A DT reader who we'll call Matt Damon [not his real name] writes about a problem they've been having with their Peg Perego SIP, one of just two US car seats available with Bugaboo adapters. Turns out the seat won't latch on one side:
Inspecting the seat, we can see that there is deformed, extra plastic molding in the carseat that is blocking the Bugaboo adapter from seating properly on that side.Here are Matt's pictures of the underside of his car seat, with the crappy side on the left, and the normal side on the right:When we called Peg, we had the worst service. First of all, the rep attempted to blame my wife for the extra plastic, saying it was her fault for using the Bugaboo adapter--they said not to use the seat with a non-Peg stroller, in fact--even though it was clearly a problem with their warped and lumpy plastic injection on one side of the seat. It was only after that I spoke with the call rep's supervisor that they told me that only *some* of of the Perego SIP seats will fit and that is is basically a matter of chance because of the plastic molding issue.
They would not help us beyond that, but I wanted to warn your readers that they should inspect their Peg seats for extra plastic if they intend to use this with Bugaboo adapters. Peg did mention that they were going to try and make the 2007 seats work better with the adapter, but no guarantees.
For their part, Bugaboo reports they have never seen this problem before, and offered to send out new adapters as soon as they had them in stock. No blame, no finger-pointing, no hassle. I wish Bugaboo made all our baby's products!
It's like the plastic oozed and cooled into a lug that runs across the hole. If you feel with your finger, you can feel the plastic is all wavy and lumpy behind the line of plastic. Looking just below that in the pic, you can see how the pastic is distorted and there is almost a hole blown into the side.Has anyone else had this problem? [i.e., production defects/tolerances turning out to be incompatible with adapters, not necessarily getting abused by the Baby Industrial Complex's customer service reps.] If you have, what did you use to solve it? A sharp Leatherman, a smooth phone rap, or an in-store smackdown?
Normally, this is where I say, "Buy the Peg Perego SIP at whatever online retailer," but that kind of misses the point of Matt's story. I would suggest checking with the retailer online and off in a situation like this; they should be informative upfront and accommodating of returns of defective products, especially if it's pretty soon after purchase. And their volume means retailers will get the ear of manufacturers if there are systemic problems.
If "Matt" had saved his money and bought a Snugride like the REAL Matt Damon then he wouldn't be having this problem... just sayin'...
[point taken, or a Maxi Cosi. I have to say, the Graco adapter is so damn big, I can totally sympathize with people who don't want to get it. -ed.]
The Graco adapter also turns the Snugride into a rocking pseudo- bouncy chair. Added value!
It's hard to tell from the photos, but that "botched" side looks defective to me. The circle in the middle of the "clean" side is formed by the tip of a knockout pin, which helps to eject the part from the mold. On the "botched" side, it looks like the pin didn't close properly, and thus extra plastic made it into places where it shouldn't have.
The hole that he mentions is what's called a "short shot" and that's bad. Basically the plastic didn't fill the entire mold, and this is the result. This seat should be returned as the structural integrity cannot be guaranteed. The two defects are most likely related to the fact that the mold was not closing properly before the plastic was injected.
This may have been one of the first parts made from the mold after a mold change on the machine and was deemed acceptable by the quality control inspector, or worse, completely missed. Either way you should return the seat immediately and ask for a new one.
[let's see the messageboards on urbanbaby.com come up with an explanation like that. thanks, Michael. -ed.]
The accurate line is, "What we have here is failure to communicate." No 'A.'
Thanks and good luck.
[sorry, I don't listen to hip-hop. -ed.]
i work at a baby store in canada and we've had the same problem. It's a problem with the Peg seats which the company does not seem concerned with for obvious reasons.