A leg to stand on?

[Gumboot]

Well ds has managed to kick his rain cover so much that it's ripped on the seam and is letting a bit of rain, this makes him uncomfortable and so he kicks more......

I've arranged with Toys R Us to take his buggy in and they will give me a new rain cover as I haven't had the buggy 12 months but I'm concerned that he'll just do it again and the next time I won't be able to get a new rain cover and will have to pay for it.

Does this mean that the buggy was not fit for the purpose it was sold for as when I spoke to the sales assistant she said that I could easily have ds in the buggy until he is 3 and he isn't even 2 yet?

Thank you in advance for any help on this.

It could be viewed as a grey area ie. what would be considered normal wear and tear / abuse. It does keep the rain off under normal circumstances (its purpose) but is not rigorous enough to withstand toddler behaviour. If he doesn't actively belt the living daylights out of it and it is caused by the odd push or kick then I would say that you could argue that it is not fit for the purpose for which it is designed. However by accepting a replacement now you may compromise any future consumer rights to argue that unless you take the replacement conditionally, as they would in turn argue that they are acting out of good will.

Thank you Lizs, I see what you mean as it is a bit of a grey area, the other part of the problem being that ds is rough with the rain cover but so are all toddlers (aren't they?).

My concern also being that I'll get there and they'll say that I can have this rain cover and yes he is going to rip it again but no they won't have the buggy back and give me a refund

If you want to argue "not fit for purpose", do so now as then you would be entitled to a full replacement/refund (assuming that the raincover itself is integral to your style of buggy). If it an extra and can be replaced separately then you would probably only get a new raincover or refund for it anyway. iyswim.

You need to decide what it is you are after before you get there (replacement of cover, whole buggy or refund), insist on speaking to the manager (noone else would be able to decide without his sayso, or so they would claim) and stick to your guns. Is the buggy still under any guarantee and would any guarantee apply to the replacement cover ? If it is out of guarantee and they insist they replace out of good will, rather than because it is faulty, then you would have difficulty if it happened again.

Right I'll sit down and have a coffee and a think about exactly what I want, it took us so long to decide on this buggy that I don't know if I can face the trauma of doing it all over again.

Then on the other hand why delay the inevitable and save money on trips to and from Toys R Us and phone calls if the rain cover is going to give me such a problem now then what chance will I have in a years time when the guarantee will be well and truely gone..

Arggghhhh it's such a mine field.

I'll let you know how I get on and thank you so much again, tried to talk to dp about it but he just say's that he doesn't know and if I want to complain then I'll have to do it myself and he'll wait in the car

Right, went to Toys R Us and manager wouldn't help atall, did give me a new rain cover but also agreed that ds's feet were doomed to get wet as the rain cover won't reach them. They only have an exchange guarantee for 6 months and I'm a couple of weeks past that! He wouldn't even give me another buggy to loan until I could sort this all out with their Head Office.

Sunday afternoon ds has got itchy feet as he has eczma I wasn't too concerned until I took a look, red cracked skin and small blisters, pharmacist diagnosed classic atheletes foot imo caused by getting wet feet so often and having to keep them wet for so long.

Spoke to Head Office this morning apparantly it wasn't the Manager I spoke to but the Assistant Manager, a bit naughty imo for the Assistant to pass himself off as the manager! As the manager hasn't been made aware of this problem it's all got to go back to him!

Basically though they said that it is very rare for Toys R Us to give refunds or exchange a buggy! Especially as there is no manufacturing fault.

I don't know what to do, I don't want to waste the money we spent on buying the buggy by having no option but to throw it away - I couldn't possibly sell it knowing that it isn't suitable for a young child to be in. Yet what other options do I have?

Does anyone know where I stand from a legal point of view?

Your rights under the Sale of Goods act which was amended recently is summarised here

I would consider that a buggy raincover which is too small to cover a 2y old is not fit for its purpose, although suspect our Maclaren one is similar. Is this the same as the original problem ? Did you speak to their Customer Services at Head Office. Most are quite keen to resolve such issues with minimal fuss and publicity.

good luck

Thank you again Lizs, I'm waiting for a phone call from their Head Office and will be quoting those lines from the link you gave me, as far as I can see I should be due to a full or partial refund but I'll belive it when I see it!

As for the original return that was due to some sort of spray not being done after manufacture and so the fabric faded veryquickly and stained ds's trousers, nothing to do with the rain cover.

Funnily enough although it's a Toys R Us brand the buggy was made by Mclaren (found this out the 1st time I returned the buggy). Personally I expect more from such a big company - both of them, I'll keep you posted though on what happens.

And thank you again.

Although ought to add that when I spoke to customer services about the 1st buggy they were aware that a batch had gone out with this problem but had had real difficulty in finding all the buggies so were super nice about it add to that the buggy was only 2 months old then I guess that I was with in the 6 month guarantee.

Is it cheaper to get a universal rain cover from Mothercare than to buy a new buggy? Doesn't really solve the problem that the original wasn't big enough, I admit.

Currently, my cheap umbrella fold buggy has the rain cover from the travel system on it and it's like a big bubble - loads of room!

SD - Part of the problem is that when ds is sat in the buggy his feet are very close to the ground and that means that there isn't anywhere else to attach a rain cover to so even if I got a different rain cover I'd only be able to attach it to the same place as his current one so dss' feet would still get wet.

Just about to phone Head Office again to see what they're planning on doing about it

Universal raincovers are cheaper in Argos (£12.99) if you decide to take that route - can't vouch for quality though but I think they're around £30 in Mothercare so big difference.

Spoke to Manager at the store and he has agreed that to give me a full refund!!!!!

I had to speel off a few lines of the trade descriptions act but hey-ho it was worth it thank you thank you thank you Lizs I honestly don't think that I would have got a full refund if it wasn't for you!

Well done ! Ironic really as I used to work on the other side of retailing and we'd do all we could to avoid giving a refund but at the end of the day the law is the law, so it is worth pursuing.