shipping keys seems to reset the hatchimal if it has stopped before hatching. Ours had orange and yellowish eyes. In reiterated one of the shipping keys that we were instructed to immediately throw away. You’ll have to realign the hatchimal with the key holes in the base, by rolling the hatchimal in the Shell. Press the key in both holes and remove to restart. Good luck.
I’m having a terrible morning. I have 2 girls, 2 hatchimals. One is hatching the other one stopped working. One girl happy the other one is crying. Customer service keeps disconnecting. On hold for 15 minutes recording says to call back or email. Stood on a line @ 3am at target to get now to have only one working. I tried putting the key locks back but it’s not aligned anymore. I don’t know what to do. This company should of posted something up to know what to do in this situation
Seems like I wasn’t the only parent saddened by this extremely hard to find toy. I might have been a little more excited about this Hatchimal then my daughter was because I new the hoops I jumped through to obtain it. Anyways our little guy was a dud all morning. No lights. No sounds. Nothing. I did not want to manually hatch it to change the batteries. I had already set my alarm for bright and early to be the first at the only store in town with “1 in stock” for an exchange. Anyway, My daughter is fast asleep and I decide to play “Dr. Dad”. Pull the package out. Took a deep breath and started from the beginning. I re-inserted the plastic pins after vigorously shaking the egg to ensure the holes lined up. Spun them once…the little bastard woke up. 130 in the morning and he’s wide awake. I put him back in the protective plastic and flipped him upside down to “put him to sleep”. Hopefully he’s still alive when my little Hatchimal wakes up.
We are having trouble with ours too – it’ just keeps cycling through the eye colours, it taps twice then goes back to eye colour change, we found that we got a bit more aggressive with handling it it started to tap and rotate, did the twist method that I found online a few times. When handling it we tossed it gently back and forth between our hands, flipping it over, after a few min it’s sort of breaking the egg, it does go back through the different eye colours so we play with it more, we wonder if the sensor is not as sensitive, hope this helps anyone
Same situation..after a half hour of handling it it started cyclibg through all of the colors so we thought it was hatch time..nope. i could hear it trying to spin though so i figured it was stuck ..the hatchimal needs to spin around in order for it to peck…so i shook it and turned it sideways with one hand ob the top and one hand on the bottom…then i spun it around a few times..it started to spin and peck after that. In our case i think it was stuck and just needed a little help gettibg unstuck.
Same issue here two eggs one hatched after three hours one started pecking and just froze. One kid happy one kid devastated wish I would have used them both for target practice and never introduced my son to this heart break
We thought ours was a dud too. I finally found the answer on Reddit. Keep the plastic “keys” attached at the bottom of the egg. Reinsert and twist this should get your Hatchimal starting up or if it pauses in the egg this will restart it. Ours paused a few times but came back to life when we inserted the “keys” it eventually functioned normally and hatched without any problems. I hope this helps!
We got one as well. She is only 3 so of course she wanted to see it hatch right away. I explained it could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. We got 1 peck and a crack after about 20-25 minutes. I tried to help it along like the directions explained, as did the 3 other people here. Nothing. Tried the keyhole deal and still nothing. Finally after a couple of hours and her being a frustrated toddler we broke him out and he sang the happy birthday tune. Now he just wants to sleep all the time but does interact as supposed to. Bummed we didn’t get to see him hatch but I guess if she is happy with it that is all that matters.
Hi Everyone, We also had to manually hatch our egg. We took the plastic off the wings, and the bird has not sung Happy Hatchday yet – it only makes one single (annoying) sound everytime you press the belly. Anyone else having this problem? Anyone have a solution?
Wow. Shame on some of these comments that Christmas was ruined over a TOY. Ours too didn’t work, which is how I found this article. I can’t believe the commotion made over a toy. Here’s some perspective…I lost my baby two weeks before Christmas and my best girlfriend lost her mom Christmas night out of nowhere to a massive heart attack. Feel better now over your TOY? Get a grip.