I currently have a close friend called Elgin whom is seventy two years old & has a awful back problem because of riding motorbikes whenever he was young. He can no longer travel up & down his steps without having the worry of plummeting down a flight of stairs. Apparently, this really is a common experience with many elderly folks. Something that the rest of us take as a given, occurs to be a major undertaking or perhaps a nearly impossible task for many seniors.
My friend saw a an ad on television for a business that manufactures & markets a product that transfers an individual up their steps by riding on a seat that is hooked up to a motorized unit. This business is named Acorn Stairlifts originating from The U.K. They rent office space here in the U.S., however their product is created in Europe, as it were.
He telephoned the 800 number in the television advertisement, & a measuring technician arrived at his home allegedly only to measure his staircase & leave him an estimation. I was sitting there whenever all of this took place, therefore this is not a 3rd party report of what transpired.
The price for the lift was $3500, which was more than Elgin was prepared to pay. The surveyor, who sounded more like a salesman, tried many ways to convince my friend to buy his lift that day, but Elgin wasn't ready to purchase yet. The Acorn rep finally left, after which, Elgin and I had a conversation about the whole sales pitch. Elgin decided that he wanted to wait and just think about spending that amount of money.
Four days later, the phone rang at Elgin's house, and it was Acorn Stairlifts again. They claimed to have a cancelled stairlift order at a warehouse in NJ, and that they could let him have it for only $3000 if he could put a deposit on it that day. Elgin was not in a position to put a deposit down, so he passed on the offer. Then, 10 days later, another person from Acorn called Elgin, and told him that they were having a special private sale, and that he could buy a new Acorn
Stairlift for only $2500, the alleged best price on Acorn Stairlifts. Elgin asked the person on the phone how the price could go from $3500 down to $2500 in only 2 weeks. The person on the phone didn't offer a believeable answer, so Elgin just hung up on them.
My friend eventually bought a Bruno stairlift, due to the fact he could get local service and get it at a better price than the Acorn, even after all of the questionable discounts that they offered. Occasionally it's just better to buy from somebody that you know and can rely upon.
This company would have ripped off my friend for over $1,000 had he caved into the high pressure that the company put on him the day that they came out to his home to measure!
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