Mothercare rant

[lushlush]

It has taken me ages to decide which pushchair/pram etc system to get for the babin when she arrives. Due to being very short of space and liking the design, I went for the bugaboo bee.

I had previously ordered stuff from mothercare and received an email from them saying that if I update my profile they would give me a 10% off voucher. I updated my profile and received the voucher via email and printed it off.

I looked very very closely at the terms and conditions and it does not exclude the Bugaboo. I also had some vouchers to use for mothercare (£480 worth) so thought I would buy it today at a discount. I know that the bugaboo was excluded from the offer last week and the one that the currently have on pushchairs, but my voucher did not exclude it.

In store today, the assistant took about 15 minutes putting in my details - in part it wasn't her fault as the computer kept freezing, but she kept being distracted by colleagues and wasn't sure on how to make the order. Some of the chat was not work related. She then said that the till would not take my voucher (and she would not manually over-ride it). Then all 3 shop assistants, yes you heard it 3 of them proceeded to say that the terms and conditions of the voucher did not allow me to use it on Bugaboo. What really annoyed me is that the terms and conditions were printed on the voucher and it did not exclude Bugaboo.

I didn't want to make a fuss and paid the full price. As I did not have enough vouchers, I paid some on my credit card. I then however before I left the store, called mothercare head office on the number on my voucher. They agreed that I could use it. I went back to the till and still they refused to apply the discount. the head office and store proceeded to argue and the store manager refused to do a manual over-ride and give me a refund (of £54). In the end, the head office said that they will send me a cheque. Although I got a good result in the end, I am shocked by the in-store service!

RANT OVER

 

[NOMORENUMBERS]

it is awful isnt it!

its one thing if they genuinely believe that they can not do the discount but when you are told by your own head office that you can then that basically trumps what you have been told by the lone person who has got it wrong!

i work in a restaurant which doesn millions of discounts and it is true that if the system is set up incorrectly by head office that you can not do a discount on certain products and we never had a way to override it manually but for goodness sake if you have that facility and someone who has better knowledge than you confirms that a discount is required then why be so rude!

i think it is amazing! why would they not listen to their head office?

i would honestly make a complaint, just say that you are not expecting anything finanically from them but that you were embarrassed and appauled at the store's lack of service skills. believe me in our restaurant if you put the wrong team on you would have all the servers who were basically miserable and put them with a manager that doesnt care about disciplining the staff then you get the experience you get! it happens but i bet you there is at least one manager there that will give them a piece of their mind and if there isnt then go back and say you are not satisfied that naything has been done about your complaint! then it will get forwarded to an area manager or whatever their equivilant is and then that will make it get dragged up around higher level managers which will at the very least get the store in trouble and cause embarrassemnet for the manager

he he!

 

[Pippin]

That's terrible!!! Why don't you write a letter of complaint to head office and see what else you get. I have to admit they get more and more unfriendly in there every time I go. I wanted a quilt for my son and I went in. They didn't have it on the shelf and when I asked they said we've just had a delivery but I'm not checking what's on it until tomorrow (it was 4:30 not like it was closing time). Now when I worked in a shop I'd be out there checking the delivery note, finding the case and unload the customer one but she instead turned her back and carried on pricing stuff. I promptly turned around and went to Baby's R Us and they were wonderful, half the price and even took time out to play with my son in the garden toy section (with me there of course). On my way out after paying I made the effort to say how lovely everyone had been compared to Mothercare and I think I made the cashiers day. In future I'll be going there first if they have what I want. Sadly they are mostly toys and no clothes but worth a look online first.

 

[Toria09]

To be honest I've always found mothercare staff to be rude and unpleasant so I'm not surprised.

Sorry they were idiots to you hun

 

[miss_danielle]

i ordered a babky k moses basket got delivered yesterday after waiting in all day...and got it out the box excited ...the paint was all chipped off the padding round the hood was coming out and the material was all dirty but apart from that oh and the wicker pieces snapped off in the bag its lovely lol a nice £90 wasted i thought

 

[NOMORENUMBERS]

no wonder they are closing loads of stores up and down the country. the big store in my town is so busy and the staff there are rude. the smaller one in the town is less busy as they obviously have less stuff but they still have all the important things, the staff there are wonderful! wouldnt mind betting which one would be closed if it had to be and i do not think it would be based on staff attitude!

 

[miss_danielle]

and with my lil man due anytime now..i could of done with the moses basket coming in 1 piece lol

 

[Emmy1987]

I've never got good service from Mothercare, apart from their head office staff!

I used to work there and all I got told to do was take as much money as possible from every person I don't go in there any more as it's the worst place for service, I go to the one that's next closest to me, it's much smaller and they're a little friendlier!

 

[Kess]

I had some trouble with Mothercare too. I went in to get measured for bras, and the one girl who was able to do that that day made a complete hash of it. I'm normally a 34 A. She measured me as a 30 C - I was expecting the cup size to go up, fair enough, but for my back size to shrink 4 inches?! Of course, the bras she was bringing in in that size didn't fit, so we worked our way to a 36 C I think in the end, a long way from what she measured. Then I was told that this white bra was the same fit/size as the black one I'd tried on, but when I got them home it wasn't at all, it was much higher cut under the arms and just not comfortable. After a while the black one wasn't comfy either, it was too big and so the cups cut in under my arms, and I took them both back and gave up.

 

[EmmaFTM]

Me and OH got our pram delivered to a Mothercare branch an hour away from us so made the trip down one weekend to pick it up. When we got back to my mum's house, as that was where we are storing the pram, we wondered whether we should get everything out the box and put the pram together. We were glad that we decided to put it together as we realised they had only given us half the pram!!! I phoned up the store and, with no apology, they said that we hadn't been given the second box that came with the pram set. We had to make a second trip the next day to pick up he rest of the pram and the staff weren't overly bothered that they had messed up either!!

Have come across rude staff in Mamas and Papas too though!

 

[miss_danielle]

and do make things even worse...with the trouble i had with the moses basket i chanced it and got the bouncer chair out the box...they have sent the complete wrong colour which is for a girl and im having a boy...had to phone up and the attitude OMG come back into store which is 10 miles away get your money back and go elsewere....i told the woman 1 its no on 2 with a baby due anytime now you have no chance of me moving at all and to work on their customers service...they are delivery a new 1 monday at their expense