Way To Go Chicco!

Around this time last year I spent many hours researching infant car seats and travel systems.  I'm very persnickety about such things, so you can bet that I scrutinized just about everything about all the available models.  For the most part, I didn't worry about customer service although it was certainly something that I considered.  The brands I was primarily interested in I knew first hand how their customer service was and figured that I wouldn't have much of a problem if an issue should arise with the product.

Graco is usually very good about handling issues with their products, but they can take a while when it comes to sending out a replacement.  Britax has decent and very knowledgeable customer service, but their process to have an item replaced can at times leave much to be desired.  An experience with a certain review product
 comes to mind.  Baby Trend's service department has never particularly impressed me and Chicco was a total unknown.  All I knew about Chicco was I never had a single issue with an umbrella stroller that I had from them for Ellie.  In fact, the stroller handled so nicely that we were able to use it with Ellie on our trip to Washington D.C. last year when she was 5 1/2.  The stroller is ready and waiting to be used with Katie, too.

On Friday I went to wash the cover of Katie's KeyFit carseat for the very first time and I was shocked when I discovered that the styrofoam impact shell that lines the back of the seat was cracked at the harness straps.  Being the car seat fanatic that I am, I freaked out.  Not once did I ever take the cover off to inspect the foam prior to using it despite the fact that the travel system box arrived at our house very badly damaged last May.  The seat and the stroller seemed to be ok once we took them out of the box so I assumed everything was fine.  In retrospect, I suspect the impact foam was probably damaged on arrival.  Since it was after business hours on Friday I wasn't able to call customer service and see what, if anything, could be done, but I was able to contact them and submit pictures online (very easy process).  Today I received a response from them.  They're replacing Katie's seat
 and have even arranged for the old one to be picked up two days after the first one is delivered.  I'm very impressed with their customer service.  Clearly they get that I have a small baby and are making this situation as easy for me as possible.  Britax could take a lesson from them.  They expect parents of small babies to take their defective products to a shipping location.  I can tell you that it's not fun trying to maneuver a baby in a stroller with a big box to ship something back at the UPS store.

So Chicco gets two thumbs up from me for great customer service.  They even went a step further and told me to keep the original coverings from the car seat with the problem (canopy, seat pad, head rest and so on) since the replacement seat is a different pattern.  With a baby who spits up all the time it certainly is nice to have the extra seat pad.  I hadn't actually taken the time to write up a product review for the travel system, but you can be sure when I do I'll be making note of how well they handled my problem.