Our Stroller Broke

Just recently we wrote about how we switched strollers from the Graco Double Snap n Go to the Peg Perego Twin Aria. The Twin Aria seemed decent because it was light and it was narrow enough to fit through most doorways. It worked great when I took the kids out shopping with me–the stroller fit between the various displays at the bookstore without trouble. Unfortunately, it broke.

Yesterday we took the girls out to lunch, and as we were putting the girls back into their stroller, we noticed that Miranda had somehow pushed her arm through the back of the seat. The seat back is held in place by two pieces of webbing that are stitched around the stroller frame. Stitched webbing is usually quite strong if done correctly, but we found that one side of the seat back had come unstitched completely. The seat back was barely holding Miranda in place. We took Miranda out of the stroller and carried her back with us to the car.

We got our stroller as a gift off of our baby registry, and when I called Amazon to see if they would replace it, we were informed that Amazon no longer carries Babies R Us products as of July 1st. They were willing to accept the stroller as a return and send us a gift certificate for the full value of the purchase though. They’re going to mail us a prepaid shipping label and send us the gift certificate when they receive the stroller. I thought that was an example of great customer service. The stroller is eleven months old and it’s not something Amazon even stocks, but they’re willing to accept the return. We do enough shopping on Amazon that I’m sure we’ll end up using the gift certificate eventually.

This leaves us without a usable stroller though. We’re going to need one tomorrow when I take the girls to daycare by myself and when Agnes picks them up from daycare by herself. I guess we’ll have to go shopping this evening for a new twin stroller. We’re thinking that we’re going to pick up a different stroller–the Twin Aria has a few issues that we would like to avoid (aside from the dangerously poor stitching). The Peg Perego Twin Aria has tiny sunshades and we felt like our girls were constantly squinting. The stroller sometimes got stuck going over very minor bumps in the sidewalk. The left wheel brake would partially engage on its own and make a clicking noise as we pushed the stroller. The “Aria” sticker on the side of the stroller started peeling off. We’re not sure what we’re going to get instead yet, but we’re considering a twin stroller by Maclaren. We welcome any suggestions people might have.