(888) 453-8458 & 1-800-333-4000
My 70 year old dad is going through some health issues and has become unable to walk. Since he's not wealthy, doesn't have a lot of time to find the right chair and HATES bureaucratic medicaid red tape ...I went on ebay and found a like new, but slightly used, 2013 power wheel chair made for bariatric (heavy!) people.
The chair was $26,000 when it was sold new a few months ago. It did almost everything my dad needed it to. Thankfully, We paid a fraction of the new cost and had my dad sitting in it before a medicaid worker probably would have found their pencil and paper.
Before purchasing it, I phoned the company to try to find out more about the chair. Evidently, these companies that make medical products don't want to deal with the general public. They only want to deal with distributors and insurance companies. And, NOTHING IS URGENT TO THEM. NOTHING!
I was surprised when the lady at AMYSYSTEMS gave me a less than helpful attitude about answering my questions about the chair. As soon as I told her that I was considering buying it used from an ebay seller, she tuned out. She wanted nothing to do with me since I wasn't BUYING a NEW chair from one of their dealers. I guess AMYPOWER wheelchairs doesn't realize that people do pass on and their very expensive wheelchairs will eventually be sold on the used market by the grieving family?
Fast forward a couple days and I bought the chair from ebay. I had it delivered to my dads house. It arrived a week later & worked well. He was slowly getting used to piloting the gigantic chair around their small living room.
A few days ago he tried to tilt the chair back and ended up hitting a table behind him. He didn't realize this and kept trying to tilt the chair back. Doing so, broke the linear actuator (made mostly out of plastic) and the 2 guide rods (made out of weak pot metal), making the chair all but unusable.
I called the company that built the $26,000 wheelchair (AMYLIOR, AMYPOWER, AMYSYSTEMS... they have 3 names?!) hoping to buy the actuator and rods. Again, I was met with kind of nasty attitude. My subsequent calls were routed to voicemail. When they realized I would keep calling back and wasn't going away (my dad needs help!)... finally I was connected to a parts guy that first said he could sell me the parts and later emailed me saying, and I quote...
"Hi Donald,
After talking to my superior, I was reminded that we cannot sell directly to end user or chair owners. You will need to find a chair repair shop in your area. Sorry.
Best regards,
Paul Leroux
AMYSYSTEMS
Technical Support
F: 877.501.8458
I had already explained to Paul on the phone that we didn't need a wheelchair repair shop to install the part. We just needed the part so we could install it ourselves. Time was of the essence.
It shouldn't be too much of a hassle for them to offer some sort of parts availability to "regular Joes" who have bought one of their incredibly expensive (and kind of cheaply made) chairs on the used market.
After much communication back and forth, Paul Leroux told me they can only sell parts to their dealers (which are few and far between) still staunchly refusing to sell parts to "average joe" who foolishly bought one of their chairs on the used market.
I am really disappointed in this company and would ABSOLUTELY NOT recommend buying a chair from them. There are too many other reputable wheelchair builders (with large dealer networks and ample parts availibility) to choose from that will offer advice and parts (without attitude) after the sale.
Do yourself and your family a favor and stay far away from AMYPOWER, SUNRISE & QUICKIE wheelchairs. The AMYPOWER wheelchairs are rebranded and sold by Sunrise Medical as QUICKIE brand chairs.
