Need advice re: Mammas & Pappas order...PLEASE!

[Twiga]

Hi, sorry this is probably going to be a bit long - thanks if you get to the end and reply!

Right, back in April dh and I put in a large order with Mammas & Pappas in Craigleith Edinburgh. Apparently Aberdeen is outwith their free delivery zone so we've paid around £160 for them to deliver and build the order. Delivery was due to be the start of this month - my due date is the end of the month. Decided to order direct as was cheaper than ordering through John Lewis up here, even with the delivery fee.

Unfortunately the store forgot to authorise the order through to build and deliver at that time, who as a result didn't contact us at the start of the month to arrange delivery. Anyway eventually got through to build and deliver last week who apologised but said unfortunately their driver was on holiday until 16th but they would do what they could to sort out a delivery asap. Phoned back monday and said they would deliver essentials like car seat, Moses basket etc today before 1pm and the rest of the furniture this coming Thurs. Waited all morning for the delivery which never arrived - phoned just after 1pm to find that yet again the delivery wasn't activated on their system.

To add to all of this M&P have also now told us that our cot is being disconitnued and would we accept an ex-display model at 20% discount - assured us it was undamaged,so we agreed. They then phoned back later this afternoon to say the cot is actually damaged after all and they will "try" to get one from another store - not looking good to be honest ! Problem is cot matches the rest of the furniture and we don't really want an odd cot, neither are we keen to take cot/bed alternative.

Our order has been fully paid for since april - again coz we're outwith the area they wanted all the money not just a deposit. To my mind they therefore should have had all of our stuff on resevere and there should be no question of any of it not being available. I've just over a fortnight to go before due date - mw has said baby is 4/5ths engaged and bh contractions are becoming more frequent and co-ordinated. Am really worried that baby will arrive before any of the stuff. I now have to wait in on tuesday (for the essentail items) and thursday next week (for furniture) - no set time just 9am-6pm at some point - not at all confident that they will deliver despite reassurances. Apparently it's not company policy to compensate, but there "may" be a "good will gesture" made once we've taken reciept of goods next week .

Tempted to cancel the order but feel like they have us over a barrel as where would we now get the stuff in time? Very cross and tearful, have been so organised and it's all going wrong!

Sorry for the length of this, needed to get it all off my chest

really pleased things are arriving for you.

Nearly finished checking everything, all looking fine so far, just releived that things are finally coming together .

glad its all there for you. theres nothing worse than opening all the packaging and then discovering there are vital parts missing!

Things looking a bit iffy again for tomorrows delivery - have had build and deliver on the phone trying to persuade us to except delivery fri instead as it means their driver can come up first thing then get away to other jobs later in the day. I can understand that tomorrow might not be conveniant for them but we've been mucked about quite enough and we've paid for the delivery so it shouldn't make any odds what's more conviniant fot them. Dh starts night shifts for a week from friday and needs to sleep during the day and I've got mw appt, so friday is rubbish for us. Waiting for them to phone back once they've "got things sorted".

Not at all helpful, but just a quick 'I hate M and P' I hear so many shocking things about them that I try and avoid them at all costs now. Hope they've pulled their finger out for you so to speak.

they never phoned back and not only that we've waited in all day and they haven't turned up - so much for us having a choice as to wether or not it was changed to Fri. Dh phoned them at 4.30pm just to get an idea of where things were at and was told the guy dealing with us was busy but would phone back in five mins - needless to say he didn't and when we phoned back at 5.30pm turns out their lines all shut down at 5pm - feel like our call was deliberatly not returned. At no point today has anyone phoned to say the delivery wasn't happening and we even have written confirmation that they would deliver today. The call yesterday at no point indicated the delivery wouldn't happen just that it would be delayed by a few hours and therfore later in the day rather than first thing. Have headache now from crying and just feel like breaking something I'm so cross. I so don't need this - 13 days to go before I'm due and who knows when this is going to be resolved if they can't even phone today to sort things out will they even turn up tomorrow?!

I think this is really shocking. I wonder if when Watchdog does a new series they might be interested in hearing about people who have had probs with M and P. I know you're not alone. So sorry this is happening with you. Hope it comes tomorrow.

I hate mams and papas
I ordered some replacement parts for a car seat back in march....before i got a chance to use them, I found the original ones and returned them via their courier......
I checked my bank statements after reading this thread and found i hadnt been refunded.
rang them today and had to get quite stroppy to get the refund...luckily i had kept all the details, dleivery dates etc

i can't beleive they are still messing you about. i would definatley ring watch dog and let them know, as from what i hear from other people who have had problems they will probably only give you a measly £20 voucher for the inconvenience!

Thanks guys, nice to not feel alone in being so .

Not doing well this morning, had a really sleepless night. Not only did we have hassles with M&P's yesterday but we were woken by our neighbour at 00:35 to say he'd just chased off a bunch of drunk lads who'd taken the ariels off our car as well as our neighbours - he came out to find them on top of the his car trying to pull off the wiper blades - no obvious damage to car and ariels screwed back on thank goodness - dh has spoken to police. On the up side it's a quiet area and nothing like that has happened before so is probably a one off. Feeling really stressed and tearful this morning, as if one thing wasn't enough!

Dh is going to phone M&P's this morning once he gets back from the hospital just after 9am. Not convinced that a delivery will happen today due to him telling them not suitable back on Weds, just have to wait and see.

/link{http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/contact/\watchdog} Go on there now and write it all down - will be cathartic and will hopefully out M and P for the pigs that they can be. I'm sure they'll love your story. HTH.

Try again watchdog

Thanks for the link flossom, will get onto it once dh has got the lie of the land so to speak this morning - might as well wait until we've got all the details together! Right need to get a coffee and stay calm...

The plot thickens.....dh phoned build and deliver this morning and spoke to the same guy we've been dealing with the whole time. "Andrew" is claiming he wasn't in the office yesterday afternoon he was at the distribution warehouse which is why our call wasn't returned - dh called his bluff on this as we were told yesterday by his collegue that he was just finishing a call and would get right back to us. "Distribution Warehouse" is maybe M&P speak for "at my desk but couldn't be arsed" . "Andrew" didn't really have an answer for this but told dh that the plan had been that the driver just go to Edinburgh yesterday for the pick up rather than waiting for things to get to Glasgow, avoiding a late delivery yesterday - told again we were the only job on yesterday - so why didn't driver appear?! "Andrew" not sure what is going on but will contact driver - not able to get hold of driver who he thinks might be on the road???

Has just phoned back and funnily enough driver is on road - to us no less and is around an hour and half away. I must be thick but somehow surely he would have known the driver was on the road to us after all he arranged all the delivery details.

Whilst I'm pleased that today might just about wrap this whole sorry affair up, I can't believe what a total farce it's been. Still intend to complain about the entire thing to whoever will now listen be that M&P's, watchdog etc. Have managed to get hold of a name for "Andrews" manager and dh will be speaking to her about this. They are supposedly looking at recompense for our "Wasted Day" yesterday?!

what a nightmare! hope all is ok with it when they finally deliver, definatley complian and if they don't come up with a satisfactory recompense then go to watchdog, as i'm sure once one person has complained to watchdaog about the apalling m&p service, hundreds of others will come out with similar tales.

i for one will boycott m&p on your behalf, i was going to buy a car seat for ds2 from the m&p store today but will get one from john lewis instead (not m&p branded). its a shame that you will be pushing around a pram advertising m&p for them!

Thanks Vickiyumyum - we'll be avoiding their stuff from now on too! It's a shame coz at the end of the day their products are lovely and the quality seems to be good - unfortunately they're badly let down by the quality of their customer care.

Will up-date once stuff has arrived and is all built.

Well the stuff is here and all built. Wardrobe, changer and shelf all fine. Cot not fit for use, is covered in dents and scuff marks (dh has photographed all the damage) and both catches for drop side are left hand catches and both damaged, one to the point where only a slight knock could cause the side to drop by itself - in our opinion dangerous . Delivery driver really nice, not impressed with the state of the cot and said he found it hard to believe there wasn't a new one kicking around somewhere. He also indicated to dh that he had been told to swop the two days over ie do yesterday's deliveries today and today's yesterday. Dh didn't push him too much as it really doesn't look like it's his fault. Driver has left the cot anyway and has marked it as damaged on his goods slip, is trying to sort things out with us ie has also phoned "Andrew" to talk about the state of the cot etc. Waiting now for a call back by 4pm.

Can't get the cot replaced at all, have had to choose another one which won't match the rest of the stuff exactly - still full of excuses and delays on the phone - waiting for another call back

Watchdog. And trading standards. Do it now before baby arrives because otherwise all else will take over and you will never get around to it. You have given M and P ample opportunity to put right their wrongs and they haven't. Others should be warned of their inability to care about their customers. Please try and do something about this. They are terrible .

They are getting the new choice of cot to their pick up place overnight tonight and it should be ready to deliver Mon/Tues, so far not able to confirm which day they will deliver (customer lines/delivery don't do weekends) - will supposedly phone Monday morning. and so what should have involved us waiting in one day at the very start of the month has now turned into five days waiting in much many days past the agreed delivery date of 1/08/05!

it should be their responsibility to source one from one the retailers, even a john lewis or an internet company, as you say your cot now doesn't match the rest of the furniture, or they should upgrade you to any range of furniture you want free of charge.

i cannot beleive that tehy can't get a cot from anywhere in the country. i know you are in scotland but even if there is one in lands end, they should get it to you.

on your behalf. (by the way got a nicer and cheaper caar seat from toys r us in the end with £20 off!!! told all my friends as well and the one who hadjust picked some items from the m&p catalogue has now ordered a john lewis range instaed)

Vickiyumyum glad you got a nice car seat, sounds like a bargain too!

I'm just so tired of the whole thing, we could have excepted the matching cotbed option with no extra charge to us for the swop, but it's bigger than the cot and we don't think we'd ever use it as a bed - a) we're both tall (dh is 6'5") and cotbeds are really low to the floor, not the best for reading stories from (b) it would have been bigger meaning all the sheets/matress we've bought (and washed in prep) wouldn't fit (c) it wouldn't fit into the space in the room as well (d) hoping to have another one at least with a smallish gap and don't want to be booting a toddler out their bed to re-make it into cot for new baby, would rather do a toddler room at that point as a treat. I know a lot of these reasons are future based and we don't really know what will happen but we had thought things through and had to really stick to our guns on the phone about it all. I'm disappointed but at this point just want my nursery finished so I can relax for what little time I've got before the baby arrives - I guess that's kinda what they've been counting on . Dh determined to pursue for whatever recompnese he can get, fed up with seeing me in tears and very unimpressed with the way we've been mucked about over yesterdays failed delivery etc.

ahh honey! feel really sad and outraged on your behalf. just get the cot, and then let dh deal with the complaints, put your feet up and try and get some rest and relax.

I'm sure once little one is here things will seem perfect!

I'm off on my hols but look forward to seeing your birth announcement on mumsnet!

Vickiyumyum, have a lovely holiday, thanks for your support on here

twiga, i'm so so sorry to read all this - it's far from all the excitement you imagined you would have on the first when it should have arrived to a beautiful freshly decorated room.

m&p service seems diabolical.. just unbelievable.

sending you hugs over the whole sorry affair.

ps. thanx for j's b'day pres. not opened it yet but it has arrived safely.