What to Do When Your Mobility Scooter Breaks
Like any physical product, mobility scooters experience wear and tear over time. With enough usage, components can wear out, slow down, or break completely. Combined with the fact that they’re not necessarily cheap, it helps to understand the costs of options when deciding to fix a broken scooter.
Factors to consider include warranty coverage, diagnosing issues properly, service charges, and replacement costs. Here are the facts you need to know about the costs of repairing a mobility scooter.
Is My Mobility Scooter Still Under Warranty?
Power scooters are typically designed to be durable, and they can last a long time. However, regular maintenance is necessary to ensure everything is safe and in working order. Because of this, manufacturers cover their products with a limited warranty.
Every scooter manufacturer has guidelines outlining exactly what their warranty covers and how long it lasts. Make sure you read this fine print carefully before purchasing so you understand the limitations of your scooter manufacturer’s warranty.
How to Properly Diagnose Mobility Scooter Problems
Although powered mobility scooters bring personal mobility and freedom, they have a lot of moving parts. Normal wear and tear, accidents, and malfunctions can happen, and you should have a general sense of what your vehicle feels like when it’s working properly.
Common repairs performed on mobility scooters include battery and tire replacement, motor repair, and fixing seat and armrest damage. No matter how careful you are with your mobility scooter, the tires will eventually need to be replaced, just like on a bicycle or car. Batteries have a limited lifespan as well, and this is a likely cause of a scooter not turning on.
Your scooter’s user manual should have general troubleshooting tips for the most common faults and error codes. If these don’t locate and fix the problem, you may need a professional repair, so start with the manufacturer.
Contacting the Manufacturer
Quality scooter manufacturers know their products inside and out. They also often have trained technicians to help customers troubleshoot problems over the phone or via email. If you can’t find the problem on your own, they can help.
However, manufacturers also have limited warranties. This means your repair may not be covered, and they don’t often include in-home repairs. You’ll have to DIY unless you get an at-home service plan.
In-Home Service & Replacement Parts
Reputable mobility scooter sales shops typically carry an at-home service plan for their customers. For a low price, we cover repairs and replacement parts that the manufacturer may not. And we work with all major manufacturers to ensure your scooter can get back up and running in no time, regardless of the brand and model.
Think of it like a car—you can either bring your broken Ford to the dealership or a third-party repair shop. Those third-party shops often have more skilled mechanics because of the wide array of machines they work on. They can also work with the manufacturer to get any replacement parts covered by the warranty at a cheaper rate.
Replacement parts for mobility scooters include armrests, controllers, seats, body panels, keys and ignitions, steering assemblies, and brakes. They can have a wide range of costs, so be sure to price shop each.
Should You Repair or Replace?
Depending on the cost to repair (in-home fee plus cost of replacement parts), it could sometimes be cheaper to replace the vehicle entirely. It depends on a variety of factors, including how old your current scooter is, how long you plan to use it in the future, and your personal budget.
You’ll often see a car involved in an accident be listed as “totaled” by the insurance company even though it’s still technically drivable. That’s because the cost to repair mechanical and structural damage is more than the value of the vehicle, which degrades over time.
Before paying for any repairs, check out the prices of a comparable new scooter. Look at a range of models that may fit your needs. It’s possible that it’s more economical to buy a new one instead of trying to fix a broken scooter.
This can be a difficult decision to make, but you don’t have to do it alone. Talk to your dealer to determine the best decision for you.
Sources
https://myownwheels.com/products/in-home-service-repair-service
