What on earth can I do with a fake Ergo?!

[RooneyMara]

I bought a fake on a rubbish website a while ago, before realising there were dodgy sites...managed to get a chargeback through the bank, eventually, but I now have this bloody thing sitting in a bag being useless.

Should I just bin it, or does anyone have a use for it - ie a sling library to show people the differences between real and fake?

Just thought I would ask. I have a real one now which I love and would never sell it on ebay to someone else as I don't think it's a safe thing to use.

Out of interest, what is the difference between it and the real one?

There's several differences. First off the box is rubbish - it would look Ok ish if you hadn't seen a real one, but the photos are like, photocopied - a bit blurry and wierd colours.
The buckle on mine has no logo embossed into it. (seen a few on ebay like this, being sold on by people who already used them for their children)
The stitching is not so neat
The padding tends to be thinner
The colours are often wrong - mine was cranberry with a brown lining, bit odd. They never made one like that.
The straps and poppers are not sewn in as well, the dye smells a bit funny sometimes I think - obviously it might be very unsafe as babies chew the straps.
Oh and mine had no adjusting strap on the main ones.

Mostly I could tell by the copy on the website. If you read the small print it is clearly translated, badly, makes no sense and you cannot contact them at all - the email you get as confirmation is also bollocks.

Check the website domain as well - when I did it had a fake name and address in scotland, something like 999 angus street, aberdeen, aa121aa

or something stupid like that. They are also ridiculously cheap usually.

Oh forgot to say, the instruction label was all wrong too.

and a LOT of typos in the booklet!

Trading standards?
Thats shocking, glad you realised before anything happened.

I'm sure a sling library would take it off your hands to show the differences between the real and fake. I'm on a sling page on FB and have seen people passing them on for this purpose. It's a shame you got caught out, but some of the fakes are apparently really good. Glad you have a proper one now

Thankyou guys, the site I bought from has closed down now by the look of it, but another has replaced it - nacobaby or something.

I got the money back anyway, the bank were brilliant.

If anyone wants it then do let me know, I'm not sure where the nearest sling library is to me, but I could send it if I knew it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands and be used by someone for a baby.

Whereabouts are you RooneyMara? I could find out if there's a library near you if you like? If you don't want to say, you could always check on Google and I'm sure it would come up with something

Oh that is really sweet of you, thankyou I'm in Kent, but will have a look myself too.

Sounds like it would be very useful as a what to look out for demo model. Could you do something to it that would render it unusable just in case?

I run a sling library and would love one to show why it's fake etc if it's going spare (will pay postage). Or if you're my end of Kent you can exchange it for a free carrier hire if you like. Message me if interested in either!

You can find local sling libraries etc here www.babywearing.co.uk/localsupport

Let your kids use it to carry their dolls/teddies?

Thanks guys. I think it might be too big for my children, but that was a nice idea (I think Ergo do a mini verson for dolls!)

Pootle that's great, I'll message you, you're welcome to it