Dangerous highchair needs to be recalled!! (Is someone trying to keep this a secret?)

Has anyone ever heard of J. Mason, or MTS Products? Do you know someone who owns a J.Mason highchair (available at Target stores as well as elsewhere)? Then you need to read this!!!

*To see the highchair in question, you can go to www.jmason.com/highchair.htm
It's the Deluxe model (mine is with the Ellie design)

I bought a J.Mason highchair in June '04. The kind you have to assemble. It comes in 3 pieces (well 4, counting the removable tray): the main piece consisting of the seat, the arms, and the upper portion of the legs; and the 2 lower portions of the legs- the front and the back. The legs are tubular steel, the bottom portions shaped kinda like a "u", and they have a small piece of metal protuding from the ends which fit inside the upper part of the legs. I'm not really sure what purpose this metal piece is supposed to serve... unless... well, first things first.

Everything was fine, sorta'... till November. I had noticed for a while that the legs didn't stay together all that well. They seemed to somehow work themselves apart, so that I would have to push the pieces back together before putting my daughter in. They didn't seem to separate all that much (sometimes up to an inch; the lower piece fits inside the upper piece about 3 inches or so, not including the other piece of metal attatched to the lower legs), so other than thinking "what the heck", I didn't do too much about it. My mistake. I just figured that with the way the legs are shaped that they just didn't fit together all that well. I never would've guessed that that particular feature would end up endangering my child.

I have 3 children (as referred to in my profile); 2 are under 2 yrs. old. My older daughter was (thankfully) the one in the highchair when the incident happened. Had it been my infant daughter (who was about 5 1/2 mos. old at the time... the same age as many babies who sit in highchairs and have started solid foods), she undoubtedly would've been seriously injured, or worse. Then I would be telling a much different story.

So my older daughter was 21 mos. at the time, about 24 lbs. or so, a normal weight for that age. It was lunchtime, and so I went to put her in the highchair. As she was sitting in it, I went to get her food... "CRASH!!!" and crying!!! I ran over to my daughter, and found her on the floor with the chair on top of her! I rushed to pick her up, and checked her over for any injuries. She was terrified of course, but seemed (thankfully) to be more shaken up than anything else. I looked at the highchair to figure out what happened and, lo and behold, the lower portion of the front legs had completely separated from the seat part! She had not been doing anything in the chair, other than sitting, when this happened.

The other thing I'm grateful for, is that it was the front, rather than the back, legs. Being that she fell forward, she was able to somewhat brace herself. Just think if she had fallen backwards... well, I'd rather not thank you. But I can guess I'd have been treated differently by the company in question... but read on.
Of course, I notified the company right away, by calling the number on the chair itself. I got the voicemail and left a msg... not to hear from them for a few days, when finally Joselle called to "follow up". She informed me that she was staying late to call me about this issue (oh, the inconvenience she must've been experiencing). Of course, the first thing she asked was whether or not Rose had been injured (read: Do we have a lawsuit on our hands?). Then she informed me that the legs were supposed to "click together" to keep them from coming apart, and mine must be defective. She offered to send me a new one, and asked if I would send mine back for examination (by whom? She didn't say).

Now here's where it starts to smell a little funny. She took down my address (after I had to tell her a few times... mostly that the "E" in my address did not stand for "east" but was part of our house #) and said that they would call with a tracking number for me. Ok, but then I don't hear from them... for 2 weeks or so. And so, I call. And then begins my nightmare.

Once again, somehow, Joselle was the one who picked up the phone. (Eventually I got the idea that she is the only one who actually answers the phone when you ask for the "juvenile products" division. She must be pretty busy!) So basically I asked why I hadn't gotten a new highchair yet... that I'd been expecting a phone call, blah blah blah... and that's exactly what I got back from her: "blah blah blah." Well, that and the information she apparently forgot to tell me before: that they wouldn't send a new highchair unless they had received the old one! (And what did they expect ME to do in the meantime?? Go rent one or something?) So she re-took my address, to see why I hadn't received a box yet... and, lo and behold!!! The address was WRONG!!! Big surprise. Hmm... I remember telling her before, explicitly, that the "E" in our address was NOT FOR "EAST" but was "just 'e'" as part of the house number. Whew!

So somehow she extrapolated that it was FedEx's fault that the box hadn't reached me (don't know who's fault it was that J.Mason, or more correctly Joselle, had never called me with the tracking # in the first place!!) So she promised that "the box" would arrive Friday (this was like, Tuesday) and went ahead and so generously "ordered" me a new highchair. (Why use quotation marks? Just wait). Well, what a surprise. Friday, I see the FedEx truck go by, whoosh!, and then it was gone! No box.

Here comes Monday. Here comes a box! For a completely different highchair. A smaller highchair. So I called them back (cue Twilight Zone theme music) and *gasp! Joselle! Of course, she didn't identify herself at first (and yet, working at Albertson's you could practically get fired for not identifying yourself when you answered the phone) but I knew it was her. I immediately asked for a supervisor. *Gasp! again, when she identified herself as such!!! And just to make sure, I asked her name, and yeah. Dead on. So I asked for her supervisor. And some guy named Jeff got on the phone. It's too bad, because I really like that name. My best friend growing up had that name (though he spelled it Geoph for a while... pretty koo). Anyhoo, it was about this time that I got the idea that I wasn't talking to Americans. In fact, I'm pretty sure the call center is in the philippines (just for the record, I don't have proof... just an inkling). If you wonder how I came to that conclusion... well, let's just say I've spent most of my life living on Navy bases. And if that makes no sense to you, well... never mind.
So of course, I explain the whole thing to him. (I apologize if this story seems particularly long and drawn out... try actually being the one to go through it! Better yet, don't!) So he tells me that it's "standard procedure" to not order a highchair for replacement till they have the other one back. (I should've just taken it back to Target! I would've gotten less run-around!) But he reassures me one is ordered "anyway" and should be there within days. His solution for the box problem? "Send a piece of the chair fabric back to us." And that solves the problem, how? Do they have some kind of seers that can peer into the fabric and tell you what went wrong with the chair? If it's actually defective or a problem with the actual design??? Whatever.
So basically I ask him what that would solve. And he puts me on hold. *Gasp! *Choke! NOOOooooo!! Joselle!!! How did she get back on the phone?! She tells me that ("poor me") whenever they send out the wrong box, she's the one that hears about it from the customers. (Um, excuse me, but is that not PART of the job of being a "supervisor"?) So she says they'll send another box. Ok whatever.
So I finally got the replacement, a chair that you didn't have to assemble - the legs are one solid piece. Kinda funny though (here's one for the Consumer Report's "Selling It" page) on the box it said "No Assembly Needed!" and then elsewhere on the box it said "Must be assembled by an adult only". Just an interesting observation. Another observation; my mom also has a J.Mason highchair (similar to the one I bought)... but it is all one piece, yet comes with the removable seat pad. But it isn't listed on the J.Mason website. Hmm... why don't they just sell those instead of the ones that come apart? Makes more sense to me. Legs that are one-piece obviously have no chance of coming apart!
And the missing box? Oh yeah, coupla weeks after I got the replacement highchair, I did get another box... for a SWING.
And just FYI I also did call the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and notified them of the problem. I have the report that they sent me, and I have to send it back so they can know whether or not they can release my name to the mfr., (I said yes) but it also says on the cover letter that they receive so many complaints about products, that they can only investigate a handful. So they usually just send the report to the mfr. and let them decide what to do about the issue. Considering what I've listed here, as far as J.Mason goes, I don't think they're too eager to do anything about it. Also the fact that the highchair in question is still listed on the website. Hmm....
Well, I couldn't just let it go, so I did also call the local Target where I bought it, and let a manager (Melissa) know exactly what happened. And that's why I'm writing this. That hopefully, someone, (if they're able to stand reading through the whole morbid ordeal) will bring this to the attention of someone who can do something. Or at the VERY least, that it will prevent someone else's child from being injured, or worse, by a similar incident. I don't think my highchair was defective, I think it's a faulty design. They can sell their lower-end compact highchairs as "Deluxe" models by adding the seat pad and the mesh bag (that hangs on the back). And then the whole issue would be moot.