PRODUCTS YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT

[Willow2]

Does anyone else out there have a baby product they hate with a vengeance? I made the mistake of buying the Chicco Mamma high chair because it looked the business and I'd inherited a load of other Chicco bits and bobs that were great. Being a first time mum I didn't think about how easy it would be to clean. If I tell you that the tray alone has over 30 nooks and crannies for food to get into it will give you an idea of just how badly designed this item is. It is an absolute nightmare to keep clean - yesterday, after a lunch of tuna/rice salad, I ended up sticking it in the garden and turning the high pressure hose on it. Aside from the cleaning aspect it is also far too big for anyone under the age of 21. My son is fifteen months and above average height yet still has to have a booster seat in it. Plus the tray doesn't come in far enough so half his lunch ends up down his bib or on the floor. I hate it with every inch of my body and can only presume that it was designed by a mysognistic sadist for a laugh. I don't know if I can face another year of dealing with it and am seriously thinking of taking an axe to it, whacking it on the bonfire and buying a £10 one from Ikea instead. Any other suggestions for my pire of useless products?

I agree about the tippitoes door bouncer being a total waste of space. Both my children fought valiantly with me as I struggled to put them in the blessed thing, then they spent all of 5 minutes hanging, looking puzzled and defiant before screaming blue murder. After 2 or 3 attempts, each child would go bonkers at just seeing the box!!

Ditto the playpen. We had a basic wooden one. My children also despised this with a passion. Once, feeling rather housebound, I decided to dismantle and reassemble the said playpen outside in the front garden, the rather misguided idea being that I garden whilst babe plays contentedly. Instead we gave the neighbours a wonderful floor show, 20 minutes of me fumbling with playpen , 2 minutes of gardening, 10 minutes of baby howling and 20 minutes of dismantling and retreating back inside defeated.

Happily neither of these items live with us anymore!

Ah well there you go. Our loved his tippitoes bouncer. Used it every single day for around 7 months. And I still stand by the Sangenic!!

ours was a mothercare door bouncer and 3 out of 4 children loved it. (the other one is contrary to this day!)

Snowy beware the Blankie!!!! I had what I called Scratchy when I was young it was wonderful. I still carried it around age 11. One night my Mother cut it up to the size of a flannel and I was hysterical when I woke up. I will never forget that.

Please try to avoid blankies, if my children look like they're going to get attached to something it will disappear for at least a week. I don't want them to go through the traumas I went through. I can remember waiting for Scratchy to be washed was hell and it took ages to get the right 'feel' back afterwards.

Sadly I still scratch now and have many bobbly jumpers as a result.

This all sounds ridiculous I know and I'm 33 now!

I agree with the baby toiletries.We bought everything:baby oil,lotion,bath,shampoo.Baby turns out to have eczema and we haven't been able to use any of it.A wooden swinging crib which had been bought by my brother for his daughter,and which she wouldn't sleep in,was donated to us and our boy wouldn't sleep in it either.Very pretty but a complete waste of money and space.Most expensive mistake has been our pram.£400 pound(nearly) on a silver cross 3 in 1 and it spent most of his 1st year at the manufacturers being repaired.It went wrong constantly.Plus its heavy and cumbersome,fills the boot, is very difficult to manouvre around town etc.We use a small buggy/pushchair most of the time now.However ds slept very well in the carrycot and it is lovely to go for walks with,is comfy for him i think and looks nice.Wouldn't buy it again though.Outfits that just have a couple of buttons at the top and on the legs...worn once and never again.

Another thought.Has anybody any idea what you are supposed to use cotton buds for on babies? You can't put them in their ears or up their noses so what exactly? We bought them too and i ended up using them to apply eyeshadow.

Alexsmum, my ds aged 15 mo has the most waxiest ears imaginable and I don't know what I would use apart from cotton buds to get rid of it. Obviously I don't poke them right down into his inner ear, just around the outside.

Me too, wiping around and behind the ears in the little nooks and crannies.

Enough is enough. The dreaded Chicco Mamma highchair (see first post in this topic) has sunk to new depths. The handle to remove the tray is on the underside - and now my son's legs are long enough he can undo it with his feet. I can just about stand him throwing his unwanted food on the floor, but demolishing his highchair at the same time has pushed me into action. Went down to Mothercare today and spoke with the assistant manager. She told me to bring the offending item in for them to have a look at. Have pointed out to them that it is a definite design fault... she tried to deny it... how bizarre then that the newer model has a button you also have to push in at the same time as pushing the release handle. Methinks they might have had a few similar complaints back at Chicco HQ. Have been asked to bring in proof of purchase. Purleese, like I keep receipts for manky highchairs that are nearing their one year birthday. Fortunately I think I bought it on account card and have asked them to send me copy statements. Will let you know how I get on. Not feeling hopeful but the ensuing barny might help get rid of some of this pent up anger!

Willow2, do let us know what happens. Mothercare has been the cause of grief with me too.When I was heavily pregnant a pushy mothercare assistant persuaded me to buy a truly deadful 3 in 1 pushchair, with some totally overpriced accessories. The realisation that I had been misled began to hit me as I left the shop and I arrived home a miserable woman. 12 hours after I went in to labour - 2 weeks early!!

More recedntly, I asked them for advice about preventing toddlers wriggling out of car seats, and asked them if they couild recommend any extra-secure ones to me. They were totally unhelpful and I left with a new car seat that they asured me would hold the the most determined houdini. My toddler sussed it out in 2 hours.

I realise your gripe is perhaps more with chicco than Mothercare, but they did sell you the offending item in the first place - and I just felt like letting off steam.

Do Mothercare staff really know their products, not just in theory, but in practice? Do they actually care what they sell you?
Are the staff on commission? I wonder.....

Still havn't finished! Look at these boards. There's what, 50 contributors expressing firm dislikes? Many for the same product. Many Mothercare staff seem to have chlidren,too, Surely, as mothers themselves, they must know that some products aren't up to the job. OK sales assistants don't determine what the store stocks, but surely they have feedback that can be passed to higher management?

I will not buy anything like pushchairs, highchairs etc from Mothercare. I've never seen a member of staff on duty in any of the shops who looked like she knew her stock or was even that interested in selling it, frankly. They're fine for non-contentious items like a pack of muslins, but we bought all our big items from a specialist nursery goods retailer or John Lewis.
I have left Mothercare with steam coming out of my ears on many an occasion. I think it's no coincidence that one of the least safe car seats in the recent Which? survey was one of their own brand ones.

Way, way back when I was a sixth-former I worked on Saturdays and during the holidays for Mothercare (about 14 years ago) and unless the training has changed considerably since then - I think you can safely bet that most of the staff know very little about the products they are selling. We were given considerably more training about how to operate the tills than any product in the store. We weren't on product commission but we did receive a bonus for flogging mothercare storecards.
The stores are very competitive and we were always being told which store in which area was flogging the most stuff and we would be greatly encouraged to sell as much stuff as possible.
I think that the senior members of staff - managers and assistants had product training but the rest of us definitely didn't.

Yes strangely I worked in Mothercare as a teenager and can ditto Bugsy'd comment! Nice place to work as pay good and v unliklely that friends (at 17)would come in and see you in hideous uniform!
Sangenic is useful - tho white gripper things do fall off, I've glues most of mine in place now

Galt playring is WONDERFUL wouldn't be without it

Battery breast pump (Avent) was useless and very uncomfortable - luckily I was given mine so don't feel too cheated

Here's an item I wish was never brought for us - a bloody yellow plastic childs chair. Aaaarrrhhhh. Oh yes, very cute - 'look at him sitting in it so grown up'. What was not so cute was the number of times he managed to tip himself backwards out of it and bang his head. Then he worked out how he could drag it around the room and stand on it to get to various things. I finally had enough of it (plus it had been around long enough that the person who brought it no longer questioned where it was)and relegated it to some dark corner never to see the light of day again!

Victory! Mothercare have taken back the xxxxxxx Chicco high chair - with out a murmur. Think they must have been in contact with Chicco over the redesign. They did offer to swap my old one for the new one with the less-detachable tray.... but I stood firm and demanded a refund which the manageress agreed to. Alright, they put the money back onto my account card, which is a bit naughty - but I'll easily spend that in the next few months. The girl who processed the refund couldn't understand why I was returning it. "But it's a best seller" she exclaimed. "Yes, and it is a nightmare" I replied. Problem with things like highchairs is that you only ideally buy the one and hang on to it for future children - so it is hard to gauge repeat custom. I can't tell you how happy I am to know that I will never have to clean the bloody thing again. Instead I am just going to stick with the fold-up booster seat contraption that is fab and cleans in seconds. Anyway, I am now standing back from my pyre, and throwing away the matches.

WELL DONE Willow2! THE AMOUNT OF PRODUCTS THAT I HAVE BOUGHT AND PUT IN THE ATTIC, LEAVING A BAD TASTE IN MY MOUTH AND DEPLEATED BANK BALANCE IS UNTRUE. I'M TOO WEAK -EASILY INTIMIDATED BY SALES ASSISTANTS.
ONE OF THE WORST THINGS I BOUGHT WAS A SECOND HAND BRITAX ROCK-A-BYE CAR SEAT-MY 1ST CHILD GREW SO QUICKLY THAT BY 3 MONTHS HE HAD OUTGROWN IT-THIS TIME I OPTED FOR A 2ND HAND ROCK-A-TOT -ALICE IS 16WEEKS OLD AND WEIGHS IN AT 17LB 10OZ -SO BOY AM I THANKFUL FOR THE ROCK-A-TOT!
ALSO-THE £25 CHEAPO TOYS R US BUGGY BROKE AFTER 2 WEEKS -ENDED UP BUYING MC CLARENS BUGGY AT £100 -MUCH BETTER THAN THE OTHER BUT THE SUN CANOPY BROKE OF AND IS ATTACHED BY DUCK TAPE!!

Willow2, glad you scored a victory. As you say, it must be difficult for stores to measure long-lasting satisfaction when customers buy big bits of baby equipment that are meant to last a lifetime - they are hardly going to come back the next month to order another - or make minor complaints.

So I hope Mothercare and other such retailers regularly conduct, or refer to, market research. From your experience this doesn't seem to be the norm, though.

Adding to Batters.........I used to work for a manufacturer (of clothing incidently) in the product development team. We had our own retail outlets as well as selling wholesale to others. Whenever goods were returned to us we always assessed initially the validity of the claim and also the likelihood of it being a one-off occurrence. Of course if we had more than one return of an item it was more difficult for us to absolve ourselves of responsibility and claim it as a one-off. So definitely a big bouquet to you for standing up for yourself - and don't you feel so good as you walk away having achieved what you wanted?!

Sorry, but I vote for the Sangenic too! I lost the cutter on the first emptying session, but even then it's still good. OK, it needs airing regularly, but beats the nappy sack hands down. We even take it when we go away!

I also vote for the changing station by Mammas & Pappas with 4 sides on the top part, and shelving below (no silly bath). My dd is 21mths, and we still use it for changes, dressing etc. AND she has never fallen off.

Downer on the baby bouncer, bottle warmer, and silly handbag highchair from Blooming Marvellous. My dd is small and thin, but never really fitted into it. Either that or I just didn't have the knack!

We love the sangenic too, was too embarrassed to admit we took it on holiday with us till I read I wasn't the only one!! Nappy sacks have fallen over full of poo too often to use them unless I have to.

For my first child we brought a bottle warmer - a complete waste of time. My husband found an old thermos cup and we used bolling water in this to heat it up. We thought we were so clever. Child no 2 comes along and we discover she doesn't care how warm her top up milk is. She just wants it!

My three year old still play's with ther playnest ring. She will sleep in it, use it as a trampoline, hat, toy keeper. I was impressed enough to by a 2nd for number 2.

My friend told me that when her two were young She went into the play pen with armchair and cup of tea, they just ran round and couldn't get at her! I've got one for the Xmas tree.

I hate my rocking chair as a waste of money. We had to stop it from rocking to avoid little fingers getting caught and then subsequently large holes being knocked into walls.

Sorry girls - have to disagree about Sangenic nappy bin (unless my version from 1999 has been completely updated) - I found it smells no matter what I did... much prefer nappy sacks, tied up and placed by front door to go out quickly.

Naddy,
In total agreement my Sangenic from 1998 stank to high heaven (did not help that hubby through away yellow circle thingy when changing cartridge refill), had another one bought for me with 2nd son last year, still smells! Nappy bags are still better!