Saturday 27 September 2008

The kindness of strangers...

More baby purchases arrived this week, not without their trials of course.

Having splashed on the phil & teds vibe (pics & review coming soon) we realised this was actually not a good choice for public transport which is how I get around most of the time as I can't drive. So we set about finding a reasonable addition that would be easy to fold & unfold and ideally worked with our car seat (the maxi cosy cabrio) fitted to it.

We decided in the end on the quinny buzz, the thought of a pram that springs its self open when I have a newborn in a car seat on one hand and a 3 year old in the other, and possibly a 6 year old held between my teeth if she is not at school was just so attractive. Attractive and expensive though. So we set about trying to find one on ebay for less. Competition was steep especially as we wanted the newer version with a proper plastic catch to prevent it springing open in your face.... but eventually we did manage to secure a bargain. Not only did we manage to get a buzz 3 for much less that in the shops but it also had the extra set of wheels allowing us to use it as a buzz 4, as well as including a cosytoes, raincover, mosquito net and alsorts of other gadgets (strap extension kit, spare press studs..) we were very excited!

Of course that didn't last long. After sending a begging e-mail to colleagues to ask them to organise paper work for me so I could wait all day Tuesday, nothing arrived. After my husband and I racing around like lunatics making sure someone was in all day Wednesday; nothing arrived. After DHL's 48 tracking malfunction it finally came back online on Thursday morning. I was tempted to cry when I saw it had been delivered at 15:01 on Tuesday... to someone else.

Many irate phone calls and e-mails followed, the seller did believe we hadn't received it, but didn't know how to help us as the courier company refused to accept a lost item claim because it had been signed for and had the correct address on the label. After much hand wringing we accepted we had lost the pram, and the money that paid for it and I would have to use a sling on the bus (I should add that we ironically sold a lightweight buggy we had used for our son to make room/ make funds for one we could use with the car seat we have).

Then on Friday afternoon with glum faces my husband and I set off for the schools (miles apart as they are) that our children attend to pick them up before the weekend, only to get home to discover that in our absence a big white van had turned up and delivered our buzz to our next door neighbour!

The courier company (parcels2go who I have already previously struck off my 'will ever use again' list because of their incompetence and shocking customer service) refuse to admit they sent it to the wrong address and picked it up and re-delivered it. All the tracking information and barcodes had been removed from the packaging when we received it all that was on it our hand-written address and a tiny DHL label with no tracking code.

So we must thank the person who received it for their honesty in reporting it (guess they didn't want pushchairs cluttering up their hall unlike in our house....) and hope that one day companies like parcel2go learn to do business in such an honest way.

Monday 22 September 2008

Things you can rely on..


  • The day you want to sneakily watch Sex & the City on your mac while the kids watch cbeebies you will not have the chance to sit down
  • When your 3 year old comes home from nursery with his shoes on the wrong feet there is more to the story
  • When your 3 year old comes home with someone else's trousers on there is still more to the story
  • When your 3 year old comes home with someone else's pants on you are going to have to ring the school and find out why
  • When it turns out your 3 year olds wet clothes are lying in a carrier bag and no one bothered to tell you you are going to have to walk back there to get them
  • When your 3 year old cries his eyes out at the prospect of walking anywhere you are going to have to let him ride in the pram intended for your new baby while is not due for another 10 weeks...
  • Said new pram (phil & ted vibe) is so comfy 3 year old promptly falls asleep