Permobil Problems - (split from another thread)

[toxicchili]

Permobil, hmm what can I say good about that company? Nothing..

Oh wait, yes they are nice when trying to sell you a chair. BUT once they have got your money they seriously no longer care.

My son had a Koala originally, which continually went wrong. In the end it ended up at the dump.

He then had another powered chair from Permobil, which he has used 3 times and now does not move. Its under warranty, so you think it wouldn't be a problem. They arranged to come and look at it, then less than 24 hours before they cancelled for no good reason.

Now they refuse to even speak to us on the phone, they don't return my calls. We haven't even been abusive to them even though they deserve it. The reason why they won't fix the chair is because it was paid for by a charity and not ourselves, this charity will no longer work with Permobil because of their low quality chairs and poor customer service. Why should it matter who paid for the chair??

The manager of wheelchair services had a look at our sons previous chair and said that it was 1970's engineering. Very dated, he managed to fix it (even though it wasn't his job to do so), but it only lasted about a month before going wrong again.

My advice steer clear of this company, yes the chair may work fine for you, but if it goes wrong, don't expect much from PerMobil.

Why do they think people need these chairs?

[JoeC]

Without defending Permobil, I can repeat something i've said a dozen times- a powerchair is only as good as the vendor supporting it. Regardless of brand or model, if you have nobody to call when something goes wrong, you need to start looking for a new chair.

This is why I've started doing all of the work on my wife's chair. When something would go wrong, it would take three weeks of calling the vendor every other day before they would commit to coming out to look at it. They were a little faster if it didn't drive at all, but barely. When the chair was broken (the fault of whoever assembled it so that the wires would be pinched during normal movement of the tilt mechanism) they took two weeks to fix it, and provided a chair on loan that was several sizes too big that smelled of urine. They were not apologetic, and they eventually stopped taking calls, didn't respond to voicemail or email, and just generally disappeared. (brand of the chair was not permobil)

Another friend of ours is going through the process of having a chair fit for her now. After the vendor was paid for the chair, they stopped responding to requests to make an appointment for the next fitting. Even though it was clearly laid out what needed to be done, and paid in advance by the state medical insurance, they started blowing her off once they got their money! Fortunately, she is highly educated and (obviously motivated) with experience working in state government. After a day on the phone with various state agencies, she started to make things very uncomfortable for them. What if she wasn't so savvy? Would they just let a half-built and fully paid for wheelchair sit there while she has no form of reliable, safe, or comfortable mobility? That's what it looks like! This was a different chair brand from my wife's, and a different vendor.

Yet another of our friends is having a chair fit, and it's completely unusable. The seat to floor height is over three inches higher than is appropriate or reasonable, and with no warning that it would be like that. The programming is undrivable, and the technician couldn't fix it. There is a huge mass of wires hanging off the back of the chair that are quite obviously going to get snagged on something, or get sheared off when the powered seating actuates. It's already crushed a connector and a ferrite choke after less than two hours of driving. This is a third brand of chair, and a third vendor!

We're experiencing all of this trouble in the San Francisco bay area, in California, the so-called heart of the disability rights movement in the US. What's it like everywhere else?

[Burgerman]

Dont know how your maasively complicated systems work (or seemingly dont work) on that side of the atlantic. But here in the good old UK we have the "Wheelchair services"! I have never come across a more useless bunch of idiots in all my life!

Buit apart from them being clueless and only really ever having "one chair fits all" and thats a http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/invacar ... a-plus.htm or another brands equivelent. And in all cases they are a piece of crap. If that is what they assess that you need. And it will be because they know nothing else!

If that barely motorised deck chair doesent suit you then you are branded a trouble maker and they never get back to you. If they do after some arguments then they offer you their voucher scheme. They give you a small amount (around 1k) to buy and maintain a chair for 3 to 5 years. This is where you buy your own chair from one of their "approved" outlets. (one where they get a back hander... which amounts to their money back) and you pay full price! There are companies advertising on my pages thast will sell you a powerchair for cash much cheaper than "full price" and that is without the "voucher" they allow you. Truly a waste of time. And repairs, maintainance? Forget it.

Best bet always is to do it all yourself! That way all is de-mystified, and breakdowns or repairs dont scare you. Theres not much to a powerchair. They are really simple plug and play things. And I built THREE of these http://www.wheelchairdriver.com/ultimat ... rchair.htm for the price of one "bought" powerchair... Trust me, its the only way to make sure your needs are met! I have forgotten more about powerchairs than the UK wheelchair services and the suppliers put together.

[toxicchili]

My experience of wheelchair services in the area I live has been pretty positive.

Before we moved we use to use the Aberdeen wheelchair service and I have to say that it was a very positive experience. They really knew their stuff and did everything they could to make sure my sons had the right wheelchairs (manual chairs, not powered).

The chairs the boys had were bought and then customised to their needs.

Dealing with the actual wheelchair companies has been a different matter entirely, it has always been about the money and profit. In the UK at least, there is a huge profit margin. the Permobil Koalo cost around £8000 and that didn't include things like lights or the bumper type guards, etc.. It did come with a button to turn the lights on, but if you wanted the lights you paid a couple hundred more.