[LJ]Current mood: stressed[/LJ]
In the last few years, I've had some pretty significant breakdowns with my scooter. American Airlines ripped the tire in half; my batteries reached end-of-life significantly before they were supposed to; the charger stopped working. Each of these incidents involved missing class, using a rental chair that didn't fit well (and in one case, caused shoulder pain that lasted for several months afterwards), and paying a shitload of money to have a certified guy come out and fix the damn thing.
Fast forward to this fall. Around November-ish, my scooter stopped holding a charge. This wasn't a huge surprise; a battery can only go through so many charge cycles before that happened. In retrospect, it would be wise to replace the batteries every year, before trouble happens, but it wasn't a big deal. I ordered the batteries and installed them at home. Expensive, and not covered by insurance, but it was a simple problem with a simple solution.
Unfortunately, about two weeks ago, the scooter started stalling out. It seems to happen more often (though not exclusively) when I'm on rough terrain; given the lousy state of the sidewalks in Boston, that's a pretty big problem! When the repair guy came out, he said it looked like the connections on the battery had shaken loose - like I hadn't tightened the nuts enough when I replaced the old battery. He tightened them up, and all was well.
Until last Thursday (or Wednesday?), when the problem happened again, making me a very unhappy camper. I switched over to the backup scooter I decided to buy when the afore-mentioned issues happened in the fall, and then, last night ... the right rear wheel broke off the axle. Rolling over a damn roll of toilet paper. And not 'broke off' as in 'screw it back on', either. 'Broke off' as in, 'the plastic bits that hold the wheel on the axle cracked in half'. So now I have two broken scooters, one that needs a (probably expensive) spare part that my repair guy may or may not have in stock, and one that is not yet diagnosed. And no functional scooter. (Note: I can drive around the first scooter I mentioned, but it stalls out unpredictably, and will refuse to start up for about an hour - so I can't drive outside, which means I have to take it to campus, leave it there, and find some other form of transportation between campus and home.)
I'm incredibly frustrated at this point. When do I stop throwing money into this black hole and just buy a replacement? Why don't wheelchair manufacturers understand that their users drive outside? Why don't they over-engineer their vehicles, like cars manufacturers have to? Why do they only last 4-5 years? Why is there only one person in my area who is a certified Amigo repair person? Why is it so damn expensive to have him do repairs? Where will I find the time to deal with this, and academics, and getting over a virus, and everything else I need to do? Fuck.
In the last few years, I've had some pretty significant breakdowns with my scooter. American Airlines ripped the tire in half; my batteries reached end-of-life significantly before they were supposed to; the charger stopped working. Each of these incidents involved missing class, using a rental chair that didn't fit well (and in one case, caused shoulder pain that lasted for several months afterwards), and paying a shitload of money to have a certified guy come out and fix the damn thing.
Fast forward to this fall. Around November-ish, my scooter stopped holding a charge. This wasn't a huge surprise; a battery can only go through so many charge cycles before that happened. In retrospect, it would be wise to replace the batteries every year, before trouble happens, but it wasn't a big deal. I ordered the batteries and installed them at home. Expensive, and not covered by insurance, but it was a simple problem with a simple solution.
Unfortunately, about two weeks ago, the scooter started stalling out. It seems to happen more often (though not exclusively) when I'm on rough terrain; given the lousy state of the sidewalks in Boston, that's a pretty big problem! When the repair guy came out, he said it looked like the connections on the battery had shaken loose - like I hadn't tightened the nuts enough when I replaced the old battery. He tightened them up, and all was well.
Until last Thursday (or Wednesday?), when the problem happened again, making me a very unhappy camper. I switched over to the backup scooter I decided to buy when the afore-mentioned issues happened in the fall, and then, last night ... the right rear wheel broke off the axle. Rolling over a damn roll of toilet paper. And not 'broke off' as in 'screw it back on', either. 'Broke off' as in, 'the plastic bits that hold the wheel on the axle cracked in half'. So now I have two broken scooters, one that needs a (probably expensive) spare part that my repair guy may or may not have in stock, and one that is not yet diagnosed. And no functional scooter. (Note: I can drive around the first scooter I mentioned, but it stalls out unpredictably, and will refuse to start up for about an hour - so I can't drive outside, which means I have to take it to campus, leave it there, and find some other form of transportation between campus and home.)
I'm incredibly frustrated at this point. When do I stop throwing money into this black hole and just buy a replacement? Why don't wheelchair manufacturers understand that their users drive outside? Why don't they over-engineer their vehicles, like cars manufacturers have to? Why do they only last 4-5 years? Why is there only one person in my area who is a certified Amigo repair person? Why is it so damn expensive to have him do repairs? Where will I find the time to deal with this, and academics, and getting over a virus, and everything else I need to do? Fuck.
posted by ismith at 5:14 AM
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