Your baby may be in college before you get what you order from Baby Universe!
Written: Oct 26 '06
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| Full Review |
I haven’t had a baby in 16 years but I have a slew of nieces and nephews to buy for and spoil (then hand back to their mommies). I am going to be the Godmother to my baby nephew Andrew so I decided to take a look at what a big site like Baby Universe had to offer and buy him some things that were unique.
Wow. What a hassle. I can’t believe such a professional looking site can be so confused and confusing!
What the Site Sells
The site sells everything a baby could need from furnishings and accessories to clothes and toys. They carry a wide range of brand names and many categories of items. They also carry a variety of maternity goods for expecting moms.
Navigation
The site is busy but professional looking with their current promotions highlighted and several photos of baby items on the home page.
There are several ways to find what you need. You can click the tabs at the top: Baby, Toddler, Kids, Maternity, Brands, Registry, or Sale.
You can also click any one of the number of links down the left side which will take you to a category of items.
There is also a keyword search box.
The category links take you to a listing with many subcategories. You can drill down what you are looking for by clicking links until you get to the specific category of items. You can also just browse categories if you are not sure exactly what you want.
You can also search for a baby registry and make one yourself and add items you want.
Photos are good and descriptions are very complete. They also have user written reviews and a rating system (Up to five baby bottles, awww) to help in making a selection.
Once you find all that you are looking for and have added everything to your cart, you start the checkout process.
You have to provide your email address or fill in your user name and password before you can do anything else. Once past that hurdle, you will fill in your name and address and will then see your shipping amount which, in my opinion, runs quite high.
If you are satisfied with everything, you will go to the payment area. There, you will pick a password for the next time you visit the site and pay with American Express, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, or Visa. You can also pay by PayPal or use the “Bill Me Later” feature which is essentially revolving credit. You can also Fax or send your payment via postal mail.
After paying, you will receive a confirmation email. You should receive a shipping one as well.
Then you should receive your items. I never quite got that far but the theory is that you will receive your items as advertised on the site.
My Experience
The site is huge. For people not well acquainted with baby product brand names and such, it can be overwhelming. However, I was armed with a list of items, sizes, and brand names so I wasn’t too in the dark.
Navigation is a little complex but they have many ways to get where you are going. You can choose by name brand and price range as well as by other criteria.
I found the car seat I planned on getting and I chose some toys and a couple of outfits. Prices were OK, nothing special, but not out of this world.
Shipping, however, was high. I almost didn’t go through with the order but the car seat wasn’t available locally and I had a hard time finding it on other sites so I sucked it up and paid.
I used my Visa and everything seemed to go through fine. I got a confirmation email right away and was charged the next day.
A few days passed and I didn’t get a shipping email. I was eager for the items to get to me. Babies grow FAST and this one was sprouting before my eyes. I wanted to be sure what I got would be appropriate and all that.
Five days later and no shipping email, I wrote to Baby Universe asking if my order had shipped. I heard nothing back.
I called them and they asked my order number and couldn’t find any record of my order. But they HAD taken my payment!
I emailed them my order confirmation and then waited for some sort of resolution.
None came.
I called customer service again and this time I was told that yes, I did make an order but the car seat was backordered. I asked if they were ever going to tell me this and they said that they were very busy and were planning to send an email that day. They said the seat could take as long as four weeks to arrive at their warehouse. I didn’t want to wait until my nephew was in college for the car seat so I asked if I could cancel the seat but keep the rest of the stuff I ordered.
Nope.
I could cancel the order and then would have to make a new order. Whatta hassle.
I told them to cancel the order and I would just go elsewhere. They said they would.
Two days later, I received an email stating the car seat was backordered. Back to the phone I went to make sure I was credited for my order.
I got someone who had no idea I had canceled my order. Sigh. I went through the whole thing with her and she said I COULD just get the items that were not on backorder and cancel the car seat.
By then I was getting that “I’m going to be sorry about ordering from this site” feeling and I told the rep to cancel my whole order and refund me.
She said she would and apologized, even admitting that the workload was getting to be too much for the staff. I had very little sympathy at this point and was ticked about all the time invested in this now non-existent order.
I never received any verification that the order was canceled but I was refunded. I happened to notice the refund when I went to make a payment online on my Visa.
I never got anything from Baby Universe and I honestly don’t know if I would have. I know the site was good a couple of years ago because my sister shopped there a few times and had uneventful experiences. Maybe this was a one-time mess or maybe the site is experiencing growing pains.
At any rate, they didn’t get my business and I had to start my search all over again. I am not pleased.
Shipping and Returns
I read the customer service page for shipping and still have no idea how they calculate shipping. It is a complete garbled mess. You will find out what your shipping charge is when you go to checkout. Mine was almost $35.00 but, obviously, car seats are heavier than smaller items. I really have no idea what they charge on small items because their FAQs are very confusing.
Sales tax is only charged if your order is shipping to Florida or Nevada.
You can return items within 30 days for a refund minus shipping and coupons used but they have to be in new and unused condition. You need to pay to ship items back. There area bunch of things that are non-returnable so refer to the FAQs before you buy to be sure.
You must call and get an RMA number before sending anything back.
Contact Info
There is an onsite email that you can use to TRY to contact them. You can also email them directly at customerservice@babyuniverse.com.
Phone: 877-615-2229 between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. EST Monday through Friday
Fax: 804-935-5690
Snail Mail Address:
BabyUniverse, Inc.
150 South US Highway One Suite 500
Jupiter, FL 33477
Conclusion
The whole experience was a major pain in the you know what. Shopping on the site wasn’t that bad but I did get lost a few times but that is mostly due to my ignorance about baby things.
My credit card was charged the morning after I placed my order yet, eventually, I was told that the car seat was backordered and could take weeks to arrive. So why was I charged? I had a terrible time trying to cancel the backordered car seat and keep the rest of my order and then I had a hard time canceling the whole order.
It seems the customer service reps really are overwhelmed because they had no idea what I was talking about most of the time.
I certainly would not chance shopping on this site again. The shipping is costly and I no longer trust them to communicate with me in a timely manner.
I give the site 2 stars. I am sure others have uneventful experiences at Baby Universe but I sure didn’t. Beware and watch your email for communication from the site. If days pass, call them to be sure what you paid for is what you are going to be getting.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? car seat, clothing, toys
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