Jenny On the Spot

Sticky fingers won and suddenly I have a magician or two that can make the irreplaceable, forever disappear. A small metal piece from an Evenflo highchair was lost in the process of cleaning the seat cover and straps. I contacted Evenflo for a replacement part. It turns out that one cannot replace much with Evenflo. Heaven help me that I tried to CLEAN something. *Gasp* The following is my last email to Evenflo…

So what I hear your company, Evenflo saying is, “We intend only certain pieces to be removable. You may be ABLE to remove some pieces, but you shouldn’t.”

Evenflo, in an effort of clarity, I hear, “We decide what parts your filthy, crusty, child goop-infested highchair MAY or may NOT be washed.” In my case - the waist restraint.

That makes PERFECT sense. The FABRIC STRAPS in a highchair NEVER need to be cleaned beyond a simple wet cloth. That will sufficiently wipe away all filth (it’s appropriate to sense sarcasm here). I wonder if I could get Oprah here to get her “team” to swab that nasty thing. But thank you Evenflo, for urging me to no longer use the highchair. Safety is the noted issue, but I think you want more of my money - a NEW high chair perhaps…???

In conclusion, here is the message I pass on to others,

Evenflo doesn’t want us to be able to clean their high chairs well, so invest in one as you would an enormous paper plate. Plan on tossing it if you intend to clean it because, I note and quote from my email request, “While we (Evenflo) do realize that consumers may be able to find a way to remove almost any part on a product, this does not mean that we intend for it to be removed.”

Friends, peers, mother, fathers, grandparents, day cares and some Sunday school programs - all people who desire to kind of “spring clean” and uphold a standard of household sanitation that rivals only like, 15 minutes of Merry Maid service. . . I implore — DO NOT BUY EVENFLO. One cannot adequately clean Evenflo products and expect the support one needs if a problem arises (such as a young child makes away with and permanently misplaces the part in question).

I still have a big problem - no clasp/metal piece for this high chair. This is still a problem because one MUST restrain the human octopus who refuses to eat sitting. The bright side is, my friends — the market is saturated with so much baby product, I can support another company. It will be easy and painless to simply pass over Evenflo altogether. Baby products, in this day and age, saturate the market. Evenflo is not a monopoly for Baby!!! Graco, Fisher-Price, Avent, I’m all yours…

I’m not so much a soapbox person, but I’m nesting and full of wonderful hormones that give me strength and power to combat corporate evil! Chant with me, “No Mo’ Evenflo, No Mo’ Evenflo!!!” I just hope a bunch of parental google highchair researchers will find this post and be enlighted by my misfortune!