Quick! Release the locking pin!

Anyone that read the pregnancy diaries will remember our jogger stroller and the monumental efforts we went to to construct it using instructions that were largely unhelpful. Example; "Attach wheels to main body of stroller" - complete with very grainy photocopy of something that might have been Sanskrit when it started out its existence. Since we first assembled it there have been only minor stroller-related incidents. Stuff like tires deflating. Until recently. A few weeks ago after walking home with the kids from Charlotte's school I went to load the stroller into the boot of the car and was unimpressed to have the front wheel come away in my hand. Closer inspection revealed no discernible way to reattach it. Trips to Bunnings failed to inspire me with a workable solution.

The stroller brand in question also appears to not have a website where I can buy spare parts. Reluctant to throw away a perfectly good stroller simply because I have no way of attaching the front wheel, I went back to Toys R Us where I bought it and was given a customer service number. Calling this number enlightens me as to why there is no website - the brand name is completely different from the name of the parent company and, hence, the website where I might have got some help. I am hoping that this isn't a clever ploy to divert customers needing assistance away. It's with some anticipation that I wait for a customer service officer.

But a real person answers in under 60 seconds and I tell her my problem. Do I know the brand of stroller? Um...the black one? It has taupe bits... Then I notice (possibly for the first time in the five years I've owned it) that it has "Terrain" scrawled on it in loopy writing.

"Sounds like you've lost the quick release locking pin," she informs me.

"Yes," I say, "it sounds like it quick released while we were walking."

My helper finds this hysterical but I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone (other than Macguyver) would need a quick release locking pin on their stroller. Has anyone ever been present for such an event? "Quick! Release that locking pin and hand me the wheel so I can save this man's life!!!"

Maybe I'm just not living my life to the fullest but in five years I've never once had to take the front wheel off my stroller and it's never been a problem. It seems to me that a welded-on wheel would be a lot more use to most people. I suspect that the quick release locking pin is designed to ensure that people have to come back and buy from the company again. Either way, after a surprisingly painless phone call for the price of $12.85 we have our new quick release locking pin coming in the mail. Stay tuned folks, I'm sure it can't be that easy...