Argos have rejected my review of one of their pushchairs. Come read my review...

[Enfyshedd]

... about this product: BabyStart Pushchair with Canopy

Any bets on if they'll post it?

Review title: Poor manufacturing quality means a unsafe buggy

I first bought one of these pushchairs at the end of December 2012 (after Christmas) for my then 7 month old baby. 8 weeks of regular but not daily use (about 4-5 days a week) later, the male part of the safety harness clasp broke while my baby was already strapped into the pushchair. Baby's dad checked it and found evidence of air bubbles in the plastic as a result of poor injection moulding of the part.^

We gave Argos/BabyStart the benefit of the doubt and got a replacement pushchair at the end of February. Low and behold, after another 8 weeks of regular but not daily use, the same part broke again. Exactly the same fault, exactly the same situation. Got a refund the second time as I wasn't going to risk my baby's safety again as on both occasions the baby could have fallen from the pushchair.

If I'd have written this review when I first had the invitation to review email, then I probably would have given it a good rating, but experience has shown that it is a very poorly made product.

Both times we returned the pushchair, we pointed out the fault to Customer Services and have been told it would be fed back. The first time DP conceded it could have been a dodgy batch but after a second time, no way; it's poor quality control. DP used to work in the baby product manufacturing industry (he was quite high up as well), and in the years he spent in the industry and being a father of 3 and an uncle of another 3, this was the first time that he has ever known a clip to fail. In the company he worked for, 2 failures would have probably meant an instant recall and a notice in the press. He believes the reason for the clip failing is that the plastic resin hadn't dried properly before moulding the clips which has caused air bubbles to form in the plastic (he could see the bubbles where the clips had snapped).

I originally posted about this in Chat a couple of days ago when I first sent the review to Argos and had a number of responses, some of which saying that I'd over used the pushchair which is described for occasional use. However, it was conceded that all I'd done was condense about 9 months of once a week use into 8 weeks - and all products in the UK are covered by a minimum 1 year manufacturing guarantee.

Overuse? Doesn't seem so to me, anyway, I was of the impression that inside 6 months any fault is assumed to have been present in the new product, it's up to the retailer to prove otherwise. I suppose they have refunded you though, which would cover them under consumer law. No idea where you stand in your review though, argos filtering reviews like this is... not inspiring confidence

I can't see where it says occasional use either, was that in the instructions or I'm just missing it?

Quote from Argos website:

Product summary

The BabyStart Pushchair makes a perfect back-up buggy to keep at the grandparents or for when you are going away on holiday.

Seems to suggest for occasional use.

But surely any buggy should be fit for purpose regardless of use???

This is Argos' reply:

Thank you for taking the time to write a review on BabyStart Pushchair with Canopy - Black.

Unfortunately we could not publish your review as it did not meet our guidelines.
Your review:
(see above)

We encourage you to resubmit your review on BabyStart Pushchair with Canopy - Black keeping it informative, product specific, and not including:

     ?      Personal information: protect your identity by not including full names or contact numbers
     ?      Prices, delivery, offers, or links: which are subject to change
     ?      Mentions of other companies or websites
     ?      Other inappropriate or unhelpful content

Please view our guidelines on review submission for further clarification.

You're alleging that the product is unsafe due to a manufacturing defect which Argos has had actual knowledge of since February and has not remedied. You say that a child could fall from the pushchair. You sound very credible. Are you really surprised by Argos's reluctance to publish that allegation on its own website?

I'm just pointing out my experience of the product - I should hope I sound credible as what I have written is what happened to us.

Contacted Trading Standards this morning. Now to see what happens.