Complaint Review: Bear Bottoms Diaper Service

We never thought we would have anything negative to say about Bear Bottoms Diaper Service, but unfortunately it seems that our relationship with this company has ended on a rather sour note. 

For six months, we loved their service and the diapers, so much so, that when we decided to begin cloth diapering on our own, we chose to buy used diapers from them, which are advertised as follows: NOW AVAILABLE!! Gently used diapers for less than half the price! These are the same as our new diapers and soakers, but have stains from use in our diaper service. These diapers have tons of life left in them for home use, are clean, sterilized and ready to go! If you don't mind
some stains and want to save money - these are for you! 

We purchased 30 medium and 30 large diapers as well as 30 soakers in the hopes that they would see us through diapering our daughter and perhaps other children in the future.  At over $350, this was a large investment for our family.  When we received the diapers, we noticed right away that some of them had small holes in them.  We contacted the company's Oakville office promptly to ask about this and were told that they were nothing to worry about there would still be a lot of wear left in those diapers. Since we had a good relationship with them, we took their word for it.

After the first wash, the soakers, which looked like they were in good condition when we received them, developed large clumps inside of them, to the point where they would be uncomfortable on our daughter.  After several emails, we were told we could return them for a refund, which we did receive. The reason for the clumping still remains a mystery.

After that, the diapers kept on deteriorating.  Each time we washed them, the holes would get larger. We used the medium diapers for two months before our daughter outgrew them, and already, two of them were torn so badly that we had to throw them out and many others are getting to that point as well. This is not our idea of tons of life. Many of the large diapers had the same issue.  

I decided to contact the company again once my daughter started using the large diapers, about three months after our purchase.  Each time I put a diaper on her, I felt disappointed and thought that the company could surely do something for us since we were customers of theirs.  They told me that it had been too long and that they couldn't exchange the diapers that had holes in them. That's right - I only wanted to exchange the diapers with holes in them for other used diapers that were in better condition (as promised on their site) and they said no.  When I posted a photo of one of the large diapers that had been used for two weeks and was already full of holes to their Facebook page, they deleted it.  When I contacted their head office, they told me once again that I had waited too long and accused me of slandering them on Facebook.  After several emails, they still would not exchange the diapers.

I feel that the product they sold me was not accurately represented on their website.  I was expecting used diapers with a few stains and no holes, and even when I brought it up within days of purchase, was reassured that it was fine.  Some of the diapers that we received are indeed as represented, but approximately 20 of the 60 are not.  

There is not much to be done for my situation, however I wanted others to know about the difficulties that we had with our diaper purchase and customer service from this company.  In my opinion, diapers with "tons of life" left in them should last a few years, not a few months.  And I feel that a company that provides good customer service shouldn't even bat an eye at the idea of replacing bad product, especially used diapers, to make things right with a customer.