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?

YANBU I cannot understand why they have not closed down.

Yes I presume they get a lot of returns!

I shopped there when I was pregnant as I stupidly presumed that as they were a big store and a well known name they would be cheaper than my local individual retailers- how wrong I was!

Everything is about 15% more expensive, there are never enough staff members when you want pram/ car seat advice. Indeed I wanted to see if a stroller would fit into my car and I was promised it would- I still insisted on checking and it didn't fit at all.

They sold me my britax car seat and told me it would fit onto my britax beep pram (which I also bought from there) yet they didn't include or indeed even sell the hinges that connect the seat to the pram!

The breastfeeding bra's are really tough to unfasten as well.

However- I did like the sleep suits and the maternity clothes

I have always struggled to return stuff tried to swap sleepsuits for a size up (given as a gift don't like the shop and they refused unless I gave them £5!!)

agree with the Mylene stuff it's foul although 'celebrities' having a baby and trying to tell everyone what to do is a hate of mine!

Kneazle - cos they are breaking into new markets apparently - selling overpriced crap in countries which have not hitherto had a tradition of buying loads of stuff you don't need when you have a baby.

YANBU! Have been thinking this for several years since I had my kids! I do like some of their kids clothes but they are outrageously expensive and not much better quality than the supermarkets. Things are still overpriced even in their sales!

I think they make money from new parents who don't realise how much they overcharge for things like nappies. I can't believe they are still going either

The Myleene Klass range is like a mini street walker range, all lace and short skirts. Horrendous.

I recently had to return a car seat. The buckle had cracked and despite the fact the thing was £270 and well within guarantee the fuss they made about returning something they admitted was 'totally unsafe' really annoyed me.

They are meant to be a baby retailer yet seemed very unconcerned by the potential death of a baby from an unsafe carseat

I went in my local mothercare today to get some soft shoe's for my 11 month old son. He needs the 12-18month size and I don't want to put him in proper shoes yet as he's not quite walking.

They didn't have any soft shoes for 12months and over and when I asked why, some snotty woman told me it was because a 12month old should be walking and wearing 'proper' shoes.

Ok so the day a child turns 1yr old they MUST be able to walk.

You can't get a pram through at all because their stuff is crammed so close together. Also, they have like 2 rails of boy's clothes and half a shop floor of girl's clothes.

Their feeding room is great though so that's the only reason I go in anymore. lol.

I am of mixed opinion on MC. The maternity wear and baby clothing isn't brilliant quality. However, other things I have seem to be fine such as the my3 travel pram system, baby gym and cot. The bras are bad- fell apart after a few weeks. I find the staff in our local branch very uninterested and lacking in basic customer care skills whenever I am making small purchases but the moment they see you interested in a pram or cot- they are all over you- not good

I don't know where you lot are shopping, my local one is brilliant, lovely staff, good range etc. I've returned loads of things for next size up no problem. I even took back a Techno footmuff that had a broken zip about 9 months after I bought it with no receipt. No problem at all.

Very overpriced I find, and when I went shopping for the first time after giving birth to dd I naively thought they might have somewhere nice to bf her; 1 hard plastic orange chair squeezed in at the end of the baby changing room is not what I had in mind!

OK rockbird location of your shop please

(I feel a outing might be possible- but I'm kinda hoping you're in Croyden for my sake not yours obviously )

Not in Croydon (been there many times and they are a bit stroppy! ELC is skanky as well). No, my one is Weybridge.

YADNBU
Ours closed about 18 months ago, we have a poundland here.
I've just gone online. No real loss.

mothercare are SHIT, crap service. I had the embarassing expoerience of getting measuted for a mat bra (baby was 1 week), with embarassing milk engorged boobs by a 16 year old saturday girl, awful

she sold me a bar that resembles a 11 year old starter bra when I needed the forth bridge

also had car seat madness ( surly 10 year old sales assistant) and exploding breast pump

NEVER AGAIN, John Lewis all the way

Not all Mothercare stores are like that.
I'll risk outing myself but Nuneaton one has excellent staff and the ELC next door has absolutely amazing and sometimes bouncing staff, depending on whether Ive eaten alot of sugar that day.

But seriously though can people stop saying all mothercare staff are rude. Because they are not. Can we start saying the mothercare staff they have encountered are rude???

mothercare was a great place to go when expecting first baby to stock up on all those first time essentials, got a few bargains in the sale but tbh I find their stuff overpriced rubbish. Examples...

Maternity bras - expensive even at sale price - no support at all, whereas £4 sports bra from peacocks/asda/primark - fantastic perky boobs!

DD tops and leggings double the price of similar in asda however only worn once as no stretch to them so couldnt get over her head after that and too tight on legs as need stick legs apparently even tho dd never had chubby toddler legs anyway.

shrinks anyway so might as well go to supermarket get the cheap stuff, that looks nice, washes just the same and they grow out of quickly anyway. Plus you wont be so bothered once you get those weaning stains on them.

TBH i struggle to find anything nice in there for dd to wear in mothercare, sometimes nice nightwear but thats cheap as chips in supermarket anyway. The odd nice dress but cost more than i would pay for a dress for myself sometimes! Supermarkets get some gorgeous dresses in for helf the price or less.

Maternity clothes not that great either for the price but you do need to be comfortable. For me thats where the next sale comes in - im petite so need a short leg so next was ideal, got some cargo pants and joggers £5 each in next sale. Next time round I will be on ebay. My wardrobe is full of Next petite pants all BNWT (brand new with tags) some with £37 labels on! ok the people selling them may have bought them in the sale but I was only paying between £4 and £14 for them and I wear them all the time - great way for me to get all my summer cropped trousers too (hoping to get them out again soon). So having seen loads of maternity stuff on ebay with tags on thats def the first place i will look if i have another baby!