Little Amigos

[MUMM9987]

I had a NIGHTMARE dealing with Little Amigos in Stockport. I ordered my pushchair online only to wait 4 WEEKS, then be told they couldnt get the stock any more, and i'd have to wait another 4 WEEKS. I immediately triend to cancel my order, only to be met with more of a nightmare.

They had already taken my money from my credit card - even though they insist no money is taken till they send your order. Anyway, 6 phone calls later, more promises of messages will be passed to customer services, someone will call you back but NOTHING. After another 2 weeks i got my money back but the whole experience was unbearable. Someone called 'Mr Hawoon' was rude, abusive and downright unhelpful.

I felt all the more guilty as i recommended them to a friend (as they ARE cheap), but she ended up receiving the wrong item after a 3 week wait! Then she was told the one she wanted wasn't in stock. Again, another refund battle commenced!

I have since been told by a rep of one of the big pushchair firms that this company is related to Bambino Direct - eiether one is a spin off of the other, or they are the same company. I am still investigating. Bambino have bad reports so this kind of makes sense.

You have been warned, steer clear at all costs!

I found this company a pleasure to deal with,We bought a cot online with them and it was very reasonably priced and included the mattrass but also was delivered free of charge also the company delivered the item very fast...ordered on the wedensday night and it arrived on the friday morning...
EXCELLENT I WILL DEFINATELY use this company again and i would reccomend to others...

Little Amigos is a terrible company. I bought a cot in August and still waiting for a refund In October. We cancelled the order in septemeber because the sales person promised the order would be with us in 1 week. But there cot did not arrive then they said we should have read small print saying it will be in Oct/ November (which would be too late- my baby will then be 5 months). They said refund had been prossessed and therfore in good faith we bought another cot from another company which arrived well. I am still waiting for my refund!!!

My advice is do not deal with this company. They lie a lot.

Yeah, I'm never going to use this company after reading those bad reviews, followed by the 'this company is totally awesome and I am in no way affiliated with Little Amigos, it parent company or it's subsidary companies, honest!' reviews.

Hate to be a downer, but this company is awful. They are difficult to contact, and if they do contact you back, they give conflicting information. I asked them (a month after placing an order) if the items were in stock, because if not I wanted to cancel the order. Only then when I threatened to cancel the order did they contact me and say they were expecting a shipment within a couple of days. That was a week ago, and I still haven't heard if they have the items in stock. I understand that sometimes it takes a while to stock items, but waiting a month before even telling me is ridiculous. It's very frustrating when you're expecting a baby and trying to prepare things. Also, they say they won't charge your card until they ship your order. WRONG!!! They charged my card for shipping almost right after I placed my order. They just do it so you won't be bothered waiting for a refund.

Just had an awful Customer Service with Little Amigos and very similar to those posted above. Ordered a Car Seat on 17th October and received an email receipt proudly proclaiming

"We pride ourselves on customer service and wish to do everything we can to help you with your purchase at this speacial (sic) time. If you have any questions please feel free to telephone us."

Hahahahah. What a joke.

The email said to allow Seven days for delivery and that I would receive an email when it was ready for dispatch. Well, Day 8 arrives and no email, so one would assume it hasn't been sent out yet. Sent an email on asking for an update and get a reply the next day from "Claire" saying that the item was actually in the warehouse ready for dispatch the next day.It doesn't arrive.

3rd November, I send a chaser email. No reply. 6th Nov (a Saturday admittedly), another chaser. no reply. So on 8th November I call 'Customer Services' and have to leave a voicemail! Voicemail left and a 2nd chaser email sent.

End up phoning on 9th Nov as still no reply. Customer service is awful. Lady is asking me what colour the car seat was and seems to struggle to find the order, even though I offer to give her my order number (which she is totally disinterested in). I've barely said "It's Pink and Black" before she's abruptly put me on hold without warning and dissapeared. Eventually, after asking me if I had any other details on the item (but still not interested in my order number)she tells me that she thinks my order is part of a load of chairs that are sitting in the warehouse that should have gone out and that "she doesn't know what's going on". She eventually realises I'm the same person who's been sending emails over the last week and says "Oh...I think that your order is one of the ones that's due to go out, I was just about to send you an email". I tell her I won't be in now for two days and she says "That's OK, the delivery company will leave a card and you'll be able to call them and arrange a more suitable time for delivery". I suggest that perhaps it would make more sense to simply schedule the delivery for a day I will be in (Rocket Science)and she promises me a call back once she finds out in just a moment.

Not surprisingly, no call back. So I send an email chaser and get an abrupt reply from a Blackberry device: "Your order is sorted for Monday".

Throughout all this, NOT ONCE was there an apology about the order delay and I was treated like a pest.

Avoid at all costs. And if that Managing Director who posted earlier wants to speak with me, no problem. Just Private Message me and I'll give you my number.

Hopefully the Car Seat will arrive this Monday.......will let you know...

This thread has 31 posts.

Of those 31 posts, 27 are from mumsnetters who have only made one post - the one on this thread. (This includes the OP and the managing director guy.)

The other 4 are from people who definitely use mumsnet - they are on TTC/AIBU etc threads, and lots of them.

I admit that I have just watched the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and am probably overly suspicious as a direct result (I don't normally stalk entire threads, honestly this is my first time)! This is not quite the same as uncovering a family of rapists in Sweden I know, but there we go...

I was suspicious because of the poor spelling, grammar and use of capitals and lack of corrections (true mumsnetters often spot spelling mistakes after they have posted and post another correcting it shortly afterwards) and also the absolute lack of mumsnet humour of any kind.

Anyway, I thought you might like to know that the only real posts were from hevau, themacsmum, coraltoes and kitteymee. Of those four posts, three of them were saying ?try getting money back on your credit card? or ?thanks for the tip, I won?t use these guys? - and the fourth one had spotted that ?All the positive reviews sound like they are written by the same person....?

So none of the positive or negative reviews on here are from real mumsnetters, unless they created a new account for themselves just to write about little amigos and then reverted to their other one for everything else.

I rest my case.

And hang up my investigative boots. seriously blushing

I have only one post. I joined specifically to add my tale of woe. I decided to look for Little Amigo's reviews after my ongoing bad experience, only to find a lot of very similar experiences here.

I felt I had to add my own experience as, the more reports the better in exposing companies like this.

I suspect many of the other 1-posters are the same.

Sorry to join only for a rant, but I felt it had to be done. Perhaps I should have put my woes on an actual retailers review site somewhere.

...and there may be more. A Google Search for "Little Amigos" brings this thread up in the 3rd position. Which is probably why people are seeing this as the first port of call for a rant :)

Hi, I am a regular Mumsnetter, and unfortunately have been waiting nearly a month for my son's mattress to turn up. The bed is waiting (ordered from another site) but he is still in his cot. No reply to my emails complaining and when I phoned I was told that they did not have any in stock but they are expecting a delivery soon and I should receive it this week. Of course, the money was taken from our account the day we ordered... .

I will be calling the manager if it has not arrived by the end of the week, and then letting Trading Standards in Stockport know what has happened. If any of you are genuinely pissed off about a bad experience with this company making a complaint to Trading Standards is your best bet. Oh, and telling everyone you know to avoid them like the plague.

PLEASE DONT ORDER FROM LITTLE AMIGOS!!!

I orderd a pram and car seat beginning of September 2010 the whole package which cost around £430 and had the delivery within the 7 - 10 working days as they said so was happy :-) NOT FOR LONG.....
When i opened the boxes the car seat was totally the wrong car seat that didnt match anything els and the pram was damaged! I have telephones Little Amigos waaaay over 20 times send over 7 emails with pictures of the damaged parts to Little Amigos and have had so many promises of them and dates of collection/delivery and still to date I havnt got anywhere with them! I have also emailed the manager over three times and have had no repily - NOTHING!! Baby is due now in three weeks and this has caused me so much upset and stress!! I still dont have my car seat and pram is damaged :'( what do i do? I am so angrey - So wish i had read these reviews before i orderd from them - I was so happy when orderd thought it was all perfect - FAR FROM THAT!!
Staff are rude and full of rubbish!!

PLEASE READ

I had read this thread and also the ones slating Bambino Direct. I was annoyed cos they are a lot cheaper and I didn't want to pay over the odds.

Anyway, I went with Kiddicare, who hv great reviews. Quite rightly. The travel system arrived the next day, in a one-hour time slot.

But MOST IMPORTANTLY, I emailed them links to the identical products on Little Amigos, and they did a price match.

My point is therefore that there is no need for anyone to use these cheaper websites. Use a trustworthy one that honours price matches

They are about to close the shop, massive financial difficulties. I heard this from a competitor, a very reliable source. Also, the 'new' website is a virtual copy of bambino direct!

Forgot to add, you will find nowhere cheaper than Kiddicare. This muppet has tried to match them on ALL prices, yet forgetting Kiddicares buying power. Check for yourself. Kiddicare are massive, this is some fly by night new company. Check out Companies House website, they havent been formed long, how can they try compete with the big guys? I'll tell you why.... By FALSE PROMISES. steer clear mummys

So my cart seat arrived on the Monday as promised. A good price to be sure but wasn't worth the chasing and general nightmare of getting hold of anyone who had any concept of Customer Service.

Hi
We are having a similar issue - ordered a baby jogget in June (!?!?!?) they took money immediately and we are still waiting for it. Can't get through to anyone on the phone and they won't reply to the web-based mails to customer services. Not quite sure where to go from here as we have been forced to buy an alternative as my nearly 6-mth old daughter needed a pram!
I wish that managers phone no had the right no of digits as I'd definitely call to complain.

Ordered my sons xmas present from these crooks, all reputable outlets said out of stock, not these lot?, just pay your money, then ring when it is to late to say they have no stock? Spoken to Rogue Traders and they say they are looking at them. If you have stock, then say so, if you do not, then do not mislead the public, who have to then explain to there children why Santa did nit bring there xmas present, more like some company say they have the present when obviously they do not. Typical example of why not to shop on the internet. You should all be ashamed of yourselves? con men who lie about what they have to sell. Will make it my aim in 2011 to make sure everyone is aware of not shopping with Little Amigos, if you actually want your goods in a timely manner? ie 2 weeks??

i take it that Daddies are allowed on this site???

Well im a dad, lol

One of my sister friends bought a City Select package from them at the end of november, they have been saying that the city select is out of stock, and today she has just had a phone call to say that they can no longer fulfil the order and that she needs to contact her credit card company to ask for her money back. She asked them if they had gone bust and the person on the phone just said that she could not confirm that at this stage. The worrying thing is that when you go on their website, there is a message saying "Unfortunately due to the adverse weather conditions orders will not be processed and despatched until the New Year. Orders can still be taken via the website for delivery in the New Year."

I also ordered the City Select package including car seats the cost was over a £1000.00 at the end of November 2010. At the time of order I was told it would take approx two weeks for deliverey, this was not the case. I chased and chased them to find out when my ordered would be delivered and never got a call back. Obviously I began to worry then on the 23rd December 2010 in the afternoon, I also received a phone call to say that they could not fulfil the order and that I had to contact my credit card company to claim back the money. I demanded a refund but they told me that they couldnt do this. The whole experience has been very stresful indeed and I'm not even sure if my I will get my money back as the credit card company have to investigate, I am heavily pregnant with twins and this is causing lots of worry and stress. No-one should go through this when they are pregnant.

PLEASE DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY.

DO NOT ORDER FROM THESE GUYS. spent over a grand at beginning of Oct- same story- told it would be in stock in 2 weeks and my card would not be charged- they charged my card straight away and good haven't arrived. babies have arrived and we are now strugglign to get to appointments etc- lots of additioal stress at what is supposed to be a happy time. have contacted Watchdog, they said they will investgate and have been contacted by other people- if you have had similar experiences, I urge you to contact Watchdog as this is prob the only way you'll get your money back

I also made the mistake of ordering from this company. Unfortunately I didn't discover what everyone had written on mumsnet until after I placed my order. I ordered acessories for my baby jogger in November. Money was taken straight away but after a few weeks no sign of goods. Tried contacting them but no answer on phone and didn't reply to my e-mails. I also received a phone call on 23rd December saying they are unable to get the items and I have to contact paypal to get a refund. After contacting paypal this is not the case and Little Amigos have to issue the refund to me. I'm trying again to contact Little Amigos to ask for refund before I take the matter further with paypal. Obviously a lot of people are in the same situation so DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY.

i had a bit of a nightmare with them, went in to order a pram and was told the colour i wanted (green/black) was now out of production but more expensive one was available, so ordered it. waited 4 weeks. waited 2 more weeks then phoned and was told it would be another 2 weeks. waited 2 weeks was told it would be another 2 weeks which was getting close to due date. waited 2 weeks then phoned again only to be told they wouldnt be able to get the pram for me after all but maybe id like the green/black one! i pointed out that theyd told me it was no longer in production but he didnt really have an answer for that. so all fine in the end but an awful long wait and palava, most people seem to say that ordering online works fine so maybe thats the way to do it!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, NOTHING BUT A HEADACHE.
THEY HAVE TAKEN MY MONEY UP FRONT AND HAVENT DELIVERED MY GOODS.
MY BABY IS DUE IN UNDER A MONTH AND THEY ARE NOT ANSWERING THE PHONE TO INFORM ME OF PROGRESS.

THINK THEY HAVE GONE BUST.

DONT USE THEM!!! STILL HAVEN'T GOT A REFUND!!

Hi to you all well l also wish that l had read this first, l ordered a car seat back in May 2010 yes May, no car seat no refund nothing just the run a round, they say the company has been taken over, ( what by another nit wit who dose not care ) l see this company are still taking orders with no stock,