100106 - Broken Walker

January 6th, 2010
Pilot Knob RVR
Winterhaven, California

Traveling on the road in an RV has its rewards and enjoyment, but there are also problems unique to this kind of travel.

When things break or stop working, finding a place to get them fixed can be a challenge.

My new rolling walker is really a great piece of equipment and as you can expect, a very necessary item to get around.

As with many mobility assist devices, there are simple methods to adjust the height - simple little silver buttons to push on so that the length of the legs can be altered. Did i say simple? Ordinarily yes ... just push in the button, slide the leg up or down till it clicks into the next hole and bingo, its done.

Unfortunately, after i pushed in the little silver button on one of the legs, it did not pop out. I have no idea where it went but i know where it wasn't and that meant that the leg would not lock in place.

I am currently in Winterhaven, California at an RV park that is remotely located about 12 miles west of Yuma, Arizona.
Fortunately, the product is made by Invacare. This is a company i have had very satisfactory results with customer service issues in the past.

I went to their website and there i was able to look up where their nearest dealer or service center would be located.
According to their info, El Centro, California ... 47 miles away in the wrong direction of my travel was the closest and going east, there was no dealer or service center within 100 miles.

I searched thru the web site for a link to customer service or explain my problem and request assistance but there was none.
Ther website had many categories, so i explored them and found one that was helpful. It was a list of the board of directors of the company and next to the bio of the C.E.O was an email address.

I quickly sent him an explanation of my problem with an apology for having to bother him. The next day i received a phone call from Ken in technical services who was very concerned and discussed the problem with me.He was calling from Elyia, Ohio,where the company is based. We decided that even if he could send me a replacement part, i would not be able to install it myself so he transferred me to customer service. Within 15 minutes, Sarah had assessed the problem and executed a replacement order.She had to search various inventories and found one in Dallas, Texas. I was told that a new unit would be delivered to my RV park by express shipping and should be delivered within 2 days.

This is a company that not only makes a great product, but also knows how to give great customer service. I highly recommend them for your medical equipment needs.