Well, garage sales are ruining my morning, again.
I went to one, was chatting with the lady and said "can I show you this? Most people don't know this, but car seats have expiration dates and this one expired in 2010." She said "well, it might help someone," and I responded (getting mad now, but calm and polite) with something like "actually the old plastic that's been sitting in the sun can't be trusted in an accident, the harness rips out of the plastic here, I'm a CPST and I can print out a check list for you." She said "No, I'm not interested in that. I'm comfortable with it, you're welcome to look at any of our other items," (this was borderline angry as well). I said OK, meandered around trying to look like there wasn't steam coming out of my ears, and left quietly. (I didn't, for example say, "have a nice day! Hope you sleep well at night selling expired dangerous safety items to your neighbors!")
Is there something else I should do? Do I need a better schpiel? I don't think people who think an expired car seat "might help someone" would be receptive to the used car seat checklist. And I don't think someone with that attitude is going to let me drop one off for the person buying it either... I know I can't win them all, but now I'm feeling kind of like I need to have a better script going in. Ideas?
I went to one, was chatting with the lady and said "can I show you this? Most people don't know this, but car seats have expiration dates and this one expired in 2010." She said "well, it might help someone," and I responded (getting mad now, but calm and polite) with something like "actually the old plastic that's been sitting in the sun can't be trusted in an accident, the harness rips out of the plastic here, I'm a CPST and I can print out a check list for you." She said "No, I'm not interested in that. I'm comfortable with it, you're welcome to look at any of our other items," (this was borderline angry as well). I said OK, meandered around trying to look like there wasn't steam coming out of my ears, and left quietly. (I didn't, for example say, "have a nice day! Hope you sleep well at night selling expired dangerous safety items to your neighbors!")
Is there something else I should do? Do I need a better schpiel? I don't think people who think an expired car seat "might help someone" would be receptive to the used car seat checklist. And I don't think someone with that attitude is going to let me drop one off for the person buying it either... I know I can't win them all, but now I'm feeling kind of like I need to have a better script going in. Ideas?