Walker Mobility Review

[elvispursley]

I thought I’d give a quick review in our experience renting a scooter from Walker. We have only rented from Gold’s or brought her personal scooter (although haven’t done that in years as we don’t trust the airlines with it). We decided to give Walker a try after easing lot of positive reviews on them. We rented it for 9-days and had a fairly good deal price-wise (apologies but I can’t seem to recall the price off-hand).

We scheduled delivery for 11:30 so we would have time to get from MCO, check in at OKW and make our breakfast reservation at Olivia’s at 10:00. We got a frantic call from my dad, who was back in Seattle saying that the scooter company called and wanted to talk to my mom. Now when my mom reserved the scooter, she gave them her cell as the primary contact number to use and gave the landline as a secondary. We never got a call from them. We had to track down and play phone tag for a bit with the driver, who wanted to drop the scooter off at 9:45! We decided this was ok and less than 5 min later had the scooter! The driver was already on OKW propert

The scooter they delivered initially was crap. You had to jiggle the “key” to make it turn “on”. Also, the key wasn’t a key like the other scooters we used in the past—it was a metal piece like when you plug in stereo speakers to the receiver. This was garbage as you couldn’t just turn the scooter off in queues but had to pull it all the way out and place it back in again. This wasn’t always easy if you were in dim lighting or had to quickly move.

This scooter quickly went downhill fast. It would suddenly turn off and even started going backwards in its own. No amount of key removal and jiggling helped. It finally pooped just as we entered HS our first day (after using it less than 1-hr.

When calling to request assistance, I was told some baloney about it not being fully in gear and should watch a YouTube video. Called them back and told them their “solution” didn’t work and that we really needed a different scooter. We had to manually push the EVC back outside the entrance of HS since they apparently can’t enter the park (so glad this did t happen when we were in Epcot in the far side of WS)!

We waited at least 40 minutes for the delivery guy to come. He didn’t seem to believe our complaints and even said we needed to put it gear fully!. Didn’t work for him and he had to manually push it to wherever their van was.

The new scooter was loads better but there were a few days when we didn’t return to the room to rest and “recharge”. Those days the battery got down into the red. We’ve never had this happen with Gild mobility—never left the green zone!

We definitely experienced a torrential downpour and tried to wait out the storm. We luckily had extra ponchos and clips to protect the scooter from water damage.

At the end of our trip we were able to request they pickup the scooter at our room in OKW. This was quite handy as we didn’t want to drive it all the easy to Hospitality House. We definitely tipped for the convenience.

Overall, I think we’d stick with Gold’s. The customer service, while they did resolve the issue, was just ok. No one apologized for inconveniencing us. We are not commando park goers and generally arrived at the parks around 10am and took afternoon. Teams back at the resort. Was shocked that this scooter couldn’t seem to handle a day at Epcot. We were very deluge t about pulling that darn “key” out when not moving. We may have had a bad luck with this company but I don’t think we’ll be repeat customers.

 

[maryblanchard49]

Walker Mobility's deliveries have always been prompt and exceptional. There's been times where I've called last minute for a scooter and they get one to me in a flash! In less than 5 mins. you had the scooter delivered so, that's pretty great! Plus you got it earlier than your delivery time so, that seems like a win to me.

I love that there key is proprietary so, you don't have to worry about someone that rented from another scooter company accidentally riding off with your scooter when you come off of a ride.

There scooters are known to be water resistant so, that you don't have to worry about covering them in the rain. They just keep going in the rain. It's beautiful.

I'm sorry your scooter had a malfunction. Scooters are mechanical and it unfortunately can happen with any company.

 

[Selket]

I thought I’d give a quick review in our experience renting a scooter from Walker. We have only rented from Gold’s or brought her personal scooter (although haven’t done that in years as we don’t trust the airlines with it). We decided to give Walker a try after easing lot of positive reviews on them. We rented it for 9-days and had a fairly good deal price-wise (apologies but I can’t seem to recall the price off-hand).

We scheduled delivery for 11:30 so we would have time to get from MCO, check in at OKW and make our breakfast reservation at Olivia’s at 10:00. We got a frantic call from my dad, who was back in Seattle saying that the scooter company called and wanted to talk to my mom. Now when my mom reserved the scooter, she gave them her cell as the primary contact number to use and gave the landline as a secondary. We never got a call from them. We had to track down and play phone tag for a bit with the driver, who wanted to drop the scooter off at 9:45! We decided this was ok and less than 5 min later had the scooter! The driver was already on OKW propert

The scooter they delivered initially was crap. You had to jiggle the “key” to make it turn “on”. Also, the key wasn’t a key like the other scooters we used in the past—it was a metal piece like when you plug in stereo speakers to the receiver. This was garbage as you couldn’t just turn the scooter off in queues but had to pull it all the way out and place it back in again. This wasn’t always easy if you were in dim lighting or had to quickly move.

This scooter quickly went downhill fast. It would suddenly turn off and even started going backwards in its own. No amount of key removal and jiggling helped. It finally pooped just as we entered HS our first day (after using it less than 1-hr.

When calling to request assistance, I was told some baloney about it not being fully in gear and should watch a YouTube video. Called them back and told them their “solution” didn’t work and that we really needed a different scooter. We had to manually push the EVC back outside the entrance of HS since they apparently can’t enter the park (so glad this did t happen when we were in Epcot in the far side of WS)!

We waited at least 40 minutes for the delivery guy to come. He didn’t seem to believe our complaints and even said we needed to put it gear fully!. Didn’t work for him and he had to manually push it to wherever their van was.

The new scooter was loads better but there were a few days when we didn’t return to the room to rest and “recharge”. Those days the battery got down into the red. We’ve never had this happen with Gild mobility—never left the green zone!

We definitely experienced a torrential downpour and tried to wait out the storm. We luckily had extra ponchos and clips to protect the scooter from water damage.

At the end of our trip we were able to request they pickup the scooter at our room in OKW. This was quite handy as we didn’t want to drive it all the easy to Hospitality House. We definitely tipped for the convenience.

Overall, I think we’d stick with Gold’s. The customer service, while they did resolve the issue, was just ok. No one apologized for inconveniencing us. We are not commando park goers and generally arrived at the parks around 10am and took afternoon. Teams back at the resort. Was shocked that this scooter couldn’t seem to handle a day at Epcot. We were very deluge t about pulling that darn “key” out when not moving. We may have had a bad luck with this company but I don’t think we’ll be repeat customers.

Wow they can't come in the park to pick up a bad scooter? That's a hard NOPE right there. I'm often by myself and I couldn't get it to the front so I don't know what I'd do.

Your problem with the ECV rolling backwards on its own sounds like what happened to me with the Scooterbug one in July. Something was wrong with the "manual mode switch" and it would randomly think it was in manual (even tho it was powered up) and roll forwards or back if I was on a slope. Then it wouldn't turn on if I turned it off. I came very close to plastering someone in a queue at MMRR (fortunately had family member with me that grabbed the ECV). I'm glad you were able to make the best of it!

 

[Evita_W]

Walker Mobility's deliveries have always been prompt and exceptional. There's been times where I've called last minute for a scooter and they get one to me in a flash! In less than 5 mins. you had the scooter delivered so, that's pretty great! Plus you got it earlier than your delivery time so, that seems like a win to me.

I love that there key is proprietary so, you don't have to worry about someone that rented from another scooter company accidentally riding off with your scooter when you come off of a ride.

There scooters are known to be water resistant so, that you don't have to worry about covering them in the rain. They just keep going in the rain. It's beautiful.

I'm sorry your scooter had a malfunction. Scooters are mechanical and it unfortunately can happen with any company.

Based on what the OP said, the key is not proprietary, but a standard headphone key, which is another common key for scooters.

And yes, malfunctions can happen with any company and/or scooter, the question is how does the company handle the malfunction and insisting that someone push it to the front of the park is where this falls apart. Gold will come to you in such situations, even in the middle of the park

 

[maryblanchard49]

Based on what the OP said, the key is not proprietary, but a standard headphone key, which is another common key for scooters.

And yes, malfunctions can happen with any company and/or scooter, the question is how does the company handle the malfunction and insisting that someone push it to the front of the park is where this falls apart. Gold will come to you in such situations, even in the middle of the park

Yes, it is an XLR jack. I haven't seen any other companies with those keys at the theme parks.

I've been working with Walker Mobility for quite some time and I've never heard of this before. Walker Mobility's reviews are stellar. This sounds like a Gold Mobility post to me...

 

[mamabunny]

Let’s talk about TWO things I just saw up there, above me.

First: Scooter vendors & Annual Passes.

Once upon a time, a long time ago…

…all the scooter vendors in Orlando had Annual Passes to WDW. Then, one dark day, someone at Disney World got the crankies, and said “No! You shall not pass! (Into the Parks! Because APs are for humans, and not Scooter Delivery People!)

So, Walker, and all the others complied. From that time forward, if you had a problem, they would typically meet you either at “the front” of the Park, or often out by Security.

If they had a stranded scooter in the Park, they would go to Guest Services and get permission to enter and retrieve the scooter, but most often, a CM was sent to retrieve the scooter, or it had already been pushed over to Wheelchair/Scooter/Stroller rental for them to retrieve.

It was not as much fun for the vendors, to be sure - it meant a different relationship with their clients, and they could no longer go straight to their guests who needed help.

Gold Mobility has apparently continued to use APs to enter the Park. I don’t know if Disney is aware they are doing this, and it’s above my pay grade to sort that out.

Second: Scooter “keys” and all that goes with them (mostly the scooter…)

Scooter keys are a weird thing. You would think that the exact key you are given when you rent a scooter is the very key that was forged alongside the magnificent beast you have rented for your adventures at Disney World.

Sadly, this is not the case. Scooter keys are a dime a dozen, and can be purchased (in bulk if you wish) from a variety of sources. And because of how manufacturing works, there are multiple scooter models that use the exact same key. No foolin’. Someone around here (several years ago) had their rental scooter “stolen” by another person who had rented the same model, and that person drove away with the scooter. They met up later, and swapped scooters, and they both ended up with a story for the ages.

But hey - you don’t have to take my word for it: go to MonsterScooterParts.com and search for “Keys”

Now, here’s the *thrilling* part: Walker did a thing - they said (don’t get excited, I wasn’t in the room where it happened, I am paraphrasing here, people!) “Hey! We can’t stop ALL of the scooter shenanigans surrounding keys, but we *can* make OUR keys different!” And they did. They use basically an audio jack, rewired to complete a power circuit. So their “key” doesn’t fit any other vendor, and vice-versa.

SO TO SUM UP: Walker used to use AP’s, in the past, to go wherever their customers needed in the Parks. I know, because they delivered a scooter directly to me deep inside EPCOT one day, many years ago. At the time, they used the standard form factor for their keys that matched everyone else’s. Nowadays, their keys are unique to their scooters. Personally, I think it’s a genius move.

Nowadays, Gold is still going into the Parks. I don’t know if they are going in to simply assist with issues, or what - again, above my pay grade. They use the same generic keys as the rest of the industry.

What does this mean? It means that the scooter rental industry in Orlando has a LOT of challenges. To most of us Guests, it’s a pretty straightforward deal, and we really only notice when something doesn’t meet our expectations.

I would never want to run a scooter rental place in Orlando, because it has to be a nightmare. Not only do you have to try and make sure that everyone who rents from you gets their scooter on time, at the right place, but you have to try and make sure that any scooter you send out is in top notch condition. You have to make sure that the batteries aren’t dying, that the previous renter didn’t just drive off a curb and scrape off the underside of the scooter and that the charger came back with the unit. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Plus there are the people who have problems with their deposit and/or payment. The people who show up at the Resort early, and are mad because you didn’t read their mind, and bring the scooter over the minute they entered Orlando airspace. There are people who say the scooter is defective, when what they really mean is “I want a shiny new one, not one that has clearly been used”. There are people who will lie, and rent a scooter for someone else to use - maybe a minor (for example, the family who rented one, and handed it over to their 11 year old twins) or maybe an elder who should not be driving because of the effects of medication or a disease process. And that’s all before we talk about the nasty, sticky crap all over the equipment when they get it back, the batteries that have been drained past the point of recharging, the fenders and skirting on the unit that have been torn up, or torn off altogether by poor/inattentive drivers. The number of irate phone calls - from clients, and from those that their clients have run over, or run into…

Yeah. No thanks. It’s a wonder those people show up, turn on the lights and answer the phone.

Vote with your dollars. Vote with your rentals. If you don’t like a place, stop renting from them. And when it comes to Scooterbug - who is Disney’s “preferred vendor” (or whatever language they are currently using surrounding that contractural relationship) then yes - you *should* complain to Disney, because they can’t hold Scooterbug’s feet to the fire if they don’t know how badly they are treating Disney’s Guests.

/end rant /end soapbox /end Julia Sugarbaker Mode

 

[Evita_W]

My understanding is that Gold actually has a relationship with various higher ups at Disney and has been granted permission to enter the parks. The only time they had issues was when reservations first started, but they worked with Disney on a solution for that.

I do not know the entire details of the agreement with Disney, but I do know that if the scooter can still operate and you can get to the front of the park (or International Gateway at EPCOT) Disney prefers you do that, but they CAN come to you in the the park if necessary. I guess I failed to make the distinction as clear as I should have earlier, basically if you can get the scooter to the front of the park great, if you can't, then they will come to you. The other interesting thing with Gold though is they do tend to go to the park with mobility scooters frequently as guests to be able to let others know what to expect and so they have some ideas of what challenges people may face and DH has seen at least one time where they came across someone on a scooter rented from them that was having what was a relatively minor issue (I think it was something to do with the lights) and they simply swapped it for the one they were using right there.

If there is any doubt that they have some access to higher ups, it has been posted publicly on Facebook that they are working with Bob Gurr (Yes, that Bob Gurr) on their own scooter model specifically designed with theme park use in mind. Unfortunately, COVID delayed them because of manufacturing issues (they are manufacturing in the U.S. and the facilities they were going to use was converted for making essential medical sup[plies for a while), then while testing they found some things that need changing from what DH understands, but it should be available soon and a pretty nice design. But I am getting side tracked and that's another story, the point is they were able to get Bob Gurr to assist them, so yes, they do indeed have some relationship.

Again, I can't attest to the exact nature of the relationship, but DH has been told that Disney does get notified every time they have to go into the parks (which is rare because they do maintain and replace their equipment, but does happen as these are mechanical as previously pointed out). And again, if you can get to outside the gates of the park, they do prefer that, as does Disney and no, I don't know if Disney charges them when they actually have to come into the park or not, but I suppose that is a possibility.

And no, I don't know if the way Gold is doing it is within the current rules or not, simply stating what DH and I are aware of and yes, there was an issue at one point in time with them coming into the parks, but they did work it out, so my gut says they did it the right way, but I can't say for sure.

But yes, I can say you are right about not wanting to run a scooter rental company in the Orlando area these days, although most companies seem to have a system that works for them, some better than others.

And definitely vote with your dollars and do write Disney about issues with Scooterbug, but I am not hopeful that Disney will hold their feet to the fire as from what I hear they gave Disney millions of dollars to become the preferred vendor or whatever term they are using.

 

[Evita_W]

Yes, it is an XLR jack. I haven't seen any other companies with those keys at the theme parks.

I've been working with Walker Mobility for quite some time and I've never heard of this before. Walker Mobility's reviews are stellar. This sounds like a Gold Mobility post to me...

While this method certainly isn't the most common, I have used scooters at zoos and SeaWorld San Diego with the same type of key. And for a very short while they were at Disneyland, but those lasted a month or so at most as I recall, not sure what that was about.

Now most locations for in park rentals are using the key from the Club (yes that club that you used to put on your steering wheel to prevent people from stealing your car), turns out they all used the same key or at least similar enough to where any key can be used in any scooter that uses that type of key.

Also, it is not an XLR jack, that is what you plug your scooter in with, it is a Stereo Plug Style Key (at least the ones from Walker that DH has seen are) and they can also be purchased online for a little bit of nothing.

But since it is so much less common, I am sure it does reduce theft considerably.

The other item that Pride is starting to put on their scooters is an RFID reader that can be programmed to use your phone, magic band or really anything with an RFID chip in it to start and stop the scooter. Gold has been working on making this tech work for their rentals to where they can program the scooter to respond to your magic band and then easily reprogram it for the next person. I could even see this getting to a point where they could program it to stop working at the end of your rental period, but then that could complicate situations where trips have to be extended, etc.

Again, though, every rental company is coming with a system that works for them and as a consumer, it comes down to what you value.

 

[elvispursley]

Yes, it is an XLR jack. I haven't seen any other companies with those keys at the theme parks.

I've been working with Walker Mobility for quite some time and I've never heard of this before. Walker Mobility's reviews are stellar. This sounds like a Gold Mobility post to me...

Are you serious!? Because someone can’t have a bad experience with a company because all the reviews are “stellar”? Yeah, SMH with this

 

[Genie+]

We’ve tried other vendors 4 times over the years and have used Gold 7 or 8 times. The others were not bad, just that Gold is overall much better all around. Better value. Better experience.

Scooters in better shape
Longer battery life
Delivery and pick up at the time you prefer, not on pre-written schedules per resort
Very polite friendly staff, always punctual
Prompt communication at every turn
Includes many accessories that pretty much all the others charge individually
Excellent weekly pricing, usually the lowest and has been for years.

We tried Buena Vista earlier this year because they do daily pricing which our 2.5 days came out slightly less than Gold’s weekly. In the end it ended up costing more anyway since we needed to return it early at our resort‘s pre-scheduled time, and after we still had 5 Epcot hours and needed to rent $50 in park. Plus it didn’t come with all the free bells and whistles of Golds, like cup holder, phone holder, … here from their site:

• 3-speed cooling fan included! A GMS EXCLUSIVE! • Equipped with Extended-Range batteries • USB charging port and phone holder • Adjustable beverage holder • Exclusive L.E.D. under-carriage lighting for visibility and safety

Plus a complimentary rain package - they say 2 ponchos but we’ve always gotten 4 plus a few disposable shower caps to cover the tiller in rain. I drove one of these from MK to BLT in a torrential downpour (to retrieve jacket for my freezing hubby) and the scooter didn’t skip a beat.

AND you get to choose one of these add-ons for free:


We usually get the rear storage basket to put cooler with frozen water bottles and drinks for the whole family.

Look at what the others charge for all of these extras, and they charge for damage waiver which is included with Gold.

We never had a truly bad experience with others. Gold’s is just much better so we’ve decided to stick with them.

 

[Evita_W]

Are you serious!? Because someone can’t have a bad experience with a company because all the reviews are “stellar”? Yeah, SMH with this

Exactly, again, it isn't about if problems happen, these are mechanical pieces of equipment, they will happen at some point no matter the vendor. It all comes down to how they are handled.