We’ve been getting a bunch of product offers, invitations to educational classes and baby show schedules since we put ourselves on mailing list (at our hospital).

One invitation in particular caught our eye, it was a two day baby show about an hour and a half from where we live. Thinking it was not a bad drive away, we decided to see what this was all about. We were enticed with the offer of a $129 worth of special gifts and safety educational tips.

To our surprise, this so called show happened to be a sales pitch from a company i.e. Babee Tenda and their safety convertible crib and feeding table. The two hours *show* was more of a sit down seminar and the $129 worth of special gifts turned out to be a safety DVD and JC Penney photos discount tickets.

The sales guy was a great presenter, pointing out recalls of competing brands, highlighting stories of baby fatalities, and then showing off advantages of the Babee Tenda crib with a hands on demonstration. He also did a good comparative price analysis of other competitor products and how much we could save with the 4-1 crib to bed functionality.

In fact, the presentation was so convincing that we ended up purchasing the crib for $750 including the tax and shipping. A $300 one day *show only* discount, a crib that had a small door, one that could be converted to a half bed and full bed could last for years, we thought.

We left the show happy … until we got home.

J and I Googled the company and were shocked to find multiple reviews/comments relating to bad customer support, poor quality, hard to get sales guys, shipments delays, delays of refunds, refusal of warranty returns, a mail fraud charge, an investigation for bad advertising practices and more.

We soon realized that we had made a first time parents-to-be mistake i.e. to buy a baby product on impulse without doing proper research.

We should have known it from the beginning – deceptive advertising practices (i.e. to call it a show rather than a seminar) to the free gifts. Also, we didn’t like that the mattresses were custom made in size and could only be purchased from them only. We failed to notice one thing that the sales guy did too i.e. although we were allowed three business days to cancel it from the day we purchased it, the date that he manually wrote on the receipt was three days but not business days. He had counted the day we were there for the show (a Sunday) and the next day (which was a holiday) as being part of the grace period. Both days were not considered business days and our three day grace period ended being a Tuesday.

We did get our refund. Thankfully, without any issues and costly problems.

So this is a good lesson learnt, and an example of what NOT to do for all new/ would be parents out there.

Please be aware of this company if you ever receive a postcard from them. The Babee Tenda products are sold by Independent Sales Distributors. From further research, it seems that their sales pitch is similar throughout the country i.e. enticing people with hundred dollars worth of gifts, calling it a show, scare tactics of baby fatalities, blurting out recall stats of competitors and then introducing their product while you are vulnerable. Plus they force you into making a decision on the spot by giving you a *three hundred dollar buy it the same day* discount and preying on the vulnerable parents-to-be (like us).

I am in no way putting down their actual product, it may well be a good one. However, overall deceptive/ bad advertising practices, their legal charges, bad support, complaints and negative reviews were just one too many.

Below are some of the complains that played a big part into our decision to cancel the sale.

Review from a couple (Yelp)
NOT Worth the Money!!
Baby Tenda committed mail fraud, court rules
Watch their subtle disclaimer
U.S. District Court Announces Baby-Tenda Ruling