Dilemma

So. . . you guys remember that I ordered a wheelchair last year? Well, looking back, I can see that I posted on September 29th about our wheelchair decision. Since then, I've heard exactly nothing from our wheelchair representative. Not. One. Word.

Today, they called me. A woman asked me, "did you know your insurance doesn't do pre-approval for blah, blah, blah?" Or something like that. I told her I didn't even know what that means. Basically, my insurance company doesn't do pre-approvals for medical equipment. So, you have to order the equipment and hope that they pay for it She also told me that I would have to pay 30% up-front, which is roughly 1700 dollars.

So here's why I'm upset.

1. It took them four months to figure this out.


2. If the wheelchair had been ordered and delivered prior to December 31st, I would have had to pay $0 because we met our deductible last year. I realize that these things move slow, but since the claim isn't filed until AFTER the chair is delivered, I feel like it was possible to have had the chair ordered quickly.


3. Back when I ordered the chair, the big dilemma was whether or not to get a tilt chair. According to the rep, the tilt chair didn't have self-steering wheels. Since then, I've had another special needs mom tell me that the newer models have both tilt and self-steering.


4. I wasn't given any choices with regards to seating. Barbara at Therextras very adamantly recommends a flat seat, and the rep told me they never do that. This bothered me, but it's not like I had a lot of options. Actually, I had exactly none, so what are you gonna do?


5. I Googled my wheel chair and the base model runs about $1600. I realize there's a lot more to it than that, but it seems like they want me to pay for the entire chair and then they're going to bill my insurance company another $3700. They'll be making a pretty sizable profit for some sub-par performance.


6. I heard through the grapevine that this company is swimming in debt and may go out of business. I'm worried that I get the chair from them and not be able to get any more service for it if they fold.
   

I feel bad. I mean, a rep came out to my house and measured Charlie and everything, and I'm sure he'll lose money if I don't buy the chair from his company. On the other hand, I don't think I should reward piss-poor performance with our hard-earned money--we don't just keep it in a tub and roll around in it in our underwear.

A source of mine has given me the name of another wheelchair representative who sells the same brand of chair. Should I just call them?

Has anyone out there ever tried to just buy their own wheelchair off the Internet?

Playing in our very own "Pond." Idea shamelessly stolen from No Time for Flashcards.