When we got “My New Ride” I was obviously forced to move our car seats. And while that might seem like no big deal, moving car seats is somehow always a big deal when you have three of them and are neurotic about them being installed perfectly. While the “LATCH and Slide” feature of our new car which allows us to access the 3rd row without having to remove a car seat is awesome, it also provides additional requirements for how seats can be installed since the sliding seat only works with a forward-facing, LATCH installed seat and the middle seat cannot overhang onto the sliding seat.
The seat we had for Honeybun in my old car has a rule where the bottom of the car seat can’t hang off the front of the vehicle seat and I can’t keep it properly installed with the LATCH and Slide so we found ourselves in the market for a new seat. Usually I pick the seat we want based on how narrow it is (which makes 3 across much easier) and how long it will last (based on the height and weight limits). But this time the process was a little trickier with the added seat requirements and the fact that the options for harnessing the average 5 ½ year old without spending a fortune are limited.
The seat Honeybun uses in Hubby’s car worked but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t another better choice that would last longer. So I narrowed it down to the seat we had and one more but I needed to see if the other one worked in either of our current cars. So hubby and I headed to the baby store. Some stores (including most Babies ‘R’ Us and Buy Buy Baby stores) allow you to try car seats in your vehicle before buying to make sure they fit. I highly recommend taking advantage of this service, especially if you’re planning to put seats side-by-side. So the new seat didn’t fit at all in hubby’s car but actually worked better in my car than the current seat. The store we were at didn’t have the color I wanted and it was cheaper at another store so I waited to buy it.
I was able to see online which local store had the seat I wanted in stock and reserved it for in-store pick up. I went in the next morning and picked it up. I inspected the box and everything looked good so I loaded it up and took it home. I was really irritated when I got home and cut the tape and the top flipped open and I knew right away it was a store return. The problem with a returned seat is you don’t know why it was returned or how it was treated. For all I knew, the seat I had could have been used in a vehicle during an accident and then returned. I am not willing to guess whether or not a seat is safe for my child to use.
So, back online I went to see if another location in our area had the seat and we headed back to the store with the opened seat. I went to customer service and explained I wanted to exchange the seat since the original one was a used seat. The customer service girl told me it would depend on “how used” the seat was which made me nearly flip my lid luckily she agreed to the exchange UNTIL she realized it was an online order at which point all they could do was return the seat since the online and in-store prices were different and I needed to re-order the seat online for pick up in that store if I wanted to online price…the seat that I had sitting in my shopping trolley right next to me.
I politely obliged since I knew the customer service girl couldn’t do anything about ridiculous store policies and then proceeded to place the online order on my sister’s phone and wandered the store for the 15 minutes they told me to wait before heading to the online order pick up area (with the car seat since it was the only one in the store). Surprise, Surprise when we finally went to “get” the seat, somehow we hadn’t done the online order right and it didn’t go through as a store pick up LUCKILY the assistant store manager just matched the online price, instructed us to cancel the online order and sent us on our way.
Who knew buying a life saving device for your child could be such a hassle? But at least we are now ready to safely travel as a family in our new car!
Want some more tips on picking out and buying a new car seat? Check out “Choosing a Car Seat”
