Sedona AZ (March 7, 20120) – In a letter to the SedonaEye.com editor, a reader writes the following:
Hello,
Following is a situation that I am currently experiencing that I thought you might want to advise your reading audience of so they can avoid experiencing a similar situation. Thank you!
Best regards,
Tom Vickery
80 W. Maryland Avenue, #117
Phoenix, AZ 85013
(602) 257-9120
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Does a friend or family member have difficulty with mobility requiring them to use a powered scooter? If so, you might be interested to know about the horrible service I am receiving from United Seating and Mobility.
I purchased a Pride Legend SC 3000 Scooter through the catalog department of United Seating and Mobility in April 2009 to assist my mobility which has been limited due to cerebral palsy. In addition, since I cannot afford the costs associated with owning a vehicle, the scooter is my main means of transportation. Unfortunately since purchasing the Pride Legend the scooter has been at the Phoenix Branch of United Seating and Mobility located at 760 E. McDowell Road Phoenix, AZ 85006 (602) 452-4320 13 times. The latest repair was to install a new controller on January 21, 2010, when I last saw my scooter.
In an attempt to be proactive, I have sent numerous e-mails and made numerous phone calls to Michael deHart, Director of Operations for United Seating and Mobility in Lynwood, Washington along with frequent inquiries to the Phoenix branch, all resulting in false promises. The latest situation involved speaking with Joshua Dickerson, Service and Repair Manager in Phoenix who said that the parts needed were being shipped from the main warehouse of Pride Mobility Products Corporation located in Pennsylvania. On Friday, February 26, the parts arrived, but they were the wrong parts. Mr. Dickerson informed me that Pride would be expediting the parts to Phoenix with an expected arrival of yesterday, March 3, 2010. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I waited until Thursday, March 4 to follow-up with Mr. Dickerson. Mr. Dickerson informed me that the parts were just being shipped yesterday. Upon looking at this situation, my first question is why would Pride Mobility wait four days to send out the correct parts when they apparently said they would expedite them last Friday.
The inability to maintain consistency with what is said and what is done is not unique to the Phoenix location. In fact, Mr. deHart also participates in similar tactics. Are you starting to see the picture? To be fair to United Seating and Mobility, I will share with you that they did provide me with a loaner scooter while mine has been at the Phoenix location. However, that scooter stopped operating last Saturday on my way home from an church event. Upon bringing this matter to the attention of Joshua Dickerson there was no concern or empathy expressed regarding the situation. Instead, he stressed the fact that I am responsible for the loaner scooter.
Therefore, after receiving one delay after another, I finally decided to seek the advice of others. One of the individuals I spoke with discovered 13 complaints filed by customers of United Seating and Mobility from other locations around the country that also conveyed the lack of customer service and dishonesty like I am experiencing. This leads me to wonder if the executive team of United Seating and Mobility located in Earth City, Missouri (suburb of St. Louis) which includes Mr. Bob Gouy, President, Mr. Bill Rubin, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Tom Pennington, Operations Manager are aware or even care how the branches of their company located in 15 states across the country are treating customers. Moreover, one would be led to believe that a company that was founded in 2001 would have worked out all the quirks by now so that customers would receive quality service and timely repairs for products purchased from or through United Seating and Mobility.
Fortunately there are other manufacturers like Invacare, Permobil, Pride and Quickie for instance who care about the customer much more than has been demonstrated by United Seating and Mobility. Therefore, beware of United Seating and Mobility, and if at all possible choose a different company.
The Sedona Times received this submission to its website and the Letter to the Editor is posted solely as the opinion of the writer who is entirely responsible for its content. We invite United Sealing and Mobility to submit a reply for posting under the same rules of content responsibility. The Sedona Times does not share the opinion of the writer(s).
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I have been in a wheelchair for 9 years and I am a very loyal United Seating and Mobility customer, I receive great service and care from all employee’s in the Repair department. Josh is the person who always helps me when I go in and always has a tech near by if he is unavailable. So sorry to hear about your troubles but I do recommend United Seating to all wheelchair users.
As a past employee of United Seating and Mobility, I can assure you that Bob Gouy cares deeply about satisfying his customers on issues such as yours. I would suggest calling the St. Louis office and ask for the Quality Assurance Manager or Bob himself. I am sorry to hear of your problems and am somewhat surprised based upon my 15 yrs with the company out of the Columbia Missouri branch. I guess things may have changed in the past 4 yrs due to incredible financial pressures on the industry as a whole secondary to many, many cut-backs in reimbursement for their core business which is high-end custom equipment for persons with extremely complicated needs. I with you and them the best.
Scott Benson
Terrible experience with the office in Colorado springs. One mistake after another. They make up stories, don’t return calls. Very frustrating to deal with. Would never purchase another thing from them if I have a choice!