Retailers still putting children at risk

Parents are still getting incorrect and potentially dangerous advice from retailers on how to fit child car seats, according to Which? magazine.

Which? sent mystery shoppers into seven branches for each of the five major child car seat retailers to scrutinise the standard of advice on offer from trained members of staff.

Worryingly, no more than two out of seven stores from each of Halfords, Mothercare, John Lewis, Mamas & Papas and Babies R Us gave the correct advice when it came to correctly installing the seat.

Mothercare came top of the five chains investigated, but still scored much lower in comparison to independent stores tested by Which? last year. Mamas & Papas and Babies R Us made a substantial improvement but are still a long way from satisfactory, and Halfords and John Lewis scores were worse than in Which?’s previous investigation. None of the five retailers improved on their scores for correctly installing a child car seat, with three doing worse than before.

Which? says that the failings continue despite all of the five retailers promising to improve the service they offer to parents.

Richard Lloyd, Which? executive director, said: “It is unacceptable that major high street retailers are still giving poor advice and failing to highlight crucial information that is key to a child’s safety, despite them promising to do better last year.

“We want retailers to improve their staff training and knowledge of child car seats so that all major high street retailers offer the correct advice every time. Parents should be able to trust the advice they get from major retailers.”

Click here to read the full Which? report.