Customer satisfaction is our main concern Im not sure those are the exact words used in the TV advertisements for the Scooter Store products, but that is the gist of them anyhow. For those of you considering a purchase, may I suggest that you rethink your choice of providers FROM Scooter Store to someone else.
It is true that they work persistently to get approval for your purchase and payable by Medicare if your doctor jumps through all the right hoops in completing the qualifying forms they send. Fortunately, my doctor had a person on staff who recorded all the data from my chart and performed the summary paperwork after he had done his evaluation so it was clear, complete, honest, and accurate. I got the power chair at no cost to me.
HOWEVER, within a year there was a problem and the chair was totally down. It would not run. I contacted the Scooter Store and was told they had to get clearance from my Medicare insurer before they could even send someone out to take a look at it. I asked if they had a loaner I could use and I was told that was not possible until they talked to the insurance carrier.
Well, IF you have read the papers the doctor fills out to qualify you for a power chair, you will know that you must be:
Unable to walk without assistance.
Unable to mobilize yourself in a normal wheelchair
Unable to do your normal IN-HOME activities without a mobility aid.
Unable to walk through your home WITH a walker.
Knowing that, would it not seem that the customers satisfaction would include meeting their needs and that when their means of mobility was non-functioning, there would be a compensatory loaner available for their use immediately?
IF the customers satisfaction and mobility NEEDS depended on the power chairs function and the customer offered to borrow the money to PAY FOR the repairs to have them done NOW and then be reimbursed when the insurance approved it, wouldnt you think the company would accommodate that request?
Well, in the case of my experiences (now not just once but twice in slightly over two years) with the Scooter Store, there has been a two week period where I had a non-working or inadequately working piece of equipment and totally restricted mobility EACH TIME.in the latter incidence I talked to my Medicare carrier and she checked, advised me that the Scooter Store had filed
the request with the wrong company. She got immediate approval and called the Scooter Store back to tell them it was
approved on the spot. They said they would have someone contact me within three days, yet when I talked to the
Scooter Store on the phone several times, I was told they had a technician in Pensacola every day so they would immediately come take care of it when they got approval. The local Scooter Store agent even told me (each time, by the way): Let
me check the latest e-mail to see maybe if it has come through while we have been talking. Nice line.
If ever I am allowed to live long enough to get another power chair, I can promise you I will do my homework well and the purchase will NOT be made through The Scooter Store. They are very large, very vocal, and very popular. I dont know why. Maybe I have the only lemon experience in their history. Or maybe other people are having problems and just havent said
anything. If you have had problems with follow-up repairs and/or maintenance, I urge you to make you voice heard. And if you have not yet purchased a scooter or power chair, I strongly recommend you consider another companys product.
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