Best Place to rent ECV’s??

[ro80]

Hi! Can anyone suggest the best place to rent ECV’s?? TIA!

 

[kaytieeldr]

See post # 2 in this https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...disabled-1st-trip-next-trip-wish-trip.595713/ and most of the first two pages for tons of general and specific information.

 

[lanejudy]

A quick Google search of ECV rental Orlando will bring up several. ScooterBug is the official Disney preferred provider, and Buena Vista Scooters is a DISboards sponsor. There are several other offsite vendors as well.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[Evita_W]

Gold Mobility, they have the newest equipment, meet you on your schedule instead of predermined drop off times, have the lowest prices (especially if you are going 7 days or longer), have excellent customer service, include damage AND theft insurance in their prices, most models include undercarriage lights that make you more visible at night as well as cup holders, cell phone holder, fan and one additional free accessory at no additional charge. The Victory 10 also included the higher back captains chair in the price. Additionally they guarantee the scooter model you have reserved will be available when you arrive since they don't overbook their reservations like some other companies (especially ScooterBug apparently based on many conversations I had last time with people) do.

Now where they may be more expensive for some is if you are going for a shorter trip, then you may find others less expensive, but Gold Mobility has the best customer service and they say that if you do have a problem where they need to get to you, their response time is usually an hour or less, but honestly I can't say if that part is true, as problems haven't occured like that and they are the only company that I have rented from where the battery lasts all day to the point that it rarely goes down even enough to register on the battery meter.

On our last trip, the only two companies that no one we spoke with had any complaints about were them and Walker Mobility, all others had massive complaints from batteries only lasting 3 hours or so to scooters not being delivered on time and having to wait a day or two after arrival to get what they rented with no compensation. That last one was a common complaint about ScooterBug.

Also with Gold Mobility, if you call them, you don't have to prepay or even give credit card information, you will just pay upon delivery and they have no cancellation fees if something happens, even day of. And if you are delayed, you can call or text them and they will adjust around your schedule.

 

[Selket]

Hi! Can anyone suggest the best place to rent ECV’s?? TIA!

Best is definitely subjective! My guess is most companies are fine and get the job done. There are many good threads here on scooter rentals and different companies so take a look. I've rented from Buena Vista back (when they could deliver to the Disney resorts) and then switched over to Gold. I suggest reading through the posts here and calling some of the companies to compare price and features. You may also want to ask if their rentals include insurance, how much extra it is to add it, and what it covers.

 

[kaytieeldr]

meet you on your schedule instead of predermined drop off times

True of almost any mobility device rental company.

With the exception of the DIS sponsor and the official Disney vendor, its probably best to refer posters to Google,or at least the FAQ here - tprather than (repeatedly) touting a single business?

 

[Evita_W]

True of almost any mobility device rental company.

With the exception of the DIS sponsor and the official Disney vendor, its probably best to refer posters to Google,or at least the FAQ here - tprather than (repeatedly) touting a single business?

Nope, because Google and the FAQ here are both quite biased towards the people who pay them money (well the FAQ used to be, now it doesn't list any company, except mentioning the ScooterBug is the only preferred company, so really linking to the FAQ is useless in this case). Even ScooterBug has predetermined schedules of when they will drop off with Bell Services. The reality is the only two companies that delivered to people we spoke with on our last trip 100% on time with Gold Mobility and Walker Mobility. And that alone is worth recommending only those two companies over everyone else. Add in the fact that they are also the only two companies where everyone who rented from them said the batteries lasted all day and it is no contest who to recommend.

They asked an honest question and just linking to a FAQ or Google doesn't really answer the question with real experiences and isn't very useful. In fact a lot of people find that to be an annoying answer. Imagine doing a Google search and all you find are links to doing a Google search, which is what happens if everyone answers just with links to doing a Google search.

 

[Evita_W]

But ultimately whatever company you rent from, make sure that they include both damage AND theft insurance. Theft (either intentional or accidental by mistaking which ECV is theirs) of ECVs is becoming much more common these days, so best to be protected. And always a good idea to have damage insurance, but make sure you have both accounted for in the prices.

 

[kaytieeldr]

The reality is the only two companies that delivered to people we spoke with on our last trip 100% on time with Gold Mobility and Walker Mobility.

Then (a) you never spoke with Randy's where the policy has always always always been delivering and picking up in person; and (b) the forum Moderators closing a long thread highlighting one specific (non-sponsoring, not official) company is a clear suggestion to me to stop doing that.
eta: I just tried Google. Two of the top three results were companies I've never heard of; and the FAQ lists popular mobility device companies without prejudice - maybe even alphabetically.

 

[Evita_W]

Then (a) you never spoke with Randy's where the policy has always always always been delivering and picking up in person; and (b) the forum Moderators closing a long thread highlighting one specific (non-sponsoring, not official) company is a clear suggestion to me to stop doing that.
eta: I just tried Google. Two of the top three results were companies I've never heard of; and the FAQ lists popular mobility device companies without prejudice - maybe even alphabetically.

The FAQ does not currently list them, unless it is buried somewhere. The only reason they closed that thread is because it was only highlighting the one company and was becoming more of an ad for them than showing people's experiences with them. If you post your actually experiences with whatever company (especially if it isn't Gold Mobility or ScooterBug since both have already been mentioned in this thread), then that won't be an issue here.

Also, I tried Google and the first five were sponsored ads and that is even with an ad blocker present. Randy's does the same, BUT, we spoke with people that rented from Randy's only to find that Randy's overbooked and their scooter was not available upon arrival. I am not saying there aren't other companies that don't have delivery schedules, but I am saying that the only two that had a 100% track record of delivering on time AND that had batteries that lasted all day were Walker Mobility and Gold Mobility. Again this is from what I would consider a small sample size of just people we personally spoke with, but speaking with people, we covered all of the major companies and a couple of minor ones. The only two that had zero complaints were Gold Mobility and Walker Mobility. Given the relatively small sample size, this is very telling that there were complaints about every other company.

 

[lanejudy]

Let’s stick to sharing your own experiences and not second/third-hand info. That way follow-up questions can be asked/answered most accurately.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[Lizgistix]

We've rented from Buena Vista before and will be renting from Gold Mobility for our upcoming trip. I'm sure I'll be talking about our experience here and comparing the two in a few weeks.
FWIW, I rented from Buena Vista because of the DIS discount, but I never got the free cup holder as part of my rental.

 

[Sandisw]

I just came back and we rented 2 ECVs for 2 days from Scooterbug. It was nice not having to figure out time to be there as we had lunch scheduled as it was a switch day from BLT to BCV. I thought the price was a good one..$63.50 for each.

We scheduled to return them late at night since we were catching DME at 5:45 am. However, we were put in the last room at the end of a very long hall and there was no way it would have been easy to do that walk in the morning.

Bell services were so nice and let us keep them till morning since they would not be picked up that night. Not sure if this is the case for the companies that require to be there Or not.

 

[Evita_W]

I just came back and we rented 2 ECVs for 2 days from Scooterbug. It was nice not having to figure out time to be there as we had lunch scheduled as it was a switch day from BLT to BCV. I thought the price was a good one..$63.50 for each.

We scheduled to return them late at night since we were catching DME at 5:45 am. However, we were put in the last room at the end of a very long hall and there was no way it would have been easy to do that walk in the morning.

Bell services were so nice and let us keep them till morning since they would not be picked up that night. Not sure if this is the case for the companies that require to be there Or not.

It depends on what time you were leaving in the morning and the company, many would let you keep them until morning if you are leaving at a reasonable hour, on our last trip, Magical Express picked us up at 2 AM, so obviously that wasn't a reasonable hour, but thankfully we were fairly close to the lobby (by request). Gold Mobility picked up from right by our room though at our request, I am sure most other companies would do the same though. 5:45 might have been before first pick up, so in your case ScooterBug could be the best option, bearing in mind that not everyone has been lucky enough to have a scooter waiting for them when they arrive with ScooterBug. This may be growing pains for them since they are now the only vendor that can use Bell Services, but it is as a result of overbooking. Not saying it always happens, just that there were several people it did happen to that we spoke with on our last trip and want people to know to ask the company they are renting from if they guarantee a scooter to be there and if they overbook.

 

[Sandisw]

It depends on what time you were leaving in the morning and the company, many would let you keep them until morning if you are leaving at a reasonable hour, on our last trip, Magical Express picked us up at 2 AM, so obviously that wasn't a reasonable hour, but thankfully we were fairly close to the lobby (by request). Gold Mobility picked up from right by our room though at our request, I am sure most other companies would do the same though. 5:45 might have been before first pick up, so in your case ScooterBug could be the best option, bearing in mind that not everyone has been lucky enough to have a scooter waiting for them when they arrive with ScooterBug. This may be growing pains for them since they are now the only vendor that can use Bell Services, but it is as a result of overbooking. Not saying it always happens, just that there were several people it did happen to that we spoke with on our last trip and want people to know to ask the company they are renting from if they guarantee a scooter to be there and if they overbook.

Thanks. Our scooters were there, but we did get to the resort 2 hours after we had said we wanted them...took longer for lunch than we thought.

But, it’s good to know that maybe it’s a good idea to give yourself some extra cushion time for arrival if you can without incurring extra charges!

 

[SueM in MN]

Then (a) you never spoke with Randy's where the policy has always always always been delivering and picking up in person; and (b) the forum Moderators closing a long thread highlighting one specific (non-sponsoring, not official) company is a clear suggestion to me to stop doing that.
eta: I just tried Google. Two of the top three results were companies I've never heard of; and the FAQ lists popular mobility device companies without prejudice - maybe even alphabetically.

The disABILITIES FAQs thread no longer has any lists of rental places.

This site has one sponsor -Buena Vista and had another - Walker (I don’t believe they are still a sponsor). The Moderators of this board are not aware of what type of compensation is involved in a sponsor relationship.

This board’s Moderators are not and have NEVER been paid, given anything/any compensation or any advantages for posting about, listing or not listing companies or the order in which they were listed.

The disABILITIES FAQs thread used to have 4 separate lists of rental places, with the companies in each list in alphabetical order.
One list was the Disney Featured Mobility Equipment Providers and another was the Featured stroller providers. The lists were copied from the Disney website and were in alphabetical order.
The other 2 lists were ‘non-featured’ providers and were in alphabetical order, except for Walker, which was listed 2nd in the list instead of last because more posters had posted experiences with it than other companies higher up in the alphabet. We were not instructed to list or not list any companies or put them in any order.

We did have some information in the post about equipment each company was able to provide (for example, smaller size wheelchairs, power wheelchairs and special needs strollers). That was becoming very difficult to upkeep since companies changed, added or discontinued products frequently. Moderators are volunteers and keeping the information current in my free time was time consuming,
The lists had no recommendations for any companies, other than many or few people had posted experiences.

The information was removed from the FAQs thread after Disney discontinued the Featured Provider program and went with one company.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Thanks, Sue. I haven't actually looked at the FAQ recently

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks, Sue. I haven't actually looked at the FAQ recently

I mostly wanted to emphasize that what you posted about the disABILITIES FAQs information was true and that lanejudy and I have never been paid or compensated in any way for what was written or listed about ECV/ wheelchair/ mobility devices since another poster wrote that «Google and the FAQ here are both quite biased towards the people who pay them money (well the FAQ used to be, now it doesn't list any company, except mentioning the ScooterBug is the only preferred company ».

 

[Selket]

I'll mention my experiences and thoughts:

I used to rent from Buena Vista Scooters and generally had good luck with them. I did get at least one scooter with a bad battery - and they were reluctant to come out and replace it - plus it was a short trip and I didn't push the issue. However my experience with them went downhill - getting squeaky scooters and having them complain about bringing me another....getting one that something was clearly wrong with because it would barely go at walking speed even when turned up to max speed, etc. Plus their equipment looked like it had been through heck and back...it was really in bad shape. I also didn't find them pleasant on the phone when I had a problem - so I switched to Gold Mobility. I've rented from them 3-4 times now with only one problem...once they brought a 4 wheel instead of a 3 wheel and I didn't even notice until I was using it and wondering why I disliked it so much (the turning radius wasn't what I was used to, etc). They apologized and brought out a 3 wheel at a time that was convenient for me to meet them - didn't impact my trip really since I had a useable scooter. Their equipment has been in much, much better shape than I was used to from BV and they are always nice on the phone...plus their price is cheaper and includes more (at the time I rented).

Downsides to Gold is perhaps they only rent for 7 days and I sometimes do 3 day trips. I would have to compare price and features to see what I'd do for a shorter trip. Of course Gold and all companies but Scooter Bug need to deliver to you in person - and for a shorter trip (or other reasons) you may not want to spend ANY time waiting for a scooter - lol! I suggest calling a few companies and comparing cost, features and the damage/theft policy or insurance.

 

[chainkid]

Another shout out for Gold. I have rented from them now three times and they are by far my favorite scooter and service. The ECV's are very easy to drive, come apart easily for travel in a car, have a holder for cell phone and easily hold a charge for a full day and night. I only ever charged over night and never came close to running out of juice. I had to extend my stay by one day and they not only did it but said it would not cost me extra. They are so efficient and pleasant to deal with. Try them .