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...
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Building: Freestyle, On the road & loving it.
posted on 11/7/19 at 09:25 AM
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.
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.
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Building: F27 built,sva'd,spanked and sold.Current proj
posted on 11/7/19 at 10:24 AM
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.
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Building: F27 built,sva'd,spanked and sold.Current proj
posted on 11/7/19 at 10:32 AM
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!
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Building: Freestyle, On the road & loving it.
posted on 11/7/19 at 11:38 AM
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.
quote: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]
Something SWMBO and I have to tackle in the coming months is explaining to her father that his driving days are at an end. He'll not take it
well and won't enjoy the concept of bus travel even though he's got access to an OAP bus pass.
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Building: Finished Locost, now fitting type 9 box
posted on 11/7/19 at 06:20 PM
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.
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Building: My car is history now, burnt out,
posted on 11/7/19 at 06:53 PM
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
Thats was probably spelt wrong, or had some grammer, that the "grammer police have to have a moan at
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Building: TR7 Triton green TR7 Silver The Ninja Jago
posted on 29/7/19 at 12:36 AM
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.
