awful customer service from well known nursery and childrens shop

[emark]

First post so here goes,
Would i be unreasonable to email this to mothercare i have 4 young children so have spent thousands with them
"I am totally appalled and disgusted with the shocking customer service received from mothercare.
we purchased a jive stroller and accessory pack for our hols then subsequent weekly use at nannies, this was purchased 30/07/2011, the stroller back support broke rendering it useless last week, i emailed you saturday asking if i could return it to store and pay extra to upgrade. No reply to email. I returned to store earlier today to be told as it is older than 28 days it can only be fixed, order spare part which will take 14 days or return to supplier could be 28 days. was told in store it was not there problem we would be left without stroller. Have consequently lost the £40 i paid for it and had to spend a further £130 on a better model. I think your whole attitude of we dont care is totally disgraceful. I shall be sharing this with other friends on internet froums i use."
What would you expect as a response from them???

Well I'm expecting my first baby and honest to God despite it being one
Of the first places you think of, I have already decided to never ever shop there due to the terrible service feedback they get! I mean honestly how are they still in business?

All you ever hear is how shit they are

I would miss out this bit: "I shall be sharing this with other friends on internet forums i use." It just comes across as a bit childish. A bit like "I'm telling on you" IYSWIM?

But YANBU to detest the place. Crap service and, with a few exceptions, fairly awful staff.

not a lot really, they will explain that the buggy needs to go back to manufactuers to get looked at and a replacement part sent to you. Most 'baby' places have this policy i think. Yes its bad luck but at least they offered to repair it. I am surprised they didnt offer you a cheapy buggy to borrow though.

My SIL ddnt have a buggy for 6 weeks while they 'repaired' hers.

I found mama & papa much better service - when they messed up an order (only delivered 1 cot not the 2 i ordered) they sent my twins over £100 worth of toys/teddies as an appolgy for them having to share a cot for a week.

There are past threads galore on MN about the sheer awfulness of Mothercare. In fact there was a journo from Sunday Times a few weeks back who asked people for their opinions and the answers were devastatingly negative. Feel free to send them the mail if it makes you feel better, but you're unlikely to achieve anything by it. Mothercare has clearly gone well past the point of caring.

They HAVE to (by law) give you your money back even if you don't have a receipt regardless of how long you have had it for.
Tell them you will take it to the press if they don't refund you.

YANBU that Mothercare is a totally shit shop. Totally overpriced, not very clean, staff not helpful.

But what sort of response would you expect? They never made you buy a more expensive stroller. Its a bit irritating that you were left without the buggy for up to 28 days but if you have four kids I'll bet you have at least one other buggy you could use.

I dont think they do - as long as they offer to repair it - which they have.

SoGAct - google it and check your statutory rights! Then walk back in fully armed and angry.

Notblinkingguffalo, Thats not true.

They don't have to refund you anything. The goods that they sold have to be fit for purpose. But you need a receipt, particularly if its not a mothercare own brand, how would they know you bought it there if you don't have a receipt.

THanks for the advice, yes i do have another buggy but it is a large m & P and does not fit in nannys car boot at all without removing wheels and seat unit, just assumed they would allow me to purchase a different stroller and refund faulty one. Will google my statutory rights ready for the reply within 24 hours.

You don't have to have the receipt. You may be asked to show some evidence you bought it there (credit card/bank statement) but your statutory rights ^do not require you to produce the receipt.

I had receipt, guarantee booklet and instruction manual, is a mothercare branded stroller will only replace in first 28 days. What is a reasonable length of time to use these for?? ie fit for puropse 6 mths 1 year???

It isn't fit for purpose but they are giving you your rights by offering to repair it. They are doing what they have to do, I can however see how fristrating it is for you.

I bought a mothercare pushchair and the folding mechanism failed after the 28 day 'deadline'.
It was about 8 months old. It collapsed as it was being pushed squashing DD in the chair.
They wanted to repair it and I didn't want it repaired (welded back together) and told them that if they welded it was likely to break again.
I had a long debate conversation in store and asked them if it was really with their while facing a court case should it cause DD serious injury in future, not to mention the negative publicity. I just kept repeating the same thing.
Eventually, when the manager realised that this calm but repetitive conversation was unlikely to end without my getting a refund, I was given my money back.
Don't give up!! Go armed with your consumer rights, talk politely but don't let them get away with it.

I read an article that said Mothercare were struggling because there was much more competition from other high st. stores, especially for childrens clothes, but you'd think that would just make them try harder to win customers.

I remember when Mothercare were a really good store, their clothes were modern and reasonably priced, they only sold their own brand products which were innovative and popular. They prided themselves on helpfulness and customer service.

I can't see them lasting much longer as they are. The Mothercare superstore local to me used to be a Childrens World owned by Boots. I think it would be better if it still was.

It's awful that you can't just swap it - I imagine it's non repairable anyway, they're cheapy strollers, they'll probably bin it and give you a new one, but i don't know if they'll then let you swap that and pay to upgrade.

I'd have had it out with them before buying the new one tbh. They have awful CS, I know, they just get away with it being a big brand.

I shop there only with cynicism now - that is, other brand goods only, or ridiculously cheap sale stuff.

are they still owned by Boots/ELC?

I don't think Mothercare are long for the High Street, either.

They are doing the bare minimum that the Law requires of them but unless they offered you a 'replacement buggy if yours breaks' deal when you bought it, they're under no obligation to provide this.

Just don't set foot in there again. They and the ELC deserve each other unfortunately, as they both specialise in overpriced crap that invariably breaks.

emark we had the same problem.

It seems mothercare do not know their own guarantee policy with regards to pushchairs and strollers.

I had to go in with a printout of their policy so they would provide me with a stroller whilst the other was being repaired.

www.mothercare.com/b/42960041

www.mothercare.com/b/42960041

OMG, why would you spend so much money?? try Amazon next time!

Hubby was highly amused when their chief exec bod announced he was standing down and the share price rose in response recently.

I've only braved it once (won't buy anything yet since I'm not out of first tri) and was horrified at the hideous array of pink-only girls' clothes (and do not get me started on how the ELC's slid) - but needed somewhere to actually look at buggies and start to try to get my head around it all as a starting point and it was the only really local place for a quick "shit we need to start buying stuff soon" trip around... it was however, very similar in shopping experience to Halfords - lots of young staff more concerned with chatting about last night's X factor and bugger customer service.

Hubby was highly amused when their chief exec bod announced he was standing down and the share price rose in response recently.

DejaWho that is a gem!

There was an incident in the Eighties when the Chief Executive of a certain quoted company died suddenly and the shares rose on a falling market!

This is the standard reply i have received from motherCARE
Thank you for your email.

We do appreciate your feedback on this as it provides us with the opportunity to improve the products and service that we are able to provide to our customers, so thank you for bringing this to our attention.

I have forwarded your comments on to our management team so that this can be taken into consideration and our team will be able to use your correspondence as a valuable reference.

Although I am unable to promise you immediate changes I can assure you that your comments will be taken into consideration for our products in the future.

Thank you once again for writing to us.