How do deal with mobility vendor who does not honour guarantee

jkenefick

Registered User
Messages
6
Hi,
My mum has a genetic disability which means that she cannot walk properly. In recent years this has been getting worse so we brought the matter to the attention of the City hall, who provided a grant for mum to get a stair-lift and an external elevator installed. We had to pay over €5,000 as part of this.
We went with a mobility firm from the list of recommended vendors from City hall. They eventually installed the lift, providing a two year guarantee and an annual service. This work was completed just over a year ago.

We are very dissatisfied with the company however.

The external lift has not functioned for nearly 6 months. We have repeatedly called the vendor for them to come out to fix it. The majority of the time we are not answered. When we are answered the engineer who answers starts by reminding my mum that she's not the only customer they have. During the calls they eventually say they'll be out "sometime tomorrow" or "this week" or whatever. They never ever stick to this. They have been out once to verify the problem with the external lift and have not been out to repair it. They also took away a part (a key or something) to the external lift which means that no one else can repair it either.

Recently the chair in the stairlift broke. We were able to cover this with insurance money and they came out to install a new chair on the stairlift. We paid 900 euro for this. We requested a receipt from them but we haven't received one yet.

Since the installation of this chair 3 months ago, it has stopped twice on the stairs, once a month ago, which meant my mum had to crawl up and down the stairs until it was fixed, and yesterday it has stopped as well, which meant more crawling from my mum who was only in hospital over the weekend and is still recovering. We have called them again about this and after the initial torrent about not being the only customer they said they will "see what they can do"

Personally I am frustrated and disgusted at the treatment received from them throughout the entire time of our dealings with them and am very very angry. Despite over €30,000 being paid to them, we are stuck with two defective lifts and elevators, which are currently no good to us. They are under guarantee yet no service has been performed on the external lift, and the stairlift malfunctions regularly now. These items are clearly not fit for purpose. Their website says 24/7 service, 365 days a year and clearly this is not the case.

All we want is a functioning external lift and functioning stairlift that are free from defect. This area is not a normal area of sales, in that the health and well-being of someone really suffers for every delay. In the face of such treatment from a vendor, I would appreciate it if someone could outline what options we have available to us.
 
There is a lot in this and there appears to be two distinct issues:

- the external lift
- the chairlift

As regards the external lift - and based solely on what you have said - there appears to be a clear breach of contract in that they have not installed a lift that is of 'merchantible quality' and second that they do not appear to have the expertise and professional approach that they said they had. The list could go on.

Essentially you can do a number of things:

(1) Summarise as reasonably as possible all the facts, contacts, dates etc
(2) Itemise the costs
(3) Itemise the breaks in use of the lift,
(4) Look at Sale of Goods and Supply of services Act 1980 and use some of the phraseology.
(5) Tell them that you have initial advice that you appear to have a good case but would prefer all this to be dealt with amicably etc etc
(6) Tell them that if they do not respond you wlll take legal action and that this letter will be admitted in proceedings.
(7) Be prepared to hire a solicitor or hire one now.

On the Chair Lift: I don't see that this is in the same vein. So you may need to be a little more constructive about this. But I think that you do say that the only reason you guys were hired is that Dublin Corporation has you on the list. When you decide to write to the Corporation abut your case this could seriously damage their business.