Pride Mobility

Earlier this year my mother bought me an expensive Jazzy Air 2 wheelchair. I have MS and the chair was supposed to help give me more independence and security. There were problems from the very start. The chair was listed as in stock and ready to ship, yet that was a lie and it took months to even get it. Not to mention all the phone calls and emails about it. When I finally got it, it beeped like crazy every time I turned it on. I'd have to stop, raise it a bit, lower it, turn it off, then back on. We called and were told it's normal (!). After weeks of being annoyed and distracted by this, we called again and insisted someone come look at it. He said it was a an issue with a sensor and fixed it.

Not long after the return window closed, I was on my way into the bathroom. I stopped the chair in the hall as usual. I got up and the button hadn't pressed so when I was standing and went to make sure the chair was as low as it goes so I could get back in easily when I came out of the bathroom, I pushed "up" to lower it and it went forward into the back of my weak legs and over my left foot! I couldn't pull my foot out and had to back over it! At which point my legs gave out and I reached behind me to grab the arm of the chair, but only reached the flimsy joystick area which bend down and gave zero support! I then fell onto the floor.

I had to have paramedics come and left me off the floor and take me to the hospital. It was hours of lying there in triage before getting to a room and having xaprays of my legs and foot. Luckily nothing was broken but it destroyed my legs to the point I can no longer get into the bathroom or even shower! I am in a hospital bed in my living room 24/7, I have to use a walker to take a couple steps to a bedside commode and shower using a pan of water from my bed!

What annoys me the most is the fact that the controls aren't even accurate! Anyone who has played video games of any kind knows that FORWARD on a joystick is also used for UP and BACKWARD is for DOWN. If I had pressed DOWN to lower the chair, it would have accidentally went BACKWARD and NOT forward against my legs and over my foot! You press the joystick on any other control forward to go up a ladder! You don't press forward to go DOWN!

Also, if you use a scooter in a store, if you stand up from it, the scooter stops working! It's a safety feature! This chair keeps going when you're out of it and that is NOT safe! The joystick is already too easy to bump as it is, but dangerous when there's no safety feature.

So now I'm stuck with a chair that cost thousands of dollars (because I'm not losing more money by paying a return and restocking fee!) and I could have used the money to get a ramp so I could leave my house in a manual chair. I was supposed to feel safer with this chair and be able to move around on my own. Now I'm confined to a bed and have to have my mother (in her 70s) here at all times to help me to the commode! I'm now a prisoner in my bed and terrified of the wheelchair and won't even look at it because of the damage it did to my legs.

People need to know about the backwards joystick and the dangers of this chair. I'm traumatized by the thought of it and am stuck with it now!

After being bounced around between SpinLife and Pride Mobility, SpinLife finally (that alone took forever and hassles between who was doing what and waiting weeks for a shipping box before they'd even come get it!) let me return the chair and get a refund but Pride Mobility was zero help in the matter and had no concern over the situation.