One of the major players in the medical equipment supply business for things like wheelchairs, walkers, etc. is a company named Drive.

Between the supporting rods in my hip & thigh, and my bout with Guillain Barré, my balance is not all that great. I'm paranoid about a slip and fall in the shower, so I use a shower chair made by Drive. A simple thing -- a plastic seat supported by legs made of aluminum tubes.

I recently noticed that the chair was getting wobbly. Turned it over to inspect and found that one of the leg assemblies had a crack. I contacted the medical supply store here in town where I had originally bought the chair and asked them to order a replacement leg assembly for me.

RANT: The store refused to order it. I carefully explained that I was not expecting a free part, I was willing to pay for it, but again, they refused to order the part. I asked why and the only reply they would give was that they do not do that. No reason, just "we don't do that." Even though I had bought the chair there, and wanted to buy the part, nope, they don't do that.

PRAISE:

1. Our own Tommy "downtownv" P. He is in the medical supply business, so I emailed him and asked if he could order the part for me, or if he knew how I could get it. He replied quickly, with a name at the company (Drive) that manufactured the chair.
   
   
2. Drive. The company. They asked for the model number and a photo of the damaged part. I emailed the reply with the photo that they asked for. I reiterated that the chair was most likely out of warranty, I was not asking for a freebie, I just wanted to buy a replacement leg assembly. They replied with a UPS tracking number. I received a complete new chair -- a later, improved model, at no cost.

Customer service above and beyond. If I need any medical equipment in the future, you can bet your bippy that a) it will be Drive, if what I need is in their product line, and b) I will NOT buy anything from the store that sold me the original chair and stonewalled when I wanted to order repair parts.

This shows that there are still some companies out there that will take care of their customers.

Great news. Glad that they supported you... (see what I did there?) heh...heh...

You must have mentioned you're a SigForum member. Does it every time.

Seriously, that is some serious customer service. Thanks, Drive!

OTOH I spoke with CS at Whirlpool appliances today. Bought a single electric wall oven. Installer noted that there is a warning sign attached to the electric conduit that says have to use 8 gauge solid copper wire. The manual says for single wall oven need 12 gauge, for double use 8 gauge.
The poor sod at CS thought that 7 (kept repeating 7 instead of 8) gauge wire was smaller than 12 gauge wire, but after confering with someone I was told "could use 7 gauge in an emergency." Perhaps his calendar was off by a day???