In an industry where the level of customer service ranges between abysmal and appalling, Baby Trend has hit a new low—scolding a customer seeking a solution to a defect in one of their products.

The product: the Diaper Champ.

Reader Alice S. writes in with her frustration: her Diaper Champ wouldn’t work properly (the drum won’t rotate to dispose of the diaper) because a blue ring inside the device keeps popping off.

When she contacts Baby Trend, she gets back this snippy email:

Good afternoon,
      Please see the attachment above, I would like to ask you to pay attention to the photos and follow the instructions step by step. If you have any question please give us a call back.

Now, apparently, Baby Trend has receive so many complaints about this, they felt the need to create a 1.3MB MS Word file complete with color pictures to show folks how to "fix" their defective Diaper Champ. Here are the instructions:

Download diaper_champ.doc

Unfortunately, our reader reports that these instructions didn’t work. Baby Trend’s response Alice writes:

Please note that on the bottom of the email the manufacturer indicates that since we did not purchase the product directly from them and need to contact the retail outlet to get this resolved.

Nice, eh? Haul back that stinky diaper pail that you purchased 3 months ago to Target (we’re sure the receipt is long gone)—I’m sure the store will resolve your complaint, no problem!

Come on, guys. If you have a defective product, fess up—apologize, fix the defect and send out replacement products. At no charge to the consumer.