FAQs

What if I go on holiday?

If you are planning to go on holiday, you are welcome to take your current hired toys with you, providing you will continue to treat them with care (e.g. not damaging them due to inappropriate use in sea or sand). If you will be away when we are due to deliver, you can keep the same toys for an additional four weeks at 25% off your normal Toybox fee; we let you do this once in every 12 month period.

Alternatively, you can suspend your subscription for a month. We will collect your toys on your collection date, but not drop off your new MerryGoRound Toybox. Four weeks later, we’ll deliver your new Toybox and your subscription will continue as before. We charge a nominal fee of £2 for this suspended month to keep your account active and cover the delivery and collection costs which we still incur.

To keep your current Toybox or to suspend your Toybox Plan for four weeks, give us a call or drop us an email at least 48 hours before your next delivery.

What is your Toy Care Policy?

Treating our toys with care and keeping them in the best possible condition is an essential part of the MerryGoRound Toys service. We ask that you read our Toy Care policy carefully.

1. Unless a toy is a bath-time toy, MerryGoRound toys are not for use in water.
2. Unless a toy is a high-chair toy, please do not allow children to handle the toys with food.
3. Unless stated, MerryGoRound toys are not for use in mud, sand or dirt.
4. Customers are encouraged to keep toys clean by wiping any toys that are visibly dirty (eg. covered in food, dirt, etc.) before the toys are returned to MerryGoRound Toys.

Any toy that is returned heavily soiled ie. covered in food or corroded with sand or dirt may result in any additional cleaning fee of £2.50 per soiled toy. If the Supplier is unable to clean a toy returned by a Customer so that it can be rented out again, we will return the toy to the Customer and the Customer will be charged the retail or wholesale cost of the toy (as determined by MerryGoRound Toys) plus the cost of postage or delivery.

How do you clean your toys?

All toys are thoroughly cleaned with a 100% natural, hypoallergenic cleaning product. Fabric toys are machine-washed in non-biological washing liquid wherever possible, or surface cleaned with a solution of this liquid.

How do you check my toys are safe?

We only select toys from reputable suppliers - the kind you’d find in the very best toyshops. We always advise you on the appropriate ages for a toy, and provide you with any relevant warnings or additional information with your toy when it is delivered. You should ensure you read all the packaging supplied by us so that you are aware of these safety warnings or instructions.

We check all our toys before and after they are hired to ensure that they are still safe. We never repair toys in case it jeopardises the safety of a toy. We have been advised on our safety checking procedures by the UK’s leading toy safety expert to make sure we are being rigorous.

In addition, we remind you to keep toys out of the reach of younger children for whom they are not suitable.

And did you know that most toy accidents in the home happen because toys are left out after play? Why not involve your child in tidying them away: it’s safer and much less work for you!

Why are there numbers written on my toys?

We label all parts of our toys to help us keep parts together and manage our range. Labelling parts also helps you to identify which toys are yours and which you need to return to MerryGoRound Toys, especially when toys are very similar. We’d like your opinions on our labelling, so please get in touch.

Isn’t having new toys all the time teaching children to use once, throw away?

We accept that children often get bored of toys fairly quickly, and MerryGoRound Toys offers you the chance to satisfy your child’s appetite for variety without wasting money, time or the planet’s resources. We think it’s a great opportunity to teach your child about recycling and sharing, and we hope you do, too.

What happens if my child breaks a toy?

MerryGoRound Toys selects robust toys intended for normal play by normal children.

It’s worth noting that many of our toys are wooden, a material which can be dented, knocked and chipped by rough play. We accept that this is an inevitable part of your children’s enjoyment of the toy, and we will not penalise you for normal wear and tear such as this.

However, should a toy which left our warehouse in a safe and sound condition be returned so damaged that we are unable to hire it to anyone else in the MerryGoRound Toys community, we will usually charge you for the retail or wholesale cost of the toy (as determined by us), plus any administrative costs associated with replacing the toy (e.g. postage or delivery).

We may waive this charge in certain circumstances, so please do call us on 020 8150 6631 if you break a toy and we can talk to you about the options available.

Please note that the age of the child playing with the toy can affect the likelihood of it getting damaged. Some of our toys are recommended for play only by children who are over three years old; as well as the safety issues around small parts, toys for older children are often less robust than those for younger children. Please do bear this in mind if you are requesting a toy labelled unsuitable for under threes via your Toys I’d Like list. We always recommend that the safety guideline that a toy is unsuitable for children under 36 months is respected.

What will the toys I receive look like if you’ve hired them before?

The essence of MerryGoRound Toys is that toys are shared within the MerryGoRound community, with many families gaining enjoyment from a toy before it reaches the end of its useful life. It is therefore inevitable that toys will show some wear and tear. This could be small dents or chips to the paint on wooden toys, scuff marks or minor scratches. None of these signs of normal use jeopardise the safety, cleanliness or enjoyment of your toys, and we hope you understand that this is in the nature of our service.

You can help us to keep all our toys in the best possible condition so that they look as good as possible for as long as possible: choose appropriate toys for your child’s age, keep them basically clean, and don’t use them in inappropriate places (eg in mud or wet sand, or non-bath toys in the bath).

If you are ever unhappy about the condition of your toys, please let us know straight away.

Can’t I get toys like this from the toy library for free?

Many towns do have toy libraries, which are funded through grants and other subsidies and often staffed by volunteers. They provide a valuable service to their local communities, sometimes for free, more often for a small charge.

MerryGoRound Toys hires toys through a different system, managed entirely online and delivered to your door. We specialise in more unusual toys that you wouldn’t necessarily find on the high street, often with strong eco or ethical credentials.

What if we lose a part?

We provide you will a full parts list when we deliver your toys. We encourage you to keep this on your fridge or noticeboard so that you can easily check off each piece when you get it ready for collection. We ask you to include this inventory of parts when we collect. If any part is missing when we check the bag or box, we will let you know. You then have four weeks to find the missing piece without any charge.

If after this time you haven’t managed to find it, we will charge you the lowest possible fee for replacement of the part or the toy as needed. Some of our suppliers offer a free replacement parts service and we will only charge a £1 admin fee; at the other extreme, some of our toys are handmade and spare parts are not available, which means we unfortunately need to replace the whole toy. In this case, we will only charge you the same amount as it costs us to replace it.

Can I buy a MerryGoRound Toys subscription as a gift?

Yes! You can purchase three-box and annual subscriptions as gifts. At the moment, you need to call us directly to set this up. We’ll then send the recipient a gift pack with a unique code to allow them to set up their Toybox Plan at their convenience.

How do I pay for my Toyboxes?

When you subscribe to the MerryGoRound service, we set up an agreement with WorldPay, who manage our credit and debit card payments. Your agreement is called a FuturePay agreement; an account is set up for you with WorldPay and, every time we deliver your Toybox, we will charge the card that you first registered with. When you subscribe, we take your first Toybox payment only; after that, we only take payment on the day of delivery.

WorldPay will send you your account details when you subscribe. If you need to change your card details or any other information, you can log directly into your WorldPay account to do so. If you cancel your subscription, we cancel this FuturePay agreement with WorldPay.

If you have any questions about your billing or WorldPay account, please email .

Can you tell me more about FuturePay?

FuturePay is a service from WorldPay, who are a large and well-respected company managing internet payments. You’ve probably come across them on other sites before. FuturePay means that you set up an account with WorldPay to pay for your Toybox every four weeks. You might notice that your subscription says “No Limit” in all sorts of places; this is so that you can vary the level of your subscription if you wish to, or add additional one-off products (when available) without having to set up a new payment every time. You can be sure that your payments are completely secure: they are all managed on WorldPay’s servers and we do not hold any of your card data ourselves, or have access to it. If you need to change anything about your card details, you will need to log into your WorldPay account, details of which are on the email you receive from WorldPay when you first subscribe. If you have any other concerns or questions, just email us on .