I Thought It Was A Law...

Jonah Baby

New member
That consignment stores were NOT allowed to sell expired carseats?!

Just looking for clarification, as I think I will really stay away from that store in the future. They had 3 expired (over 2 years expired!) seats for sale.

Should I call in some type of authority on them? Stupider parents would buy one of those not realizing, as the seat did look in a fair condition.


(And then on the way out I saw a woman who didn't have her newborn buckled into a seat! AGGH!)
 
ADS

Maedze

New member
No, we have no such law here, unfortunately :(

All you can do is tell them the seats are expired but more than likely they won't care.
 

Jonah Baby

New member
That is too bad.
It really should be a law.

There was another consignment shop I used to use that was SUPER good on all recalled/expired equipment. They never took stuff like that. Unfortunately, they closed.

I think not only should selling them be illegal, owning them expired should be, AND parents should all be mandated to take child carseat safety courses before they can leave the hospital.

IMO
 

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
California has a law prohibiting retailers from selling crashed seats. I don't think expired seats would necessarily be included. I've been to a couple second-hand children's stores, and I've never seen a seat for sale. They probably don't want to risk it since they can't say for sure if a seat has been in a crash or not.

Maedze confirmed that your state has no such law.

Just a reminder that parents who buy a second-hand seat are not necessarily "stupid." :thumbsup:
 

jess71903

Ambassador
Can you call and get the name and address or email of the store owner? I would send a letter about expired seats, with the link to the YouTube video of the Britax one, and just warn them how dangerous it is to sell them to anyone. We have a big consignment sale here twice a year and they check things like expiration before accepting a seat.
 

Jonah Baby

New member
You know what they should do...
is make some type of sensor/indicator on the side of carseats that can indicate weather a seat has been jarred/hit/slammed/etc. hard enough to cause damage. Then anyone getting a hand-me-down or buying a second-hand seat would know for sure.
It would allow parents to know if the fender-bender last week was damaging to the seat or not.
AND, it would allow people who check their carseats on airplanes to know weather or not it was damaged during flight! (or by a luggage loader!)

I don't believe parents who buy second-hand are ever stupid, my comment came off wrong. I've bought second-hand or have had hand-me-downs for most of our baby stuff. Better to reuse than re-buy. What I don't like is the "ignorant" or non-caring parents who would put their child's life at risk in one of the seats so mentioned in this post! Simply being uneducated in the matter should not be an excuse when it comes to a matter of life or death of a child. It is a parent's responsibility to know or to learn, no matter what.
:twocents:

The name of the store is The Parson's Closet. Address is 116 Main Street in Easthampton, MA 01027. Their # is 413-527-8473.
I wouldn't intend for the owner to get in trouble (because I thought it through.) My guess, because she is much older, is that her children never even had carseats. I bet that she has no clue on carseat safety. However...I don't think it should be allowed to continue simply because she is unaware. If a Tech would be willing to send her information, etc. I would appreciate the effort to make a child's future safer. That is, after all, what carseat Techs are here for.
 

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
You know what they should do...
is make some type of sensor/indicator on the side of carseats that can indicate weather a seat has been jarred/hit/slammed/etc. hard enough to cause damage. Then anyone getting a hand-me-down or buying a second-hand seat would know for sure.
It would allow parents to know if the fender-bender last week was damaging to the seat or not.
AND, it would allow people who check their carseats on airplanes to know weather or not it was damaged during flight! (or by a luggage loader!)

The problem with that is that not all damage is to the shell of the seat. For example, the harness can stretch in a crash, but might not show visible damage to the shell or even to an indicator (which some seats do have, BTW).

A second-hand seat could also be recalled, missing parts, had straps soaked in bleach, had parts degrade over time, etc. It's not just crashes that rend seats unusable.

It would be nice if every parent--and every store owner--knew everything there is to know about car seats. The reality is that even well meaning people sometimes make bad decisions because they simply don't know.

Whether it's on this board or in real life, it's always better to assume that people WANT to do what's right for their children (or customers) and approach them in a friendly manner without calling names or insulting their intelligence.
 

Maedze

New member
The trouble with things like that is that they A. are prone to not working properly and B create a false sense of safety. Also, parents who are most likely to benefit from such a gimmick are the least likely to spend the extra money to buy something like that.

Consider the Click & Safe on some Britax seats. As a gimmick it sounds nice (clicks to let you know the harness is tight enough!) but in reality it simply doesn't work.

It's better to KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly). Never use a used seat unless you are 100% sure of its history, it's not expired and not recalled. That pretty much precludes ever using any seat bought second hand from a consignment shop/craigslist/freecycle/yardsale, etc.

Unfortunately there's a large market for used baby gear and one tech calling up a consignment shop to holler at a clerk is just going to create feelings of ill-will. It's better to focus energy on directly educating parents :thumbsup:
 

ookpix

New member
We had that same problem a couple years back with several of the local stores. Many people just don't know any better, or don't accept the importance of the expiration dates ("it's just a scam from the companies to make us spend more $"). (and yes, SOME people just DONT CARE!, but for most of them, its just a lack of undertanding)
After getting nowhere with speaking to the managers of the stores, a friend of mine contacted the local "Problem Solvers" (all of our news stations have a similar program to that effect) who got on it. They talked to the stores who changed their policies to ward off bad publicity, and the community got a little bit of a public service announcement about carseat safety when the news program aired their investigation. :)
 

Maedze

New member
After getting nowhere with speaking to the managers of the stores, a friend of mine contacted the local "Problem Solvers" (all of our news stations have a similar program to that effect) who got on it. They talked to the stores who changed their policies to ward off bad publicity, and the community got a little bit of a public service announcement about carseat safety when the news program aired their investigation. :)

Genius! *tucks clever idea away in brain for potential future use*
 

lovinwaves

New member
There certainly are worse things that 2 year old expired seats, in my opinion. Distracted driver, texting, talking on cell phone, child not being strapped in correctly, baby forward-facing too soon, etc... I have used a seat past expiration, but I felt comfortable doing that. As previous posters mentioned, there are other factors that need to be considered, and not just the fact that it *could* have been in an accident or the seat is "expired."
 

seamonkeys

New member
The 2 consignment shops near me do not even accept carseats. And the one won't even take anything remotely related to use in the car!! :thumbsup: Although one time the one store had a Stroll-n-go (whatever it's called) and when I asked about it, they said it was just for airplane use! :eek: I emailed the store and included a link to the seat showing that was indeed also a carseat. Didn't hear back and didn't go back to the store for awhile, so I don't know if they removed it.
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
California specifically prohibits crashed seats, but one can make an argument that expired seats are prohibited as well under the consumer protection law that states that all goods sold (including secondhand) must be "fit for use" at point of sale.
 

carseatcoach

Carseat Crankypants
I care about carseat safety, but I don't care so much for lots of regulation. And probably any law against selling carseats would close down the carseat swap section here.
 

disbugsmomma

New member
I was in a resale shop yesterday and I could not believe how many carseats were in there. There had to be at least 15 seats. I didn't look at all of them, but I did see 3 that were expired for sure, two infant seats and a 2001 Roundabout. The RA had a $48 price tag on it! :eek: I couldn't even look anymore after that. I did tell one of the employees that the seats were expired and she said that "the owner knows all about carseats." Yeah, right. If she knew, she wouldn't be selling nasty, expired seats. :thumbsdown: I seriously had to leave after that, I was thoroughly disgusted.
 

capeKO71

New member
Yeah - I was furious at a local thrift store (another MA store!) - when they opened a few months ago, I went in, introduced myself, asked about carseats - and she told me "oh no - we have a policy that we don't sell carseats"

Fast foward... last week... I go in because they are having a sale... and low and behold... 7 (yes seven) carseats - some expired, some missing parts...

I look at a girl and I say, Is this carseat for sale? She says cheerfully "Yep!", I say "well it shouldn't be" and go ranting about selling seats that are expired.

Anyhow - I think she still has some in there - at least she got rid of the broken, expired seats....

I dropped off a recall list, a checklist for using a used seat, and this letter (she claimed that she gets "so many" people in there who cannot afford carseats - that she's doing them a service selling them these seats... she said... "they are better then nothing". yikes)

Carseat Resources
1. Boston HealthNet (Mass Health) plan – if your child is a member of this health care program, you are eligible for free carseats and boosters. Please call 1-888-566-0010 and provide the customer service rep with your member ID number. The seat will be mailed to you – but you must be present to sign for the seat.
2. Inexpensive carseats are on the market!
Infant seats: Evenflo Discovery starts at $50 at Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target
Convertible Seats: Cosco Scenera is between $39 -$59 and is sold at Kmart, Wal-Mart, Target, and Sears. Check the weekly fliers as these seats go on sale often.
Taller Harnessing Seats: EveYeahnflo Chase (40lb seat) has a taller harness – it is $70 at Kmart. The Cosco Apex 65 (65lb seat) is roughly $90-100 online.
Boosters: Backless boosters are available from $13 and up at Wal-Mart & Kmart. High back boosters start at $20.
3. Contact local carseat technician, xxx – she may have a resource for you if the top two options are not available. She can be contacted at xxx.
 

capeKO71

New member
oh - and it's not "law" but I always say to them "you are liable for making sure your products are safe... these are not safe. This is a HUGE liability for you to be selling"
 

ookpix

New member
(she claimed that she gets "so many" people in there who cannot afford carseats - that she's doing them a service selling them these seats... she said... "they are better then nothing". yikes)

Sigh, I hate hearing this... it is NOT better than nothing, but it gives them a false sense of security and a reason not to keep looking for something safe. An unsafe seat is nothing more than a "child retainer", and a kitchen booster seat would serve that purpose just as well (to keep the kids from running around the car). At least using a kitchen booster, you would KNOW that's all you're doing... I keep reminding myself that most of these people really DO care about their kids, they just don't KNOW how much danger they are putting them in :(
 

Jonah Baby

New member
There certainly are worse things that 2 year old expired seats, in my opinion. Distracted driver, texting, talking on cell phone, child not being strapped in correctly, baby forward-facing too soon, etc... I have used a seat past expiration, but I felt comfortable doing that. As previous posters mentioned, there are other factors that need to be considered, and not just the fact that it *could* have been in an accident or the seat is "expired."

Now, what parts of a carseat, exactly, are subject to "expiration"?
I understand that plastic shells are often put under extreme conditions, leading to breakdown of the plastic, as well as the plastics used in seats are definitely tested and redeveloped/changed every so often for safety purposes.
I'd be worried with some of my past seats breaking down, as I live in New England. Extreme temps all year round.
All of my seats have been bought or gotten from a source that I KNEW very well and trusted.
I also do routine removals, cleanings, and inspections of all of our seats.

I am in no way saying that I would do this...
but what would be the "big deal" safety wise of using one of my said carseats, gotten from a very well known and trusted family member, inspected and cleaned every month or so by my self, past expiration date of the seat? (One seat in particular comes to mind...the harness straps appear to be in excellent condition, no parts missing, no visible shell damage, no drops or accidents, 5 point harness of course, cover in beautiful shape, buckles working correctly, will just fit my child for a few more months...)
What type of risk is that to a child? Why?
Is that seat safer to use, as a back-up seat, than a harnessed booster for a 2 year old?
Seats that are horribly past an expiration, in my opinion, should just be trashed anyway, but at what point can a seat "pass" after expiration where an older seat could not?

Just curiosity. I love what-if scenarios...maybe just to satisfy my own "safety" conscience.
 

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