How the disabled are ripped off

[Bob Eager]

Under what stated temperature conditions? And with an opened vial? I wonder if you would be so dismissive if you were the one using the insulin.

[polygonum]

It can be difficult keeping things below 25 in the summer when travelling - unless you have something like a coolpack.

[dennis]

The main thing is don't get the insulin too cold. If you use an ice pack from a freezer you need to throw the insulin away and get a new supply. It crystallises out at low temps and then you don't know how much you are getting.

[Bill Wright]

I am rather bored with this now, but I have been involved with small business retail all my life and I can tell you that 1,000% mark-ups are never necessary. This is 'charging what you can get away with', also known as 'charging what the market will stand'. It is the exploiting of a local monopoly made possible indirectly by the customers' disability and age.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

Yes, these things are often in place when the scooter is delivered to the customer, if it is delivered in one piece. It's a surprisingly common item. Disabled people do travel the world you know.

Bill

[Bob Eager]

Exactly. Which is why I was talking about a *cool pack* - not the same thing.

[damduck-egg]

The Dad of a mate of mine was always dropping his series 1 Landrover ignition key in the disgusting stuff. My mate made up a combination switch to replace it from some mechanical TV channel selectors that were found in the dump*. All his Dad had to remember was left to write , 2 ,10 and 12 which were the same numbers as used on the Telly indoors. BBC ,HTV , Westward. Though HTV was a hangover from TWW before Westward started and never gave a clear picture.

• The dump was an old quarry on the edge of the village that had become disused officially sometime in the 50's so it had no nasty modern refuse in it. That it was officially closed didn't stop the local TV repairer amongst others still using it when nobody was looking because sets kept appearing there up to the 70's and we regularly raided them for magnets and other parts while stood on a heap of rusting Iron and steel intermingled with broken glass Asbestos coated pipes old glass cased accumulators bits of 1930's cars bits of agricultural machinery covered in sharp baldes etc that you could catch tetnus and other nasties from. It was a fantastic place to play, every kid should have access to one. Mind you some of our school mates who actually lived in the village and didn't have access to a farm went further and used the nearby Sewage plant as a playground. Well at least till the parish council put a roundabout in by the football field because the Water Board complained about kids riding around on the rotary arm over the filter bed.

G.Harman

[damduck-egg]

What about items that make life easier for the elderly? Aging isn't a disability as such or really an illness in itself. Even so when we bought a shower stool for FIL because he had got too weak to stand but still needed to be washed the specialist shop did not charge VAT and it was their suggestion. That was six years and they unlike FIL are still around so I doubt if they have sufferered the ire of HMCR for malpractice.

G.Harman

[tim.....]

That's because it has high overheads that have to be paid by a small number of sales.

It's not reasonable to compare these prices with an internet seller who has next to zero costs of sale who probably doesn't even have any stock in hand.

A bricks and mortar supplier, who has to hold stock, simply cannot compete on that basis. That's not his fault.

tim

[tim.....]

cos they can be sued (for the potholes)

tim

[tim.....]

I don't see any relevance to that to my post

(and FWIW, I can't even work out if you are being serious or ironic)

tim

[tim.....]

but they are still a very small percentage of the whole

Only once in about 300 flights have I ever shared the plane with a person who required assistance in getting to/from their seat (which I suspect is a reasonable proxy for "travelling with their own wheelchair")

tim

[tim.....]

Once again

they don't compete with internet sales because they CAN'T, not because they don't have to

tim

[Nightjar]

Your contract is with Amazon, not with any third party they sub-contract the supply or dispatch to.

[Adrian]

On Sun, 27 Sep 2015 10:28:53 +0100, Nightjar > but it's not "from" Amazon", is it

Nope. Amazon are just an advertising medium and payment processor - you are buying FROM the vendor.

Not Amazon, but a very similar site :

Have a look at 4C i and iii

[critcher]

bought a suction grip bar for the bath, at a disability shop, they check address etc because there is no vat, even without vat it was twice the price of web.

[critcher]

bet they wouldn't

[Nightjar]

While I do sometimes get direct communications from a supplier, quoting Amazon Marketplace, in the vast majority of cases it is Amazon that provides me with all the information required by The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which I think will make them the trader for the purposes of those regulations.

Those are the terms and conditions that apply to the sellers, which makes it a business to business contract. Consumers get a lot more protection.

[Martin]

The key thing is that it is Amazon that debits the purchaser's bank account. This makes the contract with Amazon.

I have an item that has been in transit since the 1st August 2015. I can't find any way of complaining or getting a refund. Some where on Amazon's website it says that the delivery company is responsible for lost packages. In this case Amazon is the delivery company. The cost wasn't large. IMO Amazon is responsible for delivery as well in all cases, because they subcontract delivery. I pay Amazon for the delivery too.

[David Woolley]

For these shops in general (maybe buggies are a special case) and the rest of the disability market, the customers are not the aged, but rather their children, or even grand children. To some extent they are selling clear consciences. That's why the associated web site advertising typically doesn't represent a paragon of accessible design.

The more you pay for your indulgences, the more your soul is saved!