Reader Donna H. writes in with some observations about Baby Town, a Reseda, CA baby retailer that made our list of Top 21 baby stores this year. Read her letter below.
We are monitoring all the retailers on our list to decide who will stay and who will be replaced. So feel free to send us stories (both good or bad) about any of these stores. Post in the comments below or drop us an email!
Hello,
I feel the need to write about the horrible service I have received from
Baby Town in Reseda, California. In June, I spent four hours registering
for my baby registry at Baby Town. I live in Santa Monica but because I
saw that Baby Town was one of your top 20 baby stores in the country I
decided to drive the distance and register there.
From the start there were red flags – even while I was in the floor. The
sales people were very unprofessional – complaining loudly about their
work/workloads within ear shot of the customers. It took almost 30 minutes
for someone to come help me with questions for special order baby bedding
and even then that person had no idea. In fact, she almost had me order
the wrong item. Eventually, a person who seemed to be in charge of the
bedding area stepped in and figured everything out.
They have the auto scanners for the registry which they gave me upon
arrival – knowing that the machine had broken over the weekend but assured
me it would be up and running in a few days once they replaced the cord.
With their confidence, I used the scanner.
Once I went to the front desk – I never felt assured that in fact this was
all going to work out. I went ahead and left my scanner and also ordered
my special bedding with a security deposit to put it on lay-away in case
no one purchased – I would be responsible.
I started calling Baby Town within a few days to find out the status with
their registry and if the wire had been replaced. it had not. After three
phone calls (owner and Manager, Nancy) I was told that a wire arrived but
did not fit and they would need an additional week or two to resolve the
issue. If I wanted, I could come back up and hand write everything I had
registered for (40-50 items); or wait it out. I asked if this were really
going to get fixed and was assured it would. After this call, I never
heard back from Baby Town. I continued to check online and after two or
three weeks went to another registry (online) to re-register for my items.
Today, (two and a half months later) I called to pick up my baby bedding
and find out why I was never called back about the registry. I spoke with
the manager, Nancy, who was rude and actually tried to put the blame on me
and the owner. She took no responsibility and not until I mentioned
writing to Baby Bargains did I get an apology. She was aggravated to even
have to explain the situation to me. And let me know of all the people I
was the only one who refused to come back up (a 40 minute drive for me)
and hand register. When I asked her why she felt I was to blame she
basically told me she'd done what she could and left it in my hands to
figure out. Not the answer one would expect from a store rated at top 20
in the country. She continued to point the finger at the owner explaining
she had never promised that it would be working again and in fact, he was
the one to tell me. I honestly don't care who told me – Baby Town assured
me my registry would be up, it went out on my invites and we had to
scramble to fix the problem with my friends and relatives.
I am heading up in the next day or two and have been offered no recourse
for this situation. If I hadn't already put the deposit down I would
cancel this order all together.
Please – reconsider listing this store and I hope you can include in
update online.
Best regards,
Donna H.
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I have mixed feelings about this place. My husband and I went to Baby Town on recommendation from friends who had purchased their baby furniture from there. We didn’t have any service problems and thought their selection was great. They had the crib we liked but since it was the first store we had been to we decided to shop around a little more before making a decision. We visited a few other stores in the Los Angeles area and encountered nothing but rude service and were told by a couple stores that the crib we wanted (which we had seen at Baby Town) was no longer being manufactured. Finally we decided to call Baby Town, where we were assured that the crib was in fact still being manufactured, they could order it for us and on top of that they had the lowest price by at least 100 dollars. We went to the store the next day to place our order and again had no problems with service. We were told that the crib would take 8-12 weeks to arrive. 8 weeks passed we didn’t hear anything, 10 weeks passed still nothing and on the 11th week we finally decided to call and were told that the delivery had been delayed until the end of August pushing the delivery time to 14 weeks from the time that we ordered. My husband spoke with the store manager a guy who’s name I can’t remember and explained that I am due within two weeks of the new delivery date and we did not want to have to drive out to the store to pick up the crib at that time. He offered us free delivery to our house for the delay and also offered to send along mattresses and we could select one and they would charge us after the fact, since we had been waiting to buy the mattress after the crib arrived. We were told he would email us with some info about the mattresses he would be sending. We never received and email and it is getting down to the wire on the new delivery deadline and we haven;t heard anything yet. We will be calling on Friday if we haven’t heard anything by then. Overall my feelings about Baby Town are mixed, of all the baby furniture stores in the LA area they definitely seem to have the best price and selection, however, I am certainly irritated by the delay considering it took us calling to find out there even was a delay.
**UPDATE: Literally as I typed this comment, my husband received a call from the crib manufacturer explaining that production has been delayed on the crib and we will not be receiving it until mid October! Our baby is due Sept 17th. I am livid that they are just letting us know now, there is no way they couldn’t have known about this sooner. My husband has a call into Darren (remembered his name) at Baby Town, but basically we are screwed, we cannot pull our order and go elsewhere because that will just mean another 10 -12 week wait for a different crib so we have no choice but to wait till then. Waiting to hear back from Darren and I will post further.
I have mixed feelings about this place. My husband and I went to Baby Town on recommendation from friends who had purchased their baby furniture from there. We didn’t have any service problems and thought their selection was great. They had the crib we liked but since it was the first store we had been to we decided to shop around a little more before making a decision. We visited a few other stores in the Los Angeles area and encountered nothing but rude service and were told by a couple stores that the crib we wanted (which we had seen at Baby Town) was no longer being manufactured. Finally we decided to call Baby Town, where we were assured that the crib was in fact still being manufactured, they could order it for us and on top of that they had the lowest price by at least 100 dollars. We went to the store the next day to place our order and again had no problems with service. We were told that the crib would take 8-12 weeks to arrive. 8 weeks passed we didn’t hear anything, 10 weeks passed still nothing and on the 11th week we finally decided to call and were told that the delivery had been delayed until the end of August pushing the delivery time to 14 weeks from the time that we ordered. My husband spoke with the store manager a guy who’s name I can’t remember and explained that I am due within two weeks of the new delivery date and we did not want to have to drive out to the store to pick up the crib at that time. He offered us free delivery to our house for the delay and also offered to send along mattresses and we could select one and they would charge us after the fact, since we had been waiting to buy the mattress after the crib arrived. We were told he would email us with some info about the mattresses he would be sending. We never received and email and it is getting down to the wire on the new delivery deadline and we haven;t heard anything yet. We will be calling on Friday if we haven’t heard anything by then. Overall my feelings about Baby Town are mixed, of all the baby furniture stores in the LA area they definitely seem to have the best price and selection, however, I am certainly irritated by the delay considering it took us calling to find out there even was a delay.
**UPDATE: Literally as I typed this comment, my husband received a call from the crib manufacturer explaining that production has been delayed on the crib and we will not be receiving it until mid October! Our baby is due Sept 17th. I am livid that they are just letting us know now, there is no way they couldn’t have known about this sooner. My husband has a call into Darren (remembered his name) at Baby Town, but basically we are screwed, we cannot pull our order and go elsewhere because that will just mean another 10 -12 week wait for a different crib so we have no choice but to wait till then. Waiting to hear back from Darren and I will post further.
After reading Donna’s letter, I have to say that this is one of the few times that I got a spine-tingling chill running down my back because her experience there was eerily (sp?) similar to mine.
We also live in West LA, so making the drive into the Valley and back is not an undertaking you take lightly, not when you have traffic, 90+ degree weather, and the little one in tow. I definitely can understand Donna’s raised expectations for Baby Town if they’re on the list.
Truthfully, the place is not that great, I’ve seen better selection at any number of other places (shockingly even Babies ‘R Us). What they do have is placed haphazardly all over the place with no rhyme or reason to placement other than it fit in that general location. Most of the better places at least arrange products based of increasing features or price or some sort of category. Instead you would see one low-end Graco next to a Marathon, next to a Recaro booster seat. So finding a car seat for instance that was appropriate for you child’s age and size wasn’t easy. This would have been ameliorated somewhat if there had been any sort of help, friendly or not.
Most of the staff seemed to be focused on pushing bigger ticket items like beds and kid furniture.
The other factor that might have irked me somewhat is that considering the drab exterior and dusty and unkempt interior of the store, they would sell themselves on selection and service.
I got neither. Same as Donna, I wasn’t given a second look and was given the “how dare you interrupt my coworker bitch session to actually buy something. hrumph!” In kidspeak, I would definitely ascribe them as having the “Grumpy-poos”.
The main difference with Donna’s experience is that my wife and I reconsidered our purchases there and only picked up some food containers. (As a side story, we tried to snag an employee to point out any containers that they could recommend were pthalate- and BPA-free. We were waved off in the general direction of their plastic containers area and left to our own devices)
Prices are admittedly not that bad but not worth the drive out. They truly give brick and mortars a bad name, we had an easier time going to online stores and doing the research ourselves.
In the end we found KidsLand a true revelation. Their store isn’t nearly as big as Baby Town, but they have a better selection of products that they stand by and more than happy to recommend based on our needs. In addition, one thing that stood out to me at least is that they seemed to give the same level of attention to all customers, regardless of economic background or any other differentiator that seemed to determine who Baby Town staff would help and who they wouldn’t deign to help. I say this not to get into racial or economic politics, but it struck me compared to Baby Town, that at least KidsLand staff tried equally hard whether you were Hispanic, White, Asian, rich, or poor.
That last bit of subtle discrimination really left a bad taste in my mouth. You could definitely tell that if you were a minority or didn’t have a Gucci diaper bag in arm, you probably should figure on having a nice quite time to yourself at Baby Town. And I say this as a general observation of how they treated other customers. In general though, they did seem to have a habit of treating everyone rather shabbily, just in different shades of passive aggressiveness.
One last detail I’d like to add is that my wife and I were there for a good 2 hours and was approached only once, when we were passing through the upper level where they have their kid’s furniture and bedding displays.
For my own 2 cents, most other places I’ve been too throughout the Southland, down to San Diego and as far north as Santa Barbara, Baby Town was the biggest disappointment in every regard.
If anyone in the LA area needs good recommendations, please let me know and I’m more than happy to post our favs and opinions. But without any doubt or hesitation, I can’t say enough bad things about Baby Town.
Respectfully submitted,
Neal
After reading Donna’s letter, I have to say that this is one of the few times that I got a spine-tingling chill running down my back because her experience there was eerily (sp?) similar to mine.
We also live in West LA, so making the drive into the Valley and back is not an undertaking you take lightly, not when you have traffic, 90+ degree weather, and the little one in tow. I definitely can understand Donna’s raised expectations for Baby Town if they’re on the list.
Truthfully, the place is not that great, I’ve seen better selection at any number of other places (shockingly even Babies ‘R Us). What they do have is placed haphazardly all over the place with no rhyme or reason to placement other than it fit in that general location. Most of the better places at least arrange products based of increasing features or price or some sort of category. Instead you would see one low-end Graco next to a Marathon, next to a Recaro booster seat. So finding a car seat for instance that was appropriate for you child’s age and size wasn’t easy. This would have been ameliorated somewhat if there had been any sort of help, friendly or not.
Most of the staff seemed to be focused on pushing bigger ticket items like beds and kid furniture.
The other factor that might have irked me somewhat is that considering the drab exterior and dusty and unkempt interior of the store, they would sell themselves on selection and service.
I got neither. Same as Donna, I wasn’t given a second look and was given the “how dare you interrupt my coworker bitch session to actually buy something. hrumph!” In kidspeak, I would definitely ascribe them as having the “Grumpy-poos”.
The main difference with Donna’s experience is that my wife and I reconsidered our purchases there and only picked up some food containers. (As a side story, we tried to snag an employee to point out any containers that they could recommend were pthalate- and BPA-free. We were waved off in the general direction of their plastic containers area and left to our own devices)
Prices are admittedly not that bad but not worth the drive out. They truly give brick and mortars a bad name, we had an easier time going to online stores and doing the research ourselves.
In the end we found KidsLand a true revelation. Their store isn’t nearly as big as Baby Town, but they have a better selection of products that they stand by and more than happy to recommend based on our needs. In addition, one thing that stood out to me at least is that they seemed to give the same level of attention to all customers, regardless of economic background or any other differentiator that seemed to determine who Baby Town staff would help and who they wouldn’t deign to help. I say this not to get into racial or economic politics, but it struck me compared to Baby Town, that at least KidsLand staff tried equally hard whether you were Hispanic, White, Asian, rich, or poor.
That last bit of subtle discrimination really left a bad taste in my mouth. You could definitely tell that if you were a minority or didn’t have a Gucci diaper bag in arm, you probably should figure on having a nice quite time to yourself at Baby Town. And I say this as a general observation of how they treated other customers. In general though, they did seem to have a habit of treating everyone rather shabbily, just in different shades of passive aggressiveness.
One last detail I’d like to add is that my wife and I were there for a good 2 hours and was approached only once, when we were passing through the upper level where they have their kid’s furniture and bedding displays.
For my own 2 cents, most other places I’ve been too throughout the Southland, down to San Diego and as far north as Santa Barbara, Baby Town was the biggest disappointment in every regard.
If anyone in the LA area needs good recommendations, please let me know and I’m more than happy to post our favs and opinions. But without any doubt or hesitation, I can’t say enough bad things about Baby Town.
Respectfully submitted,
Neal
The only experience I do have with them is that there scanner is still broken and If I wanted to register with them I had to hand write my registry also. They do have the crib, bedding set and stroller I want other than that I decided not to register with them.
The only experience I do have with them is that there scanner is still broken and If I wanted to register with them I had to hand write my registry also. They do have the crib, bedding set and stroller I want other than that I decided not to register with them.
I too am surprised when I saw Baby Town Reseda on the top list. I went into the store because it is close by to home. I figured I could pick-up a few things without tracking to the big box baby stores.
As you go in, the store is dark. You could hardly see the products. Most of the furniture is dusty (as if they hadn’t had a sell for a long time). Product lines are limited (compare to the other stores). Sells reps are hard to come by. The register counter is dated like a mom and pop store.
I bought a baby wrap/carrier and inquire about the return policy. The lady at the store said that once you open it, can’t return the item. So low and behold, I went home to try out the wrap, my baby didn’t like the feel of it. I am stuck with the item. Ended up buying another wrap from another store (that has a better return policy).
It is best that you check out the store before listing them on the top list. At least have parents review it. If not, secret shoppers might be a way to test out services.
Skyler’s Mom
I too am surprised when I saw Baby Town Reseda on the top list. I went into the store because it is close by to home. I figured I could pick-up a few things without tracking to the big box baby stores.
As you go in, the store is dark. You could hardly see the products. Most of the furniture is dusty (as if they hadn’t had a sell for a long time). Product lines are limited (compare to the other stores). Sells reps are hard to come by. The register counter is dated like a mom and pop store.
I bought a baby wrap/carrier and inquire about the return policy. The lady at the store said that once you open it, can’t return the item. So low and behold, I went home to try out the wrap, my baby didn’t like the feel of it. I am stuck with the item. Ended up buying another wrap from another store (that has a better return policy).
It is best that you check out the store before listing them on the top list. At least have parents review it. If not, secret shoppers might be a way to test out services.
Skyler’s Mom
In November 2009 I ordered a bed for my daughter. It is now March 2010 and Nancy, the manager, promises to call me back but has not done so. I do not have my furniture and cannot seems to get a date for delivery., Nancy is rude and does not care. I cannot believe she remains hired. Is she related to the owners? Now I have to hire an attorney to make sure that I cancel the order correctly or else they will deliver the bed whenever they decide. I highly recommend that no-one goes to this store. The sales ladies were kind but Nancy is terrible.
In November 2009 I ordered a bed for my daughter. It is now March 2010 and Nancy, the manager, promises to call me back but has not done so. I do not have my furniture and cannot seems to get a date for delivery., Nancy is rude and does not care. I cannot believe she remains hired. Is she related to the owners? Now I have to hire an attorney to make sure that I cancel the order correctly or else they will deliver the bed whenever they decide. I highly recommend that no-one goes to this store. The sales ladies were kind but Nancy is terrible.