Dear Bargainista #18 - teachers’ gifts

Dear Bargainista has taken on a bit of a different look today because @kristyprima asked her question on Twitter…

“@Bargainista Any good recos for end of school gifts for teachers?”

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In 140 characters or less, here’s my answer:

“@kristypryma Although some think they’re impersonal, I prefer gift certificates especially when the class pools together.”

Well, I cheated a bit:
“@kristypryma Yorkdale GCs are quite popular with teachers in our neighbourhood. So are GCs from @lululemon, Indigo and movie passes.”

Teachers, we’d like to hear from you too. Which gifts do you enjoy the most and why?
Parents, what can you add to the list?

Dear Bargainista would love to hear from you too! Have a question about shopping, fashion or food? E-mail us or send a tweet to @Bargainista.

H&M excels in customer service

We’ve had lengthy discussions about stores that have tightened their return policies and trimmed customer service this year. It’s only fair that I share a story about a wonderful experience I had at H&M on Bloor this week.

I want a pair of skinny jeans and have my eye on a pair from Fidelity but I’m trying to avoid the just-shy-of-$200 price tag. So, I thought I’d check out H&M during my lunch on Tuesday. I found a nice pair. Not as detailed or as well made as the ones by Fidelity, but for ¼ of the price, I thought they were worth the try.

Have you seen the change rooms at H&M? One word of warning – the line-ups are long – avoid them if you can. Fortunately, H&M has a 30-day return policy. I picked up two different sizes to try on in the comfort of my own home.

The cashier told me she put the bill in the bag. When I got home, it was nowhere to be found. I’ve had this happen before. It makes me so uncomfortable. I always think they’re going to assume I’ve stolen the merchandise when I return to the store.

I thought I had lost the bill. Last night I called the store and told the guy on the phone what happened. He told me to return with the jeans and tell the person on the cash that I never received the bill (that way I’d have an easier time.) So, yesterday that’s what I did.

While waiting in line at the cash, I read the return policy. H&M accepts returns within 30 days with or without a bill! (Note: Photo ID is required.)

When it was my turn at cash, I told the salesperson I wanted to return the jeans but I didn’t have my bill. She asked for the approximate time of day the purchase was made, the type of payment and which cash registered was used. Turns out I was speaking with a manager named Jackie who explained it would take 5-10 minutes for her to locate the transaction. She suggested I go upstairs where there wasn’t a line-up and once she found the details of the sale, she’d issue a refund right away.

The clock was ticking and I had a meeting in 30 min. how long would I have to wait? Hmm, within two minutes, the salesperson that rang in the sale on Tuesday came right over and greeted me with a friendly smile. Her name was Sarah. She was so happy I came back because she knew I’d left without a bill and I was planning on returning at least one pair of jeans. Within seconds she had my bill in hand and took care of my refund!

Whoever said customer service sucks in modestly priced clothing chains is wrong.

And a couple more things…
H&M’s summer sale is on now. There are several tables and racks of clothes starting at $10 and up. I actually received a pitch from their PR rep in the U.S. when when I got back from H&M the first go round. She asked if I’d let you know their sale was starting on Wednesday. I let her know it had already started in Canada. ;) And by the way, I wrote this post because I had a great experience - the pitch story is a total coincidence.

Check out H&M’s Dressing Room and Fashion Against AIDS program. You can upload a video and create your own ringtones too.

What about you? Have any good news customer service stories to share?

Green baby bottoms

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Jenny talks about “green” diaper options. Be forewarned, Jenny doesn’t leave much to the imagination this time around.

Like a lot of environmentally conscious parents, I suffer from “diaper guilt” – the knowledge that whether you choose cloth or disposables, the very act of diapering babies increases your carbon footprint exponentially – and I’m always looking for green alternatives that won’t break the bank.

It’s amazing how much has changed in the last four years. Between the birth of our first daughter and our second, the availability of environmentally sound or “green” options in diapering has positively blossomed! Not only are there a greater number of companies offering reusable diaper services across the GTA, but there are also green choices for those of us who occasionally or always depend on disposables.

I recently took advantage of a sale on baby items at Grassroots to try out Seventh Generation disposable diapers. I’d heard good things about them from other moms, and once our youngest was an appropriate size and weight to fit the smallest size I couldn’t wait to try them out.

I love that they are chlorine free, unbleached (after all, do we really need stark-white diapers to know when baby has wet or soiled a diaper?) and hypoallergenic. And perhaps most importantly, they work like a dream!

I’m happy to report that they are just as easy to put on, and equally absorbent as any other disposable we’ve used. Even after a marathon two-hour car trip, there were no leaks; most remarkably, the diaper even withstood our youngest’s most massive BMs (what we playfully call a “blowout”). My single complaint is that the diaper is a little stiff and not as soft as conventional diapers, which might be an issue for babies with sensitive skin.

Best of all, you can now buy them at Loblaws or at Real Canadian Superstores in the organics section, for a price comparable to that of conventional diapers! So you can have the best of both worlds – a clear, green conscience and financial peace of mind. And of course, a baby with a smaller carbon footprint as well as a dry bottom!

Giving hand-me-down baby furniture a facelift

In this week’s baby bargainista column, you’re in for another DYI treat as Rebecca Atkinson shares how she and her husband updated hand-me-down nursery furniture with a little paint and a lot of elbow grease.

One good thing about having family – especially those who have already had children – is that when you announce you’re pregnant, you’re bound to get offers of hand-me-downs. This happened to us from both sides of our clan, and begat our ‘eclectic’ second-hand collection, which included a crib and a rocking chair/glider. We also included a wooden storage bench we’d had kicking around, simply because we couldn’t fit it anywhere else... The only problem was that nothing actually matched.

Having spent so much time on painting and decorating the nursery, we definitely didn’t want to just put a mishmash of coloured furniture in the room, but hadn’t saved room in our budget to go out and buy many new pieces besides a dresser/change table combo and a bookcase.

The rocking chair was a nice maple, and the other two pieces we had were more of a birch-y finish, although not ‘real’ wood. We’d though about staining them all to match, but realized it would take a huge effort to get it to look right, and my significant other doesn’t have the patience to sand. We then had another idea: if we found a change table to match the rocking chair, perhaps we could paint the other two pieces of furniture a colour to compliment the room’s existing scheme and the maple pieces. However, we wondered if it was possible to paint the crib or if it had to be done professionally, and if so that would cost a lot of money.

After doing some research, we learned it’s perfectly okay to paint a crib and/or other furniture in baby’s room if you follow these guidelines:
1. Paint it with enough time to cure before the baby will be using it (i.e. 3-6 months). This will ensure when baby gums it, he/she doesn’t eat or take off the paint
2. Replace the plastic guards on the top of the rails to make triple sure they don’t get gnawed
3. And of course, don’t use lead-based paint

In terms of the actual painting portion, Hubby experimented with any number of brushes, but discovered that the small-diameter foam rollers (about 4" wide) work wonders to get into all the crevices. Touch ups with a small brush were required, but not as much as if we’d used brushes exclusively. The larger, standard size rollers are too large to fit anywhere comfortably.

If you have access to a spray gun, use it! That would have made life immensely easier, especially if you’re not going to/able to take the piece apart. However, renting one isn’t cheap ($75/day from Home Depot) and buying even a cheap one ($90 and up) hurts the pocketbook, so if you don’t have one, don’t bother. It’ll look fine.

Once we had everything painted, we found that it looked kind of plain, so pulled on our creativity hats and decided that we could at least decorate the bench to match the theme of our room. We’d found some small, cutout chipboard versions of the flashcard animals we stuck to the wall, and used the same wallpaper glue to attach them to the bench. Easy peasy.
So whether it’s an inexpensive hand-me down or a family antique, go ahead! Adding a coat of paint or two can really spruce up a room for very little money.

Lessons learned:
1. You don’t have to go out and buy a matching baby-room set at inflated prices. Find a few used or free items you like (or can live with) and get creative!
2. Baby won’t care about paint drips or brush marks, so don’t get stressed if you aren’t Leonardo Da Vinci.
3. Talk to the paint people at the hardware store to see what they recommend based on the materials you’re trying to cover up.