Pushchairsandcarseats

Inconsistent service ranging from "great" to "sack him"

I bought a baby car seat from this company via their website. The girl I'd spoken to via e-mail was quite helpful, confirming once they'd taken delivery of the seat I wanted so I could easily check out with PayPal. Seat arrived promptly and in excellent condition. Buoyed by this experience, I decided to buy the next stage seat from the same company. Spoke to another girl via e-mail, arranged to come and have the seat fitted. Found the showroom easy enough - decided to wait (it was unstaffed) despite having misgivings (it's only the size of my lounge, and located in the basement of a barn). When some man eventually came down, he turned his whole attention to the only other customer there - to the extent of almost hitting me at one point, by swinging a car seat he was demonstrating to her (I was looking at something nearby and had my back to him.) I waited for nearly half an hour, checking out the different car seats by myself, and he not once acknowledged my presence. I'd like to think it's simply because he wasn't a salesman. However, Pushchairs And Car Seats is not the only place in this country to buy car seats, so I absolutely won't be using them again!

Bambino Direct

Service ok, choice of courier unfortunate

I ordered a baby bouncer and a pack of muslin cloths from this company last week. Got notification of despatch....... and a few days later an email from yodel: "your parcel is out for delivery" - from Newton Abbot. To Plymouth. Where they have a depot. I'm thinking "OK, never mind" - I work from home, and I was waiting for other couriers that day anyway. Besides, perhaps the staff at the Newton Abbot depot are more honest and less likely to damage the parcel.

Later on in the day, the yodel van turns up with a parcel. It's the muslin squares. "Parcel 1 of 2" the label says. "Dunno," shrugs the driver, "I only have one here." So I start ringing Bambino Direct. They can only tell me that the first parcel has been delivered, and the second is "out for delivery". Can they please contact yodel and find out? Apparently not. Can they get an ETA? No, not part of the service. By this point, I'm wondering if it is a company, or a one-man band with a virtual call centre.

Anyway - second parcel turned up today. Just as well I was in - I wasn't expecting it. The box wasn't even wrapped. It was dented and scuffed, and wet, with the label stuck directly to it. The contents appear ok - but the pleasure of receiving a parcel is definitely missing.

Regretfully, I will not order from this company again unless they improve the shipping arrangements.

11 June 2012

Reply from www.bambinodirect.co.uk

Hi Miss Bek,

I'm really sorry to hear about the problems you had with the delivery of your items and that you were left feeling underwhelmed with this aspect of the service (glad to hear you are happy with the actual products)

We take all reviews seriously and this will be escalated to the highest level possible so that we ensure it doesn't happen again.

If you could send your contact details and sales order number to laura@bambinodirect.co.uk I would personally like to investigate this and also take it up with our courier provider.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards, Laura Dyson
Customer Experience Manager, Bambino Direct

DPD UK

One of my favourite delivery companies

It's the drivers who make the delivery service good or otherwise. In my area (Exeter depot), DPD have some awesome drivers. Not one of the guys has ever been discourteous, unhelpful or upset me in any way. DPD also one of my favourite companies because they e-mail/text the day before, giving an approximate slot, which can be narrowed down to quite a precise time on the delivery day. I've never had to wait more than 45 minutes during a given slot - fantastic.

Zavvi

Games delivered fast and good value

I ordered the cheapest collector's editions of recently released XBox games. Thinking, it'll be good if they're here within the week. They turned up the next day, via one of my favourite couriers (DPD), exactly as promised on the website and a great bargain too. Very pleased!

Laredoute

Vile clothes, same for customer service

I ordered for the first (and last) time from La Redoute a couple of weeks ago. The first indication that I had made a mistake was that the order took a week to arrive, instead of next day as promised during sign up. Undeterred by the delay, and the conduct of the courier, I set to opening the parcel.

The first item was a vaguely dress-shaped bag in cheap crunchy-feeling fabric. Primark special, really - and added at least a decade to my real age. Slightly more cautiously, I opened the second item. It was more akin to a burial shroud than a light and sophisticated 2-in-1 dress/cardi. I'll stop there and not describe the rest - you get the idea.

I then attempted to return the parcel. Couldn't get hold of the courier (as the parcel was not delivered to/returned from the address which my card is registered to, so what if some of us have more than one home?!) In the end, took it to the Post Office.

Customer services reps were not rude as such, but certainly not as helpful and approachable as they ought to be. And finally, the returns procedure sucks. Just bag it all back up, and post it off. I actually got the Post Office clerk to take a video of me bagging everything back up and depositing the parcel with him, as I cannot believe that an order worth over £100 could just be sent back on blind faith. And I am still waiting to hear about the refund!

Simon Adams found this review useful

Hermes Europe

Lazy, unreliable, and weird

The courier tried to deliver my parcel three times on the same day, during working hours. Doesn't take a genius to figure out if I am out the first time, and the second time, I will probably not be about the third time either.

When I got back and found the card, I rang her - to be given the third degree about how dare I not be in when she comes to the door. A lesser being would have cried and begged forgiveness. However, the parcel contained my son's Lego and I asked her politely to just redeliver please. She was quite huffy about this request, and launched into a "I tried three times today" tirade again. I had to go and pick the parcel up, in the end.

But wait! Another parcel arrives via the same courier. Same rigmarole. Then it turns out that the second parcel's contents are to be returned to the company for a refund. Can I get hold of the courier? No.

After a week of phoning her twice a day, and leaving answerphone messages, she gets her elderly mother (who can barely speak) to ring me to ask what I want from her now. By this time, I've decided to take my chances with Royal Mail (and now possibly facing around £100 of lost goods, which would be a situation caused entirely by the Hermes courier's conduct).

I now check with companies I order from - "which courier will fulfil the delivery? Ah, Hermes. Can we cancel the order please. Shame you're losing out on £100s worth of my custom, but unfortunately I can't be dealing with lazy, unreliable, and downright weird people like Hermes couriers! Thanks."

Alf Withersand Drahcir Yelyab found this review useful

Cheap Moving-boxes

Quick delivery, you get what you pay for

Everything I ordered arrived next day by courier, as promised - although it was a different courier to what the website says. Order confirmation was very slimline, and no tracking info was provided. Took a good 12 attempts at calling them to get through, when I eventually did the person who answered the phone was very helpful, if a little difficult to understand (expect she feels the same way about english people though). The packages were scuffed and ripped in transit, but the packaging was done quite robustly so the actual boxes/bubble wrap/void fill didn't suffer what they will suffer during the actual house move.

This website is one of a whole plethora, including packing-boxes, shop-shop-shop, serverboxes, 99pboxes, cheappackingboxes and so on (all .co.uk). That initially put me off. However, I have practically nothing to steal and tend to keep an eye on my financial info anyway, so I decided not to worry too much and just order. Can't say I would recommend them to a friend, but they did what they were supposed to and the goods are as described on the website.

Mattress Next Day

Value for money, definitely

The mattress does not look exactly in the way it is represented in the website photo. It is, however, obviously new. Quite well packaged, and delivered in very good time by the carrier. The carrier's driving impressed me too - clearly not a man to stop for minor obstacles.

There are two reasons I rated this purchase "Good" rather than "Excellent". The first has already been mentioned (mattress not exactly like photo). The second is that the carrier had a fag hanging out of his mouth the entire time, except when he put it on the tailgate to bring the mattress indoors for me.

In all, very good value for money - just very slightly short of being an excellent shopping experience.