stairlifts
concernedrelative
Member Posts: 3
My mum has been really suffering with arthritus, and after a recent spell in 
hospital the OT and myself realised my mum needed a stairlift. I decided to do some research and found there seamed to be 3 main companies, Stannah,Acorn and Age uk stairlifts, we decided to have Age uk as we liked the thought of dealing with a charity rather than a large business, and we had heard stories of pressure sales from the other companies.
We made an appointment, thier surveyor came round, who did not pressure us and informed us that the lift would be a straight stairlift called a minivator 950. This would cost £1900 and he told us this was the same price to any Age uk customer, which we liked so we purchased. The lift was fit a week later and everything was fine.
Some weeks later a neighbour of ours had a stairlift installed, I called in to have a look and found it to be the same stairlift as ours. She had purchased it from a company called Companion for £1400 brand new.
I decided to research this company and found that Companion and Age uk are run from the same building in Leeds, they are owned by a larger company called Handicare who supply them with minivator stairlifts.
So if we had called Companion we could have had the same stairlift with the same warranty fit by the same engineers for £500 less, what a con, Age uk are supposed to be helping the elderly! how does this help my mum by taking £500 more for the same product, totally disgusting, wish I had gone to Stannah.
hospital the OT and myself realised my mum needed a stairlift. I decided to do some research and found there seamed to be 3 main companies, Stannah,Acorn and Age uk stairlifts, we decided to have Age uk as we liked the thought of dealing with a charity rather than a large business, and we had heard stories of pressure sales from the other companies.We made an appointment, thier surveyor came round, who did not pressure us and informed us that the lift would be a straight stairlift called a minivator 950. This would cost £1900 and he told us this was the same price to any Age uk customer, which we liked so we purchased. The lift was fit a week later and everything was fine.
Some weeks later a neighbour of ours had a stairlift installed, I called in to have a look and found it to be the same stairlift as ours. She had purchased it from a company called Companion for £1400 brand new.
I decided to research this company and found that Companion and Age uk are run from the same building in Leeds, they are owned by a larger company called Handicare who supply them with minivator stairlifts.
So if we had called Companion we could have had the same stairlift with the same warranty fit by the same engineers for £500 less, what a con, Age uk are supposed to be helping the elderly! how does this help my mum by taking £500 more for the same product, totally disgusting, wish I had gone to Stannah.
0
Comments
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I think it is disgusting when companies do that. Could you maybe call them and tell them what you've found out and ask for a refund of the £500? I checked out life insurance through Age UK a while ago and looked at holidays they were offering. Couldn't believe how expensive they were. As you say, they are supposed to be there to help the elderly not take money off them.Christine0
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This really is disgusting..you have done your homework and still they have conned you, I wouldn't let this drop, at the very least you can carry on drawing attention to it.... xLove
Barbara0
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