I don’t have kids, so I know nothing of strollers (other than my jealousy of these kids getting pushed around all day), but evidently, Maclaren is like the Volvo of the stroller game – noted by parents for dependability and reliability.

Now, it’s, well, the kind of car known for amputating kids’ fingers.

Just a few days ago, Maclaren had to recall about 1 million strollers as reports of unsafe hinges and resulting amputated fingers surfaced.

A reporter for Time.com put it succinctly – “This recall is a nightmare for Maclaren.” Probably not a nightmare per se for Maclaren’s communications team, because having a nightmare is predicated on getting some sleep, of which I’m certain they went without for a few days.

In theory, the company tried to handle the situation right, but, at a cursory look, in practice had some snags. A few notes:

• Maclaren was getting ready to make the voluntary announcement in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. But then the news leaked through the Internet and they did not get the credit for being forthcoming.

• Maclaren went live with a variety of vehicles for parents to get answers, but their Twitter feed sent followers to broken links, their website was rendered inoperable, and their customer service line was overwhelmed.

• Maclaren immediately began to offer free hinge covers to U.S. customers. Good thought. But then customers from around the word were upset by their exclusion from the offer. Maclaren had to go back and offer equal treatment to all.

Today, a quick visit to the Maclaren homepage got me a landing page espousing the company’s commitment to safety, and a link to customer service resources regarding this recall.

It is too soon to see how this plays out in terms of sales, but since Maclaren was recognized for dependability before and has been working hard to fix the problem, I think some parents are cutting them a little slack.

A quick, unscientific scan of some Mommy blogs and online parenting communities show that some parents are giving Maclaren credit for the voluntary recall and providing repair kits, and recognize it’s also their job to help keep their kids’ fingers away from mechanical hinges (a message that Maclaren’s executives were pushing in interviews). That’s some. Not all. Some are still pretty mad.

It’ll be an uphill battle to win back parent trust.

Mike Sacks can be reached at msacks@mww.com

msacks Crisis Communications Crisis Communications, product recall, Reputation Management