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charles charles is offline
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Default How the disabled are ripped off

In article , GB
wrote:
On 24/09/2015 21:09, michael adams wrote:
"GB" wrote in message
...
On 24/09/2015 19:40, Bill Wright wrote:
110Ah deep discharge battery sold through some disability industry
outlets: £149.95. Exact same battery sold for golf buggy: £60

Flightsafe device: £30. This is a three pin XLR plug with pins 1 and
2 shorted, in red plastic. This inhibits the scooter operation. Cost
of manufacture will be about £1.

115mm rubber tyred jockey wheel, 20mm bo Disability shops: £18.
Various other places: about £10.

Various scooter keys: Shoprider on/off switch £10. This is standard
plastic body toggle switch: £1 from CPC etc. Some old types of
scooter uses a standard 1/4" jack plug, shorted out internally, as a
key. These are sold for £5 to £12 in disability shops. Some other
keys are on standard blanks and my local cobbler with turn them out
at £5 each, but if you buy from a disability shop they are likely to
be £12 to £15.

Very annoying! To some extent, this is just the same as any spare
parts operation - for a car, for example.


But that doesn't explain why the same battery is available for a golf
buggy for 40% of the price. Or the toggle switch which is widely
available elsewhere at 1/10th of the price. Or the keys which cost
three times as much in a disabilty shop as in a key cutting kiosk.


One possibility is that the disability shop orders the keys in from the
manufacturer. Clearly, that's not the same process as the key cutting
kiosk. For a start, you need to have the key to begin with to use the
kiosk. You'd be the first to complain if the manufacturers of the scooter
were unable to supply a key just from the ID number of the scooter.


I can remember buying car keys from a proper locksmith by quoting the
number on another one.

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