Graco A Flake-O When It Comes to Customer PR

Customer service failures can easily become public relations problems when consumers are angry enough to tell the world about it–and it can be doubly worse when your customers are sleep-deprived new parents.

Case in point, infant toy and accessory giant Graco. When the motor on new parents Kristin and Ryan’s new “Lovin’ Hug Plug-In Swing” failed shortly after they received it, they contacted Graco customer service.

“We were told March 7 that we would have a replacement in five to seven days,” Kristin said. “It didn’t come.”

The couple waited a little longer–by day thirteen the missing motor was a no-show. Kristin called Graco back. The customer service rep responded that they never sent the motor because it’s on backorder and they expect to have them by the end of April. That’s two months without a motor.

“Kristin was never told it wouldn’t arrive until after she called them a second time asking where it was,” Ryan said. “Only then did Graco let us know that they do have the same exact motor unit in another color and will send that. We should get it in two to three days. Even so, that will still be 15 or 16 days total. Why couldn’t they have suggested that right away?”

“It may not sound like a big deal unless you consider that we have to hold our baby while he naps. He won’t nap any other way,” Kristin said. “I’d like a nap now and then since we get only about five hours at night. Unfortunately, since we don’t have a functioning swing and were under the impression a new motor was on the way, we didn’t go buy another swing. Graco’s poor communication and lack of concern for us as customers has cost the entire family untold hours of sleep.”

Lest you think this swing isn’t the panacea the family sought, check out how Graco bills the swing in their online ad:

Cuddle and comfort your baby with the innovative plug-in swing that “hugs” him like you do. The ergonomic design of Lovin’ Hug™ swing’s hammock-style seat mimics the curve of your arms, helping baby feel secure. At the same time, the plush mobile, complete with 10 classical songs and 5 nature sounds, keeps him soothed and amused. 6 swing speeds and 4 recline positions allow you to adjust to suit baby’s mood. In addition, it’s loaded with convenience features like a one hand flip open tray and a plug in option for hours of uninterrupted swinging.

If you were a sleep-deprived new parent looking for any way to help your newborn sleep, wouldn’t you be taken in by this description and fully expect it to work upon delivery? Moreover, if it did not, wouldn’t you expect the company to proactively make every effort to mitigate the situation?

“At the end of the call (with customer service) I told them the company’s policy should be to send an entirely new swing at no charge immediately when the motor is going to take nearly two months to come in,” Kristin said.

A quick check of the Graco product page for the swing reveals that Kristin and Ryan aren’t the first to run into problems:

This swing is nice looking and worked the first day I got it then started having problems with it shutting off. I then put batteries in and it stopped working.

There’s no response from Graco on the page–one can only hope that customer got a replacement or refund.

Confusingly, there is also a review featuring a similar problem as Kristin and Ryan’s–only this time there was a positive outcome from Graco customer service:

This swing has been great for our family! A great investment! My son loves sitting in this swing during the day. He is in it EVERY day! […] The music and sound effects are great too. When he was a newborn, he liked the “beating heart” and “ocean” sound effects and then started to like the music. Sadly, the sounds all stopped working on it (which is why I gave it a 4 star rating). However, I called Graco Customer Service and they were very nice and courteous about getting it fixed. They asked me some simple routine questions about the product such as model number and manufacture date and then asked when I bought the product. They took down my info and then sent me a replacement motor for the unit so that the music would work again. I didn’t have to beg or hassle with a million questions with them and I really appreciated that they just took care of it so quickly and politely. I will recommend Graco and their products to my family and friends. I do have other Graco products and it’s a comfort now to know that if anything else goes wrong that Customer Service will be polite and take care of it, instead of hassling me about it like some other companies do when you say something stopped working. […]

Unfortunately for Kristin and Ryan (and their baby) they didn’t get this level of service. Whether they experienced an anomaly or Graco’s customer service is haphazard isn’t the only question. The other issue is that when a company is insensitive to their customer base, people–even tired new parents–won’t take it sitting down.

“We will be talking about this on Facebook, Twitter, parent forums–wherever we can,” Kristin said. “It’s inexcusable to be so careless with customers.”