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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to think school uniform suppliers are useless.

47 replies

SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 14:21

Yet again I just arrived home to discover that for the second time I have been sent duplicate items which means that now I have to trawl through my online banking, make sure I haven't been charged twice, wait for someone to email me a return address label . Thankfully this is free this time ( usually you have to pay to return) but I also have to now write a cover note to let them.know what happend so they dont redund me and then I have to look.through my statements again to make sure they didnt refund me.

First world problems and all that I know but it's just annoying that now I have to go queue yet again in the post office . Second time in a month. To send shit back I didnt order.

Considering the item wasnt even available in time for school despite being ordered back on July, and now I have 2..Hmm again may I add . this exact item was also unavailable in time.last yr too ...

I wont keep it . I always return.i haven't paid for it.

It's just a pain in the arse.

OP posts:
Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 20:59

50/50 ...

Interesting Grin

Wonder how many who voted Unreasonable did so thinking " free uniform.whats the problem"....

OP posts:
ShowOfHands · 21/09/2019 21:02

I'm still waiting for the uniform I ordered in July...

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 21:05

God I hope your child isnt getting into trouble as a result!!

Is yours online only too?

OP posts:
Ilikesweetpeas · 21/09/2019 21:07

I’m so glad my DD school uses a local shop as their sole supplier. I hear stories like this, and of uniforms not arriving on time from friends with children at another school. Wonder if it’s the same supplier?!

Applejack5 · 21/09/2019 21:10

I think YABU because I don't see how your experience with one supplier means that all of them are useless.

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 21:13

If it's not then its very frustrating to know there are more like this.

I've made 3 orders in total. First order took weeks and was sent incomplete. Had ti wait for pe top. Second order. One item.thankfully arrived ok. Third order. Arrived incomplete . No pe top again . Was then sent duplicate order on top which I had to send back. It arrive a few days before I went on a 2 week holiday so faffing about with that whilst trying to organise and buy stuff fir holiday was inconvenient to say the least. Sent stuff back though.

The.long awaited pe top finally arrives ( late. Good job i had old one still. Dd would have been without again otherwise)

And today a second pe top shows up. So now I have to go send that back too.

Wtf is going on.

OP posts:
Iwantacookie · 21/09/2019 21:15

Your lucky yours comes to you. We have 1 shop (not online) which serves 3 high schools and approx 8 primary schools.
That's always fun in July and August Hmm
I'm still waiting for a pe hoody that I ordered in July. Dd has been told she cant wear another until her school one arrives Angry

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 21:15

apple

Cos it proves the whole concept of single online suppliers is nothing but a pain in the arse. You cant get the stuff anywhere else and if they cant deliver then your kid is in detention unless school acknowledge there is actually a problem with their choice of making it all one supplier shit

OP posts:
Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 21:17

cookie

That takes the piss!!

OP posts:
Applejack5 · 21/09/2019 21:26

That doesn't mean they're all like that though?! No issues with ours.

Love51 · 21/09/2019 21:26

I bought one jumper for my primary DD ages ago (new year ish) to see if it was the right size. It wasn't. I ordered a school pack of stuff including 2 jumpers before the holidays (it works out cheaper to buy the pack with rugby shirt, tie etc). I most recently went to the school office on Friday to see if the jumpers had arrived yet - still no. So pleased I bought one ages ago as she grew and the small ones are ridiculous. 'Luckily' a lot of the school are in the same situation so the SLT aren't giving kids and parents any grief. As we ordered via the school it is more the other way around. Apparently the local suppliers also don't have any, as they get it from the same place in India that the school does.
The pain is that the school changed uniform 2 years ago so there isn't even much second hand stuff knocking about.

School uniform is so bizarre. Pain to source, then about 10 days a year you pay a pound to not wear it. (Blue science day, gold school pride, book day, mufti day, school fair bring a donation day etc)

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 21:31

For a country so bloody obsessed with uniforms there are alot of schools willing to risk the kids being unable to source it Hmm

Next do next day click and collect free in store vs a months/2 months wait, 10 day refund delay , multiple delivery charges and seemingly duplicate orders are now a thing as well Hmm.

When secondary schools send kids home for not having appropriate uniform.wtf are you supposed to do if it doesn't show up in time.

Akd no wonder these bloody skirts are 18 pounds each. Maybe the fact they are sending them.out twice is reflected in the costs?

OP posts:
Clutterbugsmum · 21/09/2019 21:37

The uniform shop for my eldest school run out of both the school ties and the Yr 11 ties.

Apparently they should be in either this week or next. So 3 to 4 weeks after school starts.

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 21:40

Ties? Seriously?

I mean surely with 240 kids starting each year then ties would he the easiest item to keep track of stock of?

I mean it's not like selling 240 would come as a surprise Hmm

OP posts:
Love51 · 21/09/2019 21:42

What fresh hell is this? Different ties? My plan for comp was to buy a spare, not tell the kids, and make them buy it off me if they needed it! I went to a tie-less comp, I'm sure I managed to get an entire extra grade in the time I saved not losing a Tie!

Hoppinggreen · 21/09/2019 21:47

I have to buy Dd 1 specific skirt from 1 specific shop.
As she isn’t shaped like a perfect square with a waist to hip ration of zero I have to pay a local tailor £15 extra (skirts cost almost £30) to remake them so they dont look ridiculous.
THEN despite the fact that I haven’t had them taken up at all she is told that the skirts are too short by her head of year!

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 21:51

I'm assuming hopping that there is o bullying at the school, that every child is achieving what they should be achieving and every essay is marked and feedback genuinely helpful ?

Because they wouldnt possibly be worrying about the length of their own designated one of a kind skirt bought from the very supplier they insist on, if the above wasnt dealt with?

Nope . No way....

OP posts:
Clutterbugsmum · 21/09/2019 21:52

Ties? Seriously?

My thoughts exactly. I mean there is only one time during the year when most ties are going to be bought. How the hell can you go wrong with the delivery.

Clutterbugsmum · 21/09/2019 21:55

@Love51

We don't have to buy the Yr 11 tie they give them to child as long as you the school can have their old one as a spare.

Beesandcheese · 21/09/2019 22:05

The uniform supplier for my children's school managed to not fulfil all of the preordered sets (I think it is perhaps a payment scheme where you order in June, collect in August) again, ties unavailable. How crap is that, it's an item that surely can be overstocked as a lot of ties get lost every school year anyway!
Luckily we can visit the shop. So we were able to go in early August and get everything tried on and bought in one go.

carsleyladiessociety · 21/09/2019 22:11

One shop here that serves about 10 primary schools and iirc 4 secondary schools.

It's a hellhole. Every summer you can guarantee they will run out of at least 1 essential item. This summer was PE socks. Why oh why can't they order in enough of the damn things. The staff make it seem like you've done them a great personal wrong as well if you dare ask them a questionand it's the only shop I have ever been in where you have to fill in an A4 form for returns.

The fit of the clothes is crap and like other poster I find myself tailoring them so they actually fit DD. Square skirts here as well

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 22:12

bees

So this is where we have to ask who benefits.

Not the schools cos they waste so much time sending emails and policing uniform.

Not the students as many will be upset and worried about not having the right stuff.

Not the parents because when it doesnt arrive in time or doesnt fit and you have to send back all at extra cost, or it's out of stock because despite the admission numbers being public information on every council website , still no one can figure out how.many ties they should stock.

So who? ..

OP posts:
Love51 · 21/09/2019 22:46

Sodding skirt length! When I were a lass we used to roll them up. My niece struggled to get them long enough - her skirt was the same length as everyone elses, but at 6 foot, her legs were a lot longer! If DD goes the same way I may have to choose a school whose inclusion and diversity policy goes so far as to realise that children come in.different shapes and sizes!

Love51 · 21/09/2019 22:48

Who benefits?
The academies. It is part of their branding.

Original poster
SarahTancredi · 21/09/2019 22:53

We're not even an academy Hmm

OP posts:
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