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lar_is_a
03-23-2002, 11:37 AM
Hi-- I sent this via e-mail to your old Mailbag address (is that still up and running?), but thought I'd better post it here, as well!


I've written in the past to praise our Baby Jogger, the Baby Bjorn, Avent Bottles, cloth diapers and Peg Preggo high chair-- This time I've written to voice a complaint!

We bought a Child Craft Legacy Crib in April of 2000 for $350.00. Our daughter was born four months later in August and a couple months after that, the finish on the drop side rail began to flake off. I wrote to you in December about this and you gave me the name of Michael Schaffer at Childcraft and his number to call.

I called this number in January and spoke to "Barbara" who told me she was his assistant. She told me they do not handle complaints directly and I should call the store I bought the crib from. I called the store on Jan. 25th 2001 and told them about my problem. They told me they would get me a new drop side and have it sent to me cost free and it normally takes about a month. I was happy with this... and called a month later to ask if it had been sent.

I was informed that Childcraft was "backed-up" and it would take an additional 6-8 weeks and would be sent directly from Childcraft.

On April 18th, I called the store again, they called Childcraft, and I was then told that it would be another 3 weeks...

A month later, in May (over four months from my first call), I finally received my dropside-- It had a crack in it, and another crack which they had tried to repair (It appeared that the rest of the side had two coats of finish and an area about the size of a dollar bill on the base board of the side had one coat-- in the middle of this area was a repaired crack, so I'm assuming they repaired the crack, sanded it down, and then applied only coat of finish to this area, making it lighter than the rest of side.)

I would really expect a company who sold defective product to correct the problem as soon as possible, not in four months, especially since it is a product that is used daily-- and by an infant!! Four months is totally unacceptable.

In the four months I waited for the "new" dropside, I bought some rather expensive chew-rails to cover the flaking finish on the crib rail for the old dropside. I still use the old side with the flaking finish because it seems more sturdy than the cracked new one. I know I should have persued this further and got a new undamaged drop side, but the truth is they wore me out and I just didn't feel like dragging it out further. (It seems this is how business is done these days by some companies--)

But wait, I still have more to tell your readers about the crib:

I can not express enough how fragile the "Cherry" Finish on our crib seems to be. Our daughter is not one of your wilder kids-- she doesn't jump around in her crib, never has hard toys in her crib (only stuffed animals)-- and yet the finish has chipped in several places and has worn off in others. So, if someone still decides to get a Child Craft crib (nothing I'd recommend!), I strongly urge you to think about other finishes. If you want Cherry, go with another company (and even then, check it with a fingernail in the store!)

Last, since we've had the crib (my daughter is now almost 20 months old), we've had to take off the drop-side to tighten one of the pins that runs in the track 3 times. When it unscrews, you can not lower or raise the side. The process of taking off the drop-side can be frustrating because the directions given for doing it aren't that great! The rest of the crib seems to stay stable and intact, we check it periodically

Also-- I recommend to anyone that has hard-wood floors or low-pile carpet-- MAKE SURE YOUR CRIB WHEELS LOCK. Ours, of course, do not. This wouldn't matter that much with our daughter, since she doesn't give the crib hard wear (despite how it looks) and she doesn't make it roll around, but if you do get a crib where you have to remove the side rail to tighten pins, etc, it rolls all over the place while you're trying to work and it is very frustrating.

We plan to have a second child in the next year or two, but unfortunately, I do not think we'll be able to use this crib for that child as we had planned to. (And, of course, we'll be buying an updated copy of Baby Bargains, too!)

Thanks for this web-site and your Baby Bargains book. New parents really need it. This is a great service!
Larisa Millis

jra
03-23-2002, 11:18 PM
I had problems in getting a child craft crib when I ordered it. I was told 6 weeks and 3 months later, I still didn't have it!! I finally cancelled my order and ended up finding a place with a different style one in stock. (I love my crib though but I have a honey oak one). The way it was explained to me is that they only make one style at a time and that they had just made the one I wanted so I missed the period of time when they make it and had to wait until they made that style again which would be at least a couple of months. They probably waited until they were doing a cherry finish one before you got your new dropside. It is totally inexcusable about the cracks though!

Jennifer

mmdanfor
06-17-2002, 04:53 PM
For what it's worth, we had the exact opposite experience dealing with ChildCraft. My sister and I drove three hours to the childcraft outlet store here in Indiana and brought home a single dropside crib. Upon assembly, we noticed that one of the spindles on the dropside was badly bowed inward, making it hard to operate the knee release mechanism and increasing the amount of space between itself and adjacent slats. One call to Childcraft's customer service number, and a replacement dropside was on order. They even called last week to let me know when it would be shipping and to check to make sure that they were including the right color hardware. It arrived on my doorstep via UPS this afternoon, within three weeks or so of my original call.

It's great to see some businesses are still responsive to customer safety concerns. Sorry your own experience was so bad--but glad that things worked out better for us.

Meg in Indiana