by swalker » 11 Jun 2020, 06:23
In the US, you can't even pay lots of dollars to Permobil to purchase the wheelchair parts you need. They will not sell directly to the customer.
To buy Permobil parts in the US, you must go through a Durable Medical Equipment (DME) provider, such as NuMotion. This really sucks, because many DMEs are structured to be very slow, bureaucratic organizations that charge a ton of money for very little service.
For example, I would like to buy a pair of Permobil high traction drive tires. I cannot find anywhere online to purchase them and I cannot purchase them directly from Permobil. I must buy them from NuMotion or some other DME. These are Permobil-branded tires and are the ones I want. Through NuMotion they cost several times more than car tires and typically take several months to procure (the last pair took almost 6 months).
If I want to pick up a pair of Primo normal drive tires (come stock on Permobil chairs but are not Permobil-branded), I can get the pair from a variety of vendors online for about $100 and have them delivered to my house within days.
The only way around this is to buy used, such as from ebay. This is what I do when practical.
Permobil does provide pretty good technical support via phone, in the US at least.
Steve
Permobil F5 Corpus 3G
Permobil C500s VS
Permobil C500 Corpus 3G
Permobil C350 Corpus 3G
Magic Mobility X4 with 176 Ah LiFePO4