Buyer Beware - Taddle Kids Review

I love saving money on kids clothing so I am usually game to try new ways to do this, most of them work out great. (There will be more on this in a future blog post. I have found some amazing places to buy stuff and save a bundle.) But recently I tried a new company who was offering a subscription service for a monthly box of New Kids Clothing. 32.99 for 8 items and they were offering 50% off and free shipping. So I gave it a shot.

I was very sad that I did. Taddle Kids was terrible. Their Facebook page claims the carry nice name brands in boxes "a few of the other brands include Carters, American Apparel, Gymboree, Ralph Lauren, Gap among others." - From their facebook page.
Mine included none of those. Some of the infant boxes I saw had some Carters, but I have yet to find anyone that had any of those other brands. Truth be told most other moms I know were either as unhappy as I am or were ok for the $16.50 we paid but canceled.

My box was nothing they promised me. No dresses or skirts as I had asked for. I said no summer only fall but was given tank tops. 2 of my 8 items were cheap socks and cheap Minnie undies. Only One complete outfit and it was a whole size too big and a tank top. The 2 long sleeve tops were marked 3T but one I couldn't even get on my daughter who wears a 2T becuase it was so small and the other was tight on her arms. You can clearly see the size difference in those leggings and the longer ones felt so cheap.

My Taddle Kids Box.

I even found 2 of the items in my box at Ross tonight. The Minnie Shirt had leggings  and was priced at $8 and the hot pink leggings had an adorable top and were priced at $9.

After a little Google searching I found out that the phone number they called me from was part of a different Company - Time and Gems, that sells refurbished watches. When I questioned them about it when I called back and they answered "Time and Gems" I was told it was an answering service.  I googled the number and it is the main number for Time and Gems. Jessie (Who seems to be the only person you deal with at the company) had his wife pose as a customer. When I posted on their wall about the errors in my box, sizing being all off and asking how I could get it fixed, it was deleted and I was told that they delete posts from people posing as their competitors or smearing their name. All I did was post about the issues with my box. When I questioned why they would accuse me of smearing their name I was blocked from the page. It seems anyone who questions anything gets blocked. When I tried to get my money back as they offer a 100% money back guarantee and the items in their box were not the right sizes I was told I would have to pay to ship it back at my expense. Once I pushed the issue and talked about all the things I had found out about the company they emailed me a return label.

They are now charging 44.99 39.99* and claim "We offer 8 items in each box, so they come out to $5.62 per article of clothing. Each piece retails between $10-13 in stores, so the savings is still significant. In addition to this, we offer free shipping and 100% worry-free guarantee."
Right there I have them proved wrong as there are outfits in there that are $9.99 or less at Ross for 2 pieces! Plus those undies are 3 for $4 or $5 less if you get them on clearance and they count one single pair as an item. I know someone who still had Ross tags on an item in their box.

So please spread the word and DO NOT bother signing up for Taddle Kids, they are full of broken promises and you can do better on your own at Ross.

Stay tuned for my post about great places you can save money and get great quality clothing for your kids. 

~Wendy

*Edited 8/14/12 = They just changed their price today again. They had this to say about it "As for the price change, we're actually going to $39.99 for 8 items (the $44.99 was temporary to slow conversions while we restocked our new inventory selection)." 
So they raised prices to slow down conversions while they restocked (shopped at Ross?). I don't even know what to say about that.
Did I mention that you should not buy from them and tell everyone you know to not buy from them?