How best to rip off and con an OAP

[Bill]

This will probably read a bit disjointed and only has a slight connection with DIY apart from the fact that the people involved require shooting and I would quite happily do it myself.

My elderly parents, in their 90s, had a bath lift for my mum. Basically a large webbing strap that fits in the bath and you sit on it and it lowers you down and then up again to lift you out. Nothing complicated, a battery, gear box and fixings.

Any way after 5 years the rechargeable battery had started to fail, no big problem, just get it replaced. They called in a company from the local paper to look at it for them and were told that the battery was no longer available and they would require a new unit fitting.

MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm I've never seen the battery pack but would assume a sealed lead acid, Yuasa or similar from my fathers description.

Today the "nice" man came and fitted it, he would not take the old unit away for disposal on hygiene grounds! No big problem, but interesting all the same, at least it will give me chance to examine the "unavailable" battery pack.

Bearing in mind that my work involves batteries, wires and electronic type things I asked my dad why he hadn't asked me to look at it for him, "we didn't like to bother you" AGGGGHHHHHHHHHHhh!!

The cost of the replacement unit, bearing in mind it was only a faulty battery was £1500:00

As you may have noticed, I'm not amused.

Rant over, I feel much better now.

No actually I don't.................

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

Your local Trading Standards dept should be interested in this, from the point of view of a company preying on vulnerable people.

[Robin]

I suspect the OP is right to be furious. OTOH:

a. trading standards might reasonably ask for some evidence that a replacement battery *was* available: if the make and model are known this should be fairly easy to check online; b. if a precise, gauranteed compatible battery is not available then trading standards might judge that a trader dealing with such equipment cannot afford to gamble and fit a battery which is *probably* OK but not an exact match (so in the event of a failure the manufacturer and installer deny all liability leaving the trader liable no matter what the fault).

[Bill]

I will be visiting mum and dad soon, they are 150 miles away, and getting an accurate view of what happened and exactly what equipment was involved. I had thought of Trading Standards but want to be correct with all the details first. I was surprised that they left the "evidence" behind.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Bill writes

Could they take a photo and get it to you somehow?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sadly there is no quarter given to the elderly or disabled when it comes to making a fast buck. Pal has a disability scooter, and his supplier wanted three times the Ebay price for new batteries. Which they didn't have in stock. Fitting extra.

[Brian Gaff]

NO this is about twice the cost of even a replacement I'd suggest. Having said that, it seems as if miraculously in the last five years or so, most things to do with disability, and aids for us have gone up in price tremendously. Is this another case of the captive market syndrome, where you have to get it sorted so the cost is of no import?

Maybe they all believe the crap the Government say about the disabled all being rich on benefits? At this rate those who are will not be for long!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

It seems that this is not the case these days, from my dealings. You would be better off talking to watchdog or one of the other tv shows about rip off britain.

Brian

[tim.....]

I don't think that you can suggest that being twice or even three times the cost of a, very likely, grey import via ebay is targeting elderly and disabled.

Most companies selling branded, officially UK sourced, items will have prices far in excess of the "shipped from HK" brigade.

And the reason for that is because they have to factor in all the additional costs of EU/UK consumer/H&S/whatever legislation that Johnny foreigner ignores.

How is the ebay retailer going to fit?

tim

[Jethro_uk]

Wife has MS, and uses a bathchair ... surprisingly light, batteries are in a detachable control pack. It's a rigid seat on a scissor which the motor (in the seat back) pushes on to lift.

We had an assessment recently from Social Services, who wanted to demo an emergency lift chair.

The company were most unamused when we cancelled the demo after discovering the bath chair can be used for exactly the same job.

I appreciate the nature of economies of scale, but sorry, £1,300 for that kit is extortionate.

[Andy Dingley]

BTDT 8-(

Worst I had was =A3150 emergency callout fee (not actually unreasonable, b= ut this was no emergency) to replace a =A320 switch on the garage door. A = friend's parent seems to have "given away" =A325k in recent months to vario= us "acquaintances". So you could be worse off.

IMHE, a wireless webcam is useful. Then train them to hold it up in front o= f thing to show them to you. Saves a _lot_ of incomprehensible phone messa= ge.

Then the second most helpful person I had was our _one_ good cleaner and ca= re assistant, the one who worked directly for me. Cost less than the agency= ones, and did _far_ more. I strongly recommend finding such a person as so= on as you can - worth their weight in your favourite tradable commodity.

[charles]

It's to do with: "for you, a special price". They don't tell you it's twice as high as normal. [really special]

[Bill]

In message , Mike Tomlinson writes

A thought, but it would be easier as far as stress goes just to drive up there. :-)

>

[Man at B&Q]

Do you accuse the supplier of being a rip-off merchant?

MBQ

[Bill]

We are lucky that they have some very good neighbours, they live in a small Cheshire village that no longer even has a shop. The neighbours normally take care of them for day to day things, but unfortunately not in this case.. I quite understand and don't blame them.

They do have an extraordinarily good electrician, they've had a couple of minor "emergences" that couldn't be sorted over the phone and he has popped out at odd times, on his way home, and sorted the problems. Charging, as far as I can tell, just for the parts.

The webcam is interesting, but unfortunately not practical in this instance, I tried to get dad to use Word under Win 3.1 many years ago, it certainly put BT's profits up, but we eventually admitted defeat.

Strangely enough they actually manage to take care of themselves quite well, even down to gardening and mowing lawns etc. Mum only gave up keeping a horse about 5 years ago. She has been registered blind for

10+ years, no problem when she went out riding, the horse went where he wanted and came home when he was fed up!! Luckily he had a lot of traffic sense. Some form of home help is on the cards though, more just to keep an eye on things such as the bath lift incident.

The more I have thought about it the more I want to see just what has happened.

[Bill Wright]

I needed two batteries for a big scooter some years ago. Rung the disability shop, thought the price quoted rather high, rung a local battery specialist. Bloke said, "That's a coincidence! Just five minutes ago we had someone else wanting a pair of those!" The shop had exactly doubled the price to us, and that was without fitting. £160 or £320. It's your choice.

We have little scooter in use here that cost £780 from an internet supplier. Same item in all the disability shops round here (including one in a hospital shopping parade) is £1,700 to £1,900.

Bill

[Tim Streater]

Deliberately foisting Win 3.1 on *anyone* was a crime.

[Adrian C]

Wouldn't it be nice if Escrow payment was implemented across the whole teritory of sales that could be made to a financially vunerable person.

[Andy Dingley]

=20

They were the _most_ helpful person we had (and another, an interfering PI= TA).

That's why I said wireless. You need a wireless router, the webcam, and sig= ning up with a dynamic DNS service. I had an ISP connection up there just = for my own use when visiting (which was every weekend at times), but it wou= ld have been worth it just for the webcam. I spent about 6 months fending = off bizarre phone calls from the meddling services, telling me that there w= ere elephants in the dining room or somesuch. When I got the camera, I fina= lly knew what on earth was going on.

=A350-ish from DealExtreme bought me a camera with a tilt & swivel base. Ga= ffer tape, a 12V lead acid, float charger and a cannibalised base from the = old kettle (yes, with fuse & zener crowbar!) made it portable and chargeabl= e. Some of my regular yellow and black haz tape with printed labels meant t= hat it usually got put back in the right place. This was in the kitchen, th= e main living room, so I could usually see what was going on before it happ= ened. =20

I also developed the habit of watching the agency carers at mealtimes.

Nowadays though, I hear iPads are doing much the same job.

[Bill]

In message , Andy Dingley writes

Now you are getting me seriously interested, Google here I come. Thanks for the idea.

I have thought of CCTV with an internet connection but only as security, your idea reviving that thought.