THE RANDLE REPORT

NOT TERRIBLY UPLIFTING

CONSUMER REPORT: Handicare Stairlifts and Ikano Bank

In May of 2017, it became apparent that a stairlift would make life a lot easier for madame, so we began to look into possibilities. Stannah, of course, is the biggest name, being almost synonymous with the contraptions. But Age UK recommends Handicare.

We picked an appropriate model from their brochure and they told us a surveying engineer would arrive on the thirteenth of June to check out the location and measure up.

We waited in for him, but he didn’t arrive, and a series of phone calls revealed the fact that he was sitting comfortably at home, having not been informed of the appointment.

A second arrangement was made and he arrived on the nineteenth. He was polite and meticulous in his work, not only planning the course of the stairlift from the downstairs passage, a one-eighty at the bottom of the stairs and another one of the same to come to rest on the landing, but providing us with a CAD graphic, which he said had already been transferred to the factory to initiate production.

One of the attractions of the offer from Handicare was a claimed six months’ payment holiday from fitting, which would mean that if, as expected, the fitting was undertaken in June, the first payment would become due in January 2018.

Handicare’s ‘arrangement’ is with the Ikano bank - an offshoot of Ikea - and the idea is that you, as a punter, don’t pay the full amount all at once, so Ikano pay Handicare a sum that covers the product, plus an acceptable little earner. That way Handicare stays in profit, and Ikano can charge the punter an inflated price that covers Handicare’s loan plus interest.

Although the customer signs the agreement as part of the paperwork, the loan from Ikano is to Handicare.

Servicing the expanded loan amount is down to you, and is not dependent on Handicare’s ability to deliver.

The initial installation occured on the twenty-seventh of June. The double rails were fitted to the staircase and the chair unit attached and demonstrated. We signed for it accordingly.

Unfortunately, the foldaway step soon ceased to fold away. Then the unit began to emit a fearful juddering noise, going on to split the baked-on paint on the rails.

We complained about these issues to Handicare and an engineer arrived a month later to discover that the step had been wrongly fitted, that there was no oil in the part of the unit that ran on the rail, so its little wheels weren’t going round - hence the juddering and the splitting of the paint. There was no alternative, according to him, to starting with a complete new set up and junking the old one.

An appointment for the refitting was made for the nineteenth of October. I rearranged my schedule to be at home on that day, and was away when the engineers came two days before the appointment, stranding madame downstairs for the whole day.

We wrote again to Handicare to complain about yet another inconvenience and to get them to acknowledge that they had failed to supply the product and service for which we had agreed to pay, and that we felt the warranty should begin from the date of actually delivery of a working product. 

Also that the six month’s payment holiday should commence from that same date.

The letter wasn’t answered until after Ikano bank was intending to take a December payment, so we cancelled the debit with the bank to be on the safe side.

Eventually Handicare did get in touch. They acknowledged things had not gone well and unhesitatingly revised the warranty to run from the time the replacement unit wads fitted.

But they failed to report the problems and delays to Ikano, so they (Ikano) claimed we were in breach of the agreement to start paying back.

Ikano promotes a friendly modern image for a bank. However, like increasing numbers of such organisations, it is almost impossible to reach, either by email or telephone. There is a phone number, but if you attempt to use it, you can let yourself in for forty minutes’ worth of replays of Sly and the Family Stone’s Everyday People, a record I used to like, but now never wish to hear again, before either being cut off (normal) or being told you are being transferred and getting another dose of Sly Stone.

Ikano’s small print says you can’t start paying at a different date, mainly because they will charge you a fee every month until the end of the (dis)agreement, as well as bombarding you with threatening letters.

So here we are, a year on. The stairlift is once again rumbling and juddering. A black line has appeared on the rail where the paint split on the previous setup. Ikano bank sends us incomprehensible text messages vocalised by a robot on the home phone. I make it a practice not to talk to inanimate objects, as it avails us not at all. If it has a message it is another attempt to put us in touch with Sly and the family.

I also don’t answer calls from unidentified callers, but madame has picked up the phone once or twice while I’ve been out and been railed at by a belligerent oaf.

Two weeks ago, I put all the facts of the case into a letter to Ikano.

A week ago the oaf admitted he had not seen the letter.

As of now, no one has answered, or even acknowledged it.

Age UK might feel itself able to recommend these people; I do not.

• Incidentally, I cannot claim that Ikano Bank have not made the effort to call us. In fact, they do so repeatedly and annoyingly -  and not just us: https://who-called.co.uk/Number/01156920133