mothercare are awful

[saka]

I just thought I would let you know how appalling the mothercare phone/internet service has been.

I ordered all my baby goods over the phone/internet, spending a considerable amount of money.

They were delivered on time, but in an appalling state. Some of the boxes and goods (things like a bouncer chair and the blankets) were delivered to me wet and in damaged packaging. The man dumped a heavy box in my hand to carry up the stairs. Im 33 weeks pregnant, and this was totally inapproprite. He refused to let me have the cot, and said the whole order had to be returned.

When I called up to complain the customer service manager was very rude with me, she said I was lucky they were delivered so quickly and was short, unsympathetic and totally unhelpful. she refused to put me through to a manager, or let me know when my goods would be redelivered.

I was made to feel like I was lucky there were there at all, and that my complaints were not taken seriously at all. I was spoken to very ruidely.

I would under no circumstances use mothercare again, and thought people would like to know how awful they have been.

Hi, mothercare should change there name to mother dont care!!
I returned a trenton deluxe pram to them yesterday after only having it since May the back wheels fell off after the metal pin inside broke causing the pram to tip to one side and my 4 month old daughter nearly falling out into the road! I returned it to my nearest branch which is Walsall, to be told that they had never had this happen before on this model.The young assistant then said she'd pop another metal pin in for me! I explained that I didn't want this pram back as I'd lost all confidence that it was safe for my daughter and that the pram should be looked at properly to check its not a fault on this model. I was told that this was not there policy. After asking to see a manager who again was not interested at all, they agreed to return the pram to the maker (Graco) and loan me another pram. They then wheeled out a three wheel pram that had more baby food on it then my daughter would eat in a year!! I'm not kidding, it was insulting. I refused the pram as it was in a disgusting condition and they said " well you could give it a wipe over!!". So theres my £300 pram, ok wheels missing but in perfect clean condition sitting on there shop floor and there offering me somthing that looks like fifty babies have puked all over it.Nearly 2 hours later the manager rings there customer services and they dont want to know either, then she rings Graco who refuse to refund mothercare if mothercare give me a new pram, they say they wont do anything without first seeing the pram.So after alot of phonecalls and half of my day wasted they agree to return my pram to graco, loan me a £30 pushchair off there display for the afternoon so I can collect my son from school and graco will send me out another graco pram (not my model) to loan me until they have decided what to do about mine. They only agreed to do did this after I explained that we go on our hols next sat for a week and also as I dont drive I have to walk everywhere and collect my son from school everyday. Result? well no not really,the pram they have sent looks like its wearing a shell suit!! Remember them? Ok its a bit better that the one covered in food but I'm not at all happy with the service I recieved. They never once apologised, they never evan asked if my daughter was ok.I will be writing a letter to there head office I dont know where I will find the time but I will do it. They were quick enough taking our money but yesterday they didnt want to know at all, where is there customer service and aftercare??

A friend of mine ordered tons of newborn baby nappies from Mothershite for delivery before the baby was born. By the time they got them she was 3 months old and needless to say they were too small! And this was 7 yrs ago.

Saka - you should write to the Guardian Money section (the section where they right your wrongs - can't remember the name of it, sorry, pregnancy brain) - they basically challenge organisations which have let their customers down and sort out compensation and apology! I definitely think you have a case as this is outrageous. Good luck with it.

Well that is so shocking!
I went to mothercare in Truro ( 33 weeks heavily pregnant) and asked to use their toilet as I was so desperate.

Thinking that mothercare would be mother-friendly and obviously let me use a toilet, I got refused! In a rather nasty way as well!
I mean the woman working there could see that my bump was so huge!

It was ridiculous and because I am having very painful stretching pains in my pelvis it only helps when I pass water. I am totally angry over it and i'm in the middle of seeking legal advice. I was so discusted!
Off all places to get refused, and apparently a pregnant woman cannot be refused a toilet anywhere let alone mothercare!!!

I have found kiddicare to be great if you are looking elsewhere. I haven't heard anything to the opposite anyway!

at mothercare!

I've ordered twice from Mothercare - big orders both times (one a mattress and various others) and second time a P&T Vibe and the usual bits with it. Both times they were great and prompt and had no problems. John Lewis have always been great and Glasgow Pram Centre too. I have read negative things on here about kiddicare.com which put me off a bit from buying large items - I do prefer to have a real live person to shout at if it comes to that.

Their maternity clothes are 25 years out of date too! I went in for a browse just after i found out i was PG and cried - all the way to bloomingmarvellous.com !!

I agree with everything posted here about Mothercare.

I think the power of mumsnet could do some good here: aren't mumsnet very closely associated with mothercare? I seem to remember mn did a blurb in their catalogue, and they brought out the "mumsnet best" brochure in assocation with mothercare.

Maybe mothercare just really doesn't care, because they are the leading baby retailers anyway, but do you think we could do a mass mumsnet complaint about it?

Mothercare are rubbish, but so are John Lewis. Truly they are, and most of their stuff can be obtained (cheaper) in Argos. Who are generally really good. I think John Lewis is a middle class conspiracy, people shop there because they feel they must but really, it's rubbish. Their ordering system is pants.

I use small online baby retailers now though (through ebay shops usually), far more convenient and as there are actual human beings whose bills are being paid by your purchase, they are rather more interested in customer service.

Totally disagree about John Lewis - and Argos, have never found they run the same product lines. I have had bad experiences with random online retailers whereas you cannot beat JL for replacing faulty items/returns etc. Sure they aren't always great at answering the phone and it can get pretty packed in there on a Saturday, but I have never had a bad experience with them with nursery products or anything else.
Anyway did anyone else notice this thread was from 2006?

OMG, didn't realise Mothercare was THAT bad...my brother ordered loads of baby stuff there and they had a guaranteed delivery date but it arrived earlier...you'd think that was good but totally inconvenient and was just lucky someone was home to accept it.

Argos however is the BEST place to buy anything from simply for their fabulous customer service! They will not give you rubbish about returning to manufacturer - as long as within a year (or more depending on item) and you provide a receipt. They will either replace or refund.

I have never had a bad experience yet.

Never had a problem with John Lewis and they price match!!

Message deleted

Hi,

Cant say i've been impressed with mothercare! I bought a travel system pram with a car seat (granted not from there) but i told them that and they said "oh that doesnt matter, come into store and we'll fit the seat in the car for you". They gave me a time etc so DP and i went in (we were visiting the rellies so had disappeared from there for an hour to do this). When we got there, we were told no one was in to do this and wouldnt be all day so sorry but go home. I was angry but let it go (even after paying £2.50 for the parking!). When we got back home, i rang our local (local being 20 miles away) to ask them if they'd do it. Again, explained that i hadnt bought it from them and was assured it'd be fine and to come in. DP took the afternoon off work and we went in with the seat. I waddled into store and they said "sure, what car seat is it?" I said "a chicco", the reply was "oh we dont fit them, sorry". I went MAD! They never asked me what it was - I asumed they'd be able to fit the damn thing! They didnt give a damn so i came back and wrote a very stern letter to mothercare telling them to train their staff to not waste our time and actually ask what the car seat is before making false promises. They sent me a crap letter back saying that they strive for good customer service, sorry etc. Not even a poxy voucher or something - crap!

We purchased a £230 Mothercare Trav Trenton pram in July 07 , our baby girl was born on the 20th October 07 (guarantee starts from birth date) however within 10 months the wheels came off and almost pitched the baby out. We took it back, they sent it to Graco for repair as the pin holding the wheel had snapped. we waited 2 weeks without a pushchair, then we has a guarantee extention for 3 months, 6 weeks later the wheel came off again, we took it back and the manager was really bland about our concerns that this was the 2ND time the pin had snapped. He then prised off the wheel cover removed the spring and washer and said ' where is the pin then' my husband said i dont know I havent touched it, just bought it in to you. He then said well there is no pin here is there? intimating my husband had maybe tampered with it! My mum-in-law was there and she spotted it on the floor, it had dropped out when the manager opened the wheel cover, apology???? NONE! he was dismissive and unconcerned, stating it would need to go off to Graco for inspection and repair. mum-in law said ' under the sale of goods Act 1974 we were rejecting the pram as being of unmerchantable / serviceable quality . i.e not fit for the purpose it was purchased for. Since then I logged a complaint to Mothercare as the buck stops with them, it doesnt matter who the manufacturer is, the case is with the person that sold you the item. So now we have to wait for them to respond, but if they do not sort this satisfactorily then I will take them to the small claims court, and advsie trading standards as to the potential safety hazard of these prams, see an earlier entry posted on this site from Shoegal. My concerns are if Mothercare cares about children, and they are alerted about safety of any products they sell , then they have a duty of care to ensure they ridgidly follow through any safety complaints vigorously

We got our cot bed in a sale from mothercare for ds. But when it was delivered the wood at one of the ends was split so we sent it back. They took ages to rplace it and i got very close to due date. In the end dh insisted that they let us pick another from our local store for the same sale price. They agreed so we went in and the manageress delt with us. Because the staff are so thick they ended up reducing the price twice at the till. The manageress relised but it was too late so we got a better cot bed for a ridiculasly low price. So crap staff can sometimes pay off.

Don't you hate it when you read a review 4 days too late!

I went into Mothercare to buy a support band for my bump. I was standing in the maternity clothes section looking for one and an assistant wanders by. I asked if she could show me where they were.
She proceeded to wander away and return offering me this:
www.mothercare.com/gp/product/B000JFANIA/sr=1-11/qid=1235142457/ref=sr_1_11/280-8780507-5600359?ie=U TF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=42872041&mcb=core

DH almost wet himself laughing!

Flirty x

lol flirty! obviously well trained staff .

John Lewis - Excellent service, friendly, well-trained staff, prompt delivery and excellent at managing returns.

I do not work there, by the way, just a happy customer. They have customer service nailed.

FlirtyThirty lol that has cheered me up, hope you managed to get a bump support band eventually

Glad it made you smile, nunnie!
I now have a support band purchased elsewhere...was laughing too much to spend any more time looking in Mothercare!

I have had a very good experience with mothercare. Assistance was excellent once you find one, everything was deliovered promptly and in best condition.

This will change though... nothing like a recession to make (a) companies sharpen their act up and (b) staff realise they have to work for a sale. I was doing Saturday work in the last recession and all the staff smiled. A lot.

Agree with newpup - John Lewis every time, even if they're a bit more expensive. They have customer service sorted both in store and online

Mothercare last is the last resort