"Your call is very important to us."

That is the line that I have been hearing over and over for a month now. On January 21, I purchased a crib for Baby B to use while we are staying at my parent's house. That weekend my Dad and I attempted, unsuccessfully, to assemble the crib. After an hour and a half, we only had the headboard and one end assembled before we realized that one of the parts was defective.

Fast forward 39 days.

I have made seven phone calls to the manufacturer trying to get a replacement part. Yes, that's right. SEVEN. And each time I call, I get to listen to the hold message. On the occasions that I have gotten to actually speak to a person (see four calls detailed below), I have been placated with what I thought was a reasonable remedy.

Call #1: The company sent out two different parts, a leg and and endboard, because we weren't sure which of the two was defective. This took 10 business days to receive. When I got around to trying to assemble again, I discovered the defective part was indeed the leg. However, they sent me the wrong leg. I needed the left leg, and they sent me the right one.

Call #2: The company apologized for sending the wrong leg and would rush out the correct part to me. Two weeks later I still had not received it, and in my crazy stay at home with two kids life didn't realize it until two weeks had gone by.

Call #3: The customer service representative apologized, again, and informed me that the part I needed was out of stock. The warehouse had failed to inform him of this and that is why I had not received anything yet. He suggested sending me the correct part that I needed in a different color so that I could at least assemble and use the product until the correct color part was in stock in three to four weeks. He sent this part via 2 day Express.

Call #4: Upon receipt of the wrong color leg, I discovered that it was NOT EVEN CLOSE to being the right part. It was the wrong length and shape. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???????

My blood was boiling at this point. This happened on Sunday February 28. I was so irate that I was getting ready to write negative postings of this company all over the Internet, on my blog, on facebook, on Twitter, on Amazon and Babies R Us product postings.

By Monday morning, I had calmed down a bit. But I was resolved that the only solution I would be happy with would be for them to send me a completely new crib or to get my money back. After twenty minutes of being transferred into various people's voicemails, I finally left one for the person that I had been working with the entire month. The message went something like this:

Hi there. This is Erin R, reference #12345. This has been going on for over a month now and I still do not have the correct part. I need your company to either send me a new crib or give me my money back. You have three hours to call me back, or I am going to flame your company all over the Internet.

Did I get a call back? No. Did I make good on my threats? No. I haven't had time. And that is probably a good thing.

Yesterday, I received a call from the company's customer service manager. He apologized profusely for the problem and explained what had happened. He told me that they were in the process of breaking down some cribs to replenish their spare parts and that my part would be out to me by Friday. It wasn't a great excuse, but I actually felt better that they had done something urgent to meet my need.

Although I *think* this situation is resolved, I will not buy anything from them again. However, I also am not going to spread the news all over the Internet. I don't know if my situation is an isolated one or a common occurrence, and I have no way of finding out. My advice to you is that when purchasing ANYTHING, especially baby products, try to buy from a reputable company with a record of excellent customer service. I took the economy route when making this purchase and now I wish I had spent the extra $30 to buy the other crib from a more customer friendly company.

Hindsight is 20/20, right?

Erin