I really didn’t think I’d ever be writing a negative post about one of my favorite online stores, but I’m so disappointed that I feel compelled to.

Cotton Babies is the maker of the infamous BumGenius cloth diaper (as well as other diapers) and is one of my favorite online places to order cloth diapers (they sell a plethora of different cloth diapers, as well as stuff for kids and moms). The reason I like them so much is because their prices and offers are competitive – shipping is always free, you can usually find a little discount code online, and overall, their prices usually beat most other online places.

A loooong time ago (November 1, 2012 to be exact), I sent an email to the contact email provided on the Cotton Babies website. Since I had a lot of readers who weren’t using cloth diapers yet, I thought it’d be informative for you guys to read a Q&A type article about cloth diapers with someone from one of the queen bee cloth diaper companies – Cotton Babies. I sent my email on November 1st, and on November 2nd, I received a response from the Cotton Babies Marketing Manager. She agreed to the Q&A, and I was so excited that I sent her my list of 6 questions almost immediately.

When 33 days had past and I still had not received a response from the Cotton Babies Marketing Manager, I decided to write her again on December 5th to check-in and see if she had a chance to answer my questions.

Once again, no response.

I let another 15 days go by, and when I hadn’t received a response yet again, I thought I’d email another Cotton Babies employee who was originally CC:ed on the email that the Marketing Manager sent me. I sent the email to the other Cotton Babies employee on Dec. 20, 2012 and STILL have not received a response from both the Marketing Manager and the other employee.

I send emails almost daily requesting different things for this blog and often don’t get a response. This is totally fine with me (and almost expected)! No one is obligated to answer an unsolicited email.

However, if you have already started a dialogue with someone and even gone as far to agree to something (like in this case the Marketing Manager agreed to answer my questions for a special feature on this blog), it is common courtesy to respond to an email (or in my case, emails <– emphasis on the plurality). If your plans have changed or if you simply don’t have the time or desire to stick to your commitment, that is understandable! The person on the other end will probably understand – just be courteous enough to relay this information via email. Is that really a lot to ask? It takes like 10 seconds to write and send a short email. I find it very unprofessional and rude to ignore someone’s emails after a dialogue has already been started, especially if you are representing a company.

I have a business degree and work in the corporate world, so maybe I was “trained” to think differently regarding these matters. Maybe it wouldn’t bother another momma blogger as much. Regardless, at the end of the day, I have to admit that I am disappointed with Cotton Babies and their (lack of) professionalism. So disheartening, especially for a cloth diaper company!