‘Dear Manufacturer

As a busy retailer in the middle of a major city centre, we have been disappointed to find that one of our best customers has made a complaint about one of your products. It was just over two weeks ago that Mrs Gibbins bought her new stroller, but yesterday she appeared with it and a back wheel that had become detached. Having had no problems with assembly and having had several successful trips out with it, she apparently used the buggy on slightly bumpy ground last weekend and one of the wheels simply came off in her hand. Please can you advise us what we should tell this customer and what you can do to help.

Yours sincerely

Ms I Tremebest'

At Bebecar we aim to continually improve our customer service, and were really pleased with responses to a recent survey of our retailers who praised the after-sales support that we give them. Our experienced customer service technicians are here to offer advice to retailers and consumers and it is our policy to offer a detailed written report to retailers for any returned product.

This report details whether the fault is a manufacturing one, or down to customer abuse or misuse. Where a product is under the Bebecar 6 months guarantee, and there is reasonable cause to believe the fault is due to to a manufacturing defect, the repair will be carried out free of charge. Other repairs are chargeable, or the repair can be carried out free of charge with just the cost of carriage being recovered. Each complaint is treated as an individual case and handled in a professional manner.

Kind regards

Bebecar Customer Services

We are sorry to hear that your customer, Mrs Gibbins, has experienced a problem with one of our pushchairs, as all Graco products are fully compliant with UK regulations and are tested rigorously to ensure that they are constructed safely and securely. 

Graco has a dedicated Consumer Services team who will be more than happy to help resolve Mrs Gibbins' problem quickly.  If the product is within warranty I would ask that you please contact Consumer Services directly on 0844 412 1212.  The team have access to a detailed parts database and if you have the eight digit part number to hand we can quickly establish which parts Mrs Gibbins requires and dispatch these to you FOC.

If Mrs Gibbins' product is out of warranty or if she has any further concerns please ask her to contact us directly, so that we can determine how best to assist her.  If necessary we can arrange to have the product collected and brought to our service centre for a visual inspection to ascertain the cause of the problem and then offer the appropriate spares and repairs, there would be a charge associated with this and we can offer more detail by phone.

Once again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused and we look forward to helping resolve this matter. 

Yours sincerely,

Tracey Bamber
VP General Manager for Graco UK & Ireland

Thank you for your letter, we are obviously very concerned to hear about Mrs Gibbins problem with her stroller.

It is very difficult to comment on the specific cause of the problem without having the opportunity to inspect the product in question, particularly as it is not a problem we have encountered before.

Many of our pushchairs are sold with the wheels unattached, so it is the user who needs to fit them to the chassis of the product. We would therefore advise you to thoroughly inspect the pushchair to ensure that the wheels have been fitted correctly or to identify a fault which could be causing the problem.

Finally if the inspection does not yield a simple answer to the problem, we do offer a free of charge spare part/repair service via our Service Agent on all products, which are within warranty.

We are very keen to work alongside you to resolve the problem Mrs Gibbins has experienced with her pushchair and would be happy to talk to you in more detail, should you require any further assistance.

Kind regards

Britax Customer Services

In the case of  an unfortunate incident such as this we would first request that the consumer returns the product to you, the retailer where it was purchased.  We would then like to arrange collection of the buggy so that a full inspection and repairs can be carried out.  We can supply a loan buggy if required for the duration to minimise any inconvenience. 

As the defect occurred 2 weeks after purchase the buggy is automatically covered by the Basic Maclaren Warranty.  This warranty is valid for one year from purchase and covers any manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship. 

However at Maclaren we are so confident in the unsurpassed quality of our buggies that we are pleased to introduce the new Maclaren Sovereign Lifetime Warranty^TM on the 2008 range.  Simply by registering online at www.maclarenbaby.com after purchase, consumers can have total peace of mind that their Maclaren buggy is covered against manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship for the lifetime of the product.  It's the best Buggy warranty coverage anywhere.  For more information visit maclarenbaby.com

Kind regards

Maclaren Customer Services

We are surprised to receive your letter as generally speaking we work very closely with retailers to ensure they can fix products, should anything go wrong.

If you find yourself unable to fix this buggy for some reason, then of course you have access to our Service Centre, which in our view is the best in the industry, to arrange collection and repair of the item. If the product is within the guarantee as this one appears to be, and we are satisfied that is hasn't been misused, it will be replaced free of charge.'

Yours sincerely

Andrew Ratcliffe
Managing Director, Dorel (UK) Ltd

In the first instance it would be easier and quicker if we discussed what happened directly with the customer so we can ascertain what exactly has occurred. You can ask if the customer if she would like to call us directly or you can pass the customer's contact number to us so we can ring her .

If the rear wheel has come off it is likely to be one of two things. Firstly - as the wheels are quick/release the customer may not have ‘clicked' the wheel properly into position, and it has gradually worked its way off as pushing the buggy along. Alternatively the quick/release spring may have caught on something and been lost - in which case we can send her a replacement quick /release sleeve that she can reinsert into the wheel.

Please do come back to me on this matter so we can sort it out.

Kind regards

Nickie McDonald
Mountain Buggy Ltd

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