Advice or opinions please on Faulty Pushchair [long sorry]

[pushchair]

The story so far,
I ordered a Jane Slalom Pro over the internet on 26th October. It took 16 days to come and arrived on 11th November. I unpacked it and put the wheels on. I noticed that one rear wheel made a twanging noise as I turned it and more seriously that the front wheel swivel action was very stiff and jerky. That evening 10pm ish I sent an e-mail to the company to express my concern over these two points. The next day they e-mailed back saying that they would ask advice of the Jane service dpt. Thursday I e-mailed to chase. Friday I got a response saying that they would chase it up. I then tried to phone to find out something before the weekend. The answering machine was on. On Saturday i decided I would like to return the item and e-mailed and left a telephone message to that effect. Sunday evening, having calmed down somewhat I e-mailed to say could we please try and sort this out asap.
By 10.00 on Monday morning I had, had no response so I telephoned again and spoke to someone. She asked me again to put my concerns in an e-mail with photos. I did this. She said she would send the query to the service dpt.
Tuesday the 18th I got a response 'The problem with the front swivel fork will rectify if the customer spins the fork around a few times to bed in the newly fitted bearing, it will be tight to start then it will loosen over a few uses.'
I replied asking about the rear wheel problem but expressing excitement that I could finally use the pushchair. Realising a response to this could take a while I phoned again. I was assured that it was ok to use the pushchair.
So I used it for two days maybe making 4 short journeys. The wheel did not improve.
I phoned Trading Standards and was told I had the right to a full refund and given advice on a letter to send recorded delivery.
Company got back to me today and of course are not wanting to refund because of the use the pushchair has had. They say they will send it for inspection and then may offer repair or partial refund depending on whether they find evidence of misuse.
Consumer Direct[Trading Standards] now say it is not a black and white issue and I can try for a full refund but may have to negotiate on a partial or if offered a repair decide whether to accept this.
Am now going to send pushchair back for the inspection, but nervous about what will happen next.

who did you buy it from? For instance john lewis would have said we will accept it returned and offer you a full replacement... Well they did for us.
But other sites are less helpful

oh and did you pay with acredit card?
They canhelp you as well ring your cc provider

Yes was an e-mail said it would loosen with use.
Didn't pay with credit card.
Maybe should'nt name company but they have a shop and I checked them out here first-positive and negative comments.
Courier coming to collect it tomorrow. Am resigned to a repair or a reduced refund.

Oh was just a debit card.

they are within their rights to offer a repair first.

if they do refund then it shouldn't be reduced because you've only used it twice.
if you;d had a reasonable amount of use out of it then it wouldn't be unreasonable of them to offer a partial refund. but in this case I would expect a full one, esp as you only used it because they told you to.

Feel that, yes I was led into using the pushchair and now have lost rights. Also Trading Standards were so firm in saying I was entitled to full refund at first so I sent letter and now are saying it is'nt a black and white issue and I will have to see what they say.

Maestro.
Am worried that having got the pushchair into their hands they will claim misuse.

who did you buy it from?

I had to send a pushchair back to kiddicare once and they were all like "if it's found to be misused you'll have to pay postage, return postage and the price of fixing it" etc etc

I was soooooooo worried but it was fine, it was repaired and sent back and it was great.
you don't have anything to worry about I am sure, unless the company is dodgy. they'll be able to see you haven't misused it as it's hardly been used at all

babyzoop. Actually pleasant on the phone once you can get hold of someone. Slightly threatening e-mail but maybe they have to state legal stuff if its in writing. Well its off now. Glad you got a result. Fingers crossed.

yeah I think they have to make it really clear what's what and it all seems quite intimidating.

I hope you get a good result though

Just looked up this thread sgain to see when the slalom was picked up and worked out it's been gone now for 13 days! Absolutely no news from anyone and no contact except when I e-mail to ask and they reply-pram is with distributor.

just an update for the fascinated masses. I got an e-mail from supplier today. Seems like an automated one. "your item has been dispatched" or very brief message to that effect. No details, no explanations, no information about what was wrong,if it's been repaired, if they are charging me for anything, no hello and sorry it's been nearly two weeks since you had a pushchair. No.