icandy Cherry, what's your experience?

[Teapig]

Hi, I'm a first timer due in April and have found a second hand icandy cherry for £250. Does this like a reasonable price for the whole travel system? It's been used but looks to be in good condition.

Also, what's your experience of the icandy cherry? Really interested in any pros and cons.

Thanks!

[Tiggywunkle]

I can't comment on the price but the Cherry is a great lightweight, easy to use, easy to carry, easy to tow along, comfy seat pushchair. I think its great.

[Carmeleen]

The cherry is brilliant. I've used it for both children and never any bother with it.

[Ihateparties]

I loved my cherry too but it did have problems, I know that the newer ones are better. I would want it to be immaculate and pretty new for that price though as imo there are some decent options New with a warranty for not very much more money.

[freezingmytitsoff]

i have no experience of the cherry but had a peach that fell apart in 2 months, icandy are totall w**rs!!
they treated me really badly and i spent 800.
so ever since i tell anyone who mentions that company to avoid them, it is overpriced plastic crap, when mine fell apart i could see inside and the quality was shocking. they just look nice.

[Teapig]

Thanks all. freezing, sorry to hear you had such problems but good to be warned. Out of interest which brand did you go with instead of icandy?

[Cheesyslice]

Personally I didn't get on with the Cherry. I found it flimsy for the money. Older models have a known problem with the rear axle. We got utterly fed up with ours, even after repair by iCandy, and bought a second hand Bugaboo off eBay. Never looked back.

[Teapig]

Hi cheesy, that's interesting. I've just found a second hand bugaboo cameleon for £210 for the whole travel system, looks to be in good condition, so now need to choose between the icandy and the bugaboo.

[helebear]

I love my cherry. Live in London & in basement flat & found it very lightweight for getting up & down steps & on buses etc. I used it with carry cot for 1st 10 weeks, then buggy bit & the carseat occasionally too. Now that dd is 21 months I tend to use maclaren more as its really lightweight & folds up smaller so easier to store at childminders etc but I still use cherry for shopping as you can really load up the shopping basket & handle bar with a buggy clip & it's still easy to push & steer!
Pros- can use with carseat, travel cot & buggy
Lightweight (for a travel system) & easy to collapse once you have the knack
Easy to steer one handed

Cons- does take up a lot of room in car boot & house when not in use, but all travel systems do.

I'm looking forwards to using mine more again when dc2 arrives in spring.

[freezingmytitsoff]

i ended up with a baby jogger city mini, and its fab! the build qaulity next to the icandy is amazing.
the frame come with a lifetime garauntee and you can buy a new set of fabrics for 80 of baby jogger.i can't see how it would ever break, its completly solid. the seat is lovely and big, lays flat so you wouldn't need the carrycot.
the icandy is just plastic with a thin layer of metal and the frame is hollow and thin.
and the shop i bought the icandy from said they are well known for not honouring there warranty and a lot of retailers won't stock them because of this. apparently they just say that any faults are 'damage due to misuse' or 'normal wear and tear that is not covered under warranty'
of course the shop only told me that when i brought the broken one back!

[Cheesyslice]

Yep the cam is heavy but it's bloody solid too. I love ours.

[Tiggywunkle]

The Cam is solid???! Try something like a Baby Jogger, Uppababy, Mountain Buggy or an iCandy Peach and then come back and tell me the Cam is solid!!!
Don't get me wrong, I have had two Cam's and loved them both, but they definitely aren't solid!

[Ihateparties]

I don't think the cam is heavy either but maybe it is compared to the cherry... I'm still not quite comfortable with a used icandy, if it broke you would have lost all the money whereas with a bug it's much easier to get parts if you need and less likely to need them. the fold is a pain. have you got any more options in mind?

[Teapig]

Thanks all, it's great to hear everyone's experiences.

The icandy sounds like the lighter option but after hearing the feedback I am a bit worried about how long a second hand one would last us. Good point about the availability of parts ihateparties, that's not something I'd thought about.

I guess we could look at others but we have first refusal on these and the price is very attractive, just over £200 for either option and with money we have been given from family we'd only need to pay half of that which would be a huge help as money is tight. Of course first priority is to find something that's great for baby and not to waste money on a preloved pram only to find we have to buy another soon afterwards.

[Teapig]

Thanks all, it's great to hear everyone's experiences.

The icandy sounds like the lighter option but after hearing the feedback I am a bit worried about how long a second hand one would last us. Good point about the availability of parts ihateparties, that's not something I'd thought about.

I guess we could look at others but we have first refusal on these and the price is very attractive, just over £200 for either option and with money we have been given from family we'd only need to pay half of that which would be a huge help as money is tight. Of course first priority is to find something that's great for baby and not to waste money on a preloved pram only to find we have to buy another soon afterwards.

[Ihateparties]

my I candy broke and they don't want to deal direct with customers you're supposed to go through your retailer, we had moved half way across the country, in the end we fixed it ourselves. they are very odd about giving out spare parts to someone who isn't the registered owner, almost impossible I have heard. In your situation I'm not sure what I would do t b h. If it weren't for the parent facing seats I would probably suggest spending your money on a baby jogger city mini new then buying a used carrycot. I suspect you are wanting parent facing though, which always costs more.

[InvaderZim]

I bought my Cherry 2 years ago used for £150 (including carrycot) in immaculate condition - unusual and very lucky at that price I should think. I have not had a single problem with it, it's light and brilliant. Do not ever think of folding it for the bus though unless you have another person to hold your baby. The bus driver held DD for me once.

DD likes to ride in it. I like the parent facing option. Pushchair seat raincover has not held up - tearing like mad.

Holds a LOT of shopping - I almost never drive so this has been the number 1 most awesome factor of the Cherry for me. :)

[freezingmytitsoff]

yes icandy won't honour there warranty to anyone who wasn't the original purchaser of the pram. and i don't think they will even talk to you.
there are a shameful company and i would avoid at all costs!

[Ihateparties]

I was the original purchaser and they wouldn't talk to me directly either, they just ignored emails etc. Because some of the models have had a habit of breaking I'm not sure it's worth the risk, particularly if you would struggle to replace it worst case scenario. The Cherry is a great pushchair when it works (I had forgotten how great the basket is actually) it is just a bit of a risk. In some respects all used pushchairs carry similar risks though, they just vary in how possible/impossible, easy/difficult they are to repair, get parts for etc. iCandy have a rep for being awkward on this, as do mamas and papas incidentally.

[Tiggywunkle]

To be fair, a good number of pushchair manufacturers wont deal with you unless you are the original purchasers. Bugaboo are really tough! At least with good brand pushchairs like iCandy, a retailer should be able to organise repairs or parts or servicing for you.

[Ihateparties]

They will if you bought new, not if you bought used.. or so I thought?

[freezingmytitsoff]

yes thats right, if it's new in theory they will help with repairs. but icandy make it very hard for the retailer.
they told the shop that i took my back to that they would have to have it to do tests on to 'make sure it hadn't been hit by a bus'! they wouldn't even discuss fixing it until they had done there 'tests'
as far as i know baby jogger have a very good reputation for honouring there garauntee.
i have also heard that mamas and papas are really bad.

[Brugmansia]

I wonder whether poor after sales is connected to their general problems with supply. If they're having difficulty keeping up with demand I would guess they also don't have capacity to deal with repairs etc properly. It sounds like the whole "testing" thing could be a stalling tactic.