It was very cool. 8/1/08. Get this. The mom blogs and so Britax SENT her a CS to review. Like, she gets to keep it. It's free. And we on car-seat.org are chopped liver???
Her son is six months old, and when I went up to them she asked if it was ok that we put in a new seat instead of showing her her old one. Sure, I figured he was going from the infant to the convertible. I get out to her car and she's got a Marathon installed. I was so confused. Normally people upgrade to the Marathon, not something else. I clapped when I saw the CS. LOL She couldn't believe how happy it made me. I'm such a dork. Nathan just rolled his eyes when I told him about it. However, in true c-s.org fashion, when I went inside and told Waterbaby she said, "I am so jealous!" LOL
I have permission from the mother:
It's hard to see, but this is the Boulevard as it's installed. It's rear facing, and I pulled back the cover. So the head of the seat is to my right, the car's seat is to my left. I pulled back the cover. Where it's black there is where the harness adjuster comes out, same as it would on any other Britax. The black addition is what makes it go click, though. And it did. TIGHT. I tightened it to what I thought was acceptable (no pinch) and I had to give it one more tug. Britax is going to be getting a lot of calls of, "Mine is broken, it doesn't click. OH! It needs to be THAT tight??"
Also at today's fair for me was a 2000 Snugride DX 5, which I hadn't seen before. Mom is due in two weeks. I told her to go out tonight and buy a new seat. Otherwise you know the baby will come before she buys the seat.
Another is a questionable Cosco combination without the harness. They weren't using it, thank goodness. These poor people, they had nothing going right for them. First, they installed their Snugride like this:
That's the LATCH strap looped around the hinge for the back of the car's seat to come forward and hooked back on itself, and then attached to the sliding latchplate of the buckle. The seatbelt was buckled in. You have to give the dad credit on that one. And you have to give the mom credit. She knew something wasn't right. She came to the fair specifically to have her seats checked. She wouldn't take the kids out because someone had to keep a hand on the seat to keep it from tipping. I taught the parents how to do a locking clip seatbelt installation (1999 Explorer) so the seat didn't tip. Plus put their foot down for them.
Then I went on to the next seat. Fourteen month old girl. TINY. Maybe 18-22 pounds. They weren't certain. They had her in an Evenflo something (no model name, just a number). The hospital sold it to them when she was born. They had it forward facing with the rear facing foot still in place, still in the bottom slots which weren't reinforced. It was a two door car, so they wanted her forward so they could get her in and out. I said it wasn't best practice, and she may not be big enough (they were *pretty* sure she was over 20 pounds) but if they wanted me to I'd show them how to do it properly. So I go to rethread the black harness through the top slots and it doesn't reach the splitter plate. For some reason they have a random harness on the seat. It didn't come with the seat. The adjuster strap is gray. And thicker than the black harness. So I told them we had to put her in rear facing (trying to keep the smile off my face) because the top slots weren't reinforced, and the harness doesn't reach. They had no other seat to use for her. So they have to deal with it until they get a new car, which will be soon. I also gave them Evenflo's number to call about the harness, and the name of some economical seats to buy for both kids. They will put the little girl rear facing in the new car. They got why it was safer, it's just back breaking with the angle of the doorway to get a rear facing non bucket in there. I hate to think what they would have done with their five month old in the Snugride who was already 18 pounds. They were really nice, and took the fact that they had royally screwed up really well, and were angry and upset at the hospital for selling them a seat that was not what it should have been.
Their boss gave them the crappy Cosco combination with no harness or labels, and they were by this point amused to hear it was no good. If it had had a harness I would have used it for the 14 month old rather than the questionable Evenflo. But nope. And the cover just nearly fell off. I brought it home so SafeKids can destroy it next month. I showed it to Piper when I got it home saying that I was going to get it destroyed, and she said, "It's already destroyed!" LOL
So that was today. Nine seats in four hours. No one yelled at me or argued too much with me (unlike Waterbaby, someone fought with her). I don't know how many seats she did. I would think about the same. It was pretty good.
Wendy
Her son is six months old, and when I went up to them she asked if it was ok that we put in a new seat instead of showing her her old one. Sure, I figured he was going from the infant to the convertible. I get out to her car and she's got a Marathon installed. I was so confused. Normally people upgrade to the Marathon, not something else. I clapped when I saw the CS. LOL She couldn't believe how happy it made me. I'm such a dork. Nathan just rolled his eyes when I told him about it. However, in true c-s.org fashion, when I went inside and told Waterbaby she said, "I am so jealous!" LOL
I have permission from the mother:
It's hard to see, but this is the Boulevard as it's installed. It's rear facing, and I pulled back the cover. So the head of the seat is to my right, the car's seat is to my left. I pulled back the cover. Where it's black there is where the harness adjuster comes out, same as it would on any other Britax. The black addition is what makes it go click, though. And it did. TIGHT. I tightened it to what I thought was acceptable (no pinch) and I had to give it one more tug. Britax is going to be getting a lot of calls of, "Mine is broken, it doesn't click. OH! It needs to be THAT tight??"
Also at today's fair for me was a 2000 Snugride DX 5, which I hadn't seen before. Mom is due in two weeks. I told her to go out tonight and buy a new seat. Otherwise you know the baby will come before she buys the seat.
Another is a questionable Cosco combination without the harness. They weren't using it, thank goodness. These poor people, they had nothing going right for them. First, they installed their Snugride like this:
That's the LATCH strap looped around the hinge for the back of the car's seat to come forward and hooked back on itself, and then attached to the sliding latchplate of the buckle. The seatbelt was buckled in. You have to give the dad credit on that one. And you have to give the mom credit. She knew something wasn't right. She came to the fair specifically to have her seats checked. She wouldn't take the kids out because someone had to keep a hand on the seat to keep it from tipping. I taught the parents how to do a locking clip seatbelt installation (1999 Explorer) so the seat didn't tip. Plus put their foot down for them.
Then I went on to the next seat. Fourteen month old girl. TINY. Maybe 18-22 pounds. They weren't certain. They had her in an Evenflo something (no model name, just a number). The hospital sold it to them when she was born. They had it forward facing with the rear facing foot still in place, still in the bottom slots which weren't reinforced. It was a two door car, so they wanted her forward so they could get her in and out. I said it wasn't best practice, and she may not be big enough (they were *pretty* sure she was over 20 pounds) but if they wanted me to I'd show them how to do it properly. So I go to rethread the black harness through the top slots and it doesn't reach the splitter plate. For some reason they have a random harness on the seat. It didn't come with the seat. The adjuster strap is gray. And thicker than the black harness. So I told them we had to put her in rear facing (trying to keep the smile off my face) because the top slots weren't reinforced, and the harness doesn't reach. They had no other seat to use for her. So they have to deal with it until they get a new car, which will be soon. I also gave them Evenflo's number to call about the harness, and the name of some economical seats to buy for both kids. They will put the little girl rear facing in the new car. They got why it was safer, it's just back breaking with the angle of the doorway to get a rear facing non bucket in there. I hate to think what they would have done with their five month old in the Snugride who was already 18 pounds. They were really nice, and took the fact that they had royally screwed up really well, and were angry and upset at the hospital for selling them a seat that was not what it should have been.
Their boss gave them the crappy Cosco combination with no harness or labels, and they were by this point amused to hear it was no good. If it had had a harness I would have used it for the 14 month old rather than the questionable Evenflo. But nope. And the cover just nearly fell off. I brought it home so SafeKids can destroy it next month. I showed it to Piper when I got it home saying that I was going to get it destroyed, and she said, "It's already destroyed!" LOL
So that was today. Nine seats in four hours. No one yelled at me or argued too much with me (unlike Waterbaby, someone fought with her). I don't know how many seats she did. I would think about the same. It was pretty good.
Wendy