Mamas and Papas refuse return

soozer

Hi

My first post (although been lurking for a while - brill site!) but need to vent.

My daughter bought a pushchair in Mamas and Papas yesterday. She wanted one where the baby could face her, so they could interact. So she bought the 'Skoot' model (£350!) and when she got it home and built it she realised that when the seat is facing the way she wants it the wheels are 'wrong' - the pushchair then has the swivel wheels at the back and big, static wheels at the front (these are reversed if the seat faces outwards, but she doesn't want to use it that way).

Anyway, she tried it out in her garden and because the wheels are the wrong way round she couldn't even get it up the steps in her garden. So she packaged it back up and took it back to the store today - less than 24 hours after the sale.

Mamas and Papas are refusing a refund as the pushchair has been 'used' outdoors - for around 20 yards! I think that this is a sales of goods act 'not fit for purpose' case - but was hoping for some advice?

Very cleverly (!!!) mamas and papas stores don't have individual telephone numbers - only a customer services number which closes at 5:30, even though the store is open until 8pm. I plan to ring them tomorrow - my daughter can't afford to lose £350.

Sorry my first post is a lengthy one!

stugib

soozer wrote:

Mamas and Papas are refusing a refund as the pushchair has been 'used' outdoors - for around 20 yards! I think that this is a sales of goods act 'not fit for purpose' case - but was hoping for some advice?

I'm not sure I fully understand - are you saying:
1. it's faulty that the wheels are the wrong way round, or it was misdescribed that you could use it backward facing, or she was told she could use it backward facing, or
2. your daughter just didn't understand correctly how it worked and only realised when she tried it?

If the former then you may have a case regardless of whether it's been used, if the latter then I'm afraid they don't have to take it back as she had chance to try it out in the shop.

soozer

stugib wrote:

I'm not sure I fully understand - are you saying:
1. it's faulty that the wheels are the wrong way round, or it was misdescribed that you could use it backward facing, or she was told she could use it backward facing, or
2. your daughter just didn't understand correctly how it worked and only realised when she tried it?

If the former then you may have a case regardless of whether it's been used, if the latter then I'm afraid they don't have to take it back as she had chance to try it out in the shop.

Not faulty as such, but not fit for purpose if the seat is facing the way DD wants it to face.

On most pushchairs that face both ways the seat is the part that moves, but on this one it's the handle - so if the seat is facing front the big wheels are at the back and the swivel ones at the front (as they should be), but flip the handle over to the other side so that the seat is facing DD and the wheels are now what I would consider to be the wrong way round. How could anyone manoeuvre a pushchair with swivel wheels at the back?

She wasn't given chance to try one in store. They built one for her but it was broken so they gave her a new one in a box.

DD has spent a year's savings on this pushchair and she can't get it out of her garden as the swivel wheels are too small to bump up steps. The store say they would have refunded had she not taken it into the garden (20 yards of garden path - so the wheels aren't dirty). I think they're being a bit tight-fisted and unreasonable, but what do I know? :rolleyes:

stugib

soozer wrote:

On most pushchairs that face both ways the seat is the part that moves, but on this one it's the handle - so if the seat is facing front the big wheels are at the back and the swivel ones at the front (as they should be), but flip the handle over to the other side so that the seat is facing DD and the wheels are now what I would consider to be the wrong way round. How could anyone manoeuvre a pushchair with swivel wheels at the back?

Ok, I'm no expert on pushchairs and apologies if you've tried this already but I've just taken a look at the user manual on the M&P website and the swivel wheels can be locked in place - if you did this when it's in 'pramette' mode facing backwards/towards the pusher wouldn't all 4 wheels now be fixed and it would act as a normal pram?

soozer

stugib wrote:

Ok, I'm no expert on pushchairs and apologies if you've tried this already but I've just taken a look at the user manual on the M&P website and the swivel wheels can be locked in place - if you did this when it's in 'pramette' mode facing backwards/towards the pusher wouldn't all 4 wheels now be fixed and it would act as a normal pram?

Hi stugib

Aha! DD never told me that the swivel wheels were lockable (she lives 30 miles away from me, so all this has been relayed by phone). That makes her case for a refund a bit shaky.

Just seems a shame she's spent a year's savings on a new pushchair that she's unable to handle

stugib

soozer wrote:

That makes her case for a refund a bit shaky.

Just seems a shame she's spent a year's savings on a new pushchair that she's unable to handle

Afraid so, sounds like it's something she couldn't reasonably forsee but nothing actually wrong or not fit for purpose about the pushchair. Maybe she'll have more luck once she's using it with the wheels locked Won't it tilt up the step rather than have to be bumped? Anyway, good luck!

SaraSeahorse

I always found pushchairs easier to use wlakign along with wheels locked - you may find that if you don't lock the wheels to use the way with baby facing that it will cause wheel problems - does the manual not say to lock wheels when usign in that configuration?

zztopgirl

Hopefully someone else might know more about this, but M&P refuse all refunds and returns now, even if the product is faulty and unfit for purpose. A friend had a double buggy that fell to bits as it was such bad quality and got absolutely nowhere with them. They even accused her of overloading the shopping basket when the most she had put in it was a loaf of bread, the basket disintregrated eventually.

love2save

This sounds similar to the M&P pushchair I had for my daughter, the Venezia 6 years ago. You can lock the swivel wheels but eventually I did learn to use them in swivel mode. It is hard to get used to at first but they do work ok

nomoneytoday

zztopgirl wrote:

Hopefully someone else might know more about this, but M&P refuse all refunds and returns now, even if the product is faulty and unfit for purpose. A friend had a double buggy that fell to bits as it was such bad quality and got absolutely nowhere with them. They even accused her of overloading the shopping basket when the most she had put in it was a loaf of bread, the basket disintregrated eventually.

Nonsense. M&P allowed us to return £600 worth of stuff, without a receipt when our baby, "didn't make it". :A

asharon

One idea is find out how much replacement wheels are and offer to return it minus the cost of wheels.

Or stick it on ebay and yes she will take a loss but not too much. Just say ex display or something and the wheels are scuffed is all.