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(More customer reviews)I bought the Duet for my mother to replace a rollator (rolling walker/wheeled walker). She would walk a short distance and then turn around in sit in it and expect my dad to push her. It was pretty hard on dad. I suggested that we get her a wheelchair, to which she responded, absolutely NOT. A wheelchair would make her look old and frail (never mind she is 92 and frail) ;->
So here are the great reasons to buy this unit.
Wheels are larger than most rollators (wheeled walkers), this is important as it makes it easier to go over bumps on the floor (metal carpet joints, elevator entrances etc.) while sitting in the unit.
The seat height is adjustable, this is working out for her because she tends to sit in it and pull herself along with her feet (walking without standing)- sort of the antithesis of a walker.
There is a fold away foot rest. Lift it up and she can walk for herself, fold it down and she can put her feet up and just ride along.
There are handholds going in both directions, a place to hold on to while she is being pushed or motivating herself around.
The seat lifts up and has storage underneath.
Light weight and easy to handle, my father (90) can fold it up and put it in the trunk of the car (yes I know that's scary).
The back rest is reversible. It can be easily changed from a rolling walker to a transport chair simply by removing the back and putting back on the other side, no tools needed.
Now for the problem. One of the fork fasteners has stripped out. The unit comes with a limited lifetime warranty so I'll follow up with an update on what it takes to get service.
I gave the unit 5 star rating because of the utilitarian design and the initial experience.
****** 9/10/2010Now for the update on the repair.
The problem initially was a squeaky wheel that was hard to move. When I took a look at it the whole front wheel assembly fell out of the rollator/transport chair (this isn't really a problem because there is almost downward pressure on the wheel holding it on to the chair). The bolt that held the assembly to the chair had stripped out about top half inch. It really is easy to get at and I could fix it temporarily by removing a lock washer on the top and reattaching the fork assembly with the bolt (there is a jam nut to lock it in place). The repair only took 10 minutes.
I called the place where mom got the chair, they gave me the name of a repair service that they use and told me to call. I called and had them order the part, it was to take a week or 2 to get the part in and I'd have a friend install it for mom (I live out of town). I let mom know what was happening and left for home.
2 days later mom forgot what I had told her and called (sort of fortunately) the same repair place, they came out picked up the chair to fix it. Now there wasn't communication between the repair and parts depts. so they ordered a second part. Why would a medical device repair business pick up a working unit, stranding a 92 year woman without her chair without knowing if they had a part for it? And then keep the chair for a week or more waiting for a part? After they got the unit and the part they determined that the other front fork fastener was also bad, so they held the chair up for another week+.
Now for the warranty, apparently the manufacturer, Drive Medical, warrants the device to the dealer - BUT NOT THE END USER!! Strange concept. I contacted Drive Medical a couple of times over this and they sent me back to the dealer that sold the device to my mother. The dealer was at a loss on how to handle the problem - because I had dissembled the chair and was describing the problem in detail to a nice lady that wasn't very mechanically inclined, they sent me directly to the repair firm.
When the repair was finished there was a bill for parts and service. I spoke to the repair shop and their position was that the repair would have been free if she had purchased the chair from them, but because she bought it from someone else there was a charge for services. I now entered into a email campaign CC and/or BCCing the manufacturer, the sales dealer and the repair shop. I pointed out the limited warranty was posted on the manufactures web site and failed to mention having to return the device to the selling firm. After enough bitching and moaning, the selling firm and the servicer got together and took care of the bill, so mom didn't have to pay anything for the repair (there really shouldn't have been a charge for this failure, it was a manufacturing flaw and was a warranted item).
The chair is still in service. And well worth the price on Amazon sells it for. My mother paid $100 in insurance deductible to purchase her Duet chair (I'd love to know how much more the dealer billed the insurance company for).
***** Because of my experience with the warranty I would recommend that before you buy from Amazon that you clarify with either Drive Medical or Amazon who will, and how will warranty service be provided if needed. *****
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