We have a specifically designed disabled lift with a very chequered history. Roughly ten years ago we paid about $45,000 for the lift, and about another $20,000 for modifications to our home to take the lift.
We had many, many, many problems with it over the years. Their own staff have told us that it was built wrongly and that is the cause of many of the faults we had.
The business was sold WITHOUT LIABILITY. Which apparently meant that even though they kept the business name, the new owners have no responsibility for what had occurred before they bought it. So no warranty claims.
The lift broke down last year and we called the (still the same name) lift company who now manufacture and service the lifts out. The tech who attended said that it was the circuit board, and took it away. We were charged for his attendence and travel time.
We were quoted a high price (in the order of $650) for repair/replacement of a small PCB that controls the lift, which I paid. It was brought out and installed which we paid for as well. (I was told the PCBs are imported from China, so I later did a search and found similar sized lift PCBs on sale in China for under $100. The boards are likely different, but the priced difference is a stark contract.)
The lift worked for two days and then stopped dead again. We called the same company to come and get the lift working again. This time two techs came out and worked on if for a couple of hours and finally had it working.
When they had finished, we were told that the previous tech that had installed the circuit board had not done the installation properly, but they had rectified the errors. There were also other faults, such as the way the newly replaced back-up batttery was connected. Again this would have all been done by techs from this company. They also replaced the weeks old battery because it was flat.
The lift then stopped dead again two or three days later.
In the meantime, the company sent us a bill for the two tech’s work, including travel time, and charged me for a new battery. (I can buy the same battery at Jaycar for under ½ the price they were charging.)
I contacted the company and said that it should all be under warranty as the two techs were merely rectifying work carried out by their staff which had not been done properly; and under the ACL it was their responsibility to rectify faults cause by their faulty products (circuit board) and/or services (the techs).
They demanded payment. I refused to pay. They demanded payment. I refused to pay. Eventually they arranged for debt collectors to try to collect payment. I had an interesting conversation with the debt collector who insisted that I had to pay because the lift worked when the techs left. I refused to pay and referred the debt collector to a solicitor. I haven’t heard anything since. I would love to persue legal action against them, but that is not an option financially.
The outcome is we have a dead lift which is no good for anything and takes up a lot of real estate in our home. I have made enquiries, and all the components are proprietary and other lift companies will/can not deal with their bits and pieces. It has been suggested that if we want a lift, we remove the existing lift and another lift company can install one in the vacant space. Not a practical solution.
The lift has been dead for 1.5 years now, and every time I pass it, it am reminded of how disempowered I am as a lone consumer.
I mentioned the story of the dead lift to a occupational therapist who came to our home to work out disabled modifications and was told that this business now has a very bad reputation in the industry.
Apart from totally ignoring the ACL, the ‘legal but unfair’ part is 1) as the company was sold, I lost all rights relating to the original faulty installation, and 2) that the ‘new’ business charges exhorbitant amounts for the (faulty?) parts that they supply and the often poor quality technicians they send out because they are the sole supplier/repairer of the lifts.
The people that need these lifts are the elderly and disabled and it seems to me that they have no scrupples riding roughshod over their clients.
