How the disabled are ripped off
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
With or without VAT?
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.
It is simply a matter of shopping around. Last week I bought a three
wheel walker, with bag, basket and tray, for £29.99 from Amazon. Around
£90.00 from a disability shop. A few weeks earlier I bought a
lightweight transfer wheelchair for £50 from Amazon, as opposed to
£12.50 a week to hire locally; worthwhile as I knew it would take my
partner more than four weeks to fully recover from her TIA.
I suspect the difference is in the level of turnover and the overheads
involved in having a shop on the high street.
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Colin Bignell
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