Keep em quiet bag; am I being overly picky?

[Chefwifelife]

I’d read lots of good things about these bags for travelling with children so ordered one for our flight to turkey next week.

I picked the age range 1-3 and specifically in the drop down box 18-24 months but in the comments wrote he will be 22 months at time of travel. I also asked for no raisins as they really wreak havoc on his tummy and no one needs that!

Received the item today. Raisins included and everything just seems a bit young and simple for him. I’ll attach a picture, but two stacking toys, a teddy of a fish and links just seem a bit similar and lazy. Am I just being a miserable cow or should I ask for a refund and send them back?

Feeling a bit annoyed and stressed as thought I’d spent £22 so entertainment was done and dusted. Would appreciate any thoughts or advice.

I would probably have selected the 2yr old option for a 22 month old.
It does seem extremely expensive for what you get, you could have got all that for under a tenner at somewhere like The Works and bought stuff that you know he would like.
I would return it for a refund.

I would ask for a refund. Most of those things could be picked up for £1-2 each ( I got my DS one of those colour in the line colouring books from Amazon for £1.50ish recently)

I did think about picking the 2 year old option, but you pick the age bracket of 1-3 and then get to pick a specific bracket again so I just assumed it would be tailored to him. The annoying thing is you have to pu to return it all too.

Pay to return even

I prefer to put my own bags together for my kids, I know their interests best so can get things they will definitely enjoy, and much cheaper.

I know, I know. I guess I just thought the reviews were great so it must be worth it. The silly thing is you have to return within 14 days. We fly next weekend so the only chance we have to send it is Monday as we’re away for two weeks.

Well they have said that there was an error with two stacking items being put in the order and they would send a non-stacking item. But they are basically saying it fits the age category and although you can put notes on the order they do not guarantee they are taken into account. I have to pay all delivery returns. Overall pretty poor, impersonal service.

There's a YouTube video by the hidden gem about entertaining her toddler on a flight. May be useful for you as she has lots of ideas and it seemed quite effective.

Thanks Gummy for the info 👍🏻

That's a shame. I've used them a few times and been impressed with the content. Yes, you could do it cheaper yourself but you are paying for someone else to do the work. I'm fine with that.

I’ve never heard of these before. In theory, I could get into the idea of throwing some money at getting this done for me. But oh my word, their options are SO gendered! I just looked at the 3-5 packs (DD is 3) - the girls pack has unicorns and Barbie, and the boys has counting and cars!
Anyway, OP, yes, I’d complain in your shoes, but also order the next age up.

Rainatnight tell me about the gender ideals! We have just sent it back £11 to make sure it’s there before we leave on Sunday otherwise we won’t get a refund. They’ve been pretty short in their emails. I’ll be honest the toys in it were just plastic tat or looked like they were from a fairground! I’ve emailed seeing if they will be willing to refund the postage but I’m not hopeful.

id like to add my 2c here being a repeat customer of this company. I think you are being a little picky I'm afraid to say but would argue you shouldn't have the same type of item and they should offer a replacement. I have ordered from this company multiple times as have all my friends, i do recommend them if people are short on time or are busy with other things. We have always been impressed. I even helped a friedn organise her wqedding and she ordered these after seeing that Princess Euegenie got them for her wedding last year.

Sure if you scour the pound shops (somewhere I dont go im afraid) and take transport etc you might find cheaper alternatives. And if you go on Amazon you can likely pick what you want but that will be muchhhhh dearer as I have tried this and cannot get to anywhere near the price I ordered and ended up spending an absolute fortune, plus if you have multiple kids to order for are you really wanting to order tonnes of stuff individually? This company have made this much easier and of course its going to cost a little more than doing it yourself if you are counting every penny and going to pound shops to compare, but I wouldve thought that takes a lot of time too and cost to get there, is that worth it? I would also say that when I received a parcel with the incorrect item they were extremely quick to send a replacement.

I really find it astonishing how people love to tear down small businesses, give them the benefit of the doubt, they arent Amazon, they have thousands of good reviews for a reason. I am sure if you complained they would offer to help you as they did with me.

Also regarding the gender thing, my little girl who loves boy stuff I clicked 'unisex' option for her which they have on all the kits and received unisex, nothing gender-specific at all. I believe they have boys, girls & unisex.

but physically having to go and pay for parking/transport, take time off work, drag kids with you for the saving of a few £ if you can even get what you're saying in your local pound shop. I just guess there's 2 types of people ones that are happy to save a couple of £ by going into a pound shop (where you dont seem to be saving much if you add in thre cost of your time + parking/transport) and ones that wouldve rather tick it off the list and have it delivered to your home. I know what Id prefer.

I think these are great as have ordered for my lo's too. Never had an issue myself. perosnally i agree with the above poster, i dont have the time with my job or looking after my lot to go to shops and try to save a small amount of money plus ive ordered other things from them for our hols, headphones armbands and suncream as well as the packs so overall much more convenient for us. hope you get a resolution Dx

If you paid for the original order via PayPal you should be able to claim your return postage back through them.

I considered one of these for my DD (18m at the time) and decided against it because I think they are a more successful concept for slightly older children.

The thing is that of my now 24m old DD's things that are good entertainment and portable, ALL of them aside from books and teddies say 'Not suitable under 36 months'. I imagine a company like this has to be really careful not to include these items in packs sold for younger children. It's unfortunate because jigsaw puzzles, reusable stickers, small toys with removable parts all say this but these are the things that are very travel suitable.

I don't think the argument of 'but you could buy all that for £10' has a leg to stand on if you want to criticise the packs on that basis. You are paying for the concept and the service, a bit like when you go to a cafe and pay £3 for pasta and tomato sauce from the children's menu. You could make a portion for 30p at home, but that's not the point, is it?

The above poster is spot on, I also thought the same but my LO loves stickers etc so I ordered and she loved it, there are a few messages on the site that warns you that these types of things are included for younger than 3yrs and if you dont want em you can email in i didnt bother as i always buy things that say 3+ i just supervise.

Thanks for all the replies, those critical, and those offering a more soft opinion. In the end I got an email reply from the founder. He admitted that they hadn’t got the order right and apologised. He was genuinely disappointed. He said that their customer services should have offered to just swap the bag for an older age group and apologised for that not happening. We paid for the return of the items. He also stated that although you can leave notes on the order they are rarely read and that they are unable to removed that option from their website.

I am a massive supporter of local, and small family run businesses, and I was in no way “tearing them down” I was simply asking for thoughts from other parents.

The chap I was in contact with was very nice and I believe they are going to take forward some of my points from email correspondence to help with future customer service training. The one thing that I was a little surprised at is that they actually charge a “re-stocking” fee for any items return. Although they did waiver this for us.

It ended on very nice terms but I think the items just weren’t the quality I was expecting, although the concept is great for those short of time.

I’ve got a 20 month old and flew last week. We put together our own bag - bit sneaky but I removed a couple of her fave things from general play for a few weeks and out those in the bag so she kind of discovered them all over again! Got a new noisy book from a series she likes and a cheapo etch a sketch. Pipe cleaners were a big hit as we may bracelets (watches as she calls them!). We took a sticker book my older son had had and wasn’t all used. Come to thing of it the biggest hit aaa the packet of wet wipes in the change bag which she used to clean the plane!

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