Vent Babies R Us employee vent

mlohry

New member
So I know Babies R us employees are not real trained, but I was shocked at how dumb a sales associate was tonight when I went in. I want to buy the FR 85 for my boys to use as a booster because it goes up so high and we have a classic car that needs good head and side impact protection. Anyway I wanted to see the back where the screw is to make the head rest go way up, so I was looking at the back of the seat and some worker guy comes up and I asked him how it worked and he told me it was up as high as it goes with the harness in and I explained that you take the screw out and it goes up even higher he doesn't believe me and then I show him the sticker that says it on the back. Then he reads it and believes me. He did apologize for not knowing.

Anyway I ask him to hold on to the seat because I wanted to compare it to a HB TB because I wanted to see how tall the FR 85 is with the screw in the back and it's a hair taller than the HB TB just like that. I explain to him that I need a really high booster that will last my 8 year old a number of years to use in our classic car, then he proceeds to tell me that at 8, I don't need to booster my son because he is 8, so I don't need to get him a new booster. I was shocked! I use to be a CPST and know most of the rules and I told him I use to be one and that there is not one vehicle that my son has been in that makes him ready to be without a booster at 8 and even if the law says he doesn't need to be in a booster that doesn't mean he is ready to not have one. I was so mad, before I left the store I asked for a manager and told her he was doing a great disservice telling customers that they don't need to booster their child after 8, really how many kids do we know that can be safely done with a booster at 8. She seemed to agree with me and said she would talk to him.

That just freaked me out, that he would tell someone that. I know SO many people that shop there for seats and so many parents don't know any better. I know our 1st car seats were bought there. I am so thankful he told me and not someone that didn't know better!
 
ADS

mommycat

Well-known member
I'm cynical enough that I imagine her thoughts were more along the lines of, "what? someone wanted to BUY something and Mr. SmartMouth told them NOT to?" rather than that kids would be better off in boosters until they were ready to 5step, but hey - whatever keeps them from spreading that misconception...
 

Guest

New member
Don't dwell on it. You'll give yourself a stroke.

I know a couple of good BRUS employees. Course, they're also longtime members/mod on here... :p

But yeah, box store employees generally know nothing about the products and most don't seem to care too much. It's considered a good day when you find one willing to learn as far too many will take an indifferent (if you're lucky) to hostile (if you're not) attitude when you point out best practices to them. They, and many of the customers, go strictly by the minimums listed on the box and don't like to deviate from that.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Aw, Codex, where's your signature :confused: :love:;)

Yeah, it's hard enough to get employees to know what the bare minimum recommendations are (or even weight limits on stickers on seats!), no one even tries to teach them to understand/convey best practice in the official training materials. Obviously it was foolish of him to argue with you, he should have shut his mouth and tried to learn something, just because you're a customer doesn't mean you're an idiot :p (if it weren't for me listening to people, I wouldn't know the first thing about diaper genies and baby monitors and bottles, the training at BRU is so minimal :( )
 

Calleiah

Active member
/waves at Codex!

Yep, that drives me insane. Long before I became a tech, I'd see them trying to sell some completely inappropriate seat to a parent. Drove me nuts. More often than not, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. :whistle: At one point, I was offered a job by the manager because I sold so many seats in there. LOL I declined because they refused to pay me commission on the seats. :love:
These days... yeah, I still cant keep my mouth shut. :D If I hear blatantly bad advice, I usually dont hesitate to jump right in and tell the parent they are getting bad advice. Fortunately, in the last two years or so I havent witnessed any horrifyingly bad advice, car-seat gods be praised.
 

bethng

Active member
Its hard for me, as a tech, to work at BRU. Its a very part time job for me and spend a lot of time in baby registry. But I hear people working in baby gear giving out bad advice all the time. But when I am working in baby gear its every moms lucky day cause they are going to get the correct information and advice! lol One of the managers let me go out with a couple to their car because they insisted they could not get the myride installed in their car. I broke every rule about not touching the seat or installing it for them.... and with a couple minor adjustments, got the seat in rock solid! (it was the store's demo seat....not the one they were buying) but they saw how it was done and I am sure did a fine job on their own as they ended up buying one. :thumbsup:
 

icnee

New member
It drive me nuts too. today I was there cause I wanted to try seats in my car (mainly for fun) and the girl that was out side with me told me that she only recomends infant seats for noobs cause they cant take them home in a convertable cause the hospitals dont let them.
 

bethng

Active member
It drive me nuts too. today I was there cause I wanted to try seats in my car (mainly for fun) and the girl that was out side with me told me that she only recomends infant seats for noobs cause they cant take them home in a convertable cause the hospitals dont let them.

we had an employee telling people that. I told the manager and she set her straight and now she just tells people that its easier to take a newborn home in an infant seat:rolleyes:
 

eyeslkethesky5391

Senior Community Member
I had one guy fuss at me because I didn't want a travel system...i was gonna buy a convertible for M and the man said "you know young lady i've had 3 kids myself and you'd be stupid by not buying the travel system" :eek:
 

dhardawa

Active member
I heard and employee tell a set of grandparents looking for a seat for their grandchild that the only difference between a convertible seat and a combination seat was that the combination seat had belt guides, but it really didn't matter because if they went with the convertible seat, when the child outgrew the harness they could just wrap a seatbelt around the whole seat anyway.
 

AnnaC

New member
I heard and employee tell a set of grandparents looking for a seat for their grandchild that the only difference between a convertible seat and a combination seat was that the combination seat had belt guides, but it really didn't matter because if they went with the convertible seat, when the child outgrew the harness they could just wrap a seatbelt around the whole seat anyway.

:eek:
 

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