I have never posted on a site before but was compelled to do so after my frustration with my Graco Nautilus carseat.
My 3 year old son outgrew the 5 point harness for his Cosco Alpha Omega Elite carseat and is big enought for a booster (40 lbs). I spoke with my local carseat installers and reviewed 5 point harnesses for larger children and found this is the safest way to go. Carseats recommended by the carseat installers were the Britax Frontier 85, Graco Nautilus, and Evenflo Maestro. I looked at all 3 and was impressed with the Nautilus and satisfied with the price. We purchased the Nautilus for my car and the Maestro for our second car (it was about half the price of the Nautilus).
The Nautilus was fancy looking, I was impressed! The Maestro was a little boring looking but my son actually looked more comfortable in this seat and his head didn't flop forward as much as in the Nautilus.
After owning both seats for about 2-3 months, the Nautilus crotch buckle became completely stuck! It was sticking one day and I was able to open it to get my son out but before putting him back in I buckled it and low and behold, totally stuck. Good thing he wasn't in it! I literally would have had to cut the straps to get him out!
I researched the buckle on this seat and there were many other moms that had this same issue.
I emailed Graco (no live people on the weekend) and received a reply from "Newell Rubbermaid" (apparently they are owned or partnered with Graco). After confirming that I had registered my seat, they promptly offered me a return address shipping label to return my seat so that I was "free to go and purchace another car seat of your choosing so you have a working safe product for your child." I was hoping they would just send me replacement parts so that I could at least try to salvage the now useless carseat one more time before returning it. Their response was that the replacement parts needed were on backorder for at least 3 weeks! That tells me that this is a common problem!
I hope Graco gets it together and fixes this buckle problem so that others won't have to go throught the frustration we did. We went out and bought a second Evenflo Maestro for my car yesterday and will return the Graco Nautilus...in the Evenflo box!!
My 3 year old son outgrew the 5 point harness for his Cosco Alpha Omega Elite carseat and is big enought for a booster (40 lbs). I spoke with my local carseat installers and reviewed 5 point harnesses for larger children and found this is the safest way to go. Carseats recommended by the carseat installers were the Britax Frontier 85, Graco Nautilus, and Evenflo Maestro. I looked at all 3 and was impressed with the Nautilus and satisfied with the price. We purchased the Nautilus for my car and the Maestro for our second car (it was about half the price of the Nautilus).
The Nautilus was fancy looking, I was impressed! The Maestro was a little boring looking but my son actually looked more comfortable in this seat and his head didn't flop forward as much as in the Nautilus.
After owning both seats for about 2-3 months, the Nautilus crotch buckle became completely stuck! It was sticking one day and I was able to open it to get my son out but before putting him back in I buckled it and low and behold, totally stuck. Good thing he wasn't in it! I literally would have had to cut the straps to get him out!
I researched the buckle on this seat and there were many other moms that had this same issue.
I emailed Graco (no live people on the weekend) and received a reply from "Newell Rubbermaid" (apparently they are owned or partnered with Graco). After confirming that I had registered my seat, they promptly offered me a return address shipping label to return my seat so that I was "free to go and purchace another car seat of your choosing so you have a working safe product for your child." I was hoping they would just send me replacement parts so that I could at least try to salvage the now useless carseat one more time before returning it. Their response was that the replacement parts needed were on backorder for at least 3 weeks! That tells me that this is a common problem!
I hope Graco gets it together and fixes this buckle problem so that others won't have to go throught the frustration we did. We went out and bought a second Evenflo Maestro for my car yesterday and will return the Graco Nautilus...in the Evenflo box!!