This is the first of two crib recalls today. You can find more on the other here.
LaJobi and CPSC announced the recall today of 217,000 Graco-branded drop-side cribs sold since February 2007. As with the other 7 million drop-side cribs recalled in the past several years, the hardware on these can break or become loose, allowing the railing to separate from the crib, causing an entrapment and suffocation hazard. Two children were entrapped, but freed by caregivers and six children fell when the rail detached, leading to one concussion.
These are out of 99 reports to CPSC and LaJobi. But what about to Graco? Most consumers with this crib would assume they had bought a Graco crib. But consumers tell us when they call Graco about a licensed crib, they are told Graco can't help them -- it wasn't their crib. Huh? So where are those calls recorded?
LaJobi will send out a repair kit that converts the crib to a fixed sided crib. As we have said before, we believe that in sleep environment recalls, the manufacturers owe consumers a replacement product or a refund. No one will sleep well knowing they put new hardware on a crib recalled because the old hardware failed! And note that these are not old, handed down cribs. Most are less then three years old, some sold as recently as this month!
We recommend parents avoid drop-side cribs. See our advice on what to do if you have one here.
We recommend manufacturers refund money for parents whose new crib falls apart.
And we recommend Graco consider stop selling their name to the lowest bidder! Both cribs recalled today include some with the Graco name affixed as do many other cribs and bassinets by Simplicity that have been recalled previously.
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1 comment:
My daughter was one of the "rescued" children, in a now recalled Graco crib. Graco's lack of responsibility is stunning. La Jobi's response to the recall today was also breathtaking. I called the recall line 4 different times and could not get the phone service to recognize the model numbers I entered. I called La Jobi's customer service line to explain my difficulty, and ask if they could just take down my information for replacement parts. Their representative informed me she could not help. I was stunned. I asked "Is this Customer Service?" She replied "yes, but she couldn't help". I was told I had to use the recall line or the website. I informed her I had no access to the Internet and obviously my phone was not getting the job done. She politely said, "well, I'm sorry I can't help you." I will not buy another Graco product. So much for assistance I guess.
In our case, La Jobi has already replaced a "standard" size mattress that did not fit this "standard" size crib, as well as, replacement hardware to fix the failed drop side rail hardware. This will be our third replacement item for this crib. Graco, shame on you!
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