Message to Mothercare staff!!

[18yearsoftrying]

• If you price your sleepwear, I would have bought some today

• If you keep floors clear of your stock, I would not have had to have kicked them aside. My hidden disability does not allow me to bend & pick them up. You had no shop floor staff to ask other than an icandy rep who refused to move them.

• The Bubble Frog is £6 according to the 6 inch font which is on YOUR desk by YOUR till! Please do not charge us £12 & expect us not to notice

• The lightweight paddling pool I pre-ordered is in a box measuring roughly 4" by 12" by 18" would fit in the basket of the pram. Why pack it in another box so big that it takes TWO members of your staff (when they do finally turn up to shop floor) to help me with it?

• When you are asked to provide a gift receipt, it actually would be helpful if staff remebered to supply it so that we don't leave without it on the basis 'the till doesn't allow you once the transaction is complete'. NOTE: It wasnt complete - you hadn't issued the gift receipt & you needed to refund half my frog.

There are plenty of unemployed people that could do a better job in your stores......no disrespect to the hardworking ones that have common sense, but please take this into consideration.

Ours is monumentally useless too. Three staff cluster round the tills, only one of them serving, the other two saying "have you looked online?" in response to any query and then shrugging. I generally only go there if absolutely desperate - and then still often leave empty-handed.

I've rarely been in a shop with such vague and pointless staff who are so unfamiliar with their stock. I rang the St Stephen's Green branch recently trying to track down a specific pair of maternity jeans. I gave them all the details, style, name, size and they seemed slightly surprised that I wanted them to actually go and see if they had them in store. They did eventually go and check and managed to cut me off. I called them back and again the vague dithery "Yes yes we have jeans," 'But do you have THESE ones?' "Yes we do." Of course when I got there after an hour and a half's drive, they didn't have them and didn't really know what I was talking about.

Starling - yes, definitely the MN equivalent of sod's law!

It's the same story in Oxford: we caused havoc by trying to spend gift vouchers there. The sales staff seem to know very little about the products and the prices are far higher than other shops: I'm grateful to another shopper who spotted a Tommy tippee steriliser in my trolley and told me the tesco next door were selling it £10 cheaper...

Mine is great. Never had a problem. Derby branch.

My nearest one is shocking. I gave up shopping there around 2 years ago. There was always a huge queue at the till with one person serving AND dealing with ordering queries. The last straw was being left outside and blatantly ignored by staff at 10:15 when it was supposed to be open at 10:00. I went to Mamas and Papas instead.

It will shut soon I think , go the way of woolworths

There was a huge thread in chat ages ago about mothercare, the same old issues crop up again and again.
Iirc, the thread (which was possibly 2 or three years ago) was tweeted so that mothercare head office could see exactly what potential customers didn't like, but nothing has changed.
YANBU.

these "useless" staff are ACTUAL people too...

on minimum wage, on rotas that change at management's whim, forced to work both days at weekends and longer and longer hours as the shops stay open later and later, and staff that leave don't get replaced.

Though, we used to joke (no longer work there!) the reason for the 3 staff per shift requirement: one to read, one to write, and one to keep an eye on the 2 intellectuals. (though it was really so that sudden sick leave didn't shut the store - they would have had only 2 if they could)

and NO there are not "people lining up" to take their jobs

Maybe this should really be to their head office, the shop staff are unlikely to be responsible for the packaging of a paddling pool and they also don't set prices on the till, the shops are understaffed because they will be set a low wages target and the staff probably don't know the stock because they haven't had proper training

Mothercare CEO did come online after a previous similar thread and did a webchat.

He was ineffective about ERF car seats response but they have improved.

My local mothercare has reduced their clothing range. It's rubbish

Ninjapanda I was reading this thinking the Inverness branch staff are lovely when I saw your post

I believe mothercare have gone under at least once since the 80s but like most retail brands, are always brought out by someone.

I think they've improved massively in the last 10 years- when they really were amazingly shit- just trash- now I think their stock is pretty good- they have all the brands and some good sales but are awful for keeping track of stock levels and delivery- more than once I have been able to buy an item and have delivery arranged that wasn't even in stock.

They have some nice baby clothes but an awful lot of cutsey pale sickly stuff divided into gender. But today I bought 2 gorgeous dresses (yellow and spotty) a fab spotty London sleep suit and 5 pairs of very cool baby sunglasses. Had to wade through the Winnie the Pooh and Disney crap though

My local Mothercare is wonderful and the staff are lovely. however others I've visited have been bloody awful.

The staffing situation is genuinely appalling though. My cousin works for Mothercare and her hours have been cut from a full time contract to a 10 hour contract (same as every member of staff in the store)
She is a sales assistant yet her responsibility is way above this, yet she is only paid minimum wage. Her hours change weekly, some weeks 10 hours, other weeks 45 hours, with very little notice. She doesn't know if she's coming or going and is often called on her days off to be advised of a change of hours or to be asked to come in and cover sickness etc.

No wonder most of the staff dont represent the brand when at work. their jobs are not secure and are no longer rewarding in any way shape or form.

I think the staff of any store do tend to give a massive clue as to the conditions imposed on them from above. I remember when we had Safeway, way back and the staff in the two stores I set foot in were pretty surly. After Safeway went bust, one became a Waitrose and the other a Sainsburys and despite many of the staff being the same people, they were just so much more positive.

Mumma - I think the staff do represent the brand, which is why the public face of the store is as bad as it is.

Have to say our local mothercare is lovely. Helpful and friendly. Never had any problems there.

Honestly trust the first reply you got to be you know "rude".
I'm sure some people just come on here to spout off.
No ynbu. Would it hAve Mr or Mrs I candy to move the things that you had to kick out of the way. Heaven help them if you' or anyone else had fallen over them. I'm sure heAlth and stafety would be interested in that

Bloody bubble frog- spend half of my life cleaning up after my DS's one! Twice I've tried to throw the bugger out & each time he reappears from the bin!

I work in retail and it would have to be a very very bad day for my customer service to drop anywhere close to what I have experienced at my local store - I have no idea where they find such a unhelpful uncaring bunch of fuckwits!

I mean did this I candy. Just stand there and say I'm not moving them. Such things are beneath me.
Should come and work for me. (Metaphorically speaking). He/she would soon shape up.

at some of the....... (pauses for a min) ....... You know.......supportive posts!

I ANBU I think, going on ummmmmm.......you know.......the majority of posts

I always have been charged the wrong price at mothercare. Double checking the receipt is a regular part of any (rare) visit there.

In response to posters asking why the OP moaning on here, as if the CEO is reading MN and will respond - I've seen it happen quite a few times. Not because the CEO is MNing, but any sensible firm will have someone responsible for monitoring this kind of discussion about them, for marketing and PR.

Mothercare probably won't though