You may have seen on my Facebook page that I sent some worn out hook & loop diapers off to be converted to snaps. I received them back and wanted to share my experience! As I’ve already said, I really would have preferred to just have the Velcro replaced, but I don’t have a sewing machine, and I was having a hard time finding someone to do it for me. Plus, I knew that Velcro would just need to be replaced again in the future, while snaps would last nearly indefinitely.
I sent a total of 9 diapers to Convert My Diapers: 7 Bumgenius, one Thirsties and one Blueberry. She has a price list for different diapers; some that require additional work are more, but most are around $3.75. She also offers elastic replacement if your diapers need it. The shipping was a pretty large expense, around $10 each way, putting my total close to $55. She does accept Paypal, but you have to cover the fees.
It took less than 3 weeks to receive the diapers, and the only issue I had was a little confusion about the status of my diapers. She has a “status” page, but because she works pretty quickly and the page is updated once per week or less, it’s not very helpful. The Paypal payment was also a bit confusing since payment is sent to a different address and name. Here’s a quick timeline to show what I mean:
2/29 I went on her site & selected my ship date as 3/2.
3/1 I had the package ready to ship, printed the label online, selected the check box to notify the recipient via email w/tracking, and paid via Paypal
3/2 The package was picked up by my mail carrier
3/5 Tracking said the package was delivered
3/8 I realized my Paypal payment was showing unclaimed. I contacted Convert My Diapers and she said that the Paypal payments go to a different address, and that they will send invoice when the package is opened
3/15 I’ve been checking the status page regularly and I’m getting worried. The status page hasn’t been updated since 3/4 and at that point, it didn’t even show that she had been notified of the shipment. I still haven’t gotten an invoice, so I was assuming that meant they hadn’t even opened my package yet after 10 days. I was starting to wonder if the package had been mis-delivered and she hadn’t received it at all. I hesitated to send an email because I don’t want to be “that customer” who drives her crazy. I ended up sending an email on 3/15 asking about the status of my order. I didn’t initially receive a reply, but I received an invoice from a different name & email address saying that they were done & ready to ship when paid. I paid right away, then about an hour later, received a reply to my email saying they were done & ready to ship when paid. Later, the status page was updated as of 3/15 saying that my diapers were completed 3/14 and ready to ship when paid.
3/22 I received the diapers in the mail
I think 3 weeks is pretty awesome for shipping them, completing 9 diapers and shipping them back, so I’d almost rather just see an estimated turn around time rather than the updates, since all they did was make me worry! I had to pay $1.61 in Paypal fees, which I didn’t initially realize when I decided to pay by Paypal rather than mail money with the diapers. I also didn’t know that I was supposed to wait for an invoice, or that it would be a different address. I just assumed I needed to pay when I mailed the diapers, since non-Paypal payments are supposed to be included with the diapers.
The diapers look fantastic. Naturally, you can see where the closures and strip were removed.
Above is a converted 3.0, a converted 4.0 and a 4.0 that was purchased with snap closures applied by the manufacturer. Not much difference!
I went ahead and washed the diapers before using them again, since they were out of my home of course & smelled a little musty after all the shipping. I think I found a couple of animal hairs on the diapers, but I could be mistaken. I don’t see any indication on her site that they have pets. I also put the diapers in the dryer for a bit, since I know the heat can help seal up sewing holes. After that the holes from where the Velcro was removed were much less noticeable.
I would LOVE if Cottonbabies would start offering a Velcro replacement service (I wasn’t the only one who mentioned it during the Jennifer Labit Twitter party!) but otherwise, I would definitely send diapers to CMD again. I do think it’s a little bit pricey after the shipping costs, and it would be really expensive if you also needed all 3 elastic pieces replaced. However, you end up with totally refurbished diapers for the same as or less than a used diaper in similar condition, and you know the diaper’s history (which sounds weird, but I think you KWIM!)
Have you had any diapers converted to snaps? Have you done any yourself?
FTC compliance: I paid normal retail price for this service. I was not asked to write, nor was I compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.