Babystyle.com: Adequate Service, Good Sales, Slow Shipping
Written: Sep 05 '03 (Updated Dec 16 '04)
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I had been looking for a jogging stroller for my growing child who still occasionally needs a ride around the neighborhood. I turned to jogging strollers because many of them carry up to 75 pounds. I found the stroller I was looking for at www.babystyle.com
MERCHANDISE
This site carries a broad variety of merchandise for babies and small children, including strollers and other gear, clothes and toys. However, the selection within each category was not very deep. I was looking for a jogging stroller and only found a handful to choose from on the site. There was also a lot of merchandise that I wouldn't expect to find on this site including Harry Potter books, Dr. Seuss hand puppets and clothing for children as old as 6.
Babystyle.com carries a lot of name brands including Levi, Little Me and Ralph Lauren but there were also a lot of brands I didn't recognize.
WEB SITE
The web site has a considerable amount of pictures that could be slow to load on a telephone internet connection. I thought it was intuitive to find things but the site isn't organized very well. It is hard to find coordinating items and the sale section is not integrated with the regularly priced items so you have to look at both to see what they have. The product descriptions were okay - but I would have liked a little more information. There are no consumer reviews. Overall, I think the web site was just about average.
PRICE
The initial prices of most of the merchandise were on the high end of the spectrum. However, if you click on the outlet portion of the site, there were numerous items marked down and the sale prices were pretty good. There were baby t-shirts for $6 and baby pants for $5. The fun thing about the outlet is that you can search by amount of discount. Some items were marked down over 70%.
STEALS AND DEALS
Babystyle.com gives away a lot of coupons. In order to find a coupon code, go to any search engine and type in the name of the web site and the word "coupon." There are many internet sites that will provide codes although you may have to try a few before you find one that works.
The site itself also offers specials. I got free shipping on my stroller. They also had a 20 percent off deal going on for clothes and toys.
It also makes sense to check to see if this site is offering a rebate on purchases. Two sites to check are Upromise and Ebates. However, stores opt in and out of these rebates sites frequently, so there is no guarantee that a rebate will be available.
EASE OF ORDERING
The ordering process was very easy. I only had to enter my basic information plus choose a password.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
I got an automatic email immediately after I placed my order indicating the site had received the order. I also got an email when my item shipped.
SHIPPING
Here are the shipping costs from the web site:
Delivery Method / Approximate Shipping Time / The First Item + Each Additional Item
Ground / 8 to 10 business days / $6.95 + $0.50
2nd Day Air / 2 to 3 business days / $12 + $1
Next Day Air / 1 to 2 business days / $17 + $2
Packages shipped to Alaska and Hawaii will receive an additional surcharge of $12 and will be sent via 2nd Day Air and charged accordingly.
Of course, the time it takes for you to get your package also depends on how long it takes for the vendor to ship your item. I placed my order on a Saturday and the item shipped on the following Wednesday. I was disappointed that babystyle.com took three days to ship my package. My stroller arrived 12 days after I placed my order. It was a little on the slow side but not horrible considering it was a big, bulky item and I didn't pay shipping costs.
The shipping package was disappointing. The stroller was sent in a box with no padding. It looks like babystyle.com shipped the stroller in the box the manufacturer used. When it arrived, there was a huge hole ripped in the site of the box and the stroller was visible through the hole. The stroller wasn't damaged but I would have liked to see better packaging.
RETURNS
A return label was included with my receipt. However, according to the packaging in the box, if you want to make a return, you have to log back on to the babystyle.com web site. You need to go to your personal account (so, hopefully you remember your password). Then you need to get an authorization code for the return. This is more work than other sites require and, since I did not make a return, I am not sure how well the process works.
Another problem is that the box the stroller was shipped in ripped during transport so if I had wanted to return it, I would have had to get a new box. The stroller was quite large and bulky so a new, heavy box adequate for shipping would have been expensive.
Postage for returns is at the customer's cost.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
Shopping at Babystyle.com was, at best, an average experience. Shipping was a bit slow and the packaging was not adequate. However, the product was a decent price - not a great bargain but about 10% less than I might have paid at a local store. I am hesitantly recommending the store based on the fact that the price was good and the item arrived intact close to when it was promised.
DO YOU LIKE TO SHOP ON THE INTERNET? HERE ARE SOME MORE REVIEWS OF WEB STORES:
Clothing and Accessories: Talbots; The Gap; CWD Kids; Hanna Andersson; J. Jill; Tote Le Monde ; Blu Pyxie ; Miniboden; One Hanes Place; Nordstrom; Gymboree; Simple Shoes; Sierra Blue; Ebags.
Clothing and Home Goods: Lands End; Bluefly; Soft Surroundings; Garnet Hill; Sundance; L.L. Bean.
Home and Garden: Smith & Noble; Restoration Hardware; Gardeners Supply Company; Unicahome; Homeclick; FaucetDirect; Gardens Alive; West Elm; Crate & Barrel; MyKnobs; CB2.
Books and Magazines: Amazon.com; ValueMags; Magazine Values; Dover Publications.
Office Supplies, Furniture and Services: Staples; Officemax; Topdeq; Efax.
Electronics: HP Shopping; Buy.com.
Travel: Amtrak; Hotwire; Orbitz; Hotels.com.
Discount: Overstock.com; Target.
Photo Developing: Shutterfly; Snapfish.
Baby Stuff: Babys Here Birth Announcements; Baby Universe; SoZo; Baby Center; Baby Age.
Miscellaneous: 1-800 contacts; Movie Tickets.com; Drugstore.com.
Rebate Sites: Upromise; Ebates.
Before you start shopping, check out my tips on how to save money by shopping on the internet . I have also included some coupon codes and plan to add more as I find them.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? jogging stroller
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