Have you had an offsite-rented ECV die in the park?

[O2H O2H]

DH is super concerned about me renting from offsite, bc he reminds me of "that one time" that my DLR-rented ecv died, so they just brought me a new one. He is worried that I will get stuck with the offsite one and they won't be able to get a replacement there in a reasonable time, etc. I am definitely going to go with a preferred vendor, if that makes a difference.

ETA: I would obviously make sure to charge it each night. I am talking about either running out of power even though it is charged fully before leaving the room, or having some mechanical breakdown in the park.

 

[Toffeewoffy]

Oh, God, yes!

We got caught in a torrential downpour/thunderstorm at Epcot in February. I put a carrier bag over the console, as I'd been told, but it still died just before we got to France. Security were a huge help, though, and took it under cover for me. Trouble is, even though it restarted, it died again a few yards later. We finally abandoned it in the UK where it was put under cover and we made the rest of our journey to Coral Reef on foot with my walking stick.

When we got to the scooter hire counter I reported that it had been abandoned and asked them to send someone to collect it from UK, and I would be asking the scooter hire people to come to them in the morning and collect it.

I didn't have an out-of-hours phone number to ring the scooter people, as it's just an answerphone. Not having their driver's mobile number, all I could do was, when we got back to our room at CBR, was e-mail them and request them to bring a new scooter to AKL where we were having breakfast in the morning and collect the 'dead' one from Epcot.

They certainly did that, but the stress of not knowing whether they'd got my message and whether or not they'd bring me a replacement quite ruined our breakfast at Boma.

So, it's all doable, but next time we'll only hire from someone that has an out-of-hours emergency telephone number!

 

[rlin1914]

Apple scooter died in MK called and they delivered a new one within 45 min. Always get great service from Apple.

 

[O2H O2H]

Apple scooter died in MK called and they delivered a new one within 45 min. Always get great service from Apple.

Good to know. I was trying to choose between Apple and Buenavista. It sounds like they are both pretty good companies to work with. In December, I am thinking that I shouldn't have days that are as long as they might be in summer, but on the other hand, we probably won't go back to the room mid-day which would have allowed me to recharge. I wonder if they would let you plug in somewhere while you are eating at a TS restaurant. Not for a full recharge or anything, but if we are going to be sitting there for over an hour anyway...

 

[WheeledTraveler]

You actually don't want to recharge mid-day if you don't have to, unless you're spending enough time for it to fully recharge. Topping up is bad for ECV batteries. While it may not be noticeable to you, when multiple renters to it to the same scooter, there are higher chances of the battery dying somewhere unfortunate. Obviously, if you're in the parks and the battery starts to go, find an outlet and plug it in. But, for charging purposes, not being able to go back to the resort midday won't make a difference.

One thing to note is that even out of hours numbers that go to a machine/voice mail are usually checked frequently. The one time I had a problem with a rental was out of hours. I got a phone call back within 5 minutes of my leaving the message and the replacement within an hour.

If the scooter dies in the parks and you're too far to get to WDW's ECV rental (or out of the park), talk to a CM. They often can at least get you a wheelchair so that you can get somewhere to either rent another scooter or whatever works for you.

The "preferred vendors" (which have a new name now that doesn't imply endorsement as much) are all able to come into the WDW parks if needed to switch out your rental with one that works. So as long as you're okay waiting close-ish to where the ECV is, you may not need to worry about getting your own back-up.

 

[ttintagel]

Yeah, it's happened. The only time they haven't been able to replace it right away was during a parade when they simply couldn't get through the traffic on Main Street in the MK.