Baby clothes - sooooo expensive!

[BuyBabyClothesLtd]

Here's a tip for you!

OK, so it's actually a cheap shot at advertising but new baby clothes are so expensive nowadays!

If you're looking for quality, affordable, nearly new baby clothes try www.buybabyclothes.co.uk.

Happy shopping

[Janeway]

BuyBabyClothes - I hope you've paid your subs to this site, you do realise it runs on voluntary contributions only.....

Dirty trick if not, using other peoples hard work and trusting/giving nature to gain free publicity for yourself - IMO thats bad publicity and will make it unlikely that I'd shop there.

Post again when we can see your name on the subscribers board

[Willow2]

Couldn't put it better. Pay up or bog off.

[tigermoth]

Just out of curiosity, is there anything on the home page to tell traders that they must pay mumsnet before advertising their wares on the talk pages? I think they should pay, but how clear is this to traders who log on to mumnet for the first time? And the last time I read the talk blurb, there was no mention there of traders paying anything either. Have I missed something?

[BuyBabyClothesLtd]

Be fair!

I was upfront and honest about my intentions. I could easily have pretended to be a parent offering advice to other parents.

The idea behing the company is to enable parents who can't afford quality clothing for their child to get hold of them at a fraction of the cost of new clothes. This is a valuable service to a lot of parents.

If you look at the website you'll see that our only advertisment is to support the NSPCC. We do not ask a fee even though I could receive good money from other advertisers. I want to promote the fact that we care about the welfare of children and their parents. It's not just about making money.

My company, like mumsnet, will only survive if people use the service. Many parents benefit from our products and services, as do NSPCC, at a time when they need it most.

The fact that each of you even entered into a discussion about the price of baby clothes underlines the message that baby clothes are far too expensive. I'm trying to address that issue for those less fortunate that cannot afford the cost.

I write this in good faith and offer my apologies to those that take offence.

James King
Director
Buy Baby Clothes Limited

[Rosy]

Err...nobody "entered into a discussion about the price of baby clothes" on this thread. Or am I missing something?

[SofiaAmes]

If your company is not a charity, then you should pay your subscription fee to mumsnet if you want to use it as an advertising medium for your company. Lots of for-profit companies offer useful services to the less well off (eg check cashing companies and pay-by-installment mail order companies), that doesn't make them somehow more saintly and therefore exempt from normal business practices.
And by the way, us mumsnetters are not so dumb that we wouldn't have noticed you pretending to be a parent offering other parents advice.

[Bobbins]

cheeky bastard!

[Bobbins]

hmph....must pay a subscription myself

[Willow2]

Nobody entered into a discussion about the price of baby clothes. Looking at the list of all recent postings, we all noticed your first few lines admitting that your post was actually a cheap shot at advertising - that's why we bothered to reply. To be honest, and here's a real tip, when I want affordable, nearly new baby clothes I hit my local charity shops. Gap yellow raincoat (rrp £40?) £2 in the National Missing Persons Helpline shop today. Designer two piece snow suit (rrp £60) - £4 Cancer Research Shop two weeks ago. And no, I do not have a vested interest in either of these two concerns.

[tigermoth]

I looked on the home page to see if small advertisers are told they need to pay a fee to advertise on talk. I can't find anything that says this.

If they read the following 'You don't have to join to dip into our database of recommendations.... what's to stop them?

I then looked under 'advertising' but this mentions things like banners and promotions, and seemed aimed at big advertisers, with classified advertising a future possibility.

So it's easy for small advertisers to slip throught then net either innocently or 'accidently on purpose' for a bit of free publicity.

Which one applies to you to you Buybabyclothesltd? Was it a genuine misunderstanding?

Whatever, anyone can see there was no ongoing discussion on this thread (started by you) about the cost of babyclothes. First mention of money is about traders subscribing.

[JamesK]

Just to set the record straight...

Janeway / Willow2 - I've been trying to subscribe to mumsnet, and pay the voluntary subscription fee, since yesterday but there is a glitch in the website that won't allow me to complete the subscription.

Tigermoth - thank you for your valid point (which seems to have been overlooked) that there is nothing on the Home page, or anywhere else that I could find, telling traders not to enter a discussion topic.

Rosy - you are in a discussion about the price of baby clothes. See Willow2's 2nd comment posted 14th Sept 11.24pm.

SofiaAmes - My Company is not a charity but we do make money for NSPCC and all clothes that we won't sell online we give to charity. Your comments about cheque cashing companies - they take money for each cheque they cash. Pay by instalment companies - they charge too much for new goods then take even more in interest from those that can't afford to pay up front. They also encourage 'credit' which is a slippery slope... Neither are 'offering a service to the less well off' they are taking advantage of the fact that they have no choice and take even more money from them as a result. Wether you agree or not Buy Baby Clothes Limited saves money for parents and doesn't abuse their position.

KS - is it too difficult to believe that some companies actually believe in the service they offer? We are not trying to pass ourselves off as humanitarians but we do everything we can to support parents. Woolworths does not offer a service. It is a shop that will sell everything it can to whoever it can at the highest possible price. We sell at the lowest possible price. There is a big difference. Would you not agree that having a baby is the time when money is tightest for most parents? I would argue that our company is 'in the interests of poor parents when they need it most'.

Bobbins - cheeky I may be but I do know who my father is...! I'm glad that, if nothing else positive comes from this discussion, you've remembered to pay your subscription...!

Willow2 - I'm not sure how you can speak for everybody to say that you 'all noticed the first few lines'. I personally only look at the heading in blue to see if the topic is of interest. Thanks for the tip! I'm glad that you're making the most of charity shops to buy your second hand baby clothes. Have you considered that it might not be possible for some parents to get out and about with their young baby/ies? Also, you might have the time to hunt around lots of different shops to find a bargain when others may not. The two piece snowsuit sounds expensive to me. You could have bought it online for £3.25 and saved yourself the hassle. And it would have been posted to your home address. And you could have had hundreds of other items to browse through at the same time from over 100 different manufacturers. I'm just trying to underline my point about the service that we offer.

I'd just like to point out that we only launched 6 months ago and it wasn't cheap to do so. It is a difficult time for all new businesses and, whether you choose to believe it or not, we do offer a valuable service to a lot of parents. Instead of dismissing my company, and it's concept, why not use it to save yourself time, money and hassle. If not for those reasons then you should at least take a look at what you're arguing against.

www.buybabyclothes.co.uk

James

[glitterbabe]

I would have thought that parents who are seriously short of money probably would not have the money to buy a computer, let alone buy affordable clothes to order from your website in the first place!

[Enid]

Alright James, you said yourself it was a cheap shot at advertising, you don't have to bleat on trying to justify it. Thanks for the tip, but honestly I would have thought most mums just pop into charity shops or local nearly-new sales for second-hand baby clothes.

[bayleaf]

Hey! I'm with Batters I think we're being a bit harsh here - he HAS taken the time to explain his situation and whilst he is clearly a commercial poster and thus shuld have paid first - he wouldn't necessarily know that and he is offering to pay now - plus his company ( whilst commercial) certainly seems as though it could help parents who are hard up ( and people who don't own a computer often still have access to one - friends/work/cber cafes...)
I'm off to look at his website!

[Bobbins]

If I were James I think I would have gone through another channel. Perhaps he should have asked the moderators if this was an appropriate space to post this advertising. It was posted somewhat covertly as ks says, and thats likely to get peoples backs up.

As to your paternity James, please don't be so literal.

[JamesK]

glitterbabe - it's not just about cheaper clothes. It's about the ability to get out of the house to go shopping. It's about not having transport because your partner uses the only car for work. It's about having an ill baby that you can't leave the house with. It's about having 2 or 3 or even 4 babys that are too much to cope with on your own. It's about the lack of time that parents have when bringing up a baby. It is also about the cost when parents can't afford to drive/bus/taxi to the local charity shop. What if there isn't a local charity shop? What if they haven't got what you're looking for (which is highly likely). What about giving parents options and choices? It's also a fact that 36% of the UK adult population buy online and they're not all wealthy enough to afford all the costs associated with childbirth.

Enid - I'm not trying to justify the use of advertising within mumsnet (I hope I've covered that by now). I'm trying to justify the concept of the company which I, and all the employees, care greatly about. I'm here on Sunday working away, just trying to gain some support. If you've ever owned your own company you'll appreciate how important it is to you and all those that are involved. I'm not looking for a sympathy vote I'm just saying that it's important to me that everybody understands what I'm trying to achieve.

Batters - Thank you.

KS - I appreciate that you may have concerns about a 'male trader' discussing topics within Mumsnet. Please don't forget that I'm a person too though. I hate to disturb you but have you ever considered that you never really know who your discussing topics with anyway? Anyone can register themselves as a mum on mumsnet and discuss anything they like. Period pains, breast feeding, the birth, underwear, conception etc. Don't think that there aren't sickos out there that could well be discussing this with us right now. Not everyone in the world offers integrity and honesty. I have. As I've mentioned this is no longer about advetising, it's about my attempt at making something of myself and all the time, effort and money that I've put into it. If you don't find my 'arguments' convincing then fine. You don't have to belittle my company. You don't have to believe me when I say that I've been trying to subscribe. Perhaps you would like me to email you the error message I am receiving from mumsnet? I have clearly stated we are not a charity and I've not promoted the company as a charity in any way. I have only mentioned that we make charitable donations in self defence. I deliberately wrote the initial topic in a lighthearted way. I didn't expect the torent of negativity and abuse that ensued - "bog off", "cheeky bastard", "his little subject/business", "yeuch". I'm simply trying to defend something that I believe in. I am happy to forward/post feedback that I have received from parents supporting the service that we provide. "Invaluable" is one word that has been used.

I appreciate that I've obviously 'intruded' without being warned that this type of discussion is not welcome. I've apologised for that. I've tried to answer every attack with an open and honest answer. I've tried to explain that there are many other parents out there who may be less fortunate who should be considerd. Overall, I've tried to promote a service that I believe in from my company. If you're still against me/the company/the concept then there's little more that I can say or do.

I wish happiness and health for you and yours.

Regards.

James

[SueDonim]

Surely if anyone wishes to advertise then they should at least ask permission first. There is an adress that James could have contacted Mumsnet on, to ask about advertising - [email protected]

Also, I might (but there again I might not) have taken a look at the site, if James had done a proper link to it. It's really quite easy, as you can see here .

[JamesK]

SueDonim - very clever nickname by the way and thanks for the tip on adding a link:

Buy Baby Clothes Limited

FS - I'm sorry that you feel that way but when in a corner you fight fire with fire. I'm simply defending myself and my beliefs.

[Bobbins]

"I'm a person too though"...ahhh

Good Grief