Question Imported seat by accident

ranebowchild · Oct 3, 2011

I bought a Britax Boulevard for my daughter about 2 1/2 years ago.
I researched forever what seat I wanted to buy for her and then I found the cheapest place online.
I found out on car-seat.org a bit ago that the seat was illegal to use in Canada, which frustrated me SO much, because the seat was not inexpensive. I had no idea that I had been using an illegal seat.
So I bought her a Radian.
But now I have a Britax Boulevard in great condition and I have no clue what I am supposed to do with it? I don't know anyone in the U.S. that I could sell it to and I have no clue what it's worth.
We have another baby coming and I've been tempted to use the Britax for the baby, because I've seen many people on car-seat.org that import carseats. But, I just don't feel comfortable going that route after reading the comments on these forums with reasons why you shouldn't. It just irritates me so much that I've wasted so much money! There were no signs on the site. Why was the U.S. website willing to ship it to Canada?

What can I do with this carseat?

Thanks so much.

Jessica61624 · Oct 3, 2011

How long has it been since you bought it? They shouldn't have shipped to Canada. Do you mind sharing what company?

babyherder · Oct 3, 2011

The Britax Boulevard 65 generally does not fit infants. So regardless of what you decide to do with it I would recommend finding a different seat for your baby to use from birth.

Keeanh · Oct 3, 2011

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. None of the cops I know have a clue about the stickers, never mind actually stopping cars and looking for them. The website never should have shipped to you. You're lucky it didn't get seized at the border.

dingohate · Oct 3, 2011

Maybe you could contact Britax and let them know that XXXXXXXX retailer had shipped you the seat and you found out at a check that it is illegal to use in Canada. They may send you a new seat if you ship back the old one. They may just send you stickers since I'm sure it's the same seat.

snowbird25ca · Oct 3, 2011

I would suggest getting a different seat. Regardless of whether or not a police officer is likely to give you a ticket for using an imported seat, Canadian seats have stricter standards and there are some differences between Canadian and US seats.

I'm sorry the store shipped to you. If it wasn't that long ago I'd suggest trying to return the seat and get your money back, but from the way you talk it sounds like it was awhile ago that this happened.

Your boulevard is an old style seat though, and it won't fit a newborn well. I'd suggest looking at another radian, a my ride, or a true fit. The evenflo seats usually fit newborns well - and are nice in that they don't take up a lot of room in terms of front-to-back space, but they top out at a 30lb rf'ing weight limit. That being said, you have a Radian which will have a higher weight limit, so an Evenflo would still be an ok choice in your situation. The good news is that you should be able to find a Triumph for a relatively inexpensive price right now - that would give you the most harness height and a 65lb ff'ing weight limit of the Evenflo infant/child seats out there.

babyherder said:
The Britax Boulevard 65 generally does not fit infants. So regardless of what you decide to do with it I would recommend finding a different seat for your baby to use from birth.

The boulevard generally doesn't fit newborns. The boulevard 65 will fit many without the infant insert, and most full term babies with the infant insert.

Keeanh · Oct 3, 2011

dingohate said:
Maybe you could contact Britax and let them know that XXXXXXXX retailer had shipped you the seat and you found out at a check that it is illegal to use in Canada. They may send you a new seat if you ship back the old one. They may just send you stickers since I'm sure it's the same seat.

Oh! That's a great idea! They wouldn't send stickers, but they may well send you a Canadian seat. Worth a try.

snowbird25ca · Oct 3, 2011

dingohate said:
Maybe you could contact Britax and let them know that XXXXXXXX retailer had shipped you the seat and you found out at a check that it is illegal to use in Canada. They may send you a new seat if you ship back the old one. They may just send you stickers since I'm sure it's the same seat.

Canadian seats have different foam, so it's not identical. They also would've had different height and weight limits.

dingohate · Oct 3, 2011

I had no idea about the foam! Sorry OP.... still worth a try for a Canadian seat instead, the worst thing they can say is no right?

QuassEE · Oct 3, 2011

dingohate said:
I had no idea about the foam! Sorry OP.... still worth a try for a Canadian seat instead, the worst thing they can say is no right?

And they will. If they replaced every American seat Canadians bought in the US, they'd go broke. If they do this for one person, they'll have to do it for everyone else, too, and I seriously doubt they'll ever start down that path.

-N.

dingohate · Oct 3, 2011

QuassEE said:
And they will. If they replaced every American seat Canadians bought in the US, they'd go broke. If they do this for one person, they'll have to do it for everyone else, too, and I seriously doubt they'll ever start down that path.

-N.

Well perhaps at the very least the retailer will be reprimanded for selling Britax products only available to US citizens to Canadians. It sounds like it's easier to get an illegal car seat across the border than BumGenius products LOL.

ranebowchild · Oct 3, 2011

Thanks for all the comments.

I actually learned from the people on car-seat.org that the Britax wasn't that great for newborns, but I was just planning on using it when our new baby fits properly. Thanks for giving me the heads up though. Especially since the weight for the seat makes it seem like the seat would work for a newborn.

I can't for the life of me remember which site I bought the seat from.

I remember that one reason I chose the site was that they paid for the "crossing the border" charges. (I don't know what they are called.

)
I'm going to try really hard to remember where I bought it from.

It would be totally awesome if they would replace my seat with the Canadian one, but I'm definately not going to get my hopes up.

In Canada we have Kijiji. But is there a really great/popular site to post an ad for my Britax in the U.S.? I personally would never buy a used carseat, unless it was from a friend I trusted VERY much, but I feel comfortable selling it, because I know for a fact that it's been well taken care of and never in an accident.
How much do you think the seat is worth? The manufacturing year is 2009.
Would it cost a whole lot to ship it to someone in the states?
Thanks so much for any more replies.

QuassEE · Oct 3, 2011

If you're near the border, try a local Craigslist. Or offer it on your own Craigslist for someone moving to the US?

Was the site Babycatalog? I know they've shipped US carseats to Canada in the past.

-N.

canadiangie · Oct 3, 2011

Country moose kids?

(not that it matters, I'm just curious

)

ranebowchild said:
Thanks for all the comments.
I actually learned from the people on car-seat.org that the Britax wasn't that great for newborns, but I was just planning on using it when our new baby fits properly. Thanks for giving me the heads up though. Especially since the weight for the seat makes it seem like the seat would work for a newborn.

I can't for the life of me remember which site I bought the seat from.
I remember that one reason I chose the site was that they paid for the "crossing the border" charges. (I don't know what they are called. )
I'm going to try really hard to remember where I bought it from.

It would be totally awesome if they would replace my seat with the Canadian one, but I'm definately not going to get my hopes up.

In Canada we have Kijiji. But is there a really great/popular site to post an ad for my Britax in the U.S.? I personally would never buy a used carseat, unless it was from a friend I trusted VERY much, but I feel comfortable selling it, because I know for a fact that it's been well taken care of and never in an accident.
How much do you think the seat is worth? The manufacturing year is 2009.
Would it cost a whole lot to ship it to someone in the states?
Thanks so much for any more replies.

snowbird25ca · Oct 3, 2011

Shipping to the states would probably be $20 or so depending on the box and carrier method you chose. I'd find a box and weight it and measure it to find out shipping, then find out.

If you have an ebay account, that may be the best way - that way you can list the shipping separate and people can just bid on it. You can start the minimum bid wherever you want and see where it goes, and can always use a reserve to make sure you get the minimum you want.

I'm honestly not sure what the value would be to expect to get from the seat, but I'd be tempted to consider it a case of "anything is better than nothing."

QuassEE · Oct 3, 2011

snowbird25ca said:
Shipping to the states would probably be $20 or so depending on the box and carrier method you chose.

I honestly don't think you could ship a carseat within your same city for $20, let alone another country. I was thinking more like $50-$70.

-Nicole.

April · Oct 4, 2011

QuassEE said:
I honestly don't think you could ship a carseat within your same city for $20, let alone another country. I was thinking more like $50-$70.

-Nicole.

Agreed.

I once shipped a Clek Oto from BC to Oregon

and it was $27.
Posted via Mobile Device

TechnoGranola · Oct 4, 2011

QuassEE said:
I honestly don't think you could ship a carseat within your same city for $20, let alone another country. I was thinking more like $50-$70.

-Nicole.

Agreed. Pretty sure it cost $55ish when you shipped my seat to me. And that seat could be totally taken apart and was in a much smaller box than a Britax convertible.

canadiangie said:
Country moose kids?

(not that it matters, I'm just curious )

They didn't pay customs/brokerage charges for you so doesn't sound like it's them from OP's description. In the last couple years she had some weird wording on her web site that made it sound like the charges were covered, but it was just bad wording. :ROTFLMAO: She also used to think that there were no customs/brokerage charges if she shipped postal service and I explained how it worked to her in several emails but I don't think she got it.

And I just discovered tonight that they are out of business now! I ordered several baby gear items from them (strollers, balance bikes) because of their free shipping to Canada and their willingness to use USPS. Likely one of the reasons why they went out of business though. Laura used to say she made almost nothing on international shipments due to the shipping costs (and they always had a promo code going on too).

ETA: and I Googled and see that tons of people had serious issues with them from about Jan-May of this year until they closed. Guess I'm glad that all my purchases were well prior to the serious problems!

snowbird25ca · Oct 4, 2011

QuassEE said:
I honestly don't think you could ship a carseat within your same city for $20, let alone another country. I was thinking more like $50-$70.

-Nicole.

Wow, ok - I was basing it off the last time I mailed something heavy. Though the dimensions were admittedly smaller. My bad.

canadiangie · Oct 4, 2011

Yup, been out of business for a while now. :shrug:

TechnoGranola said:
Agreed. Pretty sure it cost $55ish when you shipped my seat to me. And that seat could be totally taken apart and was in a much smaller box than a Britax convertible.

They didn't pay customs/brokerage charges for you so doesn't sound like it's them from OP's description. In the last couple years she had some weird wording on her web site that made it sound like the charges were covered, but it was just bad wording. :ROTFLMAO: She also used to think that there were no customs/brokerage charges if she shipped postal service and I explained how it worked to her in several emails but I don't think she got it.

And I just discovered tonight that they are out of business now! I ordered several baby gear items from them (strollers, balance bikes) because of their free shipping to Canada and their willingness to use USPS. Likely one of the reasons why they went out of business though. Laura used to say she made almost nothing on international shipments due to the shipping costs (and they always had a promo code going on too).

ETA: and I Googled and see that tons of people had serious issues with them from about Jan-May of this year until they closed. Guess I'm glad that all my purchases were well prior to the serious problems!

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