Buggy broken - only a year old!

[Ghosty]

I am really cross! In July 2001 I bought a Maclaren Vogue 2001 buggy for 129 pounds. We bought it as we were travelling to NZ for a holiday that Christmas and thought we would 'spend' the money for a good quality, lightweight, strong buggy that could survive the travelling that we needed to do. The shopkeeper assured us that it was one of the strongest and that it would be reliable. Anyway, the other day I noticed that DS was leaning in a funny way in the buggy and investigated. One of the aluminium supports behind the backrest has completely snapped! We had only used it earlier that day and it was fine, had had no prang or anything. There is only one shop in NZ that sell them and they don't repair them but to be honest it is beyond repair. I can't even shut it properly now! Has anyone else had a problem with Maclaren and what did they do about it? The bummer is that the warantee has expired by 2 months! I think it is atrocious that they exhort that amount of money from you for it to break only 14 months later!

Sorry for the moan!

Ghosty, we have had a few Maclaren buggies.

The first one didn't actually break, we took it on holiday and dragged it up and down the beach with bottles of wine and big packs of nappies, oh and DS1 in it until it was decidedly wobbly. We have just kept this one for holidays in the future.

The next one the lie back didn't work properly, one side was difficult to clip back up again, it was very new so the shop gave me a refund.

The next one after that was more successful and like yours lasted till just outside the guarantee, I think it was about 14 months as well. I was running across a road with it and knocked one of the front wheels on a lowered kerb, it only stuck up from the road a centimetre or so. One of the front legs (?) snapped and was hanging off. I took the buggy back to Argos where I purchased it and they were very good and replaced it, saying they were shocked and hadn't see anything like this happen before.

They did not have another Maclaren buggy which I was glad about but the one they replaced it with didn't fit in the car boot (arrrgh)! By this time I had already used it outside and it couldn't be returned. I sold it in the paper and bought a Mothercare Urban Detour three-wheeler, which is great.

All my Maclarens were Mistrals and if my experience is anything to go by I wouldn't but another one. I think it would be worth trying the shop you bought it from as I did not have any problem getting a refund with Argos when my last one broke.

Let us know how you get on.

I am disappointed with your experience with Maclaren. Our trendy Graco citisport packed in after only about a year (2 wks past warranty date) and the shop sold me a Maclaren because they are the best, blah, blah.

It's OK, but we don't abuse it as much and it's not past its warranty yet... it'll probably pack in then.

Don't apologise for moaning, Ghosty. I'd be hopping up and down if it'd happened to me after spending all that money. I'd defn contact your retailer, or Mclaren directly, anyway. If you were assured by the retailer that the buggy should withstand the use you were going to give it, and that it would remain reliable, I think you've got a good claim that it's faulty - even if the warranty has run out I'd say that you can put pressure on either the company or the retailer for a repair or free replacement - because the life of a buggy should last way more than just over a year (imo anyway).

Most big companies seem to be quite good about replacing things, so hopefully you'd get it mended for free, at least. I'm not an expert about things like this, but if they don't play ball, a phone call to trading standards might pay dividends?

Good Luck!

Thanks everyone - will do what I can! Problem is I now live in NZ and bought the bloody thing in Surrey!!

Will ring them asap!

Thanks, Batters. Do you have any idea where would I be able to find out more about that?