Aibu to think school uniform suppliers are useless.

[SarahTancredi]

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.. 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.

Incredible that they can behave as if the demand at the start of a new academic year is a complete surprise!

"The xxx (new year 7 sizes) have been very popular this year and we've run out...more stock coming much later...."

If these shops were not sole suppliers then they'd have to get their acts together or lose out. Shame on the schools for allowing it.

Sounds like yours is. I haven't had any issues with ours. Uniform policies on the other hand are vv unreasonable.

What a hassle OP This sort of thing is what i meant when i mentioned the mental load on a recent thread which i got shouted down for.

Our supplier is in an out of town retail park, so you need a car to get there. It's open 10-4 weekdays only.

You can order online but its £6 delivery.

Thinking about it I might order next years now!

Our school used Expertees and they are brilliant.

Very afforfable, quick deliver and top notch customer service.

I've had various issues with Clive Marks, including ordering trousers at the start of June one year which weren't ready for the start of term in September. Three months?

Luckily my experience has been good. Dd2 started a new primary so needed all new. I had to order her things online (1st time I have needed to) and it all came quickly, that was myclothing which I think was the old Tesco service.

The senior school we have a couple of local shops. We use the one, they serve a lot of schools but service is always excellent. Not much of the uniform is official so for us quick and easy, though other schools have a much bigger list. (For us jumper, blazer, tie, pe top)

Already been back for yr 7 ds to get a new tie.

Like anything some will be better than others.

helena i saw that and I agreed with you.

It's not just buying uniform is it. It's the worry it's not going to arrive on time. The stress that if it doesnt fit that you then mot only does it cost you to send back you have to wait for refund to process before paying again for more to be delivered. Will that lot attive on time.

The insulting thing is that this is apparently meant to be easier and cheaper for us. But it's not. It's just more hassle we dont need.

I'm an honest person so I'm not gonna just keep the stuff and honestly spending my afternoon in a post office queue and checking every day for 2 weeks that I haven't been refunded does push the limits a bit

bed

That's ridiculous. Having patched together child care for 6 weeks the last thing you need is to take s day off just to uniform shop.

Unfortunately they don't need to provide good customer service. It's not like we can take our business elsewhere!

That is very true.

What other kind of businesses are there where quality and customer service can be so optional and still be so highly profitable and have parents actively welcome their existence

This is the problem with school insisting on logod this and regulation that. They then create a monopoly supplier who has no real incentive to get it right. If school uniform was a sensible "knee length pleated black skirt/straight legged trousers/white shirt/v neck black jumper - school badge to sew onto jumper and blazer available at the office" type arrangement it wouldn't be a problem to source, would cost a lot less money and would probably be available on time. And don't get me started on the extensive, elaborately logod and striped PE kits....

Start away!!! I'm.with you all the way

@SarahTancredi

YANBU.

They are also horribly expensive.

Someone is making a LOT of money from parents; charging over-exorbitant prices for school uniforms/PE kits/blazers etc.

Tesco and Asda and the like advertise school uniforms, but most people cannot get them, because schools are so anal and arsey about it, and INSIST you have THEIRS (with their hideously expensive prices!) It's a scam, through and through. Like the hideously overpriced school trips.

I am soooooooooooo glad I have no kids at school now!!!

YANBU.

I ordered skirts and cardigans over a month ago when I visited the shop.

The skirts finally arrived this week but still no sign of the cardigans and the shop isn't sure when their next delivery will be.

So who is responsible for this.

They have the access to the admission numbers to all the schools they serve

They have records of all the sales from.previous too presumably?

So when they take orders and cant fulfill them why arent they cutting contracts with the companies they use who embroider or deliver the stock?

Why accept being able to not fulfil pre orders with several weeks notice .

Why is july and august such a bloody surprise ?

If you have an original of the school logo, find a company who can copy it on to correct colour items. Parents at ds school have done this & now the company does the full uniform about £5 per item cheaper than the school suppliers.

That only works though if correct colour items exist

In.dds case we have tartan skirts. A black and white polo pe top.

We have gold piping on the skort.and the pe jumper is not the kind of jumper that you can.just pick up.

This is the other issue. They are all designed so you cant source it anywhere else

@Sarah I've already told dd that's not happening. She has a plain black hoodie that zips that she can wear.
Her pe one is plain black pullover hoodie with school logo on chest and school name down the arm.
Ide understand if I said she was wearing a bright pink one with "fuck off" emblazoned on the front but plain black. I dont see the issue?

Good for you!

The banning of hoodies makes life so much harder

Turns a plain.black 5 pound hoodie from.asda into a 20 quid logo jumper

Schools have got their priorities completely wrong.

Yes they have. If you ask me, the deliberate pricing out of kids they dont want in the school and the calculated way in which every item possible can be designed in a way that prevents it from being sourced elsewhere cheaper (piping/linings/tartan etc) and prevented from being handed down ( names being embroidered on them) etc says far more about the school than any daily mail sad face could say about the parents.