Anyone know anything about stair lifts?

molotovdog

My elderly father ended up needing to get a stair lift fitted, it was installed back on the 16th March 2023, at a cost of £7,350, so i don't think it was a particularly cheap one.

In the time since it was installed, he's had to call out an engineer 11 separate times for it stopping working, according to the engineer visit records they leave, the majority of times it's been for different things failing/needing replacing, but the base cause for the call-out each time has been that the stair lift has stopped working.

Previously, every call out has been under the warranty, so my father hasn't had to pay anything, and i think on all but one of those times they've come out the say day he called to say it was broken and that one occasion they didn't, i believe they were over first thing the next morning.

However, a couple of days ago it broke, again, my fathers health has deteriorated further, so he relies on it more than ever, except not only will he now have to pay for any repairs, due to it being out of the 2 year warranty, but when he spoke to them, they've said the quickest they can get anyone out to look at it is Friday. Meaning he's left without the use of a mobility aid he relies on for pretty much the whole week, and that's assuming they can fix it without needing to order parts etc.... 

Another minor annoyance is that because the lift has stopped working at the bottom of the rail, where it doesn't charge, it's constantly giving it's "i'm not being charged" beep, thankfully my dad's hard of hearing, so it doesn't bug him too much, but still not ideal to have that going off 24/7.

I was just curious if there's anything that can be done? it feels to me like he paid a lot of money for something which, i would expect, is meant to be very reliable and yet 11 call outs in just over two years seems like a hell of a lot to me and i don't know if it maybe points towards the lift not being fit for purpose? i know that's a "thing" with some consumer rights, but no idea if it applies here or what it would mean i could do?

Exodi

Obviously you've previously been repairing it under warranty so separate of consumer rights.

This would be cover under the appropriately named Consumer Rights Act. Your rights vary depending on the time since receiving the goods.

Within 30 days, you have a short-term right to reject a faulty/not fit for purpose/not as described item and receive a full refund.

After 30 days, but before 6 months, you have the right to request a repair or replacement, and if unsuccessful, you can request a refund. For the first six months, faults are assumed to have been present at the time of purchase and the burden is on the retailer to prove otherwise.

After 6 months, you still have the right to request a repair or replacement, or even refund however the burden falls on the consumer to prove the fault is inherent (e.g. existed at the time of purchase). This is often done through an independent report from an expert, at your cost.

As you can appreciate, inherent fault and wear and tear are two different things, and companies like car dealers spend their lifetimes arguing the difference as you shouldn't expect a refund because the tire tread on your car has gotten low.

As you are after 6 months from purchase, I'd firstly speak to the company who sold him the goods about it, and if they're not accommodating (e.g. extending the warranty), consider whether, based on evidence, you could get a report concluding that the goods are not fit for purpose or inherently faulty in some way. It would be interesting to know exactly why it broke the previous 11 times.

tacpot12

I don't disagree with anything that Exodi has said, but I wanted to point out that if he is reliant on the stairlift, then he can't afford to be relying on one that is unreliable. 

He needs to change it for one that is reliable. Could the problem be with his weight? If he is a heavy chap, and the stairlift he was sold is for a light person, there might be a "not-fit-for-purpose" argument that could be had under the Consumer Rights Act.

If it is just that the brand or model is unreliable, even a free warranty isn't very good.

I think you need to do some research to find a stairlift that will be reliable for him, and try to get a contribution from the supplier of the current one towards it via the County Court if necessary. There are lots on eBay and lots of companies advertising that they fit second-hand ones. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Nothing helpful to add to the good advice given by the two posters above.

In response to your thread title:  I'm told they have their ups and downs 

Hope you get it sorted soon.

molotovdog

Exodi said:

As you are after 6 months from purchase, I'd firstly speak to the company who sold him the goods about it, and if they're not accommodating (e.g. extending the warranty), consider whether, based on evidence, you could get a report concluding that the goods are not fit for purpose or inherently faulty in some way. It would be interesting to know exactly why it broke the previous 11 times.

Thanks for the info, unfortunately i don't see getting an expert being worth the costs and hassle, as based on the call out reports, each times it's "broken" it's been a different part they've fixed/replaced, even though to us the symptoms have been the same, that the lift just stopped moving. So while having to replace that many parts in just over two years of normal use would indicate the machine itself is not fit for purpose to me, i can see it going the other way just as easily.

This time they said it was that the battery needed replacing as they apparently only last 2-3 years, which again seems crazy to me for something that costs so much, and is meant to be used multiple times daily, that the battery wouldn't last longer.

tacpot12 said:

I don't disagree with anything that Exodi has said, but I wanted to point out that if he is reliant on the stairlift, then he can't afford to be relying on one that is unreliable. 

He needs to change it for one that is reliable. Could the problem be with his weight? If he is a heavy chap, and the stairlift he was sold is for a light person, there might be a "not-fit-for-purpose" argument that could be had under the Consumer Rights Act.

If it is just that the brand or model is unreliable, even a free warranty isn't very good.

I think you need to do some research to find a stairlift that will be reliable for him, and try to get a contribution from the supplier of the current one towards it via the County Court if necessary. There are lots on eBay and lots of companies advertising that they fit second-hand ones. 

That's all well and good, in theory, however he paid over £7k for the one he has, that's not the sort of money any of us have to just replace it with another one. While he's not a svelte fella, the one he got is designed for more than he weighs, the options of which one to get/any replacements is also extremely limited as he needs it to make two turns, to get around a half landing, another turn at the top onto the second floor, and he also needs the bottom part to extend/retract as otherwise it'd stick out into the hall and be a trip hazard, it can't just turn to the side as would block another door.

Basically, he didn't really have much of a choice of which one to buy when he bought the one he has, as it was one of the few options that met all the requirements for weight/the set-up needed etc...

I will say i've since learned that my thoughts about them taking a lot longer to come out being because he's out of warranty were incorrect, when i spoke to him again he said when the person he spoke to first said the day they'd be able to get out to him, they thought he was still under warranty at that point. So it appears we either got lucky every other time with them coming out the same/next day, or just very unlucky this time. I will say that i'm still not impressed that it took them so long to come out, my dads fortunate that, with quite a bit of effort, he can just about get up and down the stairs without the chair, although only when he absolutely has too, but they don't know that, and there's a lot of people who 100% rely on their lift, and expecting them to wait a week for it to be fixed is crazy.

woolystitches

I had a stairlift fitted in March 2025. My husband was in a nursing home I had to measure him whilst he was sitting in his recliner chair which wasn’t ideal and i wasn’t really sure that I was measuring correctly. My husband came home from hospital in June, attempted to use the lift, his knees were rubbing against the wall and at the top of the stairs there was not enough room for the chair to turn, he came back down on it very upset. A couple of days later he had to go back into hospital.

I called the company an engineer was booked for when he came home again. In the meantime I needed to move the chair up the rail to enable some furniture to be taken out of the house, the stairlift was dead, i called the company and a few days later an engineer came and had to reset the remote.

my husband came home from hospital the engineer came he tried getting my husband to sit slanting on the chair to give a bit more leg room but again when at the top he said there was nothing that could be adjusted. He said he’d take pictures of my husband on the chair 
and send a report to the office and that a manager should come out.

My husband has very limited mobility and has to be assisted by ambulance crews for hospital appointments, I tried again to move the chair out of the way in the hall to make their job a little easier and less risky for my husband but it had broken again. So 2 breakdowns in 3 months and the stairlift doesn’t accommodate my husband.

Again I rang the company to explain what had happened with the engineer, they hadn’t seen his “report”. I also reported that it had broken down again and waited but no one came out. My husband has has to sleep in his recliner chair because he cannot get upstairs. I told the company to take the stairlift out because it was unfit for purpose and that we would have to have a hospital bed in the living room which couldn’t be supplied while the lift was in the way.

On 22nd July the lift was removed, I’ve since sent 5 emails regarding my complaint supposedly to the CEO, but have never had a reply. It is always me ringing them. I have told them I want a refund because the stairlift should have never been fitted.

Any advice as to how I proceed now would be appreciated.

sheramber

woolystitches said:

I had a stairlift fitted in March 2025. My husband was in a nursing home I had to measure him whilst he was sitting in his recliner chair which wasn’t ideal and i wasn’t really sure that I was measuring correctly. My husband came home from hospital in June, attempted to use the lift, his knees were rubbing against the wall and at the top of the stairs there was not enough room for the chair to turn, he came back down on it very upset. A couple of days later he had to go back into hospital.

I called the company an engineer was booked for when he came home again. In the meantime I needed to move the chair up the rail to enable some furniture to be taken out of the house, the stairlift was dead, i called the company and a few days later an engineer came and had to reset the remote.

my husband came home from hospital the engineer came he tried getting my husband to sit slanting on the chair to give a bit more leg room but again when at the top he said there was nothing that could be adjusted. He said he’d take pictures of my husband on the chair 
and send a report to the office and that a manager should come out.

My husband has very limited mobility and has to be assisted by ambulance crews for hospital appointments, I tried again to move the chair out of the way in the hall to make their job a little easier and less risky for my husband but it had broken again. So 2 breakdowns in 3 months and the stairlift doesn’t accommodate my husband.

Again I rang the company to explain what had happened with the engineer, they hadn’t seen his “report”. I also reported that it had broken down again and waited but no one came out. My husband has has to sleep in his recliner chair because he cannot get upstairs. I told the company to take the stairlift out because it was unfit for purpose and that we would have to have a hospital bed in the living room which couldn’t be supplied while the lift was in the way.

On 22nd July the lift was removed, I’ve since sent 5 emails regarding my complaint supposedly to the CEO, but have never had a reply. It is always me ringing them. I have told them I want a refund because the stairlift should have never been fitted.

Any advice as to how I proceed now would be appreciated.

It is only three working days since the stair lift was removed.

You are expecting too much too soon. 

Any email to the. CEO will be passed down the line to customer service to investigate. 

woolystitches

Actually it’s 6 days since the stairlift went back and I’ve been complaining about it for at least 2 months!