My uncle just sent me this story about his experience with his four wheeled scooter. This article identifies the importance in purchasing a well-designed, well-crafted scooter. There is nothing worse than buying a new car and then finding out that it’s a lemon. Dealing with service work and the hassles of not having your mode of transportation available when you want it to be available is a pain in the arse and it is no different when you buy a scooter.
Here is my uncle’s story.
Further to our recent conversation here is an email I sent to my scooter supplier earlier in the summer after the canopy and rear tote fell off. The canopy and tote were inserted into the receiver and secured in place by tightening a knob to create friction to hold it in place, this knob works loose when you wheels go over a bump.
I had them install clevis pins in the “draw-bar Assembly” so there is no chance now of a similar incident with the tote and canopy.
I am fast coming to the conclusion that my scooter is a piece of blank blank junk!
Here is a summary of some things that happened last week
1. On Wednesday, after running for about a total time of one hour I sensed a decline on the available power and left the battery on charge overnight.
2. On Thursday morning I went for a 15 minute ride to do an errand which took me about 20 minutes to complete. I then started home and after driving for about 5 minutes stopped to chat with a friend after which I was unable to move having no power, I then noticed that the volt meter was not lit and after turning the key several times to no avail decided to find a power source and connect the charger. I disengaged the brake and pushed the scooter about 50 feet to the front steps of a house where there was power. On setting the brake I decided to try the key one more time and lo and behold the volt meter lit up and I had power, not a lot of power but sufficient to get me home and put the battery on charge again over night.
3. On Friday morning I went to take the battery off the charger and was surprised to see an amber light rather than a green light showing after the charger had been on over night. When I touched the charger cord to take it out of the receptacle the green light came on indicating a fully charged battery. I then put the key in the switch to turn the power on and the volt meter again did not light up.
I turned the switch off and on several times and the volt meter finally lit up indicating a full charge.
4. I did not operate the scooter on Friday except for about ten minutes.
5. On Saturday afternoon I had to go to the XXXXXXXXXXX to pick up a couple of small items and after shopping placed those items in the front carrier and headed home. While returning I was stopped at the traffic light at the NE corner of VVVVV Road and YYYY Drive. When the light changed and I had the walk signal I proceeded to go across the road when I heard a crash behind me and a lady screaming at a youngster to get off the road. What had happened was that the lady and the youngster were close behind me and when my rear wheels went over the bump at the bottom of the ramp the canopy and rear carrier assembly fell off the scooted and knocked the little boy on to the road beside a car that was fortunately stopped waiting for me to cross.
The lady, who had screamed, turned out to be the young boys Grandmother and she kindly helped me put the assembly back onto the scooter, I could not have done it without her help. The lady was able to look under the seat and said that there was a screw knob there to tighten to hold the assembly in placed and that it was not tight. I could not locate any hole for a retainer pin the part that fell off yesterday is hardly a cosmetic item but even cosmetic items should not be sacrificial and just fall off.
The jolting and bumpy ride I described in a prior email conversation obviously loosened the friction screw that is supposed to stop the assembly from falling off the scooter. I think that there being no retaining safety pin in place to hold the canopy carrier assembly is either a design or manufacturing defect. Fortunately no body was hurt, we were lucky this time. It was also fortunate that the carrier was not full of eggs or bottles.
I believe that the location of the on/off switch is causing trouble in making contact due to the jostling and weight of the key chain, another design defect.
I also suspect that there is yet another design defect in the location of the charger connection. It should not be located where it requires connection being made through the steering wheel that obviously is interfering with an ideal connection being made.
Then, to make things worse, when I called and was assured that someone would come have a look, the techie was a “non-show“.