Wheelchair repairs

chipper612

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 12, 2004
Messages
53
Who would you contact if your wheelchair needed emergency repairs?

We will be staying on the property for four days and have a customized manual wheelchair so we need our own chair to get around.

Have you ever experienced this, and if so, what did you do?
 
I'd call the front desk if I was staying at a WDW hotel. I've been told in the past that WDW would send over the people who repair thier own rental chairs if you need a repair while on property and you're a WDW hotel guest. I've never had a reason to use the service but even if WDW wouldn't send thier own repair crew over the front desk should know who to contact locally for repairs.
 
Everything on a wheelchair can be fixed with a set of allen wrenchs, 3/8 inch wrench and a bike pump.
 
Everything on a wheelchair can be fixed with a set of allen wrenchs, 3/8 inch wrench and a bike pump.

Don't forget the duct tape! Plus mine uses some other size wrenches and some screwdrivers too, plus the tube changing tools.

Actually I do carry spare tubes, a pump and a full set of tools when I travel. But every now and then you break something that can't be fixed. I've broken my frame at home a few times, the metal tore in half, and it needed a new part or welding. But duct tape actually held the piece in place until I could get to the repair shop.
 

I second (I guess third) the other posters.

If it's a loose screw or bolt, the Maintenance department at your resort can help you out.
For a tire needing air or even a new tire tube (if it's a 'bike-size' tire), the bike rental places at some resorts can help you out.
Calling the front desk at your resort should get you the help you need.

If you are traveling by air, you are allowed to bring a set of tools - and as was already posted, if you know the sizes of bolts and allen bolts on your wheelchair, you may only need a few tools (and some duct tape never hurts anything).
 
Twice, now, we have gotten a flat. They took the chair to the automotive center and put air in the tires for us. When the chair wouldn't hold the air, they lent us a chair for the duration of our stay.

We had another problem, with the armrests dragging on the wheels. Maintenance temporarily fixed it for us with string till we got home.
 
One of my kids had a low tire that I forgot to fill before we left. I took the chair to the place where they rent chairs at MK and used their air compressor to blow it up.
 
A couple of days ago I spoke with the Buena Vista Scooters people at the Boardwalk. They have a warehouse and repair shop on property. They can do repairs to just about any type of wheelchair or ECV (and even power chairs), although the brand they deal with is Pride Mobility. They handle all the rental bicycles on property and are now also a full-service mobility company.
 
Take the standard tools with you, some extra tires, a pomp, tape and if needed a set of extra elastics for the breaks. This should help you out in about 85% of the time.

Besides that; contact your local dealer. While a lot of companies state they can 'deal with any chair', my experience is that they can sometimes and sometimes can't. No prob. with the can't, but big problem with the can't if I see them messing my chair up. Or better said; trying to, as I'll stop them right then and there. Your local dealer can tell you who to contact no matter where in the world you are.

For really anything WDW will be great. They'll help you out where possible, whether it being fixing it rght then and there themselves, by somebody else, getting you parts you need and/or getting you a back up chair or ecv while your own is down.

I've had it happen to me. My powerchair was handled like dirt and damaged big time during the flight down. Damaged parts, no functioning battery charger, boy was I in for trouble! NWA sent Florida Mobility 'round for some "fixing". Ahum. First of all the guy started lashing out about my manual chair with info which simply isn't correct. Well, touch my chair and you touch me, so that wasn't too good of a start. Florida Mobility claims to have knowledge of and experience with the Permobil chairs, which unfortunately I've got. However they totally failed to recognize the problems of the chair and totally misdiagnosed the situation. OK, can happen, right? Well, it makes me wonder how good you are at what you do, if you don't even see standard big parts being crushed and jammed at places they shouldn't be at if you looked right at that spot on multiple times. Add up that they were very unclear about when they would come round -which prevented me from going to a park- and it ended up with 'we'll come in the morning' and them coming at 6 pm....... I'm not a Florida Mobility fan, let's put it that way. ;)

Disney on the other hand; 2 big thumbs up. They noticed me struggling with NWA big time and jumped right in and saved the day. They tracked down Permobil USA and arranged for me to get a charger so I could at least go somewhere. They went to Brownings for me and delivered it to my room quickly. They checked back about that twice, first to make sure I got it and second to make sure it was the right one.

Hearing about the parts being broke, they offered me a free ecv via the WDW-rental. Finding out that I really need a powerchair, they offered to get me a offsite rental one. I declined the offer as I need my own seating-system, but really appreciated it.

The rest of the week they kept making sure there wasn't anything I could possibly need. I could hardly get past a CM at OPR without somebody striking up a conversation about what happened and asking if there wasn't anything they could do. One last surprise they had in store when I asked for a print out of the balance on my KTTW-card. I just wanted to see how much I had spend and found out that there had been a charge on there for a batterycharger, which had been credited right again. Asking about this at Custom House informed me that CBR refused to let me pay the bill and payed for it themselves.

A wc breaking down is not something anybody will ever look forward to. But if it ever has to happen while your not at home, WDW is a great place for it to happen.
 
Take the standard tools with you, some extra tires, a pomp, tape and if needed a set of extra elastics for the breaks. This should help you out in about 85% of the time.

Besides that; contact your local dealer. While a lot of companies state they can 'deal with any chair', my experience is that they can sometimes and sometimes can't. No prob. with the can't, but big problem with the can't if I see them messing my chair up. Or better said; trying to, as I'll stop them right then and there. Your local dealer can tell you who to contact no matter where in the world you are.

For really anything WDW will be great. They'll help you out where possible, whether it being fixing it rght then and there themselves, by somebody else, getting you parts you need and/or getting you a back up chair or ecv while your own is down.

I've had it happen to me. My powerchair was handled like dirt and damaged big time during the flight down. Damaged parts, no functioning battery charger, boy was I in for trouble! NWA sent Florida Mobility 'round for some "fixing". Ahum. First of all the guy started lashing out about my manual chair with info which simply isn't correct. Well, touch my chair and you touch me, so that wasn't too good of a start. Florida Mobility claims to have knowledge of and experience with the Permobil chairs, which unfortunately I've got. However they totally failed to recognize the problems of the chair and totally misdiagnosed the situation. OK, can happen, right? Well, it makes me wonder how good you are at what you do, if you don't even see standard big parts being crushed and jammed at places they shouldn't be at if you looked right at that spot on multiple times. Add up that they were very unclear about when they would come round -which prevented me from going to a park- and it ended up with 'we'll come in the morning' and them coming at 6 pm....... I'm not a Florida Mobility fan, let's put it that way. ;)

Disney on the other hand; 2 big thumbs up. They noticed me struggling with NWA big time and jumped right in and saved the day. They tracked down Permobil USA and arranged for me to get a charger so I could at least go somewhere. They went to Brownings for me and delivered it to my room quickly. They checked back about that twice, first to make sure I got it and second to make sure it was the right one.

Hearing about the parts being broke, they offered me a free ecv via the WDW-rental. Finding out that I really need a powerchair, they offered to get me a offsite rental one. I declined the offer as I need my own seating-system, but really appreciated it.

The rest of the week they kept making sure there wasn't anything I could possibly need. I could hardly get past a CM at OPR without somebody striking up a conversation about what happened and asking if there wasn't anything they could do. One last surprise they had in store when I asked for a print out of the balance on my KTTW-card. I just wanted to see how much I had spend and found out that there had been a charge on there for a batterycharger, which had been credited right again. Asking about this at Custom House informed me that CBR refused to let me pay the bill and payed for it themselves.

A wc breaking down is not something anybody will ever look forward to. But if it ever has to happen while your not at home, WDW is a great place for it to happen.


That's a nice report. Sorry you had such things happen, but thanks for taking the time to let us know how WDW helped.
 
A couple of days ago I spoke with the Buena Vista Scooters people at the Boardwalk. They have a warehouse and repair shop on property. They can do repairs to just about any type of wheelchair or ECV (and even power chairs), although the brand they deal with is Pride Mobility. They handle all the rental bicycles on property and are now also a full-service mobility company.


That's good to know--my scooter is a GoGo by Pride! They should be able to get parts for it (although I hope I never need to use them.) Thanks for checking.
 
A couple of days ago I spoke with the Buena Vista Scooters people at the Boardwalk. They have a warehouse and repair shop on property. They can do repairs to just about any type of wheelchair or ECV (and even power chairs), although the brand they deal with is Pride Mobility. They handle all the rental bicycles on property and are now also a full-service mobility company.

Gosh, I wish they would make the other resorts and all the parks aware of this. The front tire on my ECV went flat last week while we were ar EPCOT. Maintenance pumped it up but it wouldn't hold air. The tube had a hole in it and we were told by EPCOT maintenance that there was not even a tire patch kit anywhere on WDW property.

Fortunately, we were able to contact Randy's Mobility and they came out the following morning and replaced my tire. They were great=came right to our room.
 
i second, or third, or whatever, the duct tape suggestion - it is amazing what i have fixed with duct tape.

at most bike shops you can get a "road flat fix kit," which has a way to plug a tire that will not hold air, in the event that you do not have a "bike size" tire. my wheels are 22", and most bikes are 24 or 26, so i dunno if disney could help me. but a kit like that may work (i have never used one, so i cant make any promises)...
 















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