Babies247.com - Anyone else had problems?

[lauraloola]

Ordered from them 2 weeks ago. Emailed to chase and they replied saying my order would be despatched in a few days.

I now want to cancel but they are ignoring me.

I think I will do my usual trick of copying in trading standards on my next email.

Anyone else had problems?

YES!!!! I ordered an instep nipper twin (fixed wheel model) and a bath seat - totalling £245 approx.
They removed the money from my bank account the following day = but NEVER replied to any emails I had sent them.

I then phoned - the number supplied was taking me to answer phone or fax machine every time.

So, I left a message = still no response.

I did a little web research, and found out they also have a bricks and mortar store at the same address as the web site is operating from. this store is
JKUK
their phone number is: 02380434544 No doubt when you call they'll fob you off with the old "she's in a meeting" speech. I beleive the lady in charge of the website is cheryl. People seem to have been listing complaints about this company on the web from wayback when they started around 2003.

Lucky for me, I live nearby, my hubby went their with my card on my behalf and demanded a refund there and then this afternoon - and they seem to have done it - we have paper receipts saying the refund is done - but I will check my bank account also to be sure.

LOTs OF PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE TROUBLE WITH THIS STORE SO BEWARE!

I think it's possible for you to get your refund =- it might be worth writing if you don't have luck over the phone and definately contact trading standards if you need to.

Their customer care was not good in my experience.

Best of luck.

just to let you know, I checked my bank account and the refund had gone through
okay. Phew!
My husband who went with my card to get the refund sorted (because If I came it would have meant us trailing all four kids along - including the baby!), said he got the impression they were genuine, and not trying to rip us off, just that they were really disorganised and useless! (in his opinion of course).

They told me the other day that they will refund me - I will check on Tuesday. Hopefully I will be as lucky x

I am writing this as a warning to any prospective buyer of baby products to stay well clear of the web site www.babies247.com.

In summary, my wife and I ordered a nursery furniture set for £449 in 30th August 2008 from a professional looking web site. Payment was taken immediately and we were promised delivery within 7-14 days.

By the 6th October and after many e-mail's and phone calls concerning the whereabouts of our goods they finally admitted the delivery would never happen and we cancelled the order.

A full refund was promised within 30 days. On the 30th day we received this e-mail:

Babies247 has been trading online since 2005.
Over the past months the site has experienced a significant increase in business which was not forecast. As a result we have had neither enough stock to satisfy all orders or enough staff to provide an adequate level of service to our customers. As a result of this Babies 247 is in the process of suspending its operations until such time that the resources are in place to properly service an online offer in a professional way.
It is not possible at this time to provide a direct refund to you. Please contact your card issuer and ask for a "chargeback" to be raised against us for the non delivery of goods.
This will ensure that your monies are credited back to you without further delay. Refunds for purchases made by debit card (chargeback's are not possible with these cards) will still be made directly from Babies247.
We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by this.

So why are they still taking orders on the web site, stealing peoples money. A simple search on the Internet for "babies247 reviews" brings up hundreds of other similar stories to ours dating up to a year ago.

As we paid by debit card we have had to chase the company directly and to date have not received back a penny of our money. The matter has now been reported to Trading Standards who have advised us to write one final letter quoting Distance Selling Regulations before we take further legal action.

I have my refund!!!

I emailed them again in the week and got the same email as Ackerbilk. I emailed them back and asked how it is that they can email me but not process a refund??

I was refunded yesterday. Keep emailing them and you should get somewhere x

HI- can you tell me what email address you used to contact Babies247. I have used the orders@, graham@ and david@ but never get any response. Now there is noone to contact by telephone as they have closed the online side of the business it makes contacting them almost impossible. They owe me a refund for a Mamas and Papas product I ordered in August- it was constantly out of stock so I cancelled my order at the end of September and still no sign of the money. Any help would be great. Thanks

I got my response from Graham.

The really weird thing is is that my refund came up as being from just kidding - here I think they are linked to Babies247 - I would email/phone them and see what they say.

My money was taken by JKUK- that's how it came up on my bank statement and I did tell them that but they just say the two companies are not connected blah blah! Thanks for the response and I will keep trying and hopefully eventually my refund will come through.

I kept getting return emails when I emailed Graham but I kept trying and eventually he got back to me.

Hi,

Its always a pity when folks have bad experiences with internet companies as there are lots of honest small businesses out there. I would always phone and make sure you can have a conversation with a person(not a call centre or virtual office) before spending anything substantial online.

If you can suss out that the person is actually running the business and can talk about the goods (delivery times etc) then there is a good chance they are serious about their business. It only takes a couple of minutes to do this.

Its really easy for websites to put products up (just a question of copying pics) and not actually ensure they have a supply chain to get them to people - they put pages up on the offchance and then can't deliver.

If they are using google or paypal there is also a chance they don't have a merchant account. A merchant account is whereby the person owning the business has been checked out for fraud, bankruptcy etc...

I know all this stuff cos I run a web business (Baby Bill) but the points I make apply to all online businesses- its bad for us all when people have this experience.

Nice website, I love the Sand Fur booties

I check every website now - I look for reviews and if there is nothing I dont bother. Good point about phoning them also. Thanks.

Wish I'd seen this BEFORE I made an order from Babies247...I'm having similar probs too.

I find it hard to believe they are still in business. I reported them to Trading Standards who say they understand my frustration (frustration??!!) and the company have now stopped taking internet orders (er, no they haven't - checking on that took me less than 30 secs)

Grrrrr.....

Just a quick update on the saga with Babies247:

1. No refund for our £449 has been received
2. Trading Standards have been informed and are attempting to get our money back
3. I have sent the complaint to a solicitor who replied:

?After reading some of the internet reviews about this company I am concerned that there may be evidence of wrongful trading. I would urge you to push it with Trading Standards and also report it to the police saying being clear that it is not a consumer matter ? you actually have grounds to believe that there is foul play.

In the meantime, I will send a letter to the registered office and see if that elicits a response however as above I have concerns about this company?s trading practices?.

Doesn't sound too good does it?