Baby Bargains Book Blog

Reader: Chubby Seats a rip off

Reader Janet O. writes in today about her experience with a shopping cart cover company we recommended in our last book:

Hi Denise and Alan,

About two months ago, I wrote you saying that I was having trouble ordering a chubby seat as recommended by your book, Baby Bargains.  You kindly responded and I managed to order one on Aug 31st.  I should have listened to my gut when I was having trouble ordering that this could be trouble.  I am still waiting to receive the item (over 2 months later).  It was a whopping $57 when you add shipping. I have emailed and only got an auto replies about illness in family, then the number they recommended is no longer in service.  I have contacted Paypal about the purchase, but I am concerned that I have totally lost my $57.00.

I am about ready to go public with this fraud as A. Mankel is on facebook, but I thought I will wait to see how paypal will handle this.  There is NO WAY to contact these people.  I'll give it a week before trying facebook.  

I wanted to send out a warning to anyone who fell in love with these seats.  I am sorry that things aren't going well for them, but they shouldn't take your money if they can't provide the items.

Still love Baby Bargains.

Janet O.  

Shocker: FDA says Evenflo failed to report defective breast pumps that shocked users

The Federal Drug Administration has slapped Evenflo with a warning after the breast pump maker allegedly failed to report that its pumps shocked users. The FDA has received 37 complaints about Evenflo pumps, including three from moms who said the pumps shocked them.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Food and Drug Administration said baby-products maker Evenflo Co. failed to properly investigate some complaints involving women who reported receiving electrical shocks while using the company's breast pumps. In an Aug. 25 warning letter released by the agency Tuesday, the FDA said it found manufacturing violations at two Ohio plants that make pumps used by women to express breast milk. The breast pumps are sold nationwide under the "Comfort Select" brand name.

Click here to read the entire article.

Discounters strike back: new bill would ban minimum pricing policies

Online discounters such as eBay and Burlington Coat Factory are celebrating a victory today, after a House committee passed a bill to overturn a 2007 Supreme Court decision that legalized price fixing.

That decision enabled manufacturers to set "minimum advertised prices" (MAP)---forcing online discounters from selling any product below a set price. The new bill (HR 3190), dubbed the "Discount Pricing Consumer Protection Act of 2009" passed out of the House subcommittee yesterday without opposition.

How does this affect baby gear? Well, many baby product makers adopted MAP in recent years. To supporters, MAP helps level the playing field between retailers and online discounters. Without MAP, retailers complain they wouldn't be able to stock products that are heavily discounted online. And then consumers won't have the opportunity to see these products in person, as they would only be sold online. Critics point out this is simply price fixing and an effort to stop online discounting, to fatten the margins of retailers.

We have blogged on this subject before. In December last year, we talked about discussed how a baby gate maker's decision to adopt MAP resulted in a 20% jump in prices. In 2006, we reported on a lawsuit between Babies R Us and discounters alleged BRU forced manufacturers to adopt MAP.

Major baby product makers that have MAP policies include Britax, Peg Perego, Colgate and Medela. If passed, this new law would strike down the legality of these agreements---opening up online discounting of Britax car seats, for example. Of course, the bill must now go before the full House---and it could change as it winds its way through that process. We will keep you posted.

New resource for tall maternity clothes

Reader Robyn O writes to us about her new web site: Tall Women Resource---a compendium of online sources for tall maternity wear (jeans, swimwear, shoes and more). The site doesn't actually sell clothes, just links to sites and offers a brief review of what is available. 

This a great site that should be bookmarked for any tall mom-to-be! Give it a look see.

Lands End shuffles diaper bag line

In our book, we recommend a couple of Lands End Diaper bags: the Do it All and Little Tripper. Well, it looks like Lands End has discontinued those styles. In place of the Do it All is the Messenger ($59.50). And the new Diaper Clutch ($29.50) is about the same dimensions as the Little Tripper. Unfortunately, those new styles represent a price hike---the Little Tripper was $20, for example and the Do it All was $30.

Kudos: Chic & Clean Coverall bib

We don't often blog about bibs, but we wanted to give a special shout out to the folks at Chic Tots for their mom-invented Chic & Clean Coverall. We had a chance to see it in person at our book signing at Great Beginnings in DC over the weekend and we're impressed: this "coverall" is 100% cotton and is more like a smock than bib (an open back and split leg with snaps make it easy to get on and off). No, it's not cheap at $30, but it might save quite a bit of laundry and outfit changes at meal time.

So if you have a toddler who seems to wear more of his food than actually eat it, this might be a good solution!

Baby Trend sinks to new low: Diaper Champ woes

In an industry where the level of customer service ranges between abysmal and appalling, Baby Trend has hit a new low---scolding a customer seeking a solution to a defect in one of their products.

The product: the Diaper Champ.

Reader Alice S. writes in with her frustration: her Diaper Champ wouldn't work properly (the drum won't rotate to dispose of the diaper) because a blue ring inside the device keeps popping off.

When she contacts Baby Trend, she gets back this snippy email:

Good afternoon,
      Please see the attachment above, I would like to ask you to pay attention to the photos and follow the instructions step by step. If you have any question please give us a call back.

Now, apparently, Baby Trend has receive so many complaints about this, they felt the need to create a 1.3MB MS Word file complete with color pictures to show folks how to "fix" their defective Diaper Champ. Here are the instructions:

Download diaper_champ.doc

Unfortunately, our reader reports that these instructions didn't work. Baby Trend's response Alice writes:

Please note that on the bottom of the email the manufacturer indicates that since we did not purchase the product directly from them and need to contact the retail outlet to get this resolved.

Nice, eh? Haul back that stinky diaper pail that you purchased 3 months ago to Target (we're sure the receipt is long gone)---I'm sure the store will resolve your complaint, no problem!

Come on, guys. If you have a defective product, fess up---apologize, fix the defect and send out replacement products. At no charge to the consumer.

Kudos: Chicco customer service

Reader Kelly H writes in today with good news on Chicco's customer service, which has been inconsistent in the past:

I wanted to email you about chicco customer service.

I accidentally melted my high chair tray to my Polly. So I was in search of a replacement tray.

While I found the website a bit difficult to find information, I did find a contact us email address on the chiccousa site and then on a chat page found a 1-800 number.

I found a very nice woman who was more than willing to help me with my transaction. She was empathetic to my problem and even made me feel better about it. In the end she sent the replacement tray for free! Who can beat that!

So put down one positive experience with Chicco Customer Service. I do also wish to note that I wish their strollers were a tad bit taller for us really tall parents.

RIP, Robert Bruss

Let's take a break from baby product news to mourn the passing of syndicated real estate columnist Bob Bruss.

We met Bob when we wrote our book, Your New House (which was a guide to buying or building a new home). Bob picked our book as one of the top 10 real estate books of 1993 in his column---and we still remember the day his column hit, as our phone lines lit up with thousands of readers calling to order the book (yes, in the days before the internet, folks ordered books by phone).

Bob Bruss was not only a columnist, teacher and author---but also, we can say, a dear friend. We often met Bob at the National Association of Home Builders conventions (imagine 65,000 home builders in one place, scary we know).

In the evening, the builders would sponsor special press events---these were usually held at model homes that were showing off the latest building innovation, design trends, etc. Of course, these homes were usually a distance from the convention center, in some obscure subdivision so new that street signs weren't put up yet (again, before the days of GPS).

So the builders would put all the press on a special press bus (imagine us, Bob and 50 other grumpy real estate writers) . . . which would promptly get lost in the back roads of Houston, Atlanta or wherever.

So we quickly learned to rent a car (and get a good map) to avoid being trapped on the press bus to hell----Bob always volunteered to ride shotgun on these trips, offering his expert navigation skills to find the press events.

We loved visiting with Bob on these trips---he'd share how learned about real estate investing the hard way (that is, losing a ton of money). How he'd built his newsletter empire. How he loved teaching and sharing his knowledge on real estate with his students and readers.

As the saying goes, Bob forgot more about real estate than we'll ever know.

Bob also was fascincated with how a couple of kids (we were in our 20's at the time) like us figured out how to write a best-selling book on real estate (and weddings, and baby gear, etc). Along the way, he introduced us to numerous other journalists and writers, always with a kind word to say about our books and writing. He always give us numerous ideas for new books---suggestions based on the hundreds of questions he'd get each week from his readers.

Bob was gracious, endearing and a true gentlemen. He will be missed.

(Read more about Bob here).

JPMA-gate: How the JPMA joined with the plastics industry to block BPA legislation

We promised last week to peel back the curtains at the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association to look at how the organization, which claims it is all about baby product safety, has worked behind the scenes to scuttle legislation aimed at banning bottles containing Bisphenol-A (BPA).

So, today, we are going to crack open our treasure trove of internal JPMA documents.

First, a bit of background: as you remember, we pulled our recommendation of polycarbonate baby bottles such as those from Avent and Dr. Brown after a federal panel cited health concerns. After a flurry of bad publicity for baby bottles, the JPMA went into full damage control mode, issuing press releases and firing off a letter to us to show us the error of our ways.

And just who is the JPMA? Founded in 1968, the JPMA is a trade association that represents 325 baby product companies in a $7.3 billion industry. A big part of the JPMA's image is their emphasis on safety---the organization runs a certification program to "help parents and caregivers (purchase) juvenile products that are built with safety in mind." And the JPMA promotes a baby safety month each year to great fanfare.

Yet, out of the public eye, the JPMA works to UNDERMINE baby product safety---by lobbying government to weaken safety rules and scuttle proposed legislation. Yes, the JPMA is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of trade associations.

A case in point: plastic baby bottles and the state of California.

In an internal bulletin for the industry (Bulletin #46, September 2006), the JPMA lauded the efforts of the plastics industry to scuttle proposed legislation to remove BPA out of baby bottles. Specifically, the JPMA distributed this memo from Steve Hentges to the members of the Coalition of Consumer Choice (an industry group formed to fight BPA legislation): Download MEMORANDUM.pdf

Again, this memo was intended for the industry to see, not consumers.

The JPMA then joined with 10 other industry groups to send this letter to oppose California's efforts to ban BPA: Download CoalitionOppositionLetter.pdf

So, what's the big deal, you might say? Isn't the JPMA acting like all trade associations---lobbying on behalf of their members, which includes heading off legislation that might hurt their sales?

Yes, but you can't have it both ways----you can't project yourself as the vanguard of baby product safety . . . yet lobbying to kill bills that aim to protect consumers from a chemical that numerous studies (and now a federal panel) have shown to be dangerous.

And that's the bottom line: when legitimate safety concerns are raised about a baby product, the JPMA should be Switzerland . . . a neutral party that doesn't take sides in a heated debate like BPA and plastic baby bottles.

Otherwise, the JPMA risks damaging its credibility . . . if not losing it altogether.