National Seating & Mobility review: Service

I have been a customer of NSM or their precursors for the last 41 years since my accident landed me in a power wheelchair. I have always had a positive experience until today when my power wheelchair a Quantum III with lifted seat which was purchased from your very capable staff in South Bend, but due to my move back to southern Indiana must now be serviced by your Indianapolis branch due to me moving into ESRD and requiring dialysis. My batteries were draining dramatically even though it had charged for 10 hours, and I was stuck in my bathroom in the middle of the night because it would say undervoltage code 20.

I am 100% dependent on my wheelchair as I am non ambulatory. I am required to go to dialysis 3 times a week for four hours. Even though the chair was off last Wednesday it went into that stop mode, and I had to have two random strangers put it into manual and they had to push me into my ramp. When I arrived at home. my girls had to manually push this 400-pound chair with me in it up the ramp into the house and I immediately plugged it in and charged it all night and most of the day. I then unplugged it and proceeded to fix me dinner. Within 3 hours it was doing the same thing again stopping and giving me the error message.

I waited until 6 am to wake up my DIL and asked her to watch my homebound severely disabled SIL and my daughter and I were going to jump in the car and head to Indianapolis to get it resolved. This is when my experience with a company that I have purchased numerous wheelchairs over the years went horrendously wrong. I talked to a very rude service person who informed me that they didn't handle any emergencies and they would do nothing for me. Suggested since I was running around doing dialysis (not treating this like the lifesaving procedure that it is) suggesting I could just put off things till Monday. I told him you sold me this equipment made a promise to service said equipment and now he was negating my need because my chair hadnt followed the schedule to break down for the company's convenience. I will admit I basically called him an ableist idiot and said I wanted to talk to his boss I was done talking to him. He told me if I came up to the office that they wouldn't let me in, so I better not come. I told him they could call the police and trespass me but I was coming to resolve the problem.

He sent me to the manager's voice mail and I left her the same message that I had to have something done and I was headed to Indy. She called me going on about how there was no one that could help that I had to understand, etc, etc, etc. I told her you sold me this chair with the promise to service it never ever having anyone mention it had to fail when it was convenient to you but not me. I used the analogy that if someone took her legs off and sit them across the room and said we can get them back to you Monday, what would she do. Can't go to the bathroom do I hold it for three days. Can't go to dialysis well I just skip them and risk dying from poison running through my bloodstream and the list goes on. I know you guys have loaner batteries so I said give me loaner so I can get back to living. She said we have no one to put them in all our service appointments are booked. I told her to give me the batteries and I would find someone else to put them in. She said she would check on the loaner batteries and call me back. I reminded her that 9 years ago when I purchased about my 5 wheelchair from you that it was a lemon and was barely a year old when it would stop almost throwing me in the street. I went on line found a lawyer that sued INVACARE Corporation, not you. I won my suit and INVACARE reimbursed me $15,000. which I in turn came back to you and purchased the chair, obviously a Quantum, with the money I received from the settlement. She called me back 10 minutes later and low and behold someone had just then cancelled and I could come at 11 am.

When I got to your new location there was an obviously not code tiny ramp with no signage, the door didn't want to open and frankly the office was unkept and looked suspiciously similar to the downtown Indy bus station for Greyhound. There was a huge sign on the door which said NO WALKINS BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. It was signal you are not welcome here. There were like to old wheelchairs sitting in the lobby. It took them 10 minutes which I was acutely aware of after 41 years and thousands of repairs over the year. I also told the manager that if I had to drive the four hours to South Bend to get a decorum I would do that. I did tell her I intended to file a complaint with corporate which I am doing.

First, I would say my prior experience with the Indianapolis branch was always positive, and because I moved north to take a job with a disability rights organization I had to use South Bend office to buy this new chair. They were great. The service was professional and I have recommended many of my consumers to NSM because of my prior experience. Sadly the Indianapolis store is barely a shell of the store I knew and used for my equipment. The management seems to allow hostile employees to degrade customers, unreceptive to any logic, and post messages and keeps an environment that says you are not5hing but a job to us.

As a state administrator who retired, I would have canned any employee who treated customers the way I was treated. The assumption is clear your store has no respect for the customers because we are dependent on you to be independent. I am not ever going to quit fighting to be treated as your equal and the customer. Frankly, I have two master's degrees, been working in social services my entire career, and have served in several disability rights organizations. I will not stand still and have to bow down to service providers in order to be able to live my independence. I've fought for Medicaid rights, I fought for equality and I will fight being humiliated by a service provider who makes money on the backs of our community. Perhaps you need to hire some physically disabled individuals to do customer service. I'm currently looking for something part time I can do to earn money, and you definitely need someone that doesn't humiliate your customers because they feel vulnerable.