Goodbye old friend

[Scooterman]

I sold this today on eBay for £250. A nice couple came round and picked it up, the guy has a gammy leg. It is a good little scooter and dismantles really easy for car transport.

The reason I sold it is that now having a power chair I don't use the little scooter and it was taking up precious room in the flat.

But what bothers me is the batteries. I explained to them that they're about 18 mths old, and the guy being a big'ish bloke will probably only get a few miles out of them. I could get more miles but then I'm about half his weight.

I don't like selling stuff (especially to nice people) in case it goes wrong. But it shouldn't do because I thoroughly checked it all over, and test rode it before listing it so am not worried about reliability apart from the batteries . If it'd had been a dealer or an offhand person that bought it, it I wouldn't bother me.

I don't know whether (or not) to message them and say that if the batteries don't last long, then I will go half on a new set?

But then again I'm not a dealer...

And the scooter only accommodates small batteries (35Ah max) as they're enclosed in removable battery boxes

I think I've got the opposite of 'buyers remorse', i.e. 'sellers worry'

Before buying it I get the impression they'd been reading Sunrise's max mileage range claim for the scooter, which is totally unrealistic.

[Burgerman]

Seriously its not your problem. You already explained the problem. Most people buy scooters that are inadequate same with chairs because they want cheap or small or portable. Thats when they come here complaining about batteries lasting months, and lack of range or poor performance on hills... Want them to go faster. And then waste a ton of time and money trying to "fix" it. When the problem is the wrong product.

[Scooterman]

Thanks BM I appreciate that, I am a worrier.

The guy left nice feedback, as I did likewise.

I think the scooter is worth the money. But like you say someone of his size would do better with a class 3 scooter with 75Ah batteries. Plus 4mph feels really slow.

[foghornleghorn]

I don't know whether (or not) to message them and say that if the batteries don't last long, then I will go half on a new set?

If you had sold a car would you keep buying petrol for the new owner?

They paid £250 for a used scooter. This price factors in that they may have to spend more on anything that is worn out.

If they wanted perfect they could have spent 10x that amount buying a new one.

[Scooterman]

Thank you foghorn

I do agree with you. I'm silly, it's cos I met the people in person and they were nice couple. But even if the batteries are past their best it's still worth £250 as the tyres have got hardly any wear and everything works well. Plus a while back I altered the S-Drive settings to turn off the annoying reversing bleep, and reduced the fwd/rev minimum speed setting from about 30% down to 15%. Which is much better if the buyer uses the scooter shopping centres.

Funnily enough the day it sold, another buyer messaged me and asked me if I would accept £150-£200 for it. I felt it was a bit low and had a think about it, and messaged back that they could have it for £175 as I just wanted to free up space (genuine reason). But in the meantime the new buyer obviously clicked 'Buy it Now' and it sold.

When I bought my salsa r2 secondhand I discovered it only had 60Ah replacement gel batteries. The listing said that although the chair hadn't been used for a year or more the batteries had been kept fully charged. But they were pretty much shagged when I got it and I couldn't go far. But I expected that and factored in the cost of new batteries when weighing up whether it was a good/reasonable buy.

As BM often says, when you buy used powered mob equip you have to assume the batteries are junk or shagged.

[Burgerman]

Because they are usually either crap batteries, smaller batteries, as they were replaced cheaply. And good ones are expensive. Or they were original and so now very shagged! So however you look at it, they have zero value.

ALWAYS consider batteries on any used chair junk. No matter what the description claims. And you wont be far wrong.

[Scooterman]

I agree BM. On hindsight before selling I could have fitted brand new 35Ah Gels (the largest size the boxes can accommodate), but then I would have wanted around £400 for it.

Out of curiosity would group size do 35Ah MK come under? I only know of group 24.

EDIT: I think if he plans using the scooter for shopping trips etc, he do better with a powerchair. But then a decent used powerchair is more money, and a new one horribly expensive. That's probably why a lot of people buy little scooters as they're a lot cheaper even new, and easier to chuck in the boot. Plus I suppose it depends how 'disabled' a user is?

[steves1977uk]

SM, look here... https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/b ... sizes.html

The MK AGM 35Ah is an U1 sized battery I think(?). The MK Gel is 31Ah in that size.

Steve

[Scooterman]

Thanks Steve

[flagman1776]

I bought my big pride wrangler... my first scooter. I didn't realize the sealed batteries were so expensive. I deducted for them in my offer... but not enough.
The best thing you can do is be prepare... to explain why they need the best and where to buy them. If you'd put new batteries in... you'd have had to ad it to the price. They are nice people. This will help them.