halfords/child seats.what to do?v.long sorry

katym79

Hi not sure this is the right place to put this but here goes. Yesterday, after much deliberating i decided on the type of car seat i want for my little girl (a Britax evolva 123) i need 2 of them (one for grandmas car) and looked at halfords online and noticed they had an offer of £99.99 (usually about £120) on a particular colour. I noticed i could reserve them and collect instore, and because Halfords boast their fitting service, this is what i chose to do, as i wanted the extra peace of mind. We arrive at the store and quote the reference number, the guy goes off to find the seats. After a very long time, he returns with two seats, one of them being the wrong one. He goes again to find the right one, and returns with the last seat they have, which is slightly shop soiled as it was the demonstrator seat. I ask if it has ever been fitted to a car or used, he says no, so i decide that its ok then (not sure why in hindsight but i just wanted to be out of there by now) I pay for both seats, just under £200. He then asks if i want to be shown how the seat fits to the car (i was under the impression that they did this as a matter of course, but apparently not) and i say yes. We get to the car where he spends at least 30 mins struggling to get the seat in.(britax website says it fits fine to a skoda fabia) in the end he struggles so much that he puts a HOLE in the seatbelt!! At this point i had to restrain husband from killing him. He was initially denying any damage, but eventually gave in and says they will foot the bill for a new seatbelt to fitted by skoda if its deemed necessary. Tomorrow i have to take it to an MOT station to ascertain whether it needs doing to get through an MOT (an inconvenience - yes?) Anyway, shell-shocked we eventually drive home with both seats (baby in her old seat with the undamaged seatbelt) Hubby read the accompanying booklet on fitting the seat, and checked the one installed in our car - it is fitted completely wrong. This guy obviously had NO CLUE how to fit this child seat! I am astonished! All i wanted was to buy 2 car seats for a decent price, be shown how to fit one safely, and leave. Now i have a world of pain. I'm going to Halfords tomorrow to see the MOT person, but what should i do? Who do i complain to, and how for maximum effect??! I've now decided i no longer want the shop soiled one, currently in my car, but want another one (but don't feel i should pay more, considering!) the other seat i will keep for my dads car, as I KNOW how to fit it (after reading the instructions - not hard!!) I'm a bit livid, but want to turn this around in my favour... Please help!!:mad:

Sagaris

Go back and have a word with the manager, and if possible show him/her how the seat was wrongly fitted, and how it should have been done. I'd also write to the Head Office and your local Trading Standards, after all, if a child had been using a wrongly fitted seat and was involved in a crash, who knows what the outcome might have been?

I have no faith in Halfords car seat fitting whatsoever, having seen a 14lb 4 month old baby in a forward facing seat a few weeks ago.....as fitted and advised by our local branch!

vetfred

A few weeks ago, we bought a carseat from Halfords. We looked online for what "should" fit the car and had a couple of ideas but wanted to see what actually fit as I never think half the thing the sites say are the case when you give the product a test. Anyway, the Britax seat was unsafe in the car - it scares you that the site says one thing and if you'd bought from the manufacturer's recommendation and "thought" you'd fitted it safely, how potentially tragic that mistake could be. We ended up getting a Maxi Cosi.

What you do in relation to taking the soiled seat back and the other material issues is up to you but my main point would be this; if the fitter wasn't knowledgable on how to put in the seat and made a really bad error (like put it in completely wrong and told you it was safe), that's something that should be taken further because the potential consequences of that person's actions are quite horrific. Yes, it's up to parents to check things out (three adults have also checked baby vetfred's seat, nevermind the fitter!) but the person should be doing their job properly without question.

Brooker_Dave

katym79 wrote: »

but want to turn this around in my favour... Please help!!

Demand compensation!!!

SaraSeahorse

I would not go to halfords for the seatbelt assessment I would go to an independent place.

sarahg1969

If he has definitely damaged the seatbelt, is an "assessment" necessary? It doesn't matter if it will get through its MOT test; if it is damaged, you don't want to risk your child's life by using it - it should be replaced.

katym79

thanks for all your replies -theres just so many issues to the story that i'm worried about getting muddled up when complaining and basically not getting what i feel is just compensation. i'm not great at complainng but will try my best.Just hate having to spend MY precious time dealing with peoples !!!! ups. If you were in my position, what would you ask them to do?

Blacksheep1979

you're astonished that the chavs that work in Halfords don't have a clue?

katym79

SaraSeahorse wrote: »

I would not go to halfords for the seatbelt assessment I would go to an independent place.

Well, its not Halfords, but the place attached to it, Nationwide i think. Not ideal but the guy who damaged it is meant to making me the appointment, but i will ask them to put in writing if they think the belt is safe. Then when i take car to skoda and they say otherwise, Halfords will have some serious coughing up to do.

katym79

sarahg1969 wrote: »

If he has definitely damaged the seatbelt, is an "assessment" necessary? It doesn't matter if it will get through its MOT test; if it is damaged, you don't want to risk your child's life by using it - it should be replaced.

the seatbelt is damaged in so far as there is a small hole in the middle of it, but its still in one piece and functions normally, so the safety of it needs to be assessed i think.

katym79

blacksheep lol. i should have known better. I wouldn't have gone but a colleague recommended them - she says the staff at the one she went to didn't let her leave with the seat until she had been shown how to fit it safely?? it says so on the ads! i'm a sucker for marketing...