To think that mothercare sell a lot of overpriced crap

[MarianneD]

Being the mother of a 5 month old baby I have in the past year made several purchases (was given lots of vouchers) and received several gifts from Mothercare.

I have had to return numerous items including a night light and nursing bra, the former having broken and the latter becoming mishapen after one wear (was told by the assistant she had had the same problem!).

I also think their things are overpriced for what they are and compared to other retailers. They seem to have a bit of a monopoly in this area though although a lot of the larger supermarkets and obviously internet sites have good baby ranges.

Am I alone in thinking this or have I just been singularly unfortunate?

TBH I find mothercare quite reasonable, bar maternity clothes. Actually, some of there things like baby gyms etc seem to be alot, but I always end up there for beds/mattresses/clothes for the DSs - all the basics really.

YANBU, it's a right temple of tat. Dunno where they get the prices (or sizes) from either...

The only good thing going for it is that it's got a toilet - handy when 8 months pg.

i don't really shop there.
I don't find their service great either- they charge for online delivery, wheres of you go to kiddicare, you get it the next day plus excellent customer service.
I Also think they have very limited ranges and their clothes i is overprices.
Saying that , I thin they're useful if you want to buy a few things in one place, but online retailers are a lot cheaper.

I think it is very expensive and the stuff is mostly boring.

The quality seems ok to me though.

We have a huge mothercare world near us but the actual stock seems to be fairly limited.

They are not all bad but if I am going to buy something boring I would rather it was cheap too.

When we started fostering DS we were given a 'chitty' type thing for baby equipment. We could only use it at Mothercare which I found hugely frustrating because I knew we could get stuff much more cheaply at ikea etc.

Seemed like a real waste of money to me.

And dont get me started on that Myleene Klass stuff they are flogging!

I hate hate hate the 'service' in mothercare. I went in recently because it also now has the ELC in it. I found some bits, went to pay and waited. There was no one serving on the tills. There were two members of staff (with badges) handing out vouchers whan you came into the shop and one other floating round the shop floor.

I asked the floating one for some help and she promptly wandered off again. Ended up leaving the stuff and heading home. Complete waste of space shop.

Clothes there are expensive and the maternity stuff isn't that nice IMO. I also bought two nursing tops from them which were q. expensive and also pretty useless as the slit through which you are supposed to 'discreetly feed' is about level with my bellybutton! Plus, another thing which pisses me off is that they sell loads of clothes for babies under 1 year old, that button down the back...WHY?!?

I know someone who works in our Mothercare so I go there a fair bit.

But I hate the fact that when I ask for things they just go on the internet and order it - I could have done that! I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about supporting town centres (don't ask) but I don't see the point if they're doing online shopping too!

Haven't bought a single thing in there since I tried to buy a car seat and waited half an hour to attract the attention of a grumpy assistant who proceeded to tell me off for asking for help because they were short staffed.

And the bf bras were so appalling that I ditched them after a month or so.

Is indeed a temple of tat. Esp now they've got Myleene Klass on board.

Oh, and the time they wouldn't sell me a travel cot on special offer because they only had the display one left. What is point of display one if you haven't any to sell? What?

Is better for my blood pressure if I never go there, basically

yanbu
I haven't shopped in Mothercare since I bought their brand of bouncy chair for my ds. The harness was shockingly unsafe, I returned it, the manager agreed with me. I complianed to head office. Nothing. The chair is still on sale and it's an accident waiting to happen
Not to mention the fact that the staff in my branch would rather talk to each other than serve you, and they seem to ave made a business out of flogging clueless first time parents piles of unnecessary shite. And it smells funny in there. Hate it with a passion.

YANBU - children's PJs which go out of shape after one wash. T-shirts that go 'square' in the wash. Ridiculously high prices for some stuff. Generally crud IMO

I only go there to get disposable nappy pads (DD is allrgic to disposable nappies) for bed time they have not had her size for 3 weeks.

Oh yes and don't even get me started on the staff - ignorant isn't the word for it!

YANBU. I've always found mothercare to be expensive, badly stocked/ staffed and rather bad quality. What I do if I'm buying a big item like a highchair or playgym etc is go have a look at it on display in mothercare then nip to Argos & buy it. My DP has renamed them Motherfuckers as his blood pressure goes through the roof whenever he's forced coerced into going .

My local branch has only one toilet/changing room, labelled 'ladies'. I was in there with DD who needed changing, and they refused to let me use it because I am a man :S Never been back since.

I've never had any of their maternity stuff so can't comment on that. I quite like their babygros and have had good customer service from them in the past. I urgently needed a mattress for one of my children and my mum paid for it in town for me and Mothercare funded a taxi to run it to my house! I also have 2 of their cots which seems to have been good value so far.....

YANBU. Soooo expensive for such naff clothing! Quality is bad as well, bought a pair of maternity trousers in there and the waistband came off the main part within a week. Ok, sometimes you get a duff pair, took them back, got replacement, same thing happened again. Got money back, went elsewhere. Their maternity clothes look like something a grandma would buy in the 70s. A grandma with bad taste. I'd rather wear a bag than Mothercare clothes.

I can buy better equivalent everything much cheaper elsewhere, without grotty surroundings and bad service. I once complained about the bottles of Calpol they had AT TODDLER HEIGHT in store, spoke to a 19 year old "manager" who had appalling service skills and said that that was the way Head Office told them to arrange it and it wasn't going to change. He was so badly mannered. I have not shopped there since.

Oh yeah, and their loo is always filthy.

Yep, crap, expensive and very naff. I'm, surprised they are still in business tbh.

our local one has the feeding area as a few chairs in the loos, its got a food warmer and a bottle warmer as well, lovely

the woman fitted dd's car seat wrong and my friend who does the same job had to refit it

they dont actually stock anything, you can go and look at them then order it online!

and bloody maternity pants are £35 friggin quid!and the only place round here that sells them!

aaaand theres too much stuff packed in to get your pram around there!

YANBU. A horrendous place.

Wow, I must have two rare good ones near me! Our local one I love - off a BHS store and the staff have been there 20odd years and bend over backwards for you. The bigger one has 4 tills, and always fully staffed and helpful.

I love Mothercare clothes, as I find they are the only ones not to shrink in the wash/tumble dryer - but they do come up big. I liked their maternity clothes too, but their bras are naff. I never bought anything full price though, always in the sales. They also sell wonderful 24-36 month poppered vests that wash at 60, dont stain or shrink and fit a v. tall 2 year old.

I also really liked their own brand cloth nappies when we used them. Our mothercare cot has just been sold onto family number 3 (it did 2 children from one family before coming to us) and is still in great condition. In fact, we lost 4 bolts when we moved so I went in and they gave me all their spares to take home and try at no cost. Great customer service.

IMO YABU, I really like our Mothercares.

The straw that broke the camels back for me was when they partnered with Myleene Klass.

If they were to get rid of her and improve the quality of their products then would consider returning as a customer.

I do think their customer service is better than Kiddicare. Although Kiddicare are cheaper I have found them to become very difficult is you want to return something or the product needs repairing. In Mothercare it's no questions asked and I like that.

Maternity clothes quite nice and good selection but pretty expensive.

Baby equipment great.

Boys clothes quite nice.

Girls clothes quite sickly, all candy pinks and frilly bits. Yuk.

Toys extremely over priced, even ELC section.

Never shop there anymore though even though dd still only 3.

Our local one in cambridge is appauling for customer service. If you dare to take back something that's faulty, they try to make you feel guilty and tell you there's nothing they can do. Not being funny, but a swim towelling poncho thats been used 5 times only doesn't start to fall apart at the seams through missuse! How the hell can you missuse a towel??? Had a discussion with the manager over this.
Very rarely now do I go in unless I absolutely have to.

I have actually found that they can be quite awkward when returning things - there is a particularly sniffy supervisor in our local branch who likes to question you in detail making you feel like a criminal for returning a faulty product and insinuating that I, the customer, must damaged it in some way!

Maybe I was at fault expecting one of their bras to withstand a full day of being worn!