NEXT!

I quite like the idea of reviewing things and think that I can pretty much put fingers to keyboards about most subject matter. I have already reviewed an artisan chocolate maker from London (the thought of her rocky road has got me salivating again!) but ideally I would like to review children and family related things.

Some companies, I have found, are quite sniffy about who they let review their products which is not in their best interests in the slightest. Let's face it, us parents are not as thick as we look and if you have fantastic reviews about your products all the time, we are going to get a little suspicious!

So today, I am going to review NEXT. The full tale of this incident may well spill over in to another day as I am currently waiting for a response from the correct department.

Aardvark starts nursery school next week and in the middle of December I ordered all of her uniform from NEXT. At first I was a little annoyed that I had to open an account, but in turn was quite pleased that until I have received and am happy with the order, I won't have to pay for it (bonus!)

All the usual emails were sent to me, thanking me for opening an account etc. Then I had one saying that my order had been despatched, the feature I particularly liked was that there was a 'click here' button for me to track my order. It took me straight to the couriers page and I did not have to fiddle about with entering parcel numbers etc.

Since the 16th December it has been out for delivery to the courier. Now I know that we have had some ghastly weather all over the country and certainly Northumberland has been hit hard so adverse weather has really been a problem for many delivery companies.

I was pleased to see that there were regular updates on the NEXT website about the deliveries of orders, which reassured me that all was well, just a little behind schedule.

Today, I did decide to call the customer service department, just to put my own mind at rest. I got dealt with efficiently, however the courier department was closed today (I forgot it was a bank holiday) and the call-taker has requested that someone call me back tomorrow.

Whether this happens or not is entirely another matter. We are off on a massive shopping trip on Friday, even if I get told that the order is on it's way, do I buy stuff while I am out then send the order back when it arrives or take a chance and it might not turn up? I don't suppose I can really decide until they call me back.

I am going to be interested to see how this is dealt with, I have been told that NEXT have an excellent reputation for customer service, and I hope I am able to confirm this.