This is about problems I have been having with getting my scooter fixed

07/10/2011

By Robert A Hunter

I would first of all like to thank the MS Societies Fife Branch and national office Scotland for the grant that has allowed me to get the new scooter “Thank you”!!!!!!!!

But due to problems I am having getting the scooter fixed it`s getting me a bit down which is affecting my MS and starting bouts of depression which I can be prone to.  This case with the scooter seems to be dragging on & on and not getting anywhere and now I don`t even have the scooter now (I had been using it even though it had been falling apart around me).

One night I think it was the through the night of the 2nd - 3th  October the problems with the scooter company and now it seems with the engineers they sent to fix it was bouncing around in my head which it has been doing for a long time now but on Friday 30th Sept it was getting so bad I was bedridden, anyway on that night I had a thought, why not write down what has been happening with the scooter and British Mobility Scooters and Mobility Logistics, so I did and do you know, the weight seemed to lift from me, I got up out of bed went onto the computer and started writing and I have been adding to it as this week has progressed having been told twice over the previous two weeks that I should probably get the scooter back by the middle of the next week I was waiting to see if it would happen this week or would someone contact me to tell me something different. 

Well, as of this evening 07/10/2011 no one has contacted me so I am sending out this letter to quite a few organisations, one of which I am the Newsletter editor and their website editor so this will be going in them as soon as I am able to.

Below is the letter I have written

I put in for a grant from the MS Society (Scotland) for a new scooter and got the grant.  I had originally put in for a Stirling Elite XS 3 wheeler to replace the one I had which had went faulty was going to be very expensive to repair, but after talking to Garvin Sealy the MS Society (Scotland`s) grants officer about what I was thinking, do I really want to go for the same type of scooter and maybe have the same problems again.  The only other scooter that would possible suit my requirements was the Shoprider Torino and I had been told by a few people that know about scooters that Shoprider is a good make.

I told Garvin about it and was told it would be ok to get one, so I started looking on the internet since that would be the only place I might be able to get a Shoprider Torino from for the amount I received as a grant, most scooter shops around where I live wanted £3,000 and upwards for one.

I found two websites that wanted around what I had as a grant but which one to choose and why were they so cheap compared with a lot of other websites.  I phoned up one and asked.  I was told that he was quite happy with £700 profit unlike the other companies.

I still could not make up my mind which of the two to go with, the thoughts going through my mind after the problems I had had with my Stirling Elite, (it was bought online aswell and with a grant from the MS Society (Scotland)).  I eventually emailed and spoke with Garvin and he suggested I get in touch with a Nick Pegge, Ecommerce Sales Manager of British Mobility Scooters and I did so and he reassured me about the Shoprider Torino and about what it was able to do.  I wanted to know this because I suppose I want it to do a lot which my Stirling Elite was able to do well (well most of the time).  First it needed to be able to fit in my car, I have a Ford Galaxy, he said if the Stirling Elite could fit in so could the Torino, also I go rambling and the terrain (you can view on YouTube “ROBBIE2MS” videos on some of the types of trails I use the scooter on)can be a bit rough (going along farm roads) could it do this he said it could, I said I use it in the rain and in the snow (within reason that is) he said it could, and I was happy with that so I asked Garvin to buy the Torino.

The day of the scooters arrival came and so did the problems. When the Stirling Elite was delivered the bloke that brought it had a check list of items he had to go over with me and make sure I knew how handle the scooter safely and ticked of each box as he went through them. 
The Shoprider Torino was dumped on a pallet wrapped in plastic in my front garden and the carrier just left after it was signed for.  If it was not for my next door neighbours coming to my aid it would still there still.

Anyway, now the scooter is unwrapped and of the pallet and the batteries charged up and the bar that the cars hoist attaches to is fitted let’s try it in the car.  Guess what, you got it, It doesn`t fit, the seat`s to big. So the scooter is no good to me so I got in touch with Nick Pegge at British Mobility Scooters.

Nick said he would see if there was another type of seat that would fit, I had seen a smaller seat on some of the Torino (I had seen on other website but whether it would fit or not I would have to wait and see).  After a few phone calls to Nick the replacement seat came and it fitted into the car, oh joy I could now road tax the scooter so I could use it, it being a class 3 scooter and must be road taxed.  About a week and half later it`s road taxed so I go out on it for the first time.

Well the noise that came from the scooter was unreal. I live at the top of a hill everywhere is down but the street I live in isn`t all that steep, anyway the braking system on the scooter that keeps the scooter at a constant speed was howling at me ("Click Here to hear the sound"), even going along a flat road with very, very small indent in it the braking system would come on and the howling starts and I don`t think there`s not a road I have been along that the scooter does not start howling going along it.

I got in touch with Nick Pegge at British Mobility Scooters and emailed him a recording of the noise the scooter was making, he emailed me back saying “The noise is a result of the resistance setting on the motor, the Roma Rep will call in the next few days with the programmer to adjust this, it won`t affect the performance in the mean time”.  The Roma rep did not call, the few days were a Monday & Tuesday, I phoned up British Mobility Scooters on the Friday and was told the same, the Roma Rep will call in the next few days, again no one called and since then I have been told that an engineer would at my house, no one turned up I was even told that a carrier would come and pick the scooter up to take it back to British Mobility Scooters I even phoned up British Mobility Scooters in the morning of the day carrier was to come just to check since (this was a Monday) I had been on holiday for 5 days the week before and was told the carrier would be there sometime that day, the carrier never came. 
I again phoned up British Mobility Scooters and was told they would get in touch with the carrier to find out what had happened and to arrange another date and get back to me.  They never phone back, I had to phone British Mobility Scooters to find that the carrier was book for the 12th September.

I have been using the scooter while this had been happening but only to the farm near my house due to the noise and looks I was getting when I tried the scooter through the streets. I started noticing that a different noise was starting to come from the scooter.  This new noise would start up when going up a hill mostly at a slow speed ("Click Here to hear the sound"), it sounded like between someone hitting metal with a hammer and a tin can full of nuts.  I recorded this sound and sent it to British Mobility Scooters.

The 12th September came and that was a day I am going to remember for a long time. At the back of 3pm I got a phone call from my Dad for help, he had been out shopping in their car and was park outside their house my Dad had come around the car (he`s the driver) to help my Mum out (she is 82 and has MS) but he found that she was unresponsive, he called 999 and then me.  By the time I got to their house which is not far from mine the paramedics were trying to get Mum out of the car.  Anyway, I took Dad in my car and followed the ambulance to the hospital where it was found see had had a major stroke and hopefully she was in time to have this treatment that if the stroke is treated quickly enough she might get back to what she was like before, if not she would die. While I was waiting in the hospital on Mum being tested I phoned up my wife Shirley to let her know what was happening, she told me that the carrier had come to pick up the scooter “but”, but since the scooter was not on a pallet he could not take the scooter away.

It was the back of 8pm that night before I got home from the hospital so in the morning I phoned up British Mobility Scooters to be told that they had paid the carrier company to put the scooter on a pallet and wrap it in plastic and that they were extremely angry that they hadn`t. I was told that the carrier had phoned them at the back at about 5pm that evening to tell what had happened. I was then told that they had ordered a transaxle from Roma and it should be with me by Friday (16th Sept) and that engineers would be with me next Monday or Tuesday 19th or 20th Sept.

Friday came and no transaxle came.  I phoned up British Mobility Scooters late afternoon after I thought it was too late for anything to be delivered and was told that they were having a problem with Roma and that they had taken a transaxle of a scooter that they had in their workshop (I was told that the transaxle did not come from a Torino but it`s the same transaxle that`s in a Torino and that they would give me a warranty with it but I can`t remember how long they said it would be for).  I was told it should be with me on Monday 19th Sept, and it did come.  I was getting a bit worried though since I had been told that the engineers would arrive on either Monday or Tuesday.  

I got a phone call from the engineers later that day asking if it would be ok if he could come on Thursday between 11am and 1pm. It was my wife Shirley that answered the call and said it was ok.

The Thursday came and so did the engineer at the back of 9am.  We don`t sleep to well so we are not early risers unless we have to and since the engineer was going to come at 11am or after we saw no need to get up early. My wife was just up and I think was dressed or maybe it was her dressing gown she had on, anyway she answered the door and let the engineer into our garage were the scooter is housed and he brought the scooter out front of the garage.  Shirley my wife came back into the house to help me get dressed since I can`t do it myself.

Once dressed I went out to see the engineer and found that the seat and the rear case was of the scooter and the engineer had a screw driver or something like in the back of the right hand wheel and was hitting it with a hammer.  He stopped and told me what he was doing and why.  It seems some person had done damage to the pin that keeps the wheel from going around the axle and he could not get it out and that he was trying to force the pin or the wheel of from behind but it did not seem to be working and that he is going to have to take it to his workshop and this is what he did.  I ask him when he thought I might get it back and he thought maybe by the middle of this week.

I phoned up British Mobility Scooters after the engineer had left and told them what had happened, I also said that I after all the problems that I have had with the scooter and now this that I think I maybe within my rights to demand a new replacement scooter, he said he would get in touch with his boss and get back to me, he never did.

Next week came and I phone up the engineers company (Mobility Logistics) on the Wednesday 28th to find out when I was going to get my scooter back.  I was told that they were having problems getting the pin out and that they were going to have to drill it out and I might get the scooter back by the middle of the next week.

I phoned up British Mobility Scooters after speaking to Mobility Logistics and was told that they did not believe that Roma would have let the scooter leave their place with a wheel that could not be taken off what if the owner had had a puncture and ask me to go through what had happened when the engineer was at my house so I told them what I had heard and seen.  Afterwards they asked me if I would put this in writing   and I did and email it to them.  I asked British Mobility Scooters have they had problems before with Mobility Logistics since they seem to think it might have been the engineer himself that damaged the pin and not Roma, I was told that had had problems before with them and that (I can`t remember exactly what the bloke said but it I think it was `they only use them as a last resort`).
Nothing was said about me getting a new scooter.

I don`t know what is happening with British Mobility Scooters and its suppliers.  The Roma rep did not come when asked by them neither did the carrier the first time of asking and the second time they came but did not carry out what British Mobility Scooters said they had paid them to do, put the scooter on a pallet and wrap it in plastic and Roma did not send me the new transaxle they were asked to do.

There are some questions going through my head:

• Is British Mobility Scooters paying their bills, if not are their creditors now holding back until they are paid?

• Because British Mobility Scooters sell their scooters so cheap are the other Mobility Scooters retailers  complaining to Roma about their lack of sales because of this and are punishing British Mobility Scooters to bring them in line with the greedier  retailers

• Or something else

I had been told by Mobility Logistics that I should get the scooter back by the middle of next week which is now 2 days ago (today’s date is 06/10/2011) and no phone call or email so far, I was even told by British Mobility Scooters when I phoned them after I phoned Mobility Logistics what Mobility Logistics had said about when I should get the scooter back and was told that they would see if I could get it back sooner but not even a phone call from them either.
Well, today is Friday 07th October, two days after what I would call the middle of the week and I have not received any phone calls, emails or letters from either British Mobility Scooters or Mobility Logistics about the scooter and I don`t see why it`s me that has to keep on contacting them so I haven’t, I`m writing this instead.

Below is a copy of the email I wrote to British Mobility Scooters.

  Hi. This is the letter you asked for this afternoon about when the Mobility Logistics engineer came to my house on 22/09/201.

The engineer had phoned me up on 19/09/2011 to let me know that he could manage to come that day as had been arranged but if ok would come on Thursday 22/09/2011 between 11am and 1pm.

The engineer came on the 22nd he came at the back of 9am.  I was unable to attend him at that time but my wife Shirley opened the door to him, and then opened the garage to give him access to the scooter.  While I was being made ready I heard banging, it sounded like it was coming from the back of my house.  When I got to my back door to go out to the engineer I saw he had the seat and case of the scooter and had the back of the scooter up of the ground on what I think might have been a tool box. 

He had what I think might have been a screw driver in one hand and a hammer in the other.  He had the end of the screw driver (that`s if it was a screw driver) in what seemed to be the back of the right hand wheel and was hitting it with the hammer.  When I went out he said he was having problem getting a pin out, he showed me what he was talking about, it`s a pin that goes between the driveshaft and the wheel and it looked like the head of a nail, he said it looks like someone had forced it in with a hammer or something and he was having problems getting in out and that was why he was hammering at the back of the wheel trying to force it off which was not working.  He said he would have to take it back to his work place to work on it there.  

I asked him if he had any idea when I could maybe expect the scooter back he said maybe the middle of next week.  He left the seat but took the rest of the scooter out to his van and away.

This morning 28/09/2011 I phoned up Mobility Logistics on 01274 880033 and was told that they were going to have to drill out the pin and I should have the scooter back about the middle of next week.