Random one - but thought this as good a place as anywhere to ask. My parents have jumped into getting a stairlift installed (long overdue really), Dad decided on Monday he was going to sort it, rang three companies, one of them had a rep out the next day - and it's due to be installed today. They have a simple straight staircase in a 'normal' sized modern house, no bends. Acorn stairlifts are charging them £2500.

I'm terrified of them being scammed, so would welcome anyone giving some ballpark comparisons. The speed at which they've turned it round is almost my biggest fear. Unfortunately i'm 200 miles away, and only found out last night it was going on, so can't stick my oar in as much as i'd like to...

The mark-up on them is huge from what I can see, they are so simple to install especially if it's not got a bend in it, they sit on 2 -3 stairs, screw down to them & then plug into a socket. If you have time look for a 2nd hand one £200-£400 & fit it yourself in under 2 hours.

No experience of this type of thing myself.

A quick look online suggests Acorn Stair Lifts are Acorn Mobility Services Ltd who appear to have a company value of approx. £9m.

My Granny got a stairlift installed a long time ago, but got it from a company who supplied refurbished ones, it was way cheaper than a new one.

Can't recall the company but it was 20+ yrs ago.

As others have said there is a huge mark up on stairlifts. Mother in law needed one and Acorn quoted about 3k for a straight lift and that wasn't the dearest.
We found a localish company who did it for about 1k. Acorn were very persistent, constantly ringing and being very persuasive even after we sourced one from elsewhere.
Remember they are also worth very little secondhand, ours was sold for £150 after a year or two.

Sounds about right cost wise.The market is fiercely competitive so not surprised
the rep called quickly.Its a difficult area,probably best not visited that your parents can't
make a judgement call on the deal.
My Mum had a lot of disability equipment which I found invoices for after her passing.
The used value is very low,almost criminal.
She had an almost new scooter (6 months) the supplying dealer offered me 15 % of its cost.
I sold it for that price,but to someone who could make use of it and not for huge profit by a dealer.
In short I think the whole retirement and disability market needs sorting out.

You got me going now.
The other thought is,they get pleasure out of a major purchase at the twilight years.
Remember taking my Dad to the local car dealers to buy a brand new car , he was 83 !
He wasn't going to have someone's used one.He passed a year later.
The car had been repainted to £3000 once needed another £2000 worth and I sold the car
for an eye watering amount.
My consolation was,he enjoyed his last hurrah.

Thanks guys - the various different comments made do give me some reasurrance in a number of ways. That there are big markups at play does seem fairly unreasonable when it's not a luxury but a necessity...

It's the scam/pressure selling element that bothers me the most - Dad won't be persuaded that we try and find ways to avoid paying top whack and goes off and sorts these things himself, whereas i'm terrified of them ending up entirely peniless because someone else has taken advantage. Perhaps he knows more about their life expectancies than he tells me so isn't worried about the years to come!

I feel your pain, my father is 95 in November, he's independent living & rejects most offers of help, we only managed to wrestle the car off him last year. Over the last year or so his short term memory has got very bad, in a 15 minute conversion we can visit the same topic 6 times, although it you want to take about a carburettor off a Ford 93A he can still help you. What frightens me is somebody will knock on the say they have turned up to the agreed appointment, he wouldn't know if they had or not, then proceed to persuade him that he owes them money.

[Edited on 11-7-1919 by FEZ1025]

quote:

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Originally posted by FEZ1025
I feel your pain, my father is 95 in November, he's independent living & rejects most offers of help, we only managed to wrestle the car off him last year.[Edited on 11-7-1919 by FEZ1025]

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Yes, Mums was literally brand new. Installed one day and she had a fall the next which she never recovered from. The company who installed it didnt want to know about buying back and we got a pittance for it.

My Parents got one, was £1260 a year go, normal straight up and down model 13 steps

Father has never used it (it was for him we bought it) as he has dementia, and forgets (not even funny !!!!)

what a waste of money, plus the "fitter" who was a "pondlife" creature, left the wiring for the charger unit trailing along the carpet upstairs, as that's how they leave it ???? so the first person who came out of my old bedroom, would trip on the wire and hurtle them selves down the stairs

I kicked him outside, and finished the job myself, while my Mother got his boss round,

Apparently I invalidated the guarantee, but who cares, no one has ever used the thing, and if and when it does go wrong, I will be round the boss's house and ram the lift though his front window

He should never off told my Mother were he live's

If I were looking for one, I would also consider a vertical lift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqMZfQODJZo


and since this is a car forum, this is what he built for her when they first met ;-)))
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_mVryqXpU


edit, and his build video is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kJOXr3HzA


[Edited on 28/7/19 by gremlin1234]

Wife’s mum bought a used one which worked fine. When we came to sell the house it was quite an old model which nobody wanted apparently. We phoned the firm who installed it, bloke said he would come and take it away for £200! I said I would disconnect and chop up for scrap- suddenly he could take it away for free the next day!!
My father also has a similar model and service people claim it is difficult to get parts for and he should replace it ASAP He is 89 and can see the marketing bull from 29 yards!
Having researched Facebook marketplace and e bay we are confident that we could pick up a replacement locally for a couple of hundred quid at most and all of the wiring/ inhibitor switches are in place.
The irony is that it would be possible to ge a fresh lift in for little more than the service charge and as pointed out above most of these lifts have not had a hard life unless you buy from a nursing home

Another avenue to explore is small businesses installing used chair lifts with a warranty.