Blooming good sale at any rate (Blooming Marvellous)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Blooming Marvellous
Date:	12/09/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Large range of maternity and baby goods, good quality clothes, their sales

Disadvantages: Lack of communication, Not the cheapest (unless in sale)

In years gone by it used to be very difficult to buy reasonably fashionable maternity clothes at a price that didn't break the bank. Today there are far more retailers that cater for 'bumps', but in the small town where I live only Mothercare sells these clothes 'off-line'. I've therefore found myself searching for my new wardrobe on-line and one of the websites I've recently turned to is Blooming Marvellous.

If I remember rightly Blooming Marvellous started trading around the time I was pregnant with my now 18 year old eldest child, although in those days the ranges were only available by mail order catalogue. They do still run the catalogue, but also have a website, which is where I went to buy a few essentials. The website itself loads quickly and easily using my very temperamental mobile broadband connection and is well laid out with photos and descriptions of the different items available. I wouldn't say the photos are always 100% accurate though, but I'll get into that later.

The maternity section is well organised and the range covers everything from casual to smart wear, lingerie and even swimwear. The range of sizes isn't the hugest, I've not seen anything bigger than an 18 for sale but they do have a handy size guide to help you decide if an item is going to fit. As with any other maternity clothes you should basically go for the same size as you were before you became pregnant, and I've found the sizes are a little on the generous side as I was a large 14 before becoming pregnant and their size 14 fits perfectly. What I do like is that the trousers have different leg lengths available, which is quite unusual in maternity clothes. While the prices are reasonable, I really couldn't say they are the cheapest, while they do compare well to Mothercare, they are beaten by New Look. What did make me decide to buy from here was their sale section where fashionable clothes were available at very reasonable prices.

Adding to the shopping basket was a simple enough process, although because I was buying from the sale range I did find that lots of items were no longer available in my size. I personally picked a pair of jeans, pair of trousers and two tee-shirts which came to just over £20. Not bad considering the original price of the jeans was £35. When it came to checking out, it was necessary to open an account, which was easy enough and then make a payment using any major credit or debit card. Something I did find a little unusual was that I couldn't find a link anywhere on the site to tell me what the standard shipping costs to the UK were. I found references to overseas shipping and express delivery, but didn't find out how much standard delivery was until the checkout stage. I will say that I found this a little underhand and annoying, but it may have just been me being obtuse. Delivery actually cost £4.95 for second class by Royal Mail which is quite steep considering that New Look offers next day delivery for the same price.

Immediately after the order was placed an email arrived in my inbox confirming the order, and then I heard nothing for almost 4 days. Checking the order status online gave a constant 'status unavailable' message and I must admit I was starting to get a bit worried. I eventually received an email confirming dispatch (although this went into my hotmail junk box), and received my goods 3 days later, a full week after placing the order. On opening the package I found there was a tee-shirt missing and on checking the enclosed dispatch note I discovered that this was out of stock (although it had said in-stock on the website) and I hadn't been charged for it. Ok so they hadn't charged me for it, but the first I knew I wasn't getting it was when I opened the package, there'd been nothing in the dispatch email.

The items I did receive are of fairly good quality, the tee-shirt fits well and is definitely designed with the bump in mind. The jeans are super comfortable if a little long, I did choose the shortest leg length but being only 5'1" I expected to have to turn them up. The trousers are ok, but don't look much like the photo, I knew they would be striped but in the photo the stripes looked close together and in reality they're not. Overall I'm pretty pleased with my new clothes, but if I wasn't I could return them albeit at a cost. Unless the goods are faulty all return costs have to be paid for by the purchaser and then it takes 3-4 weeks for the money to be refunded. A quick note here, is that personalised items cannot be returned.

Along with maternity clothes, Blooming Marvellous sells a good range of baby clothes, most of which are very cute and different from the norm at prices that seem pretty reasonable. They also sell nursery furniture and essentials but I can't comment on the quality or value for money of any of these as I've not purchased anything other than maternity clothes from here.

And so onto the crux of the matter, am I recommending this website or not? Well it really does depend on your budget and whether they are running a sale. Their 'normal' prices can be beaten by other retailers, but the range is far larger then any other web retailer of maternity clothes that I've ever seen. The clothes are well-made and comfortable, but.....the photos are not always truly representative of the goods, the delivery charge is a little high, the level of communication with the customer leaves a lot to be desired and any return costs have to be paid for. All in all I probably will be shopping from here again, but only when they are running a sale.

Summary: Best to use if they're running a sale