Bugaboo Bad Review ( rhymes with "Poo Poo")

A Well Meaning Rant – and a request

(Or, who knew that I could get angry about a baby apparatus, so long after my kids were little – HMMMPH! )

If you have kids, you totally get how important your stroller purchase is – right? When I had Pat, some well-meaning folks bought me a stroller as a baby gift. The only problem is that the purchaser was about 5’5” – and I am quite a bit taller….pushing a stroller intended for a shorter person was killer…backaches, torn muscles after wrestling it through the sleet….just crap. I was too cheap to replace it and switched to a Gerry pack soon after he graduated from the Snugli. With K the younger, we splurged on a new stroller but it was still too short (there wasn’t a lot of choice back then). Once again, I tucked him into some sort of pack and went about my business. That was old me, the ‘don’t make a wave or behave unseemly’ me. Thank God she’s dead and buried; the new me is a lot less accepting of crap. Like my local constable noted after a run in with some local brutes, ‘phew T, you don’t take shit from anybody’. Yup, no shit - I expect idiots to leave me and my family alone and I expect a company to live up to its reputation. After all, a bully in a corporate suit is still a bully. In the case of Pink Mohair, her corporate bully is a bit of a dumbass, too. Just for good measure, I suppose…

A good stroller is worth its weight in gold – at least that’s what the Bugaboo stroller company seems to think – I mean $750 USD!!! Holy Flying Monkey Crap! What would you expect for that price????

If you spend a small fortune on ‘the perfect stroller”, one that allows you to link from car seat to stroller without waking up the baby and to carry everything that you need for the little one, you’d think that the company would be appreciative. “Wow, thanks for purchasing our over-priced but well worth the money stroller – we care so much about your happiness with our product that our customer service team is there to take care of your questions and concerns’ – as a Customer Service trainer, I know the routine inside and out – and I believe in the message. If you’re the customer left in limbo with a legitimate complaint, you start to believe in it too, don’t you?

Here’s the scoop – busy mom, with hectic career and personal life buys super-expensive stroller system, spends extra on (what the company claims are) compatible parts – car seat, etc etc.. One problem – none of this is actually compatible and refuses to snap together – FOR ANYONE! Talk about your high-priced rip-offs! The story only gets better. Read here and see how ineffective (read “Useless and unresponsive, excuse-making and dense”) this company has been in resolving the matter. Just like the Jet Blue fiasco, Bugaboo needs to get its shit together. Do not leave customers stranded without a solution and try to cover your ass with excuses (especially ones that don’t make sense). In a letter sent by the company, they claim that they had not received a lot of emails about this situation. Over 75 of us fellow Bloggers sent in our notes of ire - but somehow, they didn't get them? Ok, maybe their communications system sucks - but that’s not our problem. Address customer concerns in a logical (read – professionally, politely, timely and one that is a solution, not an added worry) manner. What they've offered so far is inconvenient and makes extra work for an already busy family. Any company worth its salt would be sending them the necessary replacement parts, to their home, at the company's expense, not the customer's inconvenience. Think about it...

I tell you what – let’s start them on the path to improving their customer service plan, ok? Let’s all send them an email about the situation – nothing too racy or mean-spirited, just plain language telling them what we think of companies who try to screw us around when we have a problem with their products. As women, we need to stick together and fight this type of battle. Alone, we’re one voice in a crowd. Together, we can make an impact. Ladies, send them an email, put “Pink Mohair Supporter” in the subject box and let rip. Tell them that we, as a population are tired of being patted on the hand and being told to go to our corner, where we can be ‘good girls’. Once, back in the day when I was a ski mechanic helping premiere athletes reach their (and our country's) goals, I met a sales rep who refused to demonstrate a new product to me. "Let the big boys worry about that", he told me. In my youthful arrogance, I looked him in the eye and said 'sir, I am one of the big boys!'. Don't let my response fool you - I was pissed, just like I am about Pink Mohair's situation. I haven’t been a ‘good girl’ since I was about 15 so I don’t think that I’ll regain any ground on that front but there’s a lot to be said about being true to our opinions. Speak out, ladies – if you don’t, who will?

Well-behaved women seldom make history.