May 2015 - thread 5 - yellow, pink or blue, which team are you?

[Titsalinabumsquash]

A new thread ladies as the old one was getting full.

Oh what i would do for some mini eggs now!!! Will just have to make do with caramel digestives and a cup of tea :D

Little girl STILL using my bladder as a trampoline. The sudden urge that you are about to piss your pants is very weird, don't think i will get used to that feeling lol

Happy Weekend to all of you!!!! Hope you have a great one :)

I've just eaten a family sized packet of Malteasers! I'm bad

leanne - I know exactly how you feel. just felt like I was busting for a wee, and the smallest amount possible came out.

Glad midwife was reassuring Turquoise

Definitely nothing wrong with mini eggs or maltesers....I keep looking at the box of matchmakers that's not been opened from christmas! Am going to make some crispy cakes this weekend :)

That keeps happening to me Feeling! Looks like we're going to have to get used to that

Just ate a whole bag of chocolate coins left over from Christmas...

The only chocs we have in the house are liquer chocolates. I'm not precious about the odd bit of booze but I firmly believe it has no place in chocolate. Booze yes chocolate yes but in the same package no!!

I need a project for maternity leave. Last time I applied for jobs and got promoted and moved house. My boss has suggested I do my higher rights so I can appear as a solicitor in higher courts. Four days over a couple of months and associated work. Wonder if I'd regret it...

Gosh bean. Good on you. I managed to watch the entire back catalogue of location location location and this time I am hoping to read the odd novel. I might though apply for promotion either before I go or while I am off.

Holy crap there is an October 2015 thread.

Wow October thread?! We're almost in last trimester! Xx xx

Omg our LOs will be around 5 months then!!!! Amazing!!! Haha

wow how scary is that.

it seems like only yesterday the first May thread was created and now we are nearly on thread 6!!!

Ok after all the talk yesterday about 3d scans I have booked one for the 5th of March when she will be nearly 29 week's so hopefully will get a good look at her squidgy face :)

Have just had a horrendous experience buying our pushchair in JL! We still can't believe how terrible the experience was. We'd been in a few weeks ago to have a look at it and the very helpful member of staff told us to come back to the store to order it when we were ready and she knew exactly how she'd do it (as we need two pushchair seats and a carrycot). The lady today, while polite was totally incompetent! As soon as we said what we wanted she tried to send us away to order online (this can't be done for all the parts we need - which is why we were told to come back to the store). She then almost ordered three pushchairs (a double set and a single) which we had to point out to her. Then she refused to believe that you would need a converter kit to add the second seat we want on the frame. She said that by ordering an extra seat it would come with that - which it definitely doesn't. It took 10 minutes of disagreeing, looking at the pushchair and her rolling her eyes before she realised her mistake.

All this took 55 minutes while DD was stuck in her pushchair. Some bits were in stock, some had to be ordered and she said we'd only pay for the in stock stuff today which clearly wasn't the case when it came to pay as the amount was for everything, in stock or not. She was still saying we'd have to pay the extra when the items come in stock until DH added up the cost of the items for her! And to top it off she couldn't even find a way to order the carrycot and is getting back to us.

DH is very laid back and rarely complains about anything (I've never know him to in fact) but he went straight to customer services to complain! And instead of just apologising they said she was a very experienced member of staff (!) and tried to make excuses for her. He's taking it further as he is so disappointed in their customer service. She definitely needs further training!

Can't believe we're spending £1200 and we're still not confident that we'll have all the parts we need. We're tempted to cancel the whole thing and get it from elsewhere but I'd rather have the pushchair from them as customer service is supposed to be great if things go wrong with the frame. We're going to order the carrycot from elsewhere.

Sorry for the rant.

Oh cup that sounds so stressful!!! Sorry it wasn't as easy as you hoped! :( I really hope everything turns up after you have spent so much money! I would definitely not hesitate to complain!!

I have to say MN favourite JL has let me down a couple of times on customer service. Can spend hours in there trying to find someone to talk to who knows about stuff. X

Cuphat - that sounds absolutely horrendous. If you can print out your order, ring and cancel. Then order through somewhere smaller than JL that can cut you a deal and values your customer service. If it were me I would never want to set eyes on the damn thing after all that!!

We have friends in Surrey that got the best deal & excellent service) from a place called The Pram Centre in Glasgow. All done at distance and travel system sent to their house.

Good luck!

Thanks. That is exactly how I feel at the moment! I'm still feeling really stressed by it. Very tempted to cancel but the thought of going through all that again elsewhere fills me with horror. Plus I've heard that some smaller retailers have had problems dealing with the pushchair manufacturer if things go wrong.

Which pram have you bought? Is it the Bugaboo Donkey?

The icandy peach blossom 3. Except because of the colours we want they have to order the peach 3 pushchair and then a separate carrycot, second seat and the elevators and adaptors (plus all the other bits like parasol and clamps etc).

:) OK, this is what I did when I was in your position last month :)

My MIL bought me a Bugaboo Bee 3 - the assistant didn't put through all the necessary parts for a workable pram. I phoned head office who agreed parts were missing and i was transferred to the store - who not only added the missing parts and made sure I wasn't charged for them :) I then got them to price match the rest of the items I had bought. Store couldn't apologise enough and sent me an email of the new invoice and totals.

The store gave you a half arsed apology which frankly isn't good enough. And the fact you could have be receiving your pram near your due date with parts missing is not acceptable.

So I'd get acquainted with John Lewis complaints policy:

www.johnlewis.com/customer-services/essential-information#complaints

Their price match policy:

www.johnlewis.com/never-knowingly-undersold

And keep on checking online for any cheaper deals on the product you've bought :)

I wouldn't let this go because she could do that to the next customer or have completely messed up previous orders which means other couples are going to have to go through the stress you did as well :(

Man that would stress me out, especially at the moment. It's also quite the opposite of an experience I had where the JL lift mashed my friends icandy wheel and they insisted on replacing all of them for fear of it compromising the look of the brand! Are you confident the order is now correct? If not I would likely cancel. Do the colours you want make it more expensive? Amazed your child made it through without meltdown! I wouldn't even attempt that with mine in tow. She'd be restless after ten minutes and we'd end up leaving as I'd slowly start to explode....

Thank you so much for that plinkyplonks, I really appreciate it Sorry you had a rubbish assistant too but I'm glad to hear that they sorted it out to your satisfaction. The manager we complained to in store just called wanting to check the order was correct (i.e. you need two different types of seats too) so she must have told the staff member we complained! We're still waiting on a call back from the head office complaints dept.

Bean, we won't be confident until it all arrives (which will be in dribs and drabs by the sound of it) and we try out every combination that we need! No the colours don't make a difference but their system only allows you to buy two pink seats or two black seats together which we don't want. DD was not impressed, we had to give her the toy babies from the cots, snacks, brochures to look at etc!

And to top the day off we couldn't find any shoes to fit DD! I've started a thread under a different name for privacy purposes but no one has responded. She's an I width and Clarks only go up to H. They said going up a size in an H width would work but she also has a high instep so none of their shoes would fit! Jones were no good either and we don't know where else to go, I can't see any on the Internet either (though she needs to try them in person really).

Any suggestions gratefully received!

I used to have the opposite problem with a very narrow C width. I used to have to get horrid black lace up shoes made to measure but I can't find anywhere that does that now. DD must get her feet from DH! Feel really sorry for her actually, she's only 19 months.

Sorry you haven't had a good experience in JL cup and hope you get the things you need when they arrive!
I have been in mother care today (again!) and tested the pram I like in both cars (bit snug in mine) but fits in dp's car ok and we plan to change around and use both anyway. So hoping to get that ordered soon as it's on pre-order at the moment.

Tori they tested the car seat we would want in our car today with the isofix base and said that although it would be fine long term they didn't recommend using it on the first few journeys because of the way the car seats slant back and the angle of the car seat it may tip baby's head forwards slightly. It all depends on size of baby etc and may be fine from the outset but we won't know! So, although we want the isofix we may just be belting the seat in at first.....if that makes sense!
I've had the flu jab but haven't been told anything about the whooping cough one. Hoping to bf too myself but like the idea of getting dp involved too if I can express a little.....we'll see how I cope with bf first!! :)