Halfords/Mothercare for Advice?

[justforinfo]

Hello,
I've seen alot of complaints on here about bad advice and fitting from Halfords/Mothercare, what have people's experiences been like? :-/

Neither, I checked the manufacturers websites to check compatibility with my car, then bought from Kiddicare.

Halfords and MC are both crap IME.

Well, after waiting for half an hour in Halfords to be seen, while their car seat 'expert' blanked us three times, I've never taken any advice from them or even stepped back in the shop

The lady in Mothercare was OK, I suppose. She seemed to give us the sort of advice I was expecting when she tried the Britax First Class in my car.

However, on another occasion while I was browsing car seats, one of their sales assistants told me off for suggesting to another customer that it might not be a great idea to move a 7mo who couldn't sit up on his own into a FF seat... Because I haven't had Proper Training in car seat safety, I am not allowed to share the idea that actually, it's probably a good idea to keep a baby in a seat that fits for as long as possible. Ho hum.

Ooh, onetwo I didn't pm you! Will pop back over to my old thread to resume.

Halfords told us there are no second stage car seats that fit in our car (1999 Fiesta) and we would have to get a new car. Obviously this is not true and I had a fairly long thread on here about what we can get. We are planning to get Britax TWE. Mr Halfords knew nothing about ERF seats. He said he knew they existed but couldn't tell us anything about them.
BIL works for Mothercare, and just this evening was scorning our choice of ERF seat, telling us they are dangerous and we are foolish to get one and wrong in thinking it will be suitable up to 4yrs. Unfortunately, I couldn't quote any studies/ info off the top of my head. We haven't actually been to a Mothercare for advice though.

My brother works for Mothercare AND Halfords, and although he isn't ''trained'' on child seats he probably knows more about them through the rants I go off on than the ''fitters''!! It's really very irritating that staff have no idea about ERF or what actually fits then give an untrue and uninformed opinion!

I know this is an older thread but I had brilliant service from a guy in Halfords today. He understood our dilemma (tall but light daughter), identified a possible seat, tried to fit it but then basically refused to sell it to us because he wasn't happy with the fit in the car. This, to me, was incredibly useful and responsible as it ruled that option out and so the search goes on.

You will recieve excellent Car Seat advice from the Orpington Mothercare. Highly recommended by the Local Council!

NOT MOTHERCARE! they sold my mother (first time grandmother to PFGC) an expensice isofix seat telling her that "isofix are safest" (so of course she bought it, she wanted PFGC to be SAFE!), this was AFTER seeing her car - a very old care which did not have isofix, they then fitted it REALLY BADLY - the belt was all twisted and not in the holdey bits

I told her all this (after re-fitting it so it was actually safe) and she was very very upset, she went back and they tried to not give her a refund

I'm good for car seat advice ta :) Just wanted to know what people's experiences have been like, big stores better, or smaller independent retailers?