Fisher Price: Putting the “Serve” in Customer Service

With four kids under the age of eight in our house, one of them a three month old, it is vital to have a safe, entertaining place for the baby to occupy his time when the other three need attention, and a bouncer seat fits the bill. A couple of weeks ago my oldest child stood on our Aquarium Bouncer and broke the metal in two, so I bought the Fisher Price Rainforest Bouncer to replace it, as we wanted another one that had both lights and sounds as features on the toy bar.

My son loves the small motorized monkey and frog (lizard? you can only see half his body) and the variety of songs. It has three volume settings, including no sound at all, and the cover is machine washable and dryable,very important when the baby has reflux and you don’t want to be without the seat any longer than you have to. It sits the baby up a little higher than other bouncer seats we’ve had, which is nice because then he can see the action going on around him. It vibrates just like the other bouncers we’ve had, which helps soothe the baby for sleep.

That said, I don’t think the design is as good as the Aquarium Bouncer, and it isn’t as well made. Two toys hang from the toy bar, down underneath the waterfall, but they come down too far and it is hard for my child to play with them.

There are two teething rings that hang below the large monkey toy, but they are basically useless, because the monkey hangs down too far for the child to reach them. The construction is more flimsy than our previous Fisher Price bouncers, and the toy bar rattles horribly when the vibrator is on. Worst of all, only one day after we bought it, the moving frog (lizard?) started making a horrendous clacking sound – it appeared a gear was slipping in the mechanism that moves the frog.

I called Fisher Price customer service on a Monday afternoon. Once I waded through the touch tone menu and got an actual person (who was extremely friendly and polite), all I had to do was hold the phone up to the bouncer. With that, Fisher-Price sent me a new toy bar, no cost and no further questions. I expected it to take a week or so to arrive, coming from Buffalo, NY in the dead of a very snowy winter, to here in Maryland. It was delivered that Wednesday morning, by DHL. Unfortunately, a couple of days later the frog started to clack again, but only occasionally, and as we use it, it seems to be going away.

I have called Fisher Price again, and they promise to resolve the situation however we want – if we want yet another toy bar, or a new seat. For now, we have decided to keep an eye on the situation and we’ll take action only if it gets worse. I hope not, because my son really likes this bouncer, and it is cute. I’ll let you know if it doesn’t resolve favorably.

How refreshing to do business with a company that believes in making things right, without aggravating the customer in the process. I won’t hesitate to buy another bouncer, or other products, from Fisher Price.