Baby City - Lying openly to Customers about Diaper exchange Policy

Any parent with a child knows about the "fantastic" service that Baby City offers their customers where they can exchange diapers for a different size if it is still in its original packaging.

At Mama Magic, May 2018, I bought about 7 big boxes of diapers in different sizes (on their recommendation if I might add). When I asked about what happens if we do not use the size etc, I was told that I could simply walk into any Baby City and change it - no questions asked. Only condition was that it must be in the original packaging.

Our baby was born in November and is now 11 months old. On 7 September we realised that we had 2 boxes of 3's and one pack of 3's that she can no longer wear because it is too small. This equals to about R800 worth of nappies. It was still sealed and undamaged in its original packaging.

We went to the Retail Crossing branch to exchange it where we were told that they can't help us, because Pampers has changed their packaging. We argued that it was not stated anywhere that it is part of the T's & C's of returning the nappies and that product packaging that changed is not the customers problem. The manager phoned a "more senior" person who told him that they can't help us. They did not even try.

We immediately phoned their Head Office, where a very friendly staff member told us that this is not a problem, we must just contact Pampers and they can help us. We asked why we can't just be told this in the store, but obviously she did not know. We proceeded to contact Pampers, who told us that they only exchange defective products, but we can contact Baby City for assistance. She mentioned we must get this sorted as soon as possible, as nappies has an expiry date of 3 or 4 years. Luckily we don't have a problem there, as these are only over a year old now.

So back to square one, we contacted Baby City AGAIN as we do not want to lose these nappies. We told them that we were told to contact them, but they outright refused to assist us. We asked them what must we do if we were told we can exchange it when we bought it and now they refuse? And they just shrugged.

I am so upset and utterly disappointed in their service and the fact that they are more than happy to take your money in the 1000s at the expo, but are not willing to help their customers. We have spent lots of money at Baby City and still have a lot of expenses going forward with our kids, but they will NEVER see us again. They obviously do not care about customer retention. What is 3 boxes of nappies to a big company like them?

So be aware that you can not just exchange it, there are a bunch of hidden T's & C's that they conveniently bring up when they need to do so.