Faulty Britax Car seat from Kiddies Kingdom

[BellesAndGraces]

Bought a Britax car seat two months ago from Kiddies Kingdom. It’s the newer version of a car seat I bought 4 years ago from John Lewis. The new car seat has developed a fault since I bought it - the polystyrene in the shoulder support has snapped. I asked Kiddies Kingdom for a replacement and they have just come back to me to say:

Britax have advised the polystyrene is not covered under the warranty. The material itself absorbs the force from the child if involved in an impact, however if it is moved out of position and leant against it can break.

A replacement piece can be purchased on their online store using the following link Spare Parts | Britax Römer (britax-romer.co.uk), please make sure you choose the spares for your seat.

I am clearly not about to purchase a replacement part for a car seat that’s only two months old and have responded setting out my consumer rights. Has anyone had a similar issue with KK? I sincerely regret not purchasing from John Lewis again.

Polystyrene is incredibly breakable. I can understand the manufacturer's point of view.

How did it snap? It clearly wasn't a spontaneous break. If a seat is lifted by the weakest point I would expect it to snap, so why is it you think it should be covered under warranty? I can understand the manufacturers POV but also understand that you are annoyed to have broken it so quickly after purchase. Polystyrene is not a strong material.

I agree polystyrene is not a strong material.

But it is used in a lot of car seats so it presumably is up to a standard to do its job.

Which it now isn't, if it's broken.

I'd agree I wouldn't be too happy.

How much is the replacement? I might just buy it for an easy life is it's not expensive, but I agree I'd be expecting KK to replace.

Well that’s the point, I haven’t broken it. I noticed the lining kept slipping down and peeled it back to see that the polystyrene had snapped. I’ve had the same car seat for 4 years so I know how to handle it and have never had an issue with the polystyrene before. Not entirely sure how I would manage to break it either as it’s not exactly easily accessible.

Hmm they had a load of Advansafix Pro seats recently really cheap - I wonder if this is one of those?

Or is it an Adventure/Discovery Plus (but not the Plus2) by any chance? That's the other one that had issues, nothing bad enough to recall, but Britax pretty quickly replaced the newer versions of the Adventure/Discovery with the 2 without much fanfare. Kiddies' Kingdom were selling off a lot of the Plus versions.

You could contact Britax and see what they say, though your contract is with Kiddies' Kingdom.

It can be easy to break the polystyrene in a car seat's headrest by accident, but if you're not being rough with the seat then it seems unusual it would happen in 2 months, especially since you had the previous one for 4 years with no issues. Any chance DC might have gripped onto that part of the seat while climbing in and not mentioned it? Or DH held the seat by that part when carrying it and it broke, and they haven't mentioned it to you in the hope you won't notice?

This is the consumer rights advice from Martin Lewis: www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/consumer-rights-refunds-exchange/