Grieving Carlton mum locked in battle with Yodel after returning pushchair

A grieving mother who suffered a miscarriage has been dealt more pain after the pushchair she'd bought in anticipation of her newborn went missing when she returned it. And delivery company Yodel says that the loss of the package - worth £850 - is not its fault.

Danicka Evans, from Carlton, was 12 weeks pregnant when she lost her baby and sent her pram purchase, which contained 18 individual items, back to Manchester-based Online4Baby.com. But when it arrived, it only had two of the 18 items that mum-of-four Ms Evans is adamant were in the box when she posted it on Tuesday, April 9.

She said through tears: "I'm absolutely distressed. All I wanted to do after I lost the baby was get everything out of my house so I could grieve. Now I'm left fighting and have basically been called a liar. I've hit a dead end and have had the remaining parts of the pushchair returned to me. It's like a constant reminder. I've not been able to grieve and move on."

Ms Evans ordered the pushchair package, which came with a car seat and a host of other items, on March 22, as part of a reduced-price bundle. It was delivered on March 25, with "everything there".

She opened the box to check the colour was correct but didn't take anything out due to the fact that she was in the early stages of her pregnancy. Sadly, on the weekend of April 6 and 7, she suffered a miscarriage.

She got in touch with customer services at Online4Baby, who she described as "wonderful", on April 8, she explained what happened and was told that it was fine for it to be returned. On April 9, a Yodel agent came to pick it up, at around 3.30pm.

Ms Evans had resealed the box. But three days later, she received an email from Online4Baby, stating that they could not facilitate the return and would have to send the package back to her because 16 out of the 18 items that were meant to be in the box were missing.

Ms Evans then got in touch with Yodel via a web chat service before emailing due to "getting absolutely nowhere" online. Initially, the team were "understanding", she said, telling her that an investigation would be launched.

But just three hours later, Ms Evans was sent a photograph of a box purported to be her package, with the company saying that the photograph showed the box to be closed when it arrived at their depot and claiming that it had arrived as it had been sent. Online4Baby said that the package was closed when it arrived with them.

But Ms Evans says she thinks it looks like the package is open in the photograph. She fought back tears as she described how the debacle had affected her.

She said: "I thought it would be a simple return of an unused item that had never left the box. I didn't expect this. No one is willing to help."

A Yodel spokesperson said: “We have reached out to Ms Evans to apologise for any distress the issue with her returns may have caused at what is understandably a difficult time. We are in active conversations with her and the retailer to resolve the matter as soon as possible.”