I agree completely. For larger equipment of a specialist nature one can
understand the economics of the cost of manufacture being higher, but when
it comes to off the shelf items it does seem a bit like they are just making
money at the expense of disabled people.
For example, when I could still see enough to use a CCTV for reading, the
unit, a black and white rostrum camera looking at a mirror with an x/y table
and a 21 inch monitor cost over 1000 quid, but since access to work paid for
it, then the government footed the bill.
When the two fluorescent lights failed, an engineer looked inside and found
the electronic ballast which drove them had died. It was a normal item,
branded at the time Philips. Asking Tiemen, who made the unit for a
replacement was according to them going to cost 120 quid. Go down to the
local electrical wholesalers, and the exact same item costs 14 quid. Now its
not going to cost all that extra to get it from the Netherlands to here,
which is where Tiemen were located is it?

This sort of thing happens an awful lot.. Indeed inside that unit in order
to stop people just buying the rostrum camera unit they had not reversed the
line scan on the camera electronics, instead had reversed the connections to
the scan coils on the monitor, meaning that the monitor could not be used as
a monitor elsewhere and the camera unit would not work with a tv's video
input, as either would result in mirror image pictures.
Brian

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This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...
Prices for a 33V 1A psu as used by stairlifts to charge the battery.

Typical Amazon price: £18
Farnell: £26
Medical grade item: £76
Quoted by a stairlift supplier when a replacement was needed: £181. Item
is tiny and in a plastic case, and appears to be poor quality.

Price for a carbon brush, ditto: £25.

Bill