Popular baby and toddler retail store goes into administration leaving mums thousands of dollars out of pocket before Christmas
- Furious mums have been left without items they paid for after company collapse
- Baby and Toddler Town has gone into liquidation with $5 million worth of debt
- Administrators admitted the families may never get their money back
- Those with items under warranty will also struggle to get them fixed or refunded
Pregnant women who forked out thousands of dollars at Baby and Toddler Town are being left empty handed as the store goes into administration.
Expectant mums are unlikely to ever get their money back, administrators admitted, after the company collapsed with $5 million in debt.
Hundreds of mothers-to-be had ordered their big ticket items, including prams and cribs.
Manisha Khan (left) faces losing $3,000 after Baby and Toddler Town collapsed, while Alisa Lomax (right) has been left with no cot or mattress just two weeks before her due date.
Pregnant Manisha Khan, who had spent $3,000 at Baby and Toddler Town’s Sydney store, told Nine’s A Current Affair: ‘My heart legit crashed, I was so devastated that that happened.
‘It’s a really stressful situation because I don’t have anything now for the baby’s nursery.
‘I ordered a cot, the bassinet pram and mattress for the baby’s nursery. I was told to pick it up on November 28, when I went on the 28th I found a sign on the front of the door which said the company had gone into administration.’
The first time mother now fears she will not be ready when her baby arrives.
Baby and Toddler Town went into administration
‘I will have to go somewhere else to purchase it and I don’t know how long that will take. And I’m not too sure that anything will be here in time,’ she added.
The administrator said it is unlikely the families will ever get a refund.
The items they bought will now be sold off by the liquidators.
Furious mothers had been commenting online for weeks saying that their orders had never been delivered.
Last week, one woman claimed she was still waiting for items she ordered three months before.
She wrote: ‘Terrible. Uncontactable and still waiting for a product I’ve purchased after 3 months. Avoid. They are scammers.’
Another woman added: ‘Do not buy from this store unless you have another option for the product when bub arrives!’
Pregnant Alisa Lomax (pictured) said expectant mothers ‘don’t need that kind of stress’
Another heavily pregnant woman, Alisa Lomax, said she has been left without a cot or mattress.
‘Considering I’m having a baby in two weeks time, it’s the unknown,’ she said.
‘It’s the wrong industry to be doing this to pregnant mums, they don’t need that kind of stress.’
A notice on the company’s website from liquidator Josh Taylor read: ‘It has come to my attention that a number of company customers have placed orders for items which have either not been delivered or partly delivered.
‘I will be investigating the company affairs to among other things, identify those unfilled orders. However, my investigations have disclosed that these orders will not be fulfilled.
‘If you have paid by credit card you should immediately contact your credit card provider to request a reversal of the payment for the items not delivered.’
Customers should contact the liquidators, Taylor Insolvency, by December 16.
Expectant mum Manisha Khan (pictured) organises the items she managed to buy for her first child, but is still without big ticket items including a pram, cot and mattress.
Taylor explained the first priority was to cover the cost of the liquidation, followed by payment owed to employees.
He said: ‘Usually customers would sit in the same priority with the ATO, with suppliers and other parties that aren’t employees.
‘So for customers who have paid via credit card, they can contact their credit card provider for a charge back, we’re still looking into what the options are for third-party payment providers like AfterPay.’