Stairlifts

Nicky, we`ve had ours for 4 years now, it was on a special offer at £1800, instead of £2300. Always ask the firms if they have any offers on.

My Aunt has recently come out of hospital after a fall and has decided to have a stairlift.She can only afford about £2,000 max. This would rule out a brand new stairlift I gather. Could anyone advise me whether it is better to have a reconditioned stairlift or is it better to rent one? If so, is there any company you could recommend in the Bedfordshire area?

I strongly recommend that you take out a warranty on the stairlift. Whenever I have called out an engineer it has been expensive. My 5 year warranty has apparently run out and the company did not warn me so when my lift broke down today, it cost £175 for a call out fee- double because of the holiday. It was only a fuse which had blown but my stairlift was as dead as a dodo.

I was very lucky, the engineer was here within 2 hours of me calling. I have never had to wait until the next day, they have visited even if it was 10pm at night.

how many different companies did you go to before deciding on that?
was the price better that other companies?
we found our thru this place:
www.stairliftcompanyreviews.com/cost-calculator/
shopped around and got a great price on our Bruno Lift

We had a Brooks stairlift fitted about 8 weeks ago by a company called North East Stairlifts of Shildon Co. Durham. Spoke to them on the Monday, they measured on the Tuesday and fitted on the Friday. (It has saved my DH life). Its a straight lift with a hinged rail at the base so we can get out of the front door, It cost us £1550. The company was outstanding and it comes with a three year guarantee. It pays to shop around. The main suppliers - Age UK, Stannah, Acorn to be honest charge the earth. This is a new stairlift and not a reconditioned one.

Good luck. Kind regards. Should mention that other than buying from North East Stairlifts we have no other connection with the company. This is not an advert for them, simply an excellent recommendation.

We found that shopping around was the best solution. there are many companies that will sell you what you dont want or need. We found our lift from a company through this
www.stairliftcompanyreviews.com/installation-process/

was extremely helpful.

best of luck

That's where I buy from. £1000 for a standard lift, fitted and guaranteed.

My local newspaper has been selling one but I do not know how much success that person had with getting rid of it (selling) but it was cheap.

If I was moving house I would probably offer my Companion for free through my local Freecycle. I would pay to get it disconnected and then it is up to the person to make arrangements for pick up.

I thought that some companies bought back (for next to nothing) stairlifts which they have refurbished and sold on.

FiL recently moved out of his house and it was put on the market. Advice was to take out the almost new (less than 12 months old) stair lift to give the house a wider appeal. Result: there is no second hand market for them. The company that fitted it did not want it back, even for nothing, and it ended up at the tip. Don't get me wrong, the stair lift was invaluable BUT it would be really useful to have some sort of coordination for reuse. The house was not unique, one of many 1950s semis in the same area built to very similar specs.

My mother has a stairlift from Brooks/Acorn. This has been in place for a few years and the 5 year maintenance contract ends in August 2014. Since January 2014 Brooks have been phoning and writing, offering a small percentage discount if my mother signs up to another 5 years. She is 91 years old. I imagine that Brooks pestering results in many people paying for a further 5 years well in advance of the contract running out, 8 or 9 months in advance if my mother had paid several hundred pounds in January. We very much hope that she is still living independently in August, but I wonder how many people paying the contract fee 8 or 9 months in advance have, before the contract is activated, moved into other care or died. No refunds are offered for such circumstances.

We had a stairlift fitted by Acorn nearly 2 years ago, and it`s been a godsend. We had 3 reps come to the house, but Acorn were the only ones who would fit one for us, the other two took one look at our, admittedly, narrow staircase, and said that no way would they be able to fit a stairlift there, Acorn said no problem, it was delivered 3 days later, and fitting took 45 minutes. Someone came after about 9 months to service it, and we`ve had no problems.

My parents purchased from Unicorn Stairlifts and the stairlift they supplied was a Bison 80 Curved Stairlift which is is also known as the Acorn 80 stairlift / Brooks 80 Stairlift apperently. They are very happy with it and it was purchased reconditioned at a low price.

I had a Stannah stairlift fitted for my mum a couple of years ago and we've never had any problem. Would recommend them to anyone!

I know I keep banging on about Leodis Stairlifts but they sell straight, curved, reconditioned and they do rentals too. I know nothing about stairlifts and needed someone who was impartial to come ie Acorn only sell Acorn and Stannah likewise, they took the hassle out of choosing the right lift, it was fitted quickly too and within Mums budget. Mum wishes she'd have had one a couple of years ago, mmm isn't that when I suggested it Mum?

There is a firm here that hires them locally. Not much help to you though. I bought a 2nd hand one.

I went for a company that sells all makes of lifts as we didn't know which one to get for Mum. Leodis Stairlifts were great, we had a free survey and the lifted was fitted within a day. We had to ring them one night as Mum had turned the stairlift off and the managing director answered our call straight away. Id recommend them to anyone. Theyve got a website www.leodisstairlifts.co.uk

I have a MEDITEK lift supplied and installed by TLC lifts of Dartford in Kent in 2011 I had a few problems within the first month through poor installation.In December 2012 I stared getiing seriuos problems and had to call the out 5 times in 4 weeks They were never able to fix the problems there was always an excuse that spare parts were needed ie circuit boards that were hard to get as the company that made them had gone bust. I contacted the lift makers Meditek and got the same brush off of promises to sort things out and they finally completed it last week . Both these companys have NO concern for the customer only selling lifts .

I think you can hire one.

I wish it was possible to borrow one temporarily - I am wearing my bottom out getting upstairs!

We had a tricky stair and a rather large 'passenger' but Stannah rose to the challenge very well. I think they come into their own when its not a standard model thats required.

They all have safety belts and the seats swivel so you can get on and off on solid ground, not the stairs.

My parents had a Stannah and were very pleased with it.

We had Acorn. The lift itself was fine and we never had trouble with it but the advice we were given about the design of the lift turned out to be quite wrong. As is usually the case, the 'advisor' who came was actually a salesman. And, like most of these firms, one of the things they are selling is finance. We paid cash and received frequent phone calls trying to persuade us to take out very expensive insurance and maintenance contracts. They would not be put off!

The Independent email address is [email protected] They don't reply to you individually but follow it up [it may be printed but won't give your name. You'd be amazed what bad publicity does sometimes.

Confront AgeUK with the evidence and ask for their explanation. They could should be very embarrassed.