Conference moira::parenting_v3

    My advice is the same I'd give for any service problem:
    ask the person on the phone to connect you with his/her supervisor,
    or get the name of someone higher up. Call them and relate your
    story, and see if this helps. Make sure to tell them your name.
    Next time you have a problem, call the same person and say "Hi,
    I'm so-and-so, and I spoke with you two weeks ago" etc etc. If
    you still have problems, write the person a letter, cc the president
    of the company and cancel the service! 
    
    Lucy
    
    PS - I thought we weren't supposed to complain in Notes about specific
    companies?

	 Lucy is correct.  

	If you wish to tell us of how you dealt with a frustrating service 
problem, please do.  But please leave names out of it.

	The base note and first reply have been hidden until the "names have  
been changed to protect the moderators" :-)

Tracey
Parenting co-mod

    I would do what . said but make sure you attempt to get ahold of
    someone in either Customer Service or Customer Accounts or possibly
    Marketing if there is no Customer Service department. 
    
    Ask questions like when can I expect my diaper count to be accurate,
    will I be reimbursed for the diapers that never appeared, etc. Send
    a follow-up letter to the person you talked to stating all the facts
    they just told you and CC: a higher level as well. If it is bad enough,
    state that you intend to stop the service if it is not resolved and
    make sure you do (with of course a strong letter to the biggies about why
    you are stopping the service)
    
    If you've been talking to a number of different people, try to have one
    contact (like .2 said) so you can call that person specifically and get
    results through him/her.  Remember to also send a follow-up letter if
    the situation is resolved quickly and CC their boss for a job well
    done.
    
    Andrea (you've made me nervous about using a diaper service now)
                                       

    My mom had the same problem with the service she used when I was a
    baby.  She ranted and raved about it.  My dad offered lots of empathy
    and support.
    
    He finally admitted, 23 years later, that he threw out the poopy ones
    rather than rinse them in the toilet.
    
    
    Just an idea....

    RE: .5
    
    You sound like the diaper service, asking if I left any at my in-laws,
    or in the diaper bag!  Besides, in modern times you only dump the loose
    matter into the toilet, no rinsing is required.
    
    J

    Just to reassure the basenoter: we too had some problems with our
    local diaper service and were able to solve them by finding the
    right person to talk to and always talking to her. We were impressed
    by her responsiveness, in fact. Our driver was great too.
    
    I can understand some of the diaper-count problems...imagine being
    the poor employee whose job it is to count "soils" as they come in off 
    the truck...ecchh. No wonder the count is off sometimes. 
    
    Lucy

    Well, I'm going to start over with the diaper service again.  I
    returned all my diapers and we're going to pretend that I'm a new
    customer.  I'm going to take the suggestion that several replies
    noted about getting the name of the person or persons that I talk
    with next time.  I'm going to "monitor" them for a couple weeks by
    counting my diapers left over at the end of the week and then calling
    them the day after pickup to see what they counted.  If I still have 
    problems and can't seem to resolve it, I have the option of another
    service in my area (a bit more expensive, but maybe less hassle).
    
    J
    
    RE:  .4
    I would not shy away from a diaper service if you want to use cloth
    and don't want to launder them yourself.  I didn't think I would say
    this, but I find using the cloth easier, if my daughter poops while on
    the changing table, no problem.  Before I went to cloth I used my own
    diapers under her while changing, if she pooped I had more laundry to
    do!  Now we have a play time on the changing table, she loves not
    having any diaper on.
    
    I'm determined to use cloth, so what ever it take to get this
    straightened out, I'm willing to do.  Washing my own diapers is not
    for me.
    
    RE:  .7
    I agree with you, not too much glamour in being a dirty diaper counter!
    

    Jane,
        I second what Lucy said - I've found my diaper service people to be
    very friendly and helpful, and counting diapers has got to be one of the
    world's worst jobs!

	It sounds like you are handling things just fine.  If you find that
    things still don't work out, I have a wimpy solution to offer (I will
    often go for such a solution if it saves me aggravation).  You might
    want to add a dozen (or more?) diapers a week to your standard order.
    This would give you some slack so that you don't need to worry about
    running out.  With my diaper service, an extra dozen per week is pretty
    cheap (used to be 15 cents, I don't know what it is now).  I usually
    have the opposite problem - we seem to have more and more diapers in the
    house each week!  (Maybe we're getting the ones that you're losing?)
    Every so often, I reduce my order, but I do like having plenty of extras
    so that I don't even have to think about counting to make sure I won't
    run out.

		cheryl

    RE: .9
    
    Cheryl,
    
    I did increase my order by a dozen until I realized what happened.  I
    have a couple of concerns though...
    
    If they keep short changing me I'll either have to keep increasing by
    a dozen every once in a while (I only had the service for about a month
    when this problem started!), or I'll be down to a couple diapers!
    
    Secondly, the literature says that they will charge a dollar a diaper
    for each diaper lost.  Since I was short 20 diapers, that's $20!  I
    don't want to pay for their mistake.  I don't know what experience
    people have had when they ended their diaper service, did they have to
    pay if the count didn't come out right?
    
    I'd rather not have things get out of hand and have to pay in the end.
    I'll put up with a little aggravation now to get things cleared up.
    
    J

    Jane,
    
    I'll let you know about terminating the service soon - we just called
    to request our last pick-up! Daniel is finally completely day-trained
    and we'll be using our own or disposables at night. Our service rep 
    said "Congratulations! I'll have the driver deliver a diploma for your 
    son."
    
    Lucy
     

re: contingency for running out.

Assuming that you are not getting shorted, I'd suggest that for occasional 
shorfalls, to just wash a few (either your own supply or the service's), or 
have a small supply of disposables.  If you aren't getting shorted and you 
chronically run out, then maybe you need to increase the number you get.

When our second was getting trained, we started accumulating a closet full of 
diapers, even at the minimum delivery.  We were able to arrange a pickup (with 
no clean diapers delivered) for a nominal charge.

Sorry you're having trouble -- we used a diaper service for about six years 
with no problems.

Clay

re .10:

    You're right, of course.  If they consistently shortchange you, adding
    a dozen doesn't help.  What I was thinking of when I made the suggestion
    was my neighbor, who also uses a diaper service.  She would sometimes
    run short if she used more diapers than usual, especially if the delivery
    was a day late (our normal day is Monday, so we get a late delivery
    several times a year when Monday is a holiday).  For this situation,
    ordering a bit more than you usually use is helpful.  For chronic
    miscounting, as you say, it'd be necessary to keep increasing and
    increasing...

Clay,
    Our diaper service is horrified at the idea of us washing their diapers.
    I don't remember exactly why.  I have washed their diapers a few times
    (shhhhh, don't tell!) when we were traveling, but normally we just keep
    some disposables around for the unusual times when we run out.  This
    means that we have several nearly-full boxes of disposables in each
    size.  Does anyone know of a good way to get rid of them?  Do hospitals
    accept opened boxes of disposable diapers, for example?  I hate to just
    throw them out, and I haven't thought of any alternative use for them.

	cheryl

    Probably any hostpital or family shelter would be willing to take them
    off your hands.

   Or... check your local churches.  I know our church has a nursery
   arrangement where you can leave your kids downstairs during the
   service.  They take kids all the way down to infants, so they are
   always using diapers down there.
   
   - Tom
   

    The Nashua Soup Kitchen/Shelter just had an appeal for things like
    disposable diapers . . . 
    
    --bonnie

    Well, this week's count was correct.  Looks like separating the doubled
    diapers was the key.  I guess I was having "rookie" problems.  Since it
    was my first time using a diaper service, I never gave it too much
    thought and just dumped them into the pail.  Hopefully this is the last
    of this problem!
    
    RE: 11
    Let me know how you make out.  I would imagine if you are +/- a few
    diapers after 2+ years that they would overlook it.
    
    Thanks for all your help!
    
    Jane