Sigh, another bad car seat check story.

A long distance dear friend of mine and her husband went to the only CPST they could find in their area... a fire station 30 minutes away to have someone go through installing their Keyfit for them. The tech had never heard of Chicco before and asked if it was foreign and told them the seat needs to be US approved. :thumbsdown:

She told them they had to put the seat outboard because the middle isn't safe (this is an Acura MDX btw), put shelf liner under the seat because leather seats aren't safe either (yep she said that), installed the Keyfit with the seat belt locked AND through the lockoff. She also told them the handle needs to be down and moved the passenger seat way far forward (which is where my very pregnant friend was sitting, thanks for putting her six inches from the airbag). And told them they need to forward face as soon as their baby is 20 pounds or his feet touch the back of the seat.

She was frantically texting me the whole time and I pretty much told her just to be polite and ignore everything they said, but it's so so frustrating to me. I spend a LOT of time with families making sure they understand best practice and making sure that THEY know how to install their seat, I hate that there are so many techs (haha my friend is awesome and asked to see her cert card, so this lady was an actual current tech) that are so uninformed.

Sorry, I know this gets discussed a lot around here (sucks that it happens enough for it to be discussed so often!) but I just had to rant a little bit to people that get it. I'm mad my friends wasted their time on such bad information and even more mad that so many other people that don't know better are getting bad information.

Ugh. That is horrible. I really don't understand where some people come up with their "information."

I had a member of another board message me last week.....your story and hers are almost identical (she drove a accord though). The fireman had never seen a Chicco Keyfit before, didn't read the manual and told her the same thing (handle down and seat moved all the way forward also to use a shelf liner). Ugh it is frustrating. IDK if he was a cert. tech or not, it sucks that all this misinformation is being given out by people of "authority".

I am happy that people care to go get their seats checked, but if the people checking them aren't going to bother with giving out the right info and teaching them how to install, really, what's the point?

She still doesn't feel comfortable installing her seat either.....sigh. I gave her the link to safekids.org and she is waiting on a check event. I have my fingers crossed she'll get a tech that will be able to help her.

Is your friend anywhere near a tech from c-s.o? Even if they had to make a short drive, I think it would be worth it for valid information.

Ugh thats annoying. I hate that people do that. Its hard enough to get proper info out there alone much less when techs are giving out bad info. Lots are forced to take the class because of thier job. We had people in our class pass I wouldnt let touch my seats with a ten foot pole. They even admitted they didnt want to be there and hoped theyd never have to actually do it on the job. So sad really.

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my uncle is a cpst and has his 1 yo FF. I can only imagine the horrid advice given at his checks it's all so frustrating!

oh thats awful! I had a tech once refuse to install my seat RFing because DD was 2.5 years old and 25lbs. Told me it was illegal and I had to FF her. yeah.. I left.
Only reason Id even gone is because I had hurt my back and was unable to get it tight enough

Carrie_R said:

Is your friend anywhere near a tech from c-s.o? Even if they had to make a short drive, I think it would be worth it for valid information.

Click to expand...

One... I pm'd her first and she said she'd help but never got in touch with them. She's in South Florida... this was the Pompano Beach Fire Dept.

She asked me to help her write a complaint letter to the fire station and we'll copy it to the other pertinent folks as well, so hopefully it may be able to enact some change. My stomach is just sick at all the people getting bad information that don't know any better.


One other weird thing - she kept saying it was a bad handle/defective seat because it didn't go "click click click"? I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what she was talking about but I have no clue. It definitely clicks into place in each of the locked positions, but she apparently wanted more clicks? The only thing I could think of was Britax CS but god, if she's never heard of a Keyfit I would be SHOCKED to hear she knows how Britax CS works.

UGH, I keep hearing about all these horrible 'techs' and the common factor....fire depts. I know they can't all be bad....but yeesh. People trust what these people say (more than me, I'm "just" a mom/CPST)....the firemen techs are seriously putting kids at risk. Again, not all....but there seems to be an awful lot of them. I would report them.