Mum suing Argos for £20million
The mum found out she has been using an unsafe car seat for over a year
Rochelle Natty, mum of one, is suing the retail giant for £20 after she bought an unsafe carseat from Argos.
Rochelle used the car seat for 18 month before receiving a recall notice from Argos to inform her the car seat had a potential safety issue and said ”Argos failed to recognise the seriousness of the risk they placed my child in.”
The Argos exclusive range of Mamas & Papas branded Mercury Group car seats were recalled in April 2016 as they may be prone to cracking. The car seats cost around £50 when they were available for sale.
Customers were urged to return the car seats for a full refund, no proof of purchase was necessary.
Rochelle is now demanding £20million from Argos as she was using the dangerous car seat for 18 months without realising it may not protect her child in the event of a crash.
In a High Court writ Rochelle said: “I was sold a car seat that was unsafe and Argos (took) one year and a half to inform me about it, whilst my son was being driven around in a car seat that was not fit for purpose. They put my child’s life at risk. On 11 May 2016 I received an email from Argos stating urgent safety concerns. I read through it, then called Argos up and asked, why did it take them a year and a half to tell me this whilst driving around with my child in an unsafe car seat. Argos then went on to blame Mamas & Papas.”
Lewis Bretts, Argos’ barrister, wrote in the company’s defence to the action that Argos “admits” it sold the car seats and issued the recall notice. Mamas & Papas, not Argos, are the producer and importer of all such items for the purposes of the Consumer Protection Act 1987.
Mamas & Papas have been named as second defendants on the writ.
The barrister adds that Argos want Miss Natty to prove she purchased one of the seats from them.
He goes on to ask for her claim to be struck out, adding that she “seeks £20m despite not claiming to have suffered any actual loss, damage or personal injury.”
He says she has failed to provide adequate details of “the nature of the loss or damage suffered and how the alleged breach or defect caused her to suffer.”
“It is averred that Argos has acted reasonably at all times in respect of the timing and distribution of the recall notice,” he adds.
“Argos has offered a full refund to any of its customers in possession of an item referred to in the recall notice.”
Mamas & Papas said ”We wish to reassure our customers that we take product quality and assurance very seriously and that the safety of our customers is always our primary concern. All Mamas and Papas car seats are tested, certified and approved under European regulations by independent accredited bodies. All our products are audited and checked – by routine batch sample testing of production – at accredited test laboratories. We would like to apologise to customers for any inconvenience the recall has caused. We would also like to assure them that there have been no reports of any incidents involving any of the recalled car seats.’
Sick woman. Yes, of course you would be a bit angry that the product you had been using was unsafe, however, she’s using her child to make money! The company did everything they could, they recalled the product, and they apologised, her child wasn’t hurt, so where has this 20 mill figure come from. Sheer greed! Just be grateful your child is safe, that nothing went wrong, and get over yourself.