Nothing’s ever simple! AKA RIP Dead Man's Chair

Got my new chair yesterday! So happy! The old one had just been doing my head in in recent weeks.  I’d had the engineers out so many times with bits and pieces changed.  It not only was the ‘Dead Man’s Chair’, but it had become the ‘Chair of Frankenstein’.  It had been patched up and taken apart and brought back to life with bits and bobs added and removed.  It had just become a farce.  But I can breathe a sigh of relief now as my new chair is here and going smoothly.

Well, I say going smoothly... the chair itself is working but there are now problems with the car.

The ‘Chair of Frankenstein’ was a Pride Quantum Jazzy 1420.  That’s the make and model.  That’s the chair that I chose and made sure would work with the tie down system used for the car before agreeing to both the new chair and the car. 

I asked for the same chair when it came to my new chair.  I’ve got the same chair.  Except that on the order form that the hospital used it’s now known as a Pride Quantum 1420.  The word Jazzy has been removed.

The car converters contacted the Wheelchair Services team as they have to get permission to make modifications to my chair.  It’s standard procedure.  It’s nothing to worry about.  This is unless the tie down system is approved for the Pride Quantum Jazzy 1420.  Wheelchair Services cannot find a suitable tie down system for the Pride Quantum 1420 and therefore can’t approve the modification.

It’s the same bloody chair! I had the guy from Wheelchair Services out yesterday along with the suppliers of the Pride chair and the Pride supplier confirmed that I was correct that it was the same chair, that it’s simply an issue of some rebranding within the company and that it would be fine (and correct) to use the approved tie downs.  Wheelchair Services need to have this in writing before proceeding.

The best thing about it is, is that once they’d left I’d not only noticed that the user manual refers to my new chair as being a Pride Quantum Jazzy 1420, but the chair itself also has the bloody name emblazoned along the back of it!