to expect a proper apology fro Mothercare for appalling service

[ChrisandChristina]

I have vowed never to use Mothercare again.

A sales assistant was so rude to my wife in their Brighton shop that she was reduced to tears.

The manager was useless when I complained to her and simply waffled on about investigating the incident I.E standard meaningless management speak

When I complained in writing to Mothercare customer services they sent us a £15 gift card to 'offset our disapointment'.... what an insult.

I will never spend another penny with them.

Just wondered if this was common for them and what experiences other people had had there.

Thanks for all the opinions.

The only clarification I would add is I was not agressive or impolite to the shop assistant because in my opinion that would undermine any complaint. That's just not how I would behave, but appreciate that you were not there so only have my word for that.

I would defend my wife to the end of the earth and no one has the right to upset her. Please don't suggest that she's being petty as again that's not her. To go down that line is pretty rude so please choose your words i.e 'grow some balls'...really?

Also, the 'desperately needed' comment refers to the breat pads she was also buying as her nipples were leaking like taps. I appreciate that it did not come across this way in my post though.

All I ever wanted was for someone to apologise to my wife... I don't give a monkeys about compensation or such like. A gift card is no good if you're not going to use a shop again.

Anyway... off to enjoy my wee one and don't intend to get wrapped up in this. Thanks again

one the one hand yabu - the gesture of goodwill voucher was sufficient imo.

BUT

on the other hand i have also suffered at the hands of mothercare customer disservice and find their attitide so completely unreasonable and frustrating because they have the monopoly in most towns on maternity/baby equipment and i think they exploit it.

i have seen the haridans in MC reduce people to tears in the plymouth store in the past and they did it to me over my pushchair (thats another story though)

if i ever see a campaign against mothercare crap service i would support it

It's lovely that you would defend your wife to the ends of the earth - I really mean that.

And no-one has the "right to upset" anyone else. All we are saying is that perhaps your wife needs to be less easily upset. As a mother, she needs to be strong and independant (not always rely on you to fight her battles either)

I think that any loving husband would go into full attack mode seeing his wife deeply distressed, regardless the reason for her distress.

However, I think that the level of upset displayed by your wife was disproportionate to the incident. I think that a chat with the hv/gp may be in order as she has recently had a baby and it is important to rule out pnd.

She didn't have to argue the toss, she didn't have to create such a fuss, she could have just accepted what they were telling her instead of, basically, calling them incompetent or liars. They said the items weren't in the offer. Not a big deal - REALLY not a big deal.

Your wife carrying it on and working herself up is really not rational behaviour.

That is not to say that mothercare handled it well or were polite or professional. It sounds like they were not.

But arguing the toss over something totally trivial and working yourself up to uncontrollably sobbing is not rational behaviour. I can see that you love your wife deeply and I think you should keep an eye on this.

I wouldn't defend anyone to the ends of the earth unless they were actually in the right. In this situation no one was.

yes she needs to grow some balls.

There was no neeed for her to kick up a stink and get upset (fgs) because she couldnt get the tops at the same price as last time.

And they sell breast pads in other shops

Op: you sound like a total arse and I feel sorry for the sales assistant who had to deal with your hysterical wife.

I've always found the service in
Mothercare very good.

blimey,ive not long "given birth" and my dh would be mortified if i did this in a shop.And desperately needing the tops when she had already bought a load before,come on mate,just cos you have a new baby the world doesnt have to fall at your feet.There are bigger challenges ahead my friend mark my words.

Lol ledkr - mine too. I could not imagine being with a man who posted like this on mumsnet either ( I wouldn't be )

Although this thread has made me laugh - they sound like the - 'we've had the holiday from hell' - couple on 'come fly with me'

Lololololololol

well yes,ive been up all night with reflux baby so my composition needs to be rather more hardy at the mo.
My dh would walk out of the shop if i kicked off but then again if i kicked off id need no support hahaha
Yes to Peter and Judith

What hecate said

You'd 'defend your wife to the ends of the earth' for the right to cry if she doesn't get her way? Good luck with parenting (please don't enrol your child in my school>)

Hecate; with the greatest respect you're wrong.

Any loving husband would not go 'into full attack mode' - regardless of the reason - most men would be a bit embarrassed if his wife totally flipped in mothercare, and try to calm her down telling her it's no big deal, ( which it isn't ) not jump straight in and make things worse.

There are sometimes good reason to get over emotional - this ain't one of them.

Just asked my DP what he'd have done. He said he'd have given me a big cuddle, taken me home and made me have a lie down while he looked after the baby.

I believe him totally as this is what he did when 3 days after I had DD and we went to sainsburys for supplies I had a meltdown coz an old man "looked at me funny" Yes really. I was right btw, the old man did look at me funny. But I did look like death warmed up so totally understandable really.

As he said, "stupid thing to get upset by. Nah, I wouldn't have gone back in there and thrown my weight around. Not worth it."

I just dont see why it was such an issue. In most shops sale items that were originally part of a 3 for 2 are no longer 3 for 2 if they are not full price anymore. A mistake was clearly made by the shop with the first transaction and that was explained.

Ive worked in retail where head office can get really narky about mistakes being made with prices so I can actually understand why there was a bit of a 'do' with the staff between themselves over it.

I can top Mothercares appalling service, they gave me the wrong pram, a cheaper older model which only came to light when I went to buy car seat adapters for it and they didn't fit.
So I'd paid £459 for a pram they were selling off for around £300 and they offered me £25 compensation.
Needless to say I refused to leave the shop until it was dealt with and they ordered a replacement to be sent out after 3 hours of discussion, whole time me stood at the till with a 6 week old baby, not offered so much as a chair.
I think the broken record technique works best, be clam and just keep restating your case and follow them if the walk off.

I think mothercare telephone people are completely brilliant.
I had the urban detour double buggy with the cycle wheels when dc were young. On third trip out on school run, we got a puncture five minutes away from house. I had six year old, sleeping 19 month old, and four week old newborn with me. getting us all home was quite traumatic, as i had to leave the six year old alone with the newborn whilst carrying the toddler home first, then the newborn and six year old, and then leaving them at home alone whilst i went back for buggy.
with no double pushchair, i couldnt get out of the house to get to the shop to get the wheel fixed. not even in the car, as i couldnt carry a newborn and hold onto a 19 month old at the same time.

I called mothercare to complain, the lady there sent me a new wheel free of charge next day delivery. I had it within 14 hours of the call. thats good service in my books

I don't understand why your wife would argue over the price of a top, generally speaking if something is in a sale it is no longer part of an offer.

Just because she got lucky the first time doesn't mean she was going to get lucky the second time.

I think your wife took this too far.

If your wife had just said okay fair enough but you made a mistake the first time, that would have been the end of it.

But to keep harping on over what is in fact pennies is pointless.

She can buy other tops elsewhere.

You, your wife, and your MIL made yourselves look like a hysterical bunch of numpties. You most of all for behaving like some pompous arse who assumes the customer is always right, when in this case, you werent right, and should have shut up when you realised you got a bargain in the first place.

You should have led your sobbing wife away, sat her down, and told her that it was a top, other shops sell tops, she didnt NEED to have that top, and if she really did have to have it, then pay the extra for it. Absolutely no need to behave in the way you did.

Wow......Mothercare didn't handle the situation particularly well, but what a massive overreaction on yours and your wifes part! I actually feel a buit sorry for the sales assistant.

Op you and your wife totally have my sympathy. I can't understand posters telling you you're being over the top. The first right of a customer is to be believed. Even if 90% of people are outright lying on returns etc you have a right to be believed unless proven otherwise; so first thing that would have got me upset is when your wife produced a receipt as proof of her prior purchase and: "She disputed this and stated that it could not have been the same top because the code was ?clearly different?." Despite the fact that it was clearly the same top. This basically comes down to accusing the customer of lying. And then waving the receipt in front of your wifes face and getting someone else to come and check the details is both agressive, rude and again the same as calling your wife a liar.

I had a similar experience which I remember to this day in B&Q. I brought back a blind and was told that I had cut it when i hadn't. I kept saying I didn't, but kept being told I had. I remember at one point saying "you're basically accusing me of lying then" and he said "No you're calling yourself a liar" I started to get more and more upset and did cry through anger. Well he brought the manager down who did the sensible thing and measured the blind and then said "customer is telling the truth!" But I never got an apology!

You deserved an apology, but knowing the other assistant was pregnant would have made me put some of her behaviour down to hormones. The best revenge you can get now is to go back to the same MC store and get exactly £15 of free stuff with their voucher. If it hits them financially they're more likely to take it customer service seriously.

the important thing to remeber is how ever much the top cost a sales assistant is on £6 an hour probably working in crap conditions EVERYDAY with strict managment guide lines to follow

you are just one customer they see tons everyday but now you have really marked yourself out to be remembered
but i bet you havent emailed managment to compliment good service reacently have you? you take it for granted

fwiw i was a sales assistant (till last year) for years and got talked down to , shouted at, complained about for little non issues like this even at 9 months pg with ds i was shouted at at a customer for folding a coat wrong the other staff whilst were polite to the customer were appaled at their colleque being treated this way

i was doing the job to go through uni to get a degree to help "better" ds and i's life i was/am not scum to be talked to as such just because we are difrent sides of the counter - a little politenes will ALWAYS get you good service - oh and its true about not giving out full names for instance you could find her on face book/ phonebook

you overreacted massivly and i just hope you dont want to buy anything in mothercare any time soon

if your wife cant cope without sobbing whilst encountering a minor shopping insident she really should be at home

oh and btw mothercare sent me out new hood rods for my 5 year old moses basket when i lost them in storage recently FREE NEXT DAY DELIVERY

and when the cot i got from them arrived scratched they sent me a whole new cot FREE NEXT DAY DELIVERY

and the girls spent about 2 hours showing me baby equipment when i popped in one day - not hard selling but genuinly helping

oh and one last thing for this awfully spelt long post tesc sell breast pads much cheaper ( but you probably dont shop there ) oh and totally peter and juidith

Oh Good Lord - what squeakytoy said!!!!!

It was a misunderstanding about a top ffs - nothing that warrented the massive over reaction you just described!

Best post of this thread so far?

Gemsy83 Sat 12-Mar-11 09:22:05

You sound like a pair of tits tbh. First child im pressuming?

Classic.

I still think you are all being harsh.

The thing is, all this couple wanted was the shop assistant to say, look we may have sold you this at that price yesterday but that was a mistake and it's not actually in the sale. Such an answer doesn't take much and will suffice in most cases.

It would have driven me nuts to have to stand there and listen to an unprofessional to and fro about who has put that is the sale without telling her. Completely unprofessional and unacceptable. And the nonsense about the different codes even though she was clearly wearing the same top. It's tacky and bad customer service.

It seems to me that all the shop assistant had to do was apologise and nobody would have moved on. The shop were at fault for selling the top at different prices. The OP's wife didn't demand it at yesterday's price, she just seems to be looking for clarification. And with leaky breasts and a few days old baby I think most of us were prone to tears.

I wouldn't have cared if they'd have sent my a gift card for £500! I would rather have had good customer service in the first place but I'd never expect it at Mothercare.

Chris, put it behind you. We're all a bunch of hardened old hags here and this is an internet forum. If you wre personal friends most of these posters would be symathising, especially with your wife! My tip? Enjoy fatherhood and shop at John Lewis instead.