Faulty Car Seat

LilyMabel

Hello all,

I bought a car seat which has a fault with the straps. Given it’s a piece of safety equipment, and the straps are a critical part, I have stopped using the seat. I raised the issue with the retailer on 18th July. What followed was several weeks of backwards and forwards between myself, the retailer and the manufacturer. Finally, on the 15th August the retailer said they would not assist any further as the manufacturer does not consider this a fault. 

Knowing this not to be true, I travelled 1hr 20mins yesterday to ask that staff in store inspect the car seat. They confirmed that there is a fault with the seat and despite their best efforts, they could not fix it. 

On returning home I reported this to their aftercare team who were unhelpful, but eventually agreed to raise the issue with the manufacturer again. 

After countless incidents of poor service (I’m trying to keep this post concise), on reflection I decided to contact the executive complaints team. They are just deferring to the manufacturer warranty. Not taking responsibility that my contract is with them. They are going to follow up with the manufacturer and ask that the seat is inspected, and then repaired or replaced.  

Having given the retailer ample opportunity to effect a repair or replacement (5 weeks and counting) do I have grounds to insist this isn’t dragged out any further? The exec complaints team said having waited this long it’s worth waiting a few more days for the manufacturers response. No empathy at all for the fact that I’m without safe transport for my child in this time! This is an essential piece of safety equipment. We live in a rural village so it is been hugely inconvenient. 

Could anyone offer any advice please? I’ve read that section 3 of the CRA specifically mentions significant inconvenience and reasonable timescales. 

Have also raised a section 75 with the credit card company it was purchased with but have been advised this can take weeks to investigate. 

Thank you in advance. 

Alderbank

LilyMabel said:

Hello all,

I bought a car seat which has a fault with the straps. Given it’s a piece of safety equipment, and the straps are a critical part, I have stopped using the seat. I raised the issue with the retailer on 18th July. What followed was several weeks of backwards and forwards between myself, the retailer and the manufacturer. Finally, on the 15th August the retailer said they would not assist any further as the manufacturer does not consider this a fault. 

Knowing this not to be true, I travelled 1hr 20mins yesterday to ask that staff in store inspect the car seat. They confirmed that there is a fault with the seat and despite their best efforts, they could not fix it. 

On returning home I reported this to their aftercare team who were unhelpful, but eventually agreed to raise the issue with the manufacturer again. 

After countless incidents of poor service (I’m trying to keep this post concise), on reflection I decided to contact the executive complaints team. They are just deferring to the manufacturer warranty. Not taking responsibility that my contract is with them. They are going to follow up with the manufacturer and ask that the seat is inspected, and then repaired or replaced.  

Having given the retailer ample opportunity to effect a repair or replacement (5 weeks and counting) do I have grounds to insist this isn’t dragged out any further? The exec complaints team said having waited this long it’s worth waiting a few more days for the manufacturers response. No empathy at all for the fact that I’m without safe transport for my child in this time! This is an essential piece of safety equipment. We live in a rural village so it is been hugely inconvenient. 

Could anyone offer any advice please? I’ve read that section 3 of the CRA specifically mentions significant inconvenience and reasonable timescales. 

Have also raised a section 75 with the credit card company it was purchased with but have been advised this can take weeks to investigate. 

Thank you in advance. 

Welcome to the forum.

You say that you decided to contact the retailer's executive complaints team. They are going to follow up with the manufacturer and ask that the seat is inspected, and then repaired or replaced.  

From the limited information you have provided that seems to be what you are entitled to under the Consumer Rights Act.

born_again

When was seat bought?

electriccactus

You can insist they don't drag it out but if they want to, there's not really anything you can do to stop them other than taking them to court.

The CRA (any any other law for that matter) at the end of the day is just words, without a willingness to enforce them they have no power.

LilyMabel

Thank you for the welcome and replies to my query. The seat was purchased in Sept 2022 but only put into use in recent weeks, which I understand isn’t relevant now, but the reason was because the retailer advised that despite the seat being advertised as suitable from newborn, in their opinion it wasn’t. So we bought an infant carrier and have used that until recently. 

I just find it astonishing that we can be left without the use of an essential item for weeks on end. 

MattMattMattUK

LilyMabel said:

Thank you for the welcome and replies to my query. The seat was purchased in Sept 2022 but only put into use in recent weeks, which I understand isn’t relevant now, but the reason was because the retailer advised that despite the seat being advertised as suitable from newborn, in their opinion it wasn’t. So we bought an infant carrier and have used that until recently. 

I just find it astonishing that we can be left without the use of an essential item for weeks on end. 

It is unfortunately relevant. For the first six months after purchase the fault is deemed inherent, after that it is up to the customer to prove the fault was there at purchase. You having taken 22 months to raise the issue is why they are likely not overly rushing. 

When you say there is a fault with the straps, do you mean that they do not work as the manufacturer intended, or something different? 

eskbanker

LilyMabel said:

I just find it astonishing that we can be left without the use of an essential item for weeks on end. 

After six months, the onus is on the consumer to prove that an alleged fault would have been present at the time of purchase, and you said you'd only demonstrated it to the retailer yesterday - I appreciate that there'd been emails before and that you've summarised heavily, but in the context of yesterday's visit to the retailer, it doesn't seem unreasonable that it'll take some more time to resolve from that point onwards, so I can see why the complaints department would have made this point.

born_again

LilyMabel said:

Thank you for the welcome and replies to my query. The seat was purchased in Sept 2022 but only put into use in recent weeks, which I understand isn’t relevant now, butLilyMabel said:

Thank you for the welcome and replies to my query. The seat was purchased in Sept 2022 but only put into use in recent weeks, which I understand isn’t relevant now, but the reason was because the retailer advised that despite the seat being advertised as suitable from newborn, in their opinion it wasn’t. So we bought an infant carrier and have used that until recently. 

I just find it astonishing that we can be left without the use of an essential item for weeks on end. 

 So we bought an infant carrier and have used that until recently. 

I just find it astonishing that we can be left without the use of an essential item for weeks on end. 

Well 30 years ago we bought a car seat that was said to take a new born up to older ages in this way (bought before daughter was born). Sadly a 4.4lb newborn was not safe it it. Entailed buying a new seat on the way home. 

So what is the reason the straps are not safe?
Like the issue we had, but the seat bought did give weight limits.

lincroft1710

As this seat has clearly been on the market for at least 2 years, then if there was an inherent design fault, then one would have thought the manufacturers would have been made aware of this by now or is yours just a "rogue" item

TELLIT01

LilyMabel said:

Thank you for the welcome and replies to my query. The seat was purchased in Sept 2022 but only put into use in recent weeks, which I understand isn’t relevant now, but the reason was because the retailer advised that despite the seat being advertised as suitable from newborn, in their opinion it wasn’t. So we bought an infant carrier and have used that until recently. 

I just find it astonishing that we can be left without the use of an essential item for weeks on end. 

That is just the opinion of a retailer who is unlikely to have the expert knowledge required to provide a fully informed decision.  I'm not saying they are wrong, but it wouldn't hold much weight if it went into court.

Ergates

TELLIT01 said:

LilyMabel said:

Thank you for the welcome and replies to my query. The seat was purchased in Sept 2022 but only put into use in recent weeks, which I understand isn’t relevant now, but the reason was because the retailer advised that despite the seat being advertised as suitable from newborn, in their opinion it wasn’t. So we bought an infant carrier and have used that until recently. 

I just find it astonishing that we can be left without the use of an essential item for weeks on end. 

That is just the opinion of a retailer who is unlikely to have the expert knowledge required to provide a fully informed decision.  I'm not saying they are wrong, but it wouldn't hold much weight if it went into court.

It means that if something were to happen then the retailer could say "we warned you we didn't think it was suitable"