An experience with Simplicity

I have found the entire baby product buying experience to be quite eye opening and trying on my patience. Everything from limited availability and recalls of products still in their boxes, to horrifically deficient assembly instructions and products which arrived with blemishes.

Truth be told, I don’t have a major problem with any of these things. I’ve worked for companies within in manufacturing settings and I understand that imperfect products get out the door. As long as it’s not dangerous, which can be a very fine distinction, I’m more concerned with how they handle the situation. We recently purchased a Simplicity brand bassinet, and as I went about assembling the infant sleeper, I ran into a couple of the above mentioned issues.

During assembly, I was mildly frustrated by the instructional illustrations. The drawings were at such a detailed level that they didn’t provide perspective as to where individual pieces were located relative to the rest of the bassinet. This made it difficult when dealing with multiple pieces which appeared very similar, yet were located in different areas and performed different functions. Not a huge deal, it wasn’t anything impossible. Compared to the instructions for the changing table I assembled it was a masterpiece of instructional writing. It just slowed me down a little and I moved on.

As the bassinet took shape I noticed that the foam padding around the frame looks more like packing material than a part of the actual bedding. This made me a little hesitant. I questioned whether the durability and protection of the padding was sufficient, but after some poking and prodding it seemed to perform its function properly. The foam padding is not visible after final assembly, it’s just not pretty during assembly. No show stopper.

With the frame assembled I moved on to the final steps of draping the bedding fabric over the frame and securing it with snaps. As I neared the new final snaps I noticed some spots on the fabric that resembled rust or blood. I’m not quite sure what it was, but I didn’t want it anywhere near the baby. At that point we called Simplicity customer service, which was a turning point in this whole process.

Much to my surprise, they were excellent. The customer service representative was friendly (which is often difficult to find) and incredibly helpful. She immediately remedied our problem by shipping us new section of bedding. There was no arguing, no confrontation required to make our point, the representative was excellent. I have to say this made all the difference in the world to me and my wife. The way they handled the situation not only remedied our gripe, but it gave me a little bit of faith that maybe the goal of child product companies is not in fact to drive parents nuts. This definitely raised Simplicity in my estimation, so I’ll post a product review in the future to see if the goods live up to the service.