Cart Cover Giveaway!

Note: those without kids babies... this post is probably not for you...  For those who just want to know how to win and don't care why Kozy Pal sucks... skip to the bottom!

I was soooo excited in December, when I started looking for a shopping cart cover (dorky, I know).  CJ was starting to sit up (stably) on his own, and I hate trying to use the car seat.  You can either put the seat in the basket and buy 5 items (he usually holds the bread in his lap), or you can put him in the top section so you can't see where you're going, thereby knocking over display stacks of Pringles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  The exception is the Costco shopping carts, which are large enough to hold baby rhinos, but sometimes you don't want 4,872 rolls of toilet paper, or 8 lbs of edamame.

After looking at them on Etsy and doing a Google search, I settled on an animal design from Kozy Pal Cart Covers.  The animals were print on a black background and the back of the cover was red, neutral enough, I thought, to use again if we have another child and its a girl.  I ordered it on December 26th, and received a confirmation email from their website that my order had been received, along with an order number.  $60 was charged to my credit card.   According to the website, the item was "In Stock and Ready to Ship!"  Also per their website, as long as it is not a custom order, they ship within two business days.  I thought I'd have my cover in a week and be leisurely tooling the aisles at Target in my Jimmy Choo's Crocs , with my kid regally waving to others like the Rose Queen.

One week went by.  Then two weeks went by.  I tried calling the 866 number on the website, and got a message that the party I was calling could not take my call.  No voicemail.  I tried the number again two days later, same message.  A day later, I used the "Contact Us" link on their website, and sent them a message, asking about my order and for someone to please contact me.  I even threatened to cancel the order.  Nada.  At the end of the third week, with still not response from Kozy Pal, I called the bank and disputed the charge.  They returned my $60 and began trying to contact the company themselves.

I went back to Etsy and bought another cart cover from Canadian Cozy.  I received a confirmation email, and then a day later, confirmation (with tracking number) that my cover had been shipped.  A week later, it arrived.  Its adorable and super soft, made with bamboo and cotton (no polyester).  I'm a little bummed it doesn't have a front pocket (it does have a side pocket on the inside left), but it does have a tiny loop up front I can hook a toy to.  And the company did actually send it when promised, and they were easy to reach, so I really have no complaints.

Unfortunately, two days after I disputed the charge, I received an email from Kozy Pal notifying me that my cover had shipped.  By this time, I was pretty mad, and sent them an email telling them so, which still elicited.... surprise surprise, no response!

So now I had two cart covers and was faced with the choice of which to keep and what to do with the other.  I kept the cover from Canadian Cozy, since, as my husband argued, the colors match everything else CJ has.  I left the Kozy Pal in the box, intending to refuse shipment and send it back, but curiosity got the better of me, and I opened it.  It is beautiful, the fabric is soft and the pattern pretty and neutral enough if you like a modern print.  While I'm not happy with their customer service (or lack thereof), the construction of this cover is quality.

So I decided to keep it and use it here as my very first giveaway!

 

  

 

You, dear readers (or anyone you know), can benefit from my poor experience with Kozy Pal and enter to win this lovely cart cover.  It fits any shopping cart or highchair,  is 100% washable and cotton (no polyester either), and comes with 2 convenient toy loops and a mom-pocket in front.  Installation is easy, and you can download directions for storing and installation here.  In addition, they no longer make this print, so this particular kart cover is truly unique.  It is brand new, unused, and did arrive wrapped securely in plastic.  I opened it and took it out only to take these pictures, I didn't even unroll it to get a good shot of the print, since I figured I would never get it rolled back so nice again.  Since they no longer make this print, I was unable to download a photo from their site.

There are three ways to enter the giveaway:

• Leave a comment on this post.  If you have nothing to say, just type in ENTER ME!!! and maybe a :) and I will.
• Shoot me an email at karen@cjs-playground.com with "kozy pal" in the subject line (no other shout out is necessary if you don't wanna)  
• Go to www.cjs-playground.com and check out the newsletter.  Subscribe by joining our mailing list, and not only will you receive the newsletter every Thursday, you'll automatically be entered in the giveaway!  For the month of February, every new reader will be automatically entered.

The contest deadline is February 28th.  A winner will be chosen at random and announced in the first week of March.

Spread the word, and let me know what you think!