Wheelchair88Reviews of wheelchair88.com

Purchased a 4 wheel drive chair from them 3 years ago. Needed to replace the battery at a cost of over $1,000. They no longer make a replacement battery for that chair and have changed the design of the chair and battery. Modified the chair to accept the new style battery and was promised $250 dollars to have that done. They never paid. Battery was defective and does not work. I am now a proud owner of a boat anchor (aka piece of junk) since they have quit responding to emails. Paid over $13,000 for the chair and expected better customer service. Guhesh is ghosting me.

I purchased a Foldawheel XL from this company a few years ago. Frankly I would avoid buying anything from this company. Admittedly, my chair still runs. But I owe no thanks to the company or its customer service, because I've had to learn to fix it myself, or do without. The company has no customer service (you deal with sales reps), and it has no network of technicians (in this country), that repair the chairs. The warranty is not worth much. Read it closely. Its a complex maze of legal mumbo jumbo that is limited to manufacturers product designed defects. Here is my experience. I'm an above the knee amputee. During my experience its important to know that at all times my chair was still under warranty. Also, I purchased this wheelchair as my a backup chair. I already had a Invacare Nutron and a manual chair. So this Foldawheel was NOT put into everyday use. Sparing many of the annoying details, I will try to tell this cautionary tale of my experience with this company. First, within the first few months after purchase, the plastic footplate brace broke. Then the cheap (foam or some similar material) arm rests pads began to peal and break off. I contacted wheelchair company and had to purchase new arm rest pads (about $200). After about six months the new pads began to peal and break. Eventually I took off the foot plate and the arm pads and just used the metal framework on the chair without the plastic and foam attachments. After about a year, I next contacted the company to purchase a third lithium ion battery. My chair came with two with the capability to add a third battery to extend the chair's range. I was told that the company no longer used the batteries I got when I purchased my chair. The new batteries now in use, were not compatible with the old ones that came with my chair. So, I had to purchase three of the new batteries (very expensive $1,200 - $1,500 as I recall). I didn't do it. Next, the ball bearings on the right front wheel began to go out. My chair would sometimes make a fairly loud clicking sound. I didn't know what it was. I feared it might be the motor so I contacted the company. I asked for a list of reputable repair people to whom I could take the chair. I was told to take a picture of it and email it to them. I was puzzled about how I could take a picture of the sound I occasionally heard. Long story short, after a few weeks I figured it out because sometimes I would hear the click and lose control of the chair. The chair would not respond to the joy stick. So I took the front wheel off and emailed them pictures of the wheel, the bearings etc. They claimed it was normal wear and tear and not covered by the warranty. I insisted that I only occasionally used this chair. But after some back and forth, I purchased the ball bearings for the wheel. Moreover, they had no repair technicians. They told me "It was an easy fix" and they would send me a link showing me how to do it. I decided to purchase bearings for all of the wheels so I would not have to revisit this issue with the company again. They sent me bearings and a YouTube instruction link purportedly showing how to fix the wheel. I must have watched that video 5 times before I realized the chair depicted in the video was not my chair, instead it was the new version of my chair, and the bearings that they sent me were the wrong ones. They didn't fit my chair. I contacted the company and told them the problem and they told me they would send the right bearings ASAP. Meantime I went to a machine shop with the broken bearing and purchased a couple for half the price the company charged. When I received the bearings from the company, they never sent any instruction video. Eventually, I figured it out for myself. It's lucky that I did too. Because within the next few months, the bearing on the left wheel failed. I fixed it myself. Finally, in the ratings, I note that the average rating for this company is 4.1 stars and they only disclose five "5 star" ratings, There appear to be some ratings missing because five " 5 star" rating do not average 4.1 stars. I rate them with ONE star out of five. I am in the market for a new chair since my Nutron died. But I will avoid this company.