Unregistered
12-08-2005, 02:31 AM
If you're going to rent a car seat from National, DON'T! Here's my cautionary tale.
We went to Edmonton for my husband's company christmas party last weekend. He flew in on Thursday, and my mom, my 2.5yo, my 3mo and I flew in on Friday. The HIGH in Edmonton last Friday was -12 C. And yeah, that's how cold it was as I was doing all the carseat installation. With baby, toddler, and my mom (who's 68) all looking on.
National promised to rent us a rear-facing infant car seat, and when we got there, they said that they didn't have any, and never have had any! This, despite the fact that my husband called last Wednesday to confirm that they would have an infant seat ready for us on Friday and he was reassured that they had "hundreds" in stock.
Thank goodness we had brought the toddler's reversible car seat along -- we figured it would be a safer plane ride for him that way. But the LATCH strap on that seat was too short to reach rear-facing, so I had to use the minivan's belts to install the seat. And for the record, there's only one seatbelt in a Dodge Caravan that will stretch all the way around an Alpha Omega car seat. I tried them all, several times. In the FREEZING parking lot, with my toddler starting to break down because he really needed his afternoon nap NOW. And the baby was fussing in the cold, and my poor mom was just trying to keep it all together.
So the toddler went into the (very dirty) carseat that that National provided. As an aside, this was the second carseat they offered -- the first carseat they gave me had a broken tether strap. I should probably have checked this second seat for an expiry/manufacture date, as it might even have been older than 5 years -- but I was too stressed out at the time.
And the baby went into the reversible car seat which was waaaay too big for him, and which he hated -- every drive in Edmonton was a screaming fit for him. But thank goodness the toddler didn't throw a temper tantrum about giving up his car seat to the baby. That could have been horrible right there.
We were about an hour in the cold as I was throwing carseats around and trying to figure out where the belts were, and how to attach everything together. The Caravan only has one LATCH tether hook, and it's BEHIND the last row of carseats. I have no idea how you'd install a toddler carseat into the middle row. And no, the staff there didn't even offer to give me the car manual so that I could look it up.
My husband was totally pissed and has let National know all about their poor customer service. We realize that they aren't allowed to help install the car seat (liability issues) but they didn't even come by to ask if we were doing okay, offer to hold the baby for a minute or two, or even offer my mom a coffee.
We were inside their office watching them while waiting for my husband to come and double-check my carseat installation (I was freaking out, and didn't want to drive if the seats hadn't been installed properly), and they were totally not busy that afternoon -- a customer every 5 minutes, and there were two women just having coffee and chatting at the desk. Plus two clerks in the parking lot, checking in cars as they came in (every 10-15 minutes). And it turns out that one of the parking lot ladies wanted to help me, but the office women hauled her back and said she couldn't help in any way.
The rest of the weekend was great -- the hotel clerk at the Holiday Inn even offered to bring us her baby car seat that her kid had just outgrown!
But I still can't believe how horrible the folks at National were. They ended up refunding half the cost of the weekend rental, but originally offered only to refund the cost of the carseat rental ($16). It's not even our money that we're asking for (husband's company is paying for the rental), it's an acknowledgement of their piss-poor customer service.
We went to Edmonton for my husband's company christmas party last weekend. He flew in on Thursday, and my mom, my 2.5yo, my 3mo and I flew in on Friday. The HIGH in Edmonton last Friday was -12 C. And yeah, that's how cold it was as I was doing all the carseat installation. With baby, toddler, and my mom (who's 68) all looking on.
National promised to rent us a rear-facing infant car seat, and when we got there, they said that they didn't have any, and never have had any! This, despite the fact that my husband called last Wednesday to confirm that they would have an infant seat ready for us on Friday and he was reassured that they had "hundreds" in stock.
Thank goodness we had brought the toddler's reversible car seat along -- we figured it would be a safer plane ride for him that way. But the LATCH strap on that seat was too short to reach rear-facing, so I had to use the minivan's belts to install the seat. And for the record, there's only one seatbelt in a Dodge Caravan that will stretch all the way around an Alpha Omega car seat. I tried them all, several times. In the FREEZING parking lot, with my toddler starting to break down because he really needed his afternoon nap NOW. And the baby was fussing in the cold, and my poor mom was just trying to keep it all together.
So the toddler went into the (very dirty) carseat that that National provided. As an aside, this was the second carseat they offered -- the first carseat they gave me had a broken tether strap. I should probably have checked this second seat for an expiry/manufacture date, as it might even have been older than 5 years -- but I was too stressed out at the time.
And the baby went into the reversible car seat which was waaaay too big for him, and which he hated -- every drive in Edmonton was a screaming fit for him. But thank goodness the toddler didn't throw a temper tantrum about giving up his car seat to the baby. That could have been horrible right there.
We were about an hour in the cold as I was throwing carseats around and trying to figure out where the belts were, and how to attach everything together. The Caravan only has one LATCH tether hook, and it's BEHIND the last row of carseats. I have no idea how you'd install a toddler carseat into the middle row. And no, the staff there didn't even offer to give me the car manual so that I could look it up.
My husband was totally pissed and has let National know all about their poor customer service. We realize that they aren't allowed to help install the car seat (liability issues) but they didn't even come by to ask if we were doing okay, offer to hold the baby for a minute or two, or even offer my mom a coffee.
We were inside their office watching them while waiting for my husband to come and double-check my carseat installation (I was freaking out, and didn't want to drive if the seats hadn't been installed properly), and they were totally not busy that afternoon -- a customer every 5 minutes, and there were two women just having coffee and chatting at the desk. Plus two clerks in the parking lot, checking in cars as they came in (every 10-15 minutes). And it turns out that one of the parking lot ladies wanted to help me, but the office women hauled her back and said she couldn't help in any way.
The rest of the weekend was great -- the hotel clerk at the Holiday Inn even offered to bring us her baby car seat that her kid had just outgrown!
But I still can't believe how horrible the folks at National were. They ended up refunding half the cost of the weekend rental, but originally offered only to refund the cost of the carseat rental ($16). It's not even our money that we're asking for (husband's company is paying for the rental), it's an acknowledgement of their piss-poor customer service.