More than 200k auto seats unsafe
Britax, a manufacturing giant that includes children’s car seats among its line-up of products, has had to recall over 200,000 of them due to harness adjuster buttons that can stick and potentially cause the shoulder straps to loosen, making the seat unsafe. The dates in question center around August 1, 2014 and July 29. According to the official website, they have been in business for over 70 years and came to American consumers in 1996.
How it happened
Consumers became a powerful force of nature after one of them posted to Facebook, and others started going to federal regulators with complaints of the harness button being possibly stuck. After an internal audit, and pressure from an increasingly unsatisfied customer base the company decided to recall a large portion of their car seats out of an abundance of caution.
https://youtu.be/r0lhgRz8IjY
What’s being done to fix it?
Consumers can apparently look to see if they are on the recall list by looking at the date their particular seat was manufactured. In addition to notifying customers if their particular car seat is in need of recall or repair, they will also send a lubrication kit as well. After a one-time application is applied to the car seat the adjuster button should move and function normally, thereby removing the risk of the car seat shoulder straps loosening. The shoulder straps in question are meant to not only make the car seat more secure for holding children, but also function as one of the more primary tools in holding the child back in the case of a crash which has the potential to throw smaller children around.
Lessons learned
What many can learn from such an incident is a potential case-study in consumer buying power and the nature of future company recalls. In the age of social media and the internet, such incidents show that not even manufacturing giants in the tech world are immune to internet criticism. While the car seats were recalled and no injuries have been reported thus far, the car seat recall is another example of a tech world dependent on reliability and information.
