To have started an anti bounty revolution on the postnatal ward

[elliejjtiny]

I had my first encounter with a bounty lady this week. DS4 is in special care so mostly she has ignored me but yesterday she gave me a bounty pack and tried to take my soul details. I politely told her that she wasn't having any of my details because I didn't want any junk mail. She just looked at me, gobsmacked and then the lady in the next bed wouldn't give away her details either . Feel quite proud that despite having major surgery 2 days before, I managed to stand up to the infamous bounty lady. I think she would have been pushier if DS4 had been with me though.

As a rough comparison its like if you were in hospital and temporarily or permanently disabled and companies that sell living aids being allowed to waltz in and sell you stuff and grab your data for marketing purposes. It doesn't happen on orthopaedic wards so why should it anywhere else?

I agree, I think they should just have the packs available at the door or something.

Well done OP for telling her to go! And huge congrats on your baby :)

I had someone trying to sell me a sodding photographic session while I was in bed recovering from an emergency c section, still off my face on morphine.

It's dreadful, it really is. They shouldn't allow people around doing marketing and sales when you're that vulnerable.

Well done OP.

yanbu but can I ask a question?

I had a baby nearly 3 months ago - refused Bounty pack this time round and told the lady that I had got so much junk mail after last time, which must have been down to my details being passed on for marketing purposes.

She said Bounty didn't pass on details so it couldn't possibly have been them. I said I couldn't think who else it would have been as it was all baby/new mum stuff.

I was right, wasn't I? they do pass on personal info for marketing purposes? I guess you must be able to ask that they don't.... but after ds1's birth, I don't recall any option to do so. Post cs morphine and birth high, I'd have signed anything.

I also got the 'don't you want the pack for the cb forms' line. I said no, I'd get it from the post office. Was told you can't get the forms from them. I said I was pretty sure you could get a form online. She said 'shall I just leave you the form?' I said ok. She put the form on my bed and said 'if you've got the form, are you sure you don't want the rest of the pack?'

I didn't take it, but she was bloody persistent. I also had a baby in scbu not on the ward with me, so didn't appreciate being pestered, and asked when he might be out. Which I felt had more to do with her desire to pester me about photos than her giving a shit really.

She was lying they do pass on information. From their website:-

We may transfer or disclose Personal Information to other companies, to our professional advisers and to such other parties as we consider necessary, in the administration of our web site and our related business or if required to disclose such information by law

We may also use the Personal Information, and similar Personal Information you may provide us in response to any user surveys which you complete, to aggregate user profiles and, unless you opt out by contacting us as described in 10 below, to send you information about new products and services which we think may interest you. We may also pass your Personal Information to our business associates and affiliates (including those outside the European Economic Area) who may contact you with details of products or services which may interest you, but you can always tell us not to do this by contacting us as described in 10 below

The only thing worth having was the thumbsize tub of sudocrem...I keot it in my nappy bag and refilled from a big tub. I wish I still had it

Congratulations on DS4, and well done for standing your ground
I hope that your wee DS4 is OK and that he is with you on the ward (or even better, at home) soon x

Oooh, Tiredemma....congratulations too! Will you be namechanging to MoreTiredThanIEverThoughtPossibleEmma?

They sell your details even if you tell them not to

I always gave the wrong email address, and my mums address- she'd use the junk for her stove.
And whenever I was filling in forms for vouchers I'd apply and say I was pregnant again, so that I'd get lots of nappy vouchers.

Even leaving the hospital, by chance I met and got another bag from the bounty lady, and gave a random name and address.

I have gone through loads of little pots of the sudocreme, excellent stuff, and so handy.

I had the bluddy photographic woman pestering me for the two weeks my DTs were in SCBU. :(

Thanks everyone. I escaped the postnatal ward this morning. DS4 still in special care though, and likely to be for the next 2 weeks due to prematurity and feeding problems. Breathing on his own now though . Hopefully the revolution will continue in my absence.

I believe they get £1 or similar for every form they get completed. I always use an out of date email address for companies I'm not going to use again. Wrong address and phone number too.

Ah Ellie, thinking of you and dear wee DS4 tonight. Hope he'll be home with you soon x

Good for you for starting your one woman revolution - actually not one woman as many of us feel the same and are happy to join you. And Bounty seem to be at their worst where babies are in SCBU.

Things really need to change with this I think - not in women's best interests at all.

I had ds (dc2) 11 days ago and reckoned the thing that made it obvious more than anything else who was a first time mum and who wasn't was the reaction to the bounty lady.

I also hated Emma's diary. I never got past the first page. She's been trying for a baby for 6 months and it doesn't occur to her that she might be knocked up until her period is 2 weeks late?!?! How thick is she?!?

The correct discovery that she is pregnant is more like this:-

Thursday - period not due for another 5 days but breasts definitely feel tender. (Especially after I spent 10 minutes prodding them to see if they were tender.) Did 3 tests all of which were negative. Will try again tomorrow.
Friday - did 4 more tests. All were negative. But when I went to chuck them away 2 hours later one had a really faint line on it. Googled obsessively for hours and discovered this is called an evaporation line which is scientifically meaningless but loads of women on the Internet got one and were indeed pregnant!
Saturday - more tests. One of which was positive if you shine 3 lamps on it. I think.
Sunday - sent husband out for more tests. Ridiculously expensive one was positive!
Monday - 7 positive tests! I'm pregnant! Yahoo!

No-one ever asked for my details. Some woman handed me a bounty pack and walked out again.

Is that Emma person real tho or a figment of a marketing managers imagination?!

@ MummytoKatie
Emma's diary is indeed out of touch and lowest common denominator type stuff.
If you're into your thirties and have had anything at all resembling a career or have a couple of brain cells to rub together it reads very weirdly.