A disability aids market plagued by faulty products and poor service is unconscionably letting down disabled people. According to new research, Citizens Advice receives a new complaint every hour about faulty aids.
Disability aid market: failing disabled people
Items like mobility vehicles, stairlifts, and hearing aids are a lifeline for disabled people to help them navigate their everyday lives. However, problems are leaving consumers in stressful situations they’re forced to seek help with.
Citizens Advice says it has dealt with cases where people are stranded over their bath, stuck on the top floor of their house waiting for delayed repairs to a stairlift, or left in pain from using products which don’t meet their needs.
According to the charity’s Consumer Service, more than two thirds (69%) of disability aid complaints in the last year were about defective goods. This includes products that are unsafe, poor quality, and broken shortly after purchase – or never worked to begin with.
In total, 70% of all complaints were specifically about aids designed to help people with mobility. These included mobility scooters (48%), stairlifts (12%), and mobility and bath aids (10%). These items are essential in helping people maintain their independence – and product issues can risk stranding people being unable to carry out basic tasks, like having a bath.
Disabled people self-funding aids, but getting defective goods
Previous research by Citizens Advice found that while defective goods are the most common reason people seek advice from the Consumer Service, the vast majority also detailed traders treating them poorly. This included pressure selling, bad installation, refused returns and delayed repairs.
The issues people experience when buying or using disability aids stretch further than the people Citizens Advice supports. The charity conducted a UK-wide survey and found in the last year, around one in seven (7.4 million) people bought an aid for themselves, or someone else.
The survey also found the majority of disabled people purchased disability aids using their own personal funds. This includes savings (60%), and one in five (20%) paying for them using credit cards or finance.
The charity warns that people buying disability aids experience problems at every point in the customer journey. This is the case right from confusing and technical product information and poor customer service, to poor quality items and a lack of warranty support.
And Citizens Advice says these issues often have wide-ranging negative impacts on people’s emotional and physical wellbeing. There are more than 16 million disabled people in the UK, whom the cost-of-living crisis disproportionately affects.
The real world impact: John’s story
John, 80, lives in Llandudno, Wales, with his wife. She lives with long-term, debilitating health issues since a fall a few years ago. With her mobility severely limited, John is her full-time registered carer. After seeing a national TV advert for an accessible bath, John decided to enquire.
The company told him the cost of the “bespoke” accessible bath, and that it would also need to carry out additional work as part of the installation. But in reality, the work didn’t turn out as expected.
John said:
I just thought, ‘This is a big company, they are going to be fine’. They were not. They said the price was based on four people needed to do the job, but it took one man just two half days. I assumed they were telling me the truth.
John paid £10,500 for the installation of the new bath, as well as the additional work the company initially quoted. This included new flooring, replacing part of a wall, and moving the toilet. However, the company did not carry out any of this additional work.
He added:
I asked for a refund and they said they were a bespoke company. I was quoted for all this stuff which didn’t appear, and was told I had to pay. I was very much brushed off. I was in a situation where I was trying to make my wife happy as she was desperate for a sit-in bath. I thought this is the way I could help.
After being denied a refund, John approached an ombudsman and received an offer of £200. He rejected this, because it is a small sum compared to the thousands he had spent.
Leaving disabled people ‘out of pocket’ and without vital aids
Chief executive of Citizens Advice Dame Clare Moriarty said:
Too often, disabled people are being failed by a disability aids market that isn’t meeting their needs – and instead of offering support, it’s creating new barriers.
Problems like faulty products and poor service don’t just leave people out of pocket, they can leave them literally stranded or unable to carry out even the most basic tasks. Having to battle to resolve problems only makes this worse.
In this growing market, it’s vital consumers are armed with the correct information before making a purchase. We urge people to do their research, know their rights and stay safe when buying – and remember we’re here to help.
Chief Executive John Herriman at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), meanwhile, stated that:
These findings are deeply concerning and highlight just how vital effective consumer education is for disabled people to help ensure accessibility and inclusion.
Alongside enforcement, we need to ensure disabled consumers are empowered with the right information to make informed choices, recognise poor practice, and know where to turn for help.
Citizens Advice is giving advice to people looking to buy a disability aid to mark the start of its Consumer Awareness campaign. It’s running this from Wednesday 18 June to Tuesday 24 June in collaboration with the Consumer Protection Partnership (CPP). This includes Trading Standards and the Department for Business and Trade.
Top tips to follow for disability aid issues
Consumer expert at Citizens Advice Jane Parsons has offered some top tips to follow when buying a disability aid and navigating problems.
If you’re buying from a trader, she advised you should look for an established firm you can trust, with a good reputation. There are organisations that can give you a list of traders which sell disability aids or help you with choosing one:
Parsons explained that local council Trading Standards will have an approved traders scheme. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) operates the Approved Code Scheme. This aims to guarantee high standards of customer care and added levels of protection from traders who are signed up to an agreed code of conduct – such as the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA).
If you’ve already got a trader in mind, they might claim they’re a member of a trader association. Parsons suggested that consumers should check the association’s website to make sure.
If something’s gone wrong with the disability aid you’ve bought, she explained that you might be entitled to a refund, repair or replacement. This is the case whether the item is new or second-hand.
You’ll have legal rights if the item you bought is:
- Broken or damaged
- Unusable
You won’t have any legal rights if the item was damaged by wear and tear, an accident or misuse, or if you knew about the fault before you bought it.
Seeking formal redress for faulty products
Parsons also provided the following details about formal complaint processes.
Before contacting the seller, she suggests checking if they have a complaints procedure. You can usually find this on their website.
If you’re not happy with the response, she says you can ask the seller for a final response. This is often called a ‘deadlock letter’, which will confirm they haven’t been able to resolve your complaint.
A final response is proof you’ve already tried making a formal complaint – you’ll need it if you try other ways to sort out the problem. These can include:
- Checking if the seller is a member of a trade association – meaning they might have to follow certain rules.
- If they’ve broken them, you could get help from the association.
- Checking if you can get your money back if you paid by card or PayPal. If your card or finance provider doesn’t help, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
- Checking if the seller is a member of a trader scheme. There may be an ‘alternative dispute resolution’ (ADR) scheme available to use.
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.