Parents given bad advice on car seats

Parents wanting to buy a children’s car seat are too often given poor, misleading advice by major retailers.

A survey, by Which? examined findings at seven of the leading retailers and found that sales assistants in the stores were failing to ask the rights questions of the parents, so that they could identify which car seat would be most suitable for their needs. It found that Halfords and Babies R Us were the worst offenders while Mothercare gave the best service.

Researchers visited Babies R Us a total of seven times but only once was the car seat fitted correctly. On the other occasions the seatbelts were often twisted and misrouted. John Lewis staff were rated as generally good, although even here the seats were fitted incorrectly in five out of seven cases. Which? says that parents need to be able to trust the advice they are getting from the high street and it is unacceptable that too many retailers are not highlighting potentially crucial information.

Halfords said, in response to the findings, that it was disappointed by the findings and was committed to improvement. It said that it was investing in providing a child seat trainer in every one of its stores. Although accident-collating information does not specially mention car seats, it is indisputable that badly fitted seats can result in the child having insufficient protection. A recent case saw a mother told by the high court that she would not receive full compensation for an accident involving her child as she had used a car seat that was not appropriate for her age.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jun/20/car-seat-retailers-poor-advice