MNHQ here: thoughts on Mothercare (NOW CLOSED)

[FinnMumsnet]

Hello,

The BBC have been in touch with Mumsnet to gauge your opinions on Mothercare.

We'd love to hear anything and everything you've got to say -- do you shop at Mothercare? (Or have you in the past?) If so, what do you like about it? If not, why not? How does it compare to the alternatives? What does it do well, and what less well? Have your views changed over time?

Please feel free to post in as much or as little detail as you'd like.

Thanks,
MNHQ

[scaredofthecity]

I find it overly expensive. Despite having a nose round regularly I rarely buy anything in there. It tends to be only if I'm desperate.
There are other shops that offer similar with much better customer service, especially JL. I also much prefer next and sainsburys clothes for quality and value.

[Vixxfacee]

I have a big one near me. Lots of choice. The baby clothes are very reasonably priced. I wouldn't buy maternity wear from there but then again I havent got any from anywhere.

[sianihedgehog]

Oh, and the car seat experts tell outright lies. One (male) tried to mansplain to me that isofix was invented in 2005, that seat belt fitted seats are unsafe, and I needed to buy a new car to have a safe car seat.

[scaredofthecity]

Oh I should add the feeding rooms are generally good and very handy to a new mum without the confidence to feed in public yet.

[orangedaisies]

Very dated, limited choice, expensive for the quality tbh and not much selection. Often dirty and staff are not great customer service or knowledge wise.

Some years ago while heavily pregnant I was trying to view a display model pram and no one would help me or lift it down etc.

[LifeBeginsNow]

My nearest store closed down many years ago and now I struggle to get baby things (other than clothes). Luckily Amazon tend to be pretty speedy with delivery.

The stores I have visited could do with some more staff. I'd use Mothercare for their expertise (especially as I'm a first time mum) but can never find anyone.

Also, it may be common knowledge, but I didn't realise I could get all my baby things and set up a payment plan. Given the initial outlay, this is a fantastic idea!

[Tanito279]

Very limited on care and maternity items for mothers. Maternity bras should be more important than toys in a shop called mothercare. Its still Children's World really.

[leccybill]

I like some of the older kids clothes, my DD is 6 and it's hard to find cute clothes which aren't black or too grown up.

Speaking of which, the Myleene Klass range was absolutely dreadful. So cheap looking, but not cheap.

[Sparklingbrook]

I have just had a look at the Jools Oliver range and Myleene's. There's some very odd clothing in both.

[JacobFryesTopHatLackey]

It's shit. Similar to peaceloveandbiscuits experience. They lost part of my pram just before DS 2 was due.

In-store customer service is very poor.

[ScandiManny]

We spend a few £100s every 'season' buying clothes for 2 (soon to be 3) children from the Little Bird range. We'll be buying the nursery set when that's available in January too. However, were it not for that range I can't imagine buying anything from there ever again and if I could find bright unisex clothing anywhere else on the high street I'd happily spend my money elsewhere.

Customer service isn't great and they're very disorganised. Every season they balls up the release. Things only available in certain sizes or placed on the website but not actually available to order for weeks on end. If you enquire about stock you never get a consistent answer. I've been told that items that have yet to appear in stock have been discontinued, despite never actually being available to purchase, only for them eventually be in stock months later.

Our local store is abysmal. Rude staff giving out consistently incorrect car seat advice, filthy toilets and feeding area, bizarre stock placement that makes little sense and the whole store is just run down and depressing.

[Zebrasinpyjamas]

Expensive. Rude staff who don't know much about their products. I needed a last minute car seat and the service was so poor that I left without buying anything- (one person was rude and a second knew nothing about the seats).
The website is awful too. Has products on there that are permanently out of stock. It's helpful to have an estimate of when new stock will be in or an email alert. I also hate being asked for my email address for a £5 purchase!

[CommanderShepard]

Abysmal customer service. How they are still in business is beyond me.

[ScarletSienna]

-Terrible service when getting items ordered and delivered to the shop; poor tracking, dates not accurate etc
-Not enough staff and not always very friendly or helpful
+Good deals in ELC section and useful to have ELC and Clarks in there
-Maternity clothes limited in size and range
-Annoying to always be asked for your email
+Reasonably priced and good quality shoes for toddlers

*It would be really good if there was a car seat expert in store to check seats and not just at point of purchase

[AndWhat]

I only ever get approached by staff for my 'free photo shoot' studio they have in our local branch and I can never find a mothercare staff member and they are never at the till.
Our local store is basically split in 3, toys, baby clothes and a few bits from every other dept. No maternity wear apart from bras.
The toys and baby bottles etc I can go to a large boots and smyths on the same retail park for cheaper.
In our city centre the branch closed down after 6 months following a refurb.

[ItsLikeRainOnYourWeddingDay]

Never enough staff on floor or at cash desk. Not enough fitting rooms. Clothes expensive for quality which isn't any better than supermarket clothes.

[ItsNiceItsDifferentItsUnusual]

I go into my local one all the time because it's the only shop like that near me. The staff are nearly always quite outrageously rude. Once they managed to put a whole return transaction through without talking to me once. Not even hello. It was like they took the return personally

Their vests used to be good value but they've just reduced the number per pack so that doesn't apply anymore.

Some of the clothes are well made - I've had beautiful dungarees from there for ds - but the vast majority, especially tops, are absolute piss.

[Oreocrumbs]

I'm not a fan. The stores near me are badly laid out and dirty. The staff are not helpful. And as for shopping on line with them, they charge too much. I recently bought a booster seat for the car, it was £65 in mothercare, and £30-£35 in other online stores.

It is a shame because it was a nice shop. But it has gone down hill for a good few years now. And I think it will probably go in the not too distant future.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Are they still going? I haven't thought of them in years and my youngest is 4.

We used to live near one in a retail park. It had Clark's shoes and ELC too. I found the store quite dark, loos grubby and feeding room grim and smelly but the reasons I stopped going back was because they rarely had what I wanted in stock (common things like toilet training seats, potties, muslins etc) and when they did they were ££££. I could rarely find staff members to pay and some items were out of reach (I'm 5'4 so not unusually small).

The final straw was buying stuff on buy one get one free offer and them deliberately ringing it through so I would get the least benefit. Blatenty did it in front of me with a member of staff explaining to the other how to shaft me the most. I should have told them to stick it but I couldn't quite believe their nerve!

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Time was you couldn't go a week without a thread bemoaning the awfulness of Mothercare on here. We haven't had any for years!

Wasn't it AmazingBouncingFerret or someone similarly named who used to work for them and try to stick up for them a bit? I think they closed her store made her redundant iirr :(

[lionheart]

Used to like it until I bought a three wheeler from them. The harness was so small it was impossible to use when the weather got colder. Baby plus coat was too much of an imaginative leap for the genius design team.

[Greengager]

The staff are so rude. Probably understaffed and poorly paid but so unhelpful and difficult about returns. Think you only really ever go there as a first time parent and then get wise

[TheFairyCaravan]

I'm surprised they"re still going. They were awful when I had my kids 20 years ago.

[littlepooch]

Our local one is good. It's in a small retail park and recently been refurbished. The staff are mostly friendly and it's well laid out. I find the fact that they always have reduced stickers all over stuff confusing and often the reduction is rubbish.

However I think the one near to us is an exception. I've been to a couple of others and they are awful. Dark, dingy and miserable staff. I only go to our local one now but now that DD is one I don't tend to go in much at all.

[WalterWhitesNipple]

I'm after reading this thread I'm wondering if mother care will be the next bug store to close...

They need to decrease their prices to compete with competitors for a start. Everything in there can be found cheaper somewhere else.