Acorn Stairlifts

This letter is to make other future customers aware of the problems we have experienced owning an Acorn Stairlift. We purchased an Acorn Stairlift 1 1/2 years ago. My wife and I were involved in a rollover accident in 2013 and she has extensive injuries to the spine as a result of this accident. Stairs are not an option for her as her spine cannot withstand the motion of climbing.

Within approximately eight months of our purchase, still within our warranty, we experienced a very rough ride with the stairlift and asked the company for a representative to check the equipment. The repairman told us the ride was normal and nothing was wrong. We did not agree with this diagnosis but he assured us there was nothing wrong with the equipment.

Approximately six months later, barely over the warranty, the stairlift stopped and we had a repairman return to our house and found a wire was shorted out. The charge for coming to our house was $250.00, which they reduced to $150.00 after I argued extensively. The repair lasted approximately four months before the stairlift quit again. The repairman came back out again and found that the relay switch was faulty and would cost us $600.00 plus a $50.00 service call. At that point we refused to have it repaired. We live on a limited income and cannot afford the repairs.

To purchase an extended warranty on the stairlift would cost $250.00 a year, which the repairman suggested not to purchase because the equipment would not need it and we believed what he suggested as he was the expert. At that point we were forced to getting into a loan to try and purchase another stairlift. This took well over a month of assisting my wife up the stairs from our living space to her bedroom. This motion of walking up the stairs with a broken spine was excruciating for her and put her in such severe pain that she was bedridden for weeks! She could not sleep much or walk much, that was the whole reason of buying the stairlift. Our quality of life was so disrupted that I was forced to go up and down the stairs myself to take care of my wife at 80 years old.

We have since purchased a Savaria Stairlift which cost us twice as much but we have three times the comfort, it runs smooth and quiet with the feeling of stability. Acorn has very poor quality and the company preys on the $250 service calls or the $250 a year warranty. They will stall you off that nothing is wrong with the equipment until the warranty runs out.

Acorn is the most non customer service oriented company we have ever dealt with and service is based on the dollar and not the customer or the quality of their product. They are a complete scam. If we had known we would have wasted our money on this product, we would not have purchased the Acorn whatsoever. This company should not exist. The state elevator inspectors should not approve the use of the Acorn Stairlifts because of their instability and faulty equipment.

In January of 2017 I contacted Acorn Stairlifts to inquire about one for my 87 & 83 year old parents. I hadn't been in touch with them for 8 years due to circumstances but I reached out to help them because they needed it. I left a message with these guys and had a great talk with the first person I talked with. After explaining the situation that it wasn't for me but for my parents she agreed to not contact me and stuck with her promise. The rest of them didn't. I even got emails from others demanding that I contact them only. Wth? Then the phone calls came and never ended. It's June now.

This went on for months and I kept having to ask these guys to stop harassing me and each time they'd agree but then call me again to try and sell me. Even after the stairlift was installed they STILL kept badgering me. This harassment became relentless and still is. Being on a cell phone I have to pay for every call but they don't care. As long as there's a 'possible' SALE for THEM they don't seem to care who they bother. It's too bad because the stairs themselves seem to be good. Too bad I can't say the same for the people working for them.

BEWARE PEOPLE. Once you call these people or leave any phone number you will NEVER stop hearing from them. They don't answer the phone directly cause they want your number so they can harass you. Don't say I didn't WARN YOU. This company is aggressively relentless in their pursuit of a sale. People do not come first. Sales do.

After many calls and emails the referral cheque has NOT been sent to my brother-in-law, Acorn says it is out of their hands. I'm sure it hasn't been sent. It has been at least a month or more. Wondering about their warranty that I paid extra $ for. Has anyone else had this problem?

I purchase my first chair in 2005, and was happy with the purchase. During the years chair was old, and I wanted to upgrade the chair!!! BIG MISTAKE!!! The only chair they have is nothing to be happy about. The new and only chair was design by a monkey, chair is loose, you feel as if you are going to fall down forward on your face. Track makes more noise than a train at 90 miles an hour, it cracks as if the track is broken. Chair is not orthopedic design for a handicap person with joint problems, the foot rest is so small your feet don't fit in them or you have to bend your legs inward and still you don't have space for your feet. From the moment the chair was install I was not happy. And I want my money back. Your chair is as bad as it can be, a piece of trash. My mistake was not to keep my old one back, if you are looking for a lift, check first BRUNO OR AMERICAN OR GO SOMEPLACE ELSE FOR A BETTER PRODUCT. ACORN IS NOT!!!

I had the Acorn Stairlift installed December 2015, it worked well for the first month and then I started having problems. It quit working while my mom was in it halfway up the stairs, I then called customer service and they instructed me to turn it on/off but that didn't work and they said no one could come out for a few days. My mother had a stroke and it was very difficult to get her out, after that it ran well for a couple months then quit working again in February 2016. I called customer service and it took them a few days to come out. They told me if it was my fault it wasn't working I would be responsible for the 250.00 service charge. When they came out they noticed the harness was loose from the pin connector installer error.

My mother then went into nursing home for a few months. Right before she was to come home I checked lift and it was not working. I then called customer service again. They came out after a few days and changed the battery. It seemed to work fine, my mother ended up passing away and the stairlift was never used again since February 2016. I am now caring for my sister and she requires chairlift, not to my surprise it no longer works. I contacted customer service and they told me my warranty had run out and I would have to pay 250.00 service visit plus parts. I was infuriated I paid 10,200 for this piece of garbage and it had very little use, I have had nothing but problems after the first month. Now they want me to pay 250.00 plus.

It was not used at all since the last time it was fixed. I will be contacting an attorney for being sold a lemon, the least the company can do is refund me some of the money for defective equipment. After reading other reviews I see I'm not alone, this company should not be able to get away with this. I may as well have flushed 10,200 down the toilet. I will be pursuing legal action.

I own an Acorn Stairlift. I paid right around $3000.00 for it. It has not served me well. The reason for the review is to alert others who are considering buying from this company. I purchased it in 2013. It has never been reliable. I've had to make many phone calls due to the various problems. I could not agree to service calls as their rate is way out of my affordable range. The price of their service call was never mentioned when I was purchasing. Their maintenance contract is exorbitant. I'm widowed with just my fixed income. I'm 77. I had Lung Cancer surgery in 2014 along with thirty radiation treatments. I have COPD. I use oxygen at night. I have been receiving injections in my back for degenerative disc disease.

I had to agree to service last week at a price of $250.00 plus $70.00 for a battery, plus $4.20 tax. Total $324.20. I was told that it actually needed a computer board to the tune of $600 some odd dollars. I could not pay that out and was told I could pay half and half later. I could not do it. The Service man installed a battery and instructed me to switch it on and off when I needed to use it. Yesterday the chair slowed down to a crawl and stopped in the middle of the staircase. I had a load of towels in my arm and had to manage the dangerous action of removing myself from the chair.

I called today and said I was not paying another service charge to have them come out. I was told that they would waive that fee but I would be paying the $600.00 for a board. I was reminded that they only had to come here twice since I bought it. I told them it was because I couldn't pay the high fee, but had no choice on the two calls. In all honesty, they reduced the price of the one call last summer when they replaced two switches.

My alternative is to sell my home and find a place on one level. Moving is not easy or affordable for an older person. I thought I was set when I made this move to a townhouse 4 years ago. My legs gave out after six months. I bought an Acorn Stairlifts whose advertisement was and is in AARP magazine. I couldn't have been more wrong. As of now the chair is inoperable. The price of removing it is $200.00. To conclude, my opinion of this company is very low. Their service fees are way too high. I truly sympathize with folks who are badly disabled and are trying to use an Acorn Stairlifts.

UPDATED ON 04/07/2017: To follow up on my bad experience with Acorn Stairlifts. I had no choice but to have the computer board installed. Originally I was told I could make two payments. However, that turned out not to be the case. I was told by the man who said it that He NEVER said that. I had the board installed. The cost was $682.64. This brings the entire repair total to $1006.84.

My wife and I bought two Acorn Stairlifts for our new Townhouse on 8/24/2016. Both were installed on 8/26/2016. Called service 9/22/2016, reset computer 4 times. Called 10/10/2016. Service repair 10/26/2016 rail loose and remote failure. Called again. Service repair 12/14/2016 erratic, rail problem, stops. Service Tech did nothing, tried to ** us, and billed $250.00 for service call. Numerous calls starting 12/01/206 to 12/19/206, charges dropped. Service call 12/20/2016, fixed rail cleaned, adjusted, fixed remotes. Called again 02/21/2017, tech heard problem over phone.

Service repair 02/28/2017 Chair erratic, rail loose, black splotches, pulled chair & cleaned, adjust charge pins, fix remotes. Called again 03/20/2017 remote failure, told to spray rail with WD-40. Called again 03/21/2017 remote ran chair 6 and froze. Service call 03/23/2017 tech rode chair & lectured us, then fixed upper chair, fixed lower chair, replaced mother board, replaced sensors, replaced remotes. 03/23/2017 chair stopped, way jammed. 03/24/2017 lower unit remote jammed, chair 1 ft. up, stopped working. Called again 03/27/2017 wife on phone 1.5 hours. Service call 03/28/2017 to be determined.

I am a carer for a gentleman who is on 24hr oxygen and dependent on his chair lift. I arrived this morning 28/02/2017 with the intention of taking him to see his Oncologist only to find that despite his wife contacting Acorn on Sunday evening when his stairlift broke down, there has been absolutely no support from the engineering side of the company, just a load of waffle.

In the end we had to call the paramedics to assist my client upstairs. No support on Monday and now it is Tuesday. I personally called the office explaining that I urgently needed to get my client to his appointment. I was told that the engineer was in Alton, Hampshire and we are right down on the south coast. I was told that the engineer would call me when he was on his way. It is now 12.20 p.m and NOTHING. It is well known within my field of work that Acorn offer the worst support and now I am seeing it for myself. I would like to speak to John ** personally but understand that he is based in Monaco! This speaks volumes.

I am disgusted by the customer service of this company. For months I and my family have been trying to get some compensation for the problems we had experienced regarding our mother's stair lift and the wrong advice given continually by their customer help desk. My daughter initially recommended them as she works for Lloyds Pharmacy who sell their mobility products. We will not be recommending them to anyone in future.

We were told on at least 2 occasions even by a manager, that they would look into compensation, as my brother lost out on wages due to taking a day off to attend when mother's stair lift was installed. Just as well he was there, as my elderly mother who has had a broken wrist, cancer and dementia would not have coped with the fracas that happened on that day. It was agreed with the salesman/assessor that it would be installed ready for mum coming home from rehab after a fall. This did not occur and had to be installed 2 days after, not good enough.

Then the under trained engineer took four hours to install it, when we were told by the sales assessor originally, it would be 1 and a half hours at most! It was incorrectly installed, although mum could use it thankfully until another engineer came out a week later, but the stair lift juddered halfway up the stairs, as the rail was incorrectly fitted and was kinked.

Then we discovered mother did not have a power swivel seat as agreed with the salesman/assessor on original visit, he had assessed this would meet mother's needs due to her previously broken wrist and arthritis. This has been denied by the case handler as she stated the salesman did not add this to the paperwork, which we trusted he had completed correctly. On requesting this from the helpline we were told they would source one but after chasing this we were informed they do not make these anymore and couldn't get hold of one. BUT the engineer who installed a new rail stated, "You can get power swivels still!"

We sought compensation but heard nothing so we chased this again and I wrote a complaint on an legal ombudsman template. I did ring back the same day but was informed she was not available so I e-mailed the case handler on 2 or 3 occasions and demanded a call or e-mail back the same day. I did not hear anything in the timescale I had requested so I e-mailed again and asked for the complaint to be given to a manager, not a case handler. I was told this had been done and they would contact me, nothing!

I then received a letter stating she had continually tried to ring me but I had only 1 voicemail message from her and no telephone calls. The case handler involved wrote to me stating they do not offer compensation to which I replied we have not been told this before! She did ring me again although it was meant to be a manager and stated for 400 we could have a power swivel!! As I had to return to work my brother took over the call and then someone behind her said, "Offer the power swivel free." I am still fighting for compensation though as the power swivel should have been installed in the beginning anyway. So what have they offered by way of compensation, nothing!

My mom began to have trouble getting up and down the stairs. We needed a stair lift. I wish we had more time to do more research but we were in a bind. We've had this stair lift for about 3 years now and it's been nothing but a piece of junk. We had problems immediately. During the first year with it while it was under warranty they came out several times to "fix it". It never stays fixed. The remotes have stopped working several times and have been replaced several times. We keep having to buy the extended service plan or else after the first year we wouldn't have been able to use it at all. They come out fix it and if we are lucky we get a couple of months without issue. Not everything is covered by the extended plan so they have another opportunity to get more money out of you.

For the most part it works well when it's warm but when the cold hits the problems start. It's not really robust enough to be outdoors. The safety switches freeze in place which keeps the chair from working. The remotes are supposed to let you move the chair even when there is a problem with the safety switches but by then the remotes are broken again or the sensor has stopped working. I spent $3000 on this stair lift expecting something reliable and it's been nothing but reliable. The salesman lied and made us think we were getting something good. The average use for this stair lift is one trip up and one trip down each day and it can't even hold up for that. The latest is today there are no error codes. The lift went down but refuses to go back up. When it works it's great, when it's broke it leaves a weak 72 year old woman struggling to get up the stairs and feeling depressed about her age. Bottom line try another brand. I wish I had.

The sales person who came out to my home was professional and compassionate. He understood the circumstances of this purchase was due to a family member's debilitating stroke. After he left, the tone deaf sales staff called me daily to push their product. I asked them to stop calling me. In another call I told them I would buy from another vendor if they didn't stop calling me. They didn't and I've called All American Mobility.

My parents purchased the stairlift several years ago. Part of the sales pitch is that when you no longer need they will help you resell it to a customer. My parents have since passed away and we have been trying to get their assistance with a resale. Parents only used it for 2-3 years. Every time we call they give us a different answer. First it is that they don't do resales anymore. Then someone else says to leave a voicemail for a certain individual; no one ever returns a call. Very unprofessional. So a $10,000 stairlift that was used for 2 years is going to be tossed. I have called every Vets charity to donate but no one can pick up. Acorn totally misleads and their customer service is horrible. You can call back and each different person will give you a different answer. Go with someone locally.

Only problem with this company, the salesman cannot be reached once he got the order. The technician did a bad job. The chair is rumbling, stopping on its way up or down. The bottom plastic head falls off. The chair is stuck downstairs after 3 weeks of use. No support from the company. The technician has no phone number!!! The company said you can only contact him by "wire" and 411 has no listing of him. The remotes came with very old batteries, made in China, that worked only intermittently. I will have to call the fire dept to get my husband upstairs to bed tonight. Our recommendation is not to deal with Acorn. You will save yourself a lot of frustrations.

Purchased Acorn stairlift about 6 years + ago. Has worked great since then. Had one service call about 2 years ago which was taken care of day after I called. Has been working great since, Very professional and reliable. I use the chair almost daily sometimes 2-3 times a day. Purchased from Acorn in the Boston, Ma area.

I have left multiple message with people to call me back but they never call back. They will say I will speak to my Manager or Engineering department but never call back. Very poor service - DON'T BUY from these people. Installation and design is very poorly done.

Need new toggle switch, but have been informed by some guy who represents Acorn that they do not sell parts to anyone anymore! Must get a technician from Acorn to change the toggle for a 250 dollar service call plus price of new switch!! A few years back I replaced the switch because the lever had been broken. They sold me a switch then, so why not now. I hope I don't have a serious problem later on. I have bought a switch locally. If I cannot repair the one that is not working in one direction, I will replace it.

Have had several issues since the 2014 purchase. Had lift service several times since. In March 2016, tech claimed a defect and put in a loaner. Issues again in August and still can't get a tech or someone to return a phone call. Lift failed and my Mom was stuck until someone came home from work as she's unable to use the stairs. Yesterday, the lift jerked and she almost fell off, same issue again today. Spoke with at least 5 people today and told the earliest they can send a tech is Nov 29. WTF??? Not acceptable!!! Service manager then says the 24. Was told they had a lot of turnovers in staff so is that supposed to explain the atrocious service. Service manager didn't seem too interested in getting a tech here today. No such thing as "emergency service". Strongly DO NOT recommend this company. Issues with quality and a huge lack of customer service.

Installed at end of August. For M-in-L who had just had a hip replacement and wasn't allowed to do stairs. At installation no one had arranged for power to be sorted as needed, I had to rewrite a socket myself! 1st day hinge failed, continued to temporarily fail for several days. Service came out: 1st the excuse was that there is a known fault with some hinge control boards so would need replacing. Quoted 5 days for part, in meantime no lift - meaning bed needed to be relocated etc. So they know the boards need replacing but they don't carry them? 10 days still no contact and no boards. 2nd serviceman came out - did a 'fix' (move the chair rail as actually it was catching on door frame it passed! And they had originally located hinge control box in airing cupboard which meant it overheated!). Was the original installer trained how to do this?

24 hours later it stopped halfway (with complete loss of all power) with immobile mother in law on, who subsequently hurt hip trying to get down. Took nearly an hour to wind hinge up to allow her to access toilet it blocked. CService response was "Would you like me to call the Fire Brigade?" 2 day wait for engineer who just came and disconnected it and stomp mud through house. CService agreed to full replacement of chair when we asked for refund, and restart of 14 day trial. New chair and circuit boards installed, and apparently operational again however within 24 hours it had stopped again, this time at the top leaving her at the top!

Enough was enough so requested full refund and removal. 2.5 weeks later after many non returned calls still installed and no refund yet. Next step Trading Standards if not removed/refunded in next few days! Warranty not worth paper. 24 hr line does not mean 24 hr solution - just someone fobbing you off. There's a reason that Councils won't touch anyone other than Stannah, and ACORN must bring Stannah so much business.

Horrible Experience With This Company. DO NOT GET THIS SERVICE!!! Find alternative. Equipment Breaks Down Very easily and they con you into getting an extended warranty... Nothing but a bunch of crooks. Tried calling their customer service to deal with an issue. Got the run around, dropped calls etc. My father just got purchased an extended warranty and then right after passed away... These people would not even return the funds of that extended warranty. Caused my mother undue aggravation dealing with a funeral and these crooks.

I had the lift for 2 months. During the 2 months I had to have a serviceman over 27 times. Bad motor 3 times, the bolts stripped out from the stairs and multiple other problems. One time the tech came back and said he left a part off and didn't notice it until he was cleaning out his van. But the main reason I'm mad is at 97 years of age I was going up the stairs on the lift, it stopped and wouldn't move. I had an upset stomach and needed to use the bathroom. It's embarrassing to mention this but I feel consumers need to know. I broke wind and accidentally messed myself. God bless.

Purchased Acorn Stairlift to aid my wife in getting to second floor. Unit was used very sparingly and had a "Fatal Failure-F1" code. Since the unit was beyond the one year warranty (by one month), Acorn said the repair would cost $850.00! The cost for an extended warranty would be $750.00 a year. In three years I'll have paid for the chair twice! I have since removed the chair and installed another brand and have had no problems. Do NOT buy Acorn unless you like a lot of company from service people.

Chair has not worked properly since it was installed. The chair is junk, the warranty is junk. $250.00 for a service call because the chair they sold me is junk, absolutely ridiculous! Never do business with this company!

It was the labor day weekend and my husband got stuck at the highest point of the stair lift. This is only after using the device after several times. We called Acorn and as others have stated. The person at customer service didn't even ask who we were. We were on speaker phone as I am a slight woman and didn't know how to get my husband off the lift without an emergency situation happening as he has only one leg. She was unconcerned and scripted, I however shouted that we need a technician to help us to get him to a safe place and she said just turn the key and wait 30 seconds. The lift was tilted and being inexperienced was not sure how to do remedy the problem.

I had the fire dept number handy as this was my last resort. Luckily I calmed myself down enough to read the online as the manual was worthless and found the crank which took over an hour to use to get him to a lower position. No one called back and this is a Saturday long weekend. I was told, "Well, everyone is off for the weekend and you will have to wait until Tuesday." I shouted, "What the hell. He can die here from Sat till Tues as your employees are off duty". And yes, if I read the online web page, it stated continuous care whenever the need. BS marketing as long as the money is there and the commissions are flowing. It was three days of my husband living in the dining room and kitchen, sleeping on a small cot before any Tuesday calls came and then they flowed.

Too late and the trust is gone. Everyone wanted to help. PLEASE, this is 3 days later and the damage is done. This company has lots of people across Canada and not one tech on call?? The young fellow that installed us didn't even know that 24-hour calls weren't in place. It took him all of 10 mins to evaluate and then correct the problem within an hour. HELLO, 'acorn', small lettering as this is an insult. An on duty tech to walk you through takes little money as this seems to be the issue. Bottom line, such a sad world when the bottom line is more important than a little call of comfort and expertise would have helped rather than days of waiting and waiting. Yes Tuesday was a revelation as they all had helpful suggestions. Excuse me, where the heck were you on Sat? Oh yes, no overtime or weekend work. Acorn what is life valued at? The money or the care?

I purchased an Acorn stairlift to assist my wife getting up and down the stairs. On one occasion a shirt got caught under the stairlift and of course it stopped. After clearing the obstruction I called the customer support number and they assisted me in clearing the stairlift error message. I then attempted to move the chair and the chair just stopped, no power, no nothing. The customer support told me that to get a technician out to my house, two days later, would cost a minimum of $250.00 plus any parts needed to fix the chair because this was a non-warranty problem...

Since, I now had a couple of hundred pounds of boat anchor I had to agree. The technician came to my home, took five minutes to replace a blown fuse and left after doing some diagnostics to make sure the lift was working properly. He was unable to determine why the fuse had blown. I called Acorn the next day to discuss the fee. $250.00 for 5 minutes seemed excessive. The response was, "sorry that's the fee and that's that." BEWARE when you purchase an Acorn stairlift! These service calls are extremely high and excessive and unless you need a boat anchor you will be stuck paying them.

My father purchased this so he could get my paralyzed mother downstairs during emergencies. Thank goodness, he doesn't have to use it very often. Went to use it and the battery is dead or so he's told. I thought it ran on electricity since it is plugged in. He called to get someone to service it and was told there is no one in SW KS to do so. However, they boast about their aftercare and customer support, but won't send anyone out to change the battery or charge it. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM!!! Unless you are in FLA.

My elderly neighbour purchased a stairlift from Acorn about 1 month ago. But it broke down with her on it - she was in the middle of the stairs. We rang the Customer Service and spoke to a woman who said that an engineer would be with her in 24 hours. This is a 90 year old woman who is stuck on her stairlift which won't move in the middle of the stairs. THIS IS DISGRACEFUL! HOW CAN THEY BE HAPPY TO LEAVE A 90 YEAR OLD LADY WHO IS DISTRESSED AND STUCK FOR SO LONG. The woman we spoke to was so unconcerned about it. In the end, we had to call the fire brigade who were here within 5 minutes. I would never recommend this company.

My father is now 81. He bought a stairlift 20 months ago from Acorn. It has now broken down and needs a new unit. He bought this for himself as he has severe arthritis, also my mum who died last year. He cannot get up and down the stairs. Acorn want him to buy a warranty or obviously he will have to pay for a new unit. Not built to last. Would not recommend the company to anyone.

My mother purchased an Acorn Stairlift for my father who was confined to a wheelchair after his leg was amputated. When we called about purchasing the stairlift everyone was so helpful. We explained my father's situation and the Acorn representative and installer said everything would be fine with him getting out of the wheelchair and into the stair lift. First, the salesman told my mother it would cost $350 for an estimate. That was never told to my mother. We told the salesman and installer the height of the wheelchair and asked if it was the same height as the stair lift. They both said "yes, of course". Unfortunately, it wasn't and the stairlift was too high and my father was unable to get from the wheelchair into the stairlift.

We made numerous calls to Acorn and their only solution was to give us $500 for our problem, a minimal amount of the $10,000 that we spent on this stairlift. We didn't want to remove it because we were hoping that my father would get stronger and he would be able to lift himself into the stair lift. Unfortunately my father passed away and was never able to use the stairlift. We continued to call Acorn and when we finally got in touch with someone they offered to take the stairlift out and take it and not give my mother any money for it. Wow, what a great deal. Now my mother is stuck with a stairlift and out $9,500 which is very tough on an elderly people living alone. Acorn never cared and that's what really bothered us.