Apple Scooter problem

[magicbob]

I rented my wife an ECV for the week from Apple Scooter. After several incident free days, we had an issue with the battery running down prematurely (even though it had been fully charged through the night). I called and Apple Scooter said they would contact me at 8 am the next morning to arrange for a replacement battery. In the meantime, I had to find an outlet at guest services to charge it. We were also able to charge it some more during dinner, so it got us back to the hotel bus.

The next morning, no call at 8 am so I called them. I was told someone would call me back in a few minutes. 45 minutes later, I called them back. I was told that someone was one the way and they were going to just give us a new scooter. I waited 90 minutes for them to show up with the replacement scooter.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the new scooter had WORSE problems. The charger had exposed wires and actually shocked me on one occasion (wasn't plugged into the wall, just the scooter at the time). It also wasn't charging the scooter properly. It ran out of power and when I found a place to charge it, it did no good. I pushed it (with my wife riding by neccesity) the last bit of the way to the bus because it was completely dead. And I had to push it to the room once we got to the hotel.

The next morning was our departure. I tried charging it overnight, but still had to push it to the bell captain station in the morning because charger was not functioning. I called and let them know about these problems. I asked for a partial refund and so far have not gotten any action on it.

When the scooter went dead in the park, we asked some other folks we saw if we could borrow their charger. Everyone we talked to said they hadn't even brought their chargers with them. I noted that these scooters all came from other companies. So, clearly, they weren't having any issues with charge running out too soon if they were leaving their chargers in the room.

I refused to let this annoyance ruin my good time, but I will use a different company next time and wanted to warn folks here that this company may not be as reliable as some of the other options.

 

[peemagg]

This is strange. Out of the two different forums I follow, this is the first bad report I have heard about Apple. In fact the last time I was down there I had a problem with my own personal scooters batteries and since I knew they had the same scooter that I used I called them for help. They weren't able to help me other than to suggest a company that might have the batteries, but it wasn't because they didn't try. They just didn't have any brand new batteries in at the time and it would be a day or two before their next shipment, but they did point me in the right direction to get my scooter fixed.

This report just shocks me.

 

[magicbob]

This report just shocks me.

Not as shocked as I was (literally) when the scooter shocked me!

 

[rj137]

I had a similar situation with Apple several years back, switched to renting from walker mobility, low rates and great service. Been renting from walker over 6 years now and wouldn't think of using anyone else.

rj

 

[Bete]

Through the years we have rented scooters from many different companies and everyone of them here and there will have a complaint.

I was one of the very first users of Apple Scooters and I had a good experience with them. I wrote about them as a cheaper alternative, here and they were easy to deal with, as well. I have used them multiple times, now.

I hope this is not a pattern and I hope this will be the last bad report for them.

We took a Williamsburg trip this year and we had to push a scooter from Busch Gardens there. It was too hot that day to manually push a scooter and I believe doing this caused my husband to get brochitis on the trip. He never had this problem before, but this was just too much during the heat. Anyway, I know your pain. In our instance we believe the scooter was not heavy duty enough for the hills that are in this park and the battery just couldn't take it there. We didn't know about the inclines at this park. The next day we used a park scooter for that park only and it was bigger and more heavy duty and we didn't have any issues. We continued to use our same rental scooter everywhere else without a problem. The size of the scooter and the weight of the person and what you add to the basket can get to be overload for a particular model, too. This is why all scooter companies have different size scooters to rent.

I'm sorry you had to go through this and I'm sorry the second scooter wasn't up to par, either. Getting a shock from a scooter seems like it could be dangerous. This started to make me think rain was involved. Rain is an enemy of a scooter. Many of us use a plastic poncho or the equivalent to cover scooters in the rain or we get to a shelter; so, the scooter stays dry. Also, you can't go through rain puddles with scooters; you can short them out. There is some care that needs to be done when driving a scooter. There are electrical components and rain is an enemy.

I will personally continue to use Apple Scooters. There has been so many good reports about them; I'm still a believer.

 

[karliebug]

I had a similar experience with Apple last November. I ended up pushing the scooter to a park entrance twice to get a new battery. Finally they brought me a new scooter, a more powerful model. Eventhough I was within the weight range for the original one they brought me it seems as if you are overweight it uses more juice and the battery runs out. Once I had the more powerful one I had no problem.