Britax is scamming us, but I'm a chump all the same... or, How I lost my baby at Babies R Us

Ask a parent who makes the best car seat... and they'll say Britax. Unless of course they don't own a Britax in which case they will probably say Evenflo, Evenflo's Triumph being the number 2 pick. Unless of course they're me and happen to both own a Britax *and* think Britax is hyped up, in which case they (or I) will say, Britax or Evenflo are both good.

Fact - most people are not going to shell out $200 +/- $50 and then admit they made a bad choice. They are going to justify their choice by any means possible.

It's the safest! Well, it's NOT... the Evenflo is ranked just as safe as the Roundabout. And if you're looking at the Britax Marathon, it is actually not ranked so well for rear-facing with LATCH, which means the Evenflo is actually safer (as is the Roundabout for that matter)

It will be the last car seat you ever buy! regarding the Marathon. Well, maybe it will, maybe it won't. But Britax recommends replacing your car seat every 5 years. So even though you theoretically *could* use this car seat for your child's entire car seat career, unless you have a very large child, he or she will still need a booster seat past age 5 (depending on state laws). If this seat does indeed need replaced after 5 years, you're going to need to buy a new one. (And you have to wonder why Britax would sell you something to be used until your child is 65 pounds and then tell you you can't actually use it that long... this is like someone giving you a year's worth of frozen meals that expire in 6 months) So you are either out another [obscene chunk of change] for another Marathon or you are putting your kid in a regular booster seat anyway, which is the very thing you tried to avoid by buying the Marathon in the first place. Plus the fact that rear-facing, the Marathon isn't so great anyway (and doesn't fit in a lot of vehicles rear-facing, to boot) so you're probably going to want to use a different seat in between the baby bucket and the Marathon.

Britax really has only a couple of questionable traits over the competition.

They are so easy to install, a box of hair could get it right. (But how important is this? Most people install their car seat once and leave it. We have to move ours a lot so having one that is fast and easy to install is nice, but for most people it's probably a moot point.)

They have pretty, soft, luxurious covers.

They have SNOB APPEAL and just fucking admit it already, OK? You'd die a thousand deaths before having a Graco seat replace your Peg Perego baby bucket in the back seat of your BMW.

They make the only actual, honest-to-goodness convertible car seat that goes up to 65 pounds. This is theoretically safer than the more proletariat, er, common option of putting your child in a convertible until 40 pounds and then switching to a belt positioning booster. It certainly seems safer. But is it really? I don't know - sorry to disappoint if you are looking for the answer here. If a convertible really beats a booster for safety, why is Britax the only company making them for children over 40 pounds? (I have emailed Evenflo about this and am awaiting a response, but they probably think I'm retarded. We'll see.)

All right. So yes, again, we own a Britax. We have a Roundabout. Like every other parent not immediately willing to part with excess cash for a hyped up brand of baby gear, we were torn between the Rounabout and the Evenflo Triumph. Both are good seats. What sold me on the Roundabout, ultimately, was the fact that it came with a beautifully textured, soft, grey waffley cover (called "wicker" and only available at Babies R Us) and the fact that I had $80 in credit at BRU to begin with, making the prices of the two car sears roughly equal. Ummmm, the grey of the cover complimented my baby's eyes really well.

Yeah, I'm ashamed of myself. And for the record we have a Hyundai Elantra and the Britax replaced a Graco bucket.

Now I *could* have gotten one on line for $50 less- but I had to have the wicker cover. Plus the credit thing, not that I couldn't have used the credit for something else but I really didn't need $80 worth of anything else at BRU. So. $120 + $80 to BRU and I had my car seat.

We figured, he'd use it till he was 40 pounds and.or looked too big in it - 3 1/2 or so - and then we'd get a booster for him. Because what big kid WANTS to ride in a baby car seat anyway, right? But then enter my mother's neighbor getting into an accident from which she and the woman driving the other car walked away, and the 3 year old in the booster in the back seat of the other car being, um, really, really bad off. Suddenly I wanted my child in a regular car seat until he was driving age, and only until then because driver's seats are never LATCH equipped.

Well for $200 on line, I could have bought a friggin' Marathon. Hmm. (In stores, ie BRU, they are ~$250)

I *could* have paid the same amount, and had a car seat for much longer. (I thought this before knowing as I know now that the Marathons aren't so good rear-facing anyway, which makes using them from that early on actually not so smart)

Recently, I rode somewhere with a friend and my boy rode in her girl's Marathon... and he looked SO comfy. Not that he doesn't look comfy in his Roundabout, and not that he doesn't have room to grow yet in his Roundabout (he's got a bit of time yet on the middle belt position) but he looked like he was really comfy in the Marathon and would be really comfy in the Marathon for a long time to come. (Her 4 year old still likes it, she just wasn't with us that day)

So. Hmmm. I began to feel kind of extra dumb about not going for the Marathon. (Again this was before I knew the rear-facing thing...)

I figured down the line, we'd be buying a Marathon. Which is OK because he'll be in it a while and baby #2 will use the Roundabout so the Roundabout won't have been a waste.

WELL. Recently it came to my attention that as of August 1 (ie, yesterday) Britax was going to force all retailers, on line and otherwise, to sell Britax seats at the MSRP. That means $250 for Marathons, $200 for Roundabouts.

Hmmm.

Ok, why?

You know retailers never sell ANYTHING without a profit. You know even when you buy stuff on sale, they're making money. So if an on-line retailer can sell a Britax at [MSRP - $50] you know and the retailer is still seeing a profit. (You also know BRU is making [profit + $50] more profit on it which is really sickening) You also know Britax charges much, much less to sell the seats wholesale to a retaler which means they are not, as you would believe, just absurdly expensive to manufacture because they are so, so technical and safe.

So why does Britax give a ferret's anus why retailers sell them for? They are seeing the same profit either way, right?

Could it be that they *only* want the rich driving around flaunting Britax in the backseat?

Could it be that they want to insure that only kids whose parents make $80k a year can afford those seats, or that kids whose parents earn far less suffer to keep up with the Joneses? There's a time and a place to make a profit, but how can anyone in good conscience claim to be working to improve child safety and then for no reason besides snobbery want to keep these wonderful, safe car seats out of as many cars as possible?

Logic failed me.

Britax deserves my boycott, not my support.

But what *if*... what if the Marathon is safer? Well I better order quickly.

But surely it's NOT.

But what if it is?

But it probably isn't.

But what if... OK even if I buy it and it's only JUST as good I will need a new car seat when we have another kid anyway so it won't hurt to have it.

But it's the principle, they're trying to play me.

Screw that, at least I know enough to get played now than for $50 more in the future.

But what if we never have another kid? Well the 'pole can still be in the Marathon till he's huge and if we never have another kid I'll have bigger worries over having an extra car seat on hand.

Well before ordering it would at least be prudent to figure out if the Marathon will actually fit in my car, right? So off to BRU we go to compare the Roundabout and Marathon. I took both off the shelves... and placed them side by side on the model back seat BRUs have in their car seat departments. I installed both - box of hair. Both. I put the 'pole he in - he was unhappy and wanted to rape and plunder. I compared height and base to base... decided it would fit... but still wasn't convinced of the merits of this seat... since it still came down to why does no other manufacturer make one if it's SO important? You KNOW there's a market. So it would fit, but I wasn't sold. I put the Marathon back and glanced at the 'pole, who was playing with some hats. I put the Roundabout back and glanced at the 'pole, who was missing.

Frantic, I ran up and down, round and round the clothing racks... calling his name "Where are you?" - almost so ALMOST amending it to "Where the FUCK are you?" but bearing in mind I *was* surrounded by small children and parents who are probably better parents than I... And I knew he had to be somewhere. But finding a 3 foot tall person in a labyrinth of clothing racks is hard. I figured he was AROUND but he vanished so fast someone could just as quickly vanish with him. I was on my way to the cribs where I was going to climb up for a bird's eye view and en route bumped into a sales person and blurted out, "I lost my kid!"

She said to go to customer service... I described the child in question... 20 months old, striped blue onesie, curly blond hair... they made some kind of announcement, staffed the doors, told me to wait by the exit while alarms were going off and the sales staff combed the store for my boy. At least they found him and came carrying him back to customer service to which I ran to GRAB him and squeeze him close...

And after that we went to Target and that little boy got carried in the frame carrier. That boy is *not* escaping on me again.

And then I came home with the knowledge that I should and will do anything and everything to keep this precious baby safe and ordered the damn Marathon just before the prices jumped.

It should be here next week.