Acorn Stairlifts Reviews

But every week to ten days, a rep calls and tells me how much I will have to pay to get service, parts, etc. Outrageous prices and defiantly "Scare Tactics" are in play in everyone of these calls! I've told them over & over again not to call me, but even as I'm saying this they talk right over me with all the horrible things that will happen & how it will cost me for not one, but 2 stair lifts. I wish I never got them now.. Buyer beware with this company, they will eat up every cent you have if you let them!

Updated on 02/23/2016: From the very beginning they tried to sell me their 1 year of repair & inspection plan for $598 for each stairlift. I received calls after call on weekly basis. After complaining online they called and said they would send out a serviceman at no charge last year. He just tested a few things and wiped the tracks! No more calls from them to buy extended warranty. Last night, I used my controller to bring down chair, got on and the thing just died! I refuse to pay $250 an hour plus parts & labor! I will replace both stairlifts eventually with a local company. I would NEVER recommend Acorn to anyone. They are a British National company, all over the world and seem to make most their money selling these overpriced repair contracts. I myself am too old to even try to fight them.

I paid $250.00 for a complete service on the unit and two days later it broke down again. These units cost well over $10,000 with annual service visit of $250.00 (minimum). I was so unhappy with the last service that the technician contacted the West Coast Regional Manager of the company Brandon ** who tried to placate me with new batteries and an additional brace where unit continually stops. This equipment is obviously defective and needs to be replaced. Would not recommend this stairlift.

If I bought a small car for this amount of money I wouldn't need to mail in a card. There should be a better guarantee when spending such a large amount of money. I trusted that this was a good company but they are not concerned with the customers!! They just want to sell plans for repairs $595.00 for 1 year 895.00 for two, etc. This is a lot for something that is not a car. I'm afraid to call them because I have already thrown away $14,000 on this Stairlift. I don't have a money tree in my yard. I feel like a fool for trusting these people!

He did finally show up (we wanted to be there to help my parents out) and never returned again with parts or an answer. We figure he wasn't employed by Acorn no longer. After again many, many calls we spoke to a normal person at Acorn who we were able to purchase a replacement battery pack. The lady said it is easy to install. Easy for us maybe, not for my 94 yr old father. My 20 yr old nephew was the only one available to help out and installed the 'easy to install battery'...not really!!! The chair has worked now for 3 months, still making noise but now not going down only up. A visit during Thanksgiving allowed us to see that dad walks down the now narrow staircase, grabbing onto to the handrail on the opposite side, because the chair doesn't always come down. I called today to ask for service. Again I got the run around, seems no department wants to hear about service, however, interestingly enough when I sent an email through their website for a "New Chair" request, at 9:30am Monday morning I received a voice mail with all the numbers I could reach for sales.

WOW. When I called for service and was transferred to tech support (I asked for service dept by the way), I was not allowed to transfer over to arrange a service call unless I provided a serial number once again. My parents are very old and not very able, can't read the serial number for me and they are now walking down the stairwell.They didn't care to ask what the problem was or even show any concern for dad. That is just horrible customer service and looking at the other reviews I have the same feelings for this company!!! They can sell and install their product really well, but good luck with getting service. It's obviously going to be someone disabled or senior who will need the help. They really need to have a look at who their customers are and have service in place regardless of having the serial numbers. Anyways, even when you do they are useless. Not my opinion, but the truth.

I didn't see a need for the extended warranty as the motor and gear box are cover for the life of the original owner. I have had two service calls and it was covered under the first year warranty. I highly refer Acorn Stairlifts. I shopped around with other stairlift companies and by far Acorn gave the best price and the best service. So, if you're reading this please note that the negative comments are with regards to dealers who use to sell Acorn or the competition trying to degrade the world leader in best stairlift and service, Acorn Stairlifts.

In an effort to persuade my father to buy the plan, the ACORN representative wrote in an email in June 2014 that the cost of a repair through ACORN is $400 just for the service call plus $75 per hour for labor. The representative went on to say that a serious repair could cost $1600. $400 just to have someone knock on your door, and then the real charges start! I called around to a few appliance repair people and quickly found several who work on ACORN chair lifts. The most expensive service call is $125.00.

ACORN in my view preys on elderly people who are fearful of having a $1600 bill that they cannot pay for a stairlift that needs service. The sales representative last year made no mention of the high cost of repair through ACORN or the high cost of an insurance policy. Buyer beware.

I am pretty much convinced that the few rail track discontinuities which exist on both upstairs and downstairs units are sensed by the controller which slows progress to a snails pace. I was also called about the "Extended Warranty" which I could purchase for only $3,600. At that price they should give the Stairlifts away for free and just sell extended warranties. I share the views and experiences of the many unhappy Acorn customers and I regret not doing my normal research before purchasing, what I believe is a premium price for their product with a below par service package. I also notice there is no place on the Acorn website for customer reviews or feedback.

The stair lift was installed about 10 days after Mike came out, and it was installed by J., a seasoned installer. The installation took about 6 hours but J was meticulous in his work and carefully measured and assessed the stairway as he went along. We were impressed with the care he took during the installation. Afterward, J had each of my parents as well as my sister who has severe arthritis use the stair lift to go up the stairs and to come down. He answered their questions about how to operate the device and pointed out all of the safety features. He spent time to be sure we understood the warranty, how the stair lift worked, and how to contact customer care if we needed it. Mike called during the installation to assure everything was going well and has given us his assurance that he would be responsive to our questions and concerns. We have had the stair lift about two weeks now and we have been using it with no problem. So far, we are happy with the service we have obtained from Mike and J. We look forward to getting several years of use from the stair lift.

Last week, someone apparently from their warehouse called me to say that they have a load of reconditioned stairlifts which are as good as new and they believe they can do me a great deal. As I had just moved into my new house, I give them a chance to come out and quote me. They send a salesperson round to measure up the same day. It took the salesperson an entire hour to measure up and give me the sales pitch, during which I already tell him that Acorn have been hounding me even though I told them they are too expensive and that a rival company have quoted me 3300. At the end of the hour, he calls the "head office" to get me the best deal. When he comes off the phone he proceeds to tell me that unfortunately they do not have any reconditioned stairlifts but can offer me a new one for 4700!! As you can imagine, I was furious that he had just wasted an hour of my life talking about stairlifts that I will never get back and rushed home from a long day at work to meet with him.

Next day, another salesperson calls me to follow up the quote and is met with my fury. When I told him that they basically lied to me about having reconditioned lifts just to get an engineer in my house, he then tells me that they do in fact now have a reconditioned stairlift that has miraculously appeared overnight and that he can sell me that for 3700. I told this person where to go and to remove my name from their database. I am putting this info on this site because I am quite young and more than able to speak my mind, but there are a lot of vulnerable elderly people out there that this company could take advantage of.

Now she is afraid the company may double-bill her by having access to her bank account... or maybe even draining it. As she is very disabled, and on a fixed income, this is an emotional event and adds to her physical distress as well. Something needs to be done about this abuse, emotional and financial, of a disabled senior citizen. Since she has no computer access, I am acting as an advocate for her. A review of this complaint would be appreciated, as soon as practicable.

I was impressed with the product, talked to the in-laws & they put a deposit down. I gave my cell number to the salesman for the confirmation call the next day. Got home & the confirmation call was on my voice mail along with someone calling to sell me a stairlift! This second message really irritated me & I called the company to confirm the purchase & inform them that I'm not happy with the second message. The "gentleman" who took my call basically told me he really didn't care if I bought the stairlift from them & he would call in a few days to give me time to settle down!

I informed him that I cannot take calls at work! I then called to speak to a manager who acted like he couldn't believe how I was talked to & promised that I would get a phone call 2 days later by someone who knew what was going on! Next day I get a message from the installation dept from Acorn to set up an appointment, I call, get their voice mail, left a message with no return call! The next day, the time of my promised call comes & goes so I spend my lunch break on the phone with someone who refuses to put me through to a manager & this guy also tells me if I don't want the lift, that's fine with him!

I told him I want a refund, called my in-laws to tell them to expect a call with the refund. Oh, the guy didn't believe me & said he'd have to talk to my husband who has MS which has affected his mind! So my in-laws go behind my back & set up to have it installed only because they are afraid because the company has their credit card numbers & they don't want them doing anything to their credit! Fine, so the lift is installed. We were told that we had to get the old lift out or pay $300+, which we did. We were not told that they would leave all of their trash & cardboard for us to get rid of! Now I have to pay for bags to dispose of the large pile of cardboard & trash or take off work this Saturday to haul it to the recycling center that is open once a month! I do not know how this company stays in business & wish I would have looked around further but was in a rush, which it still took them over 2 weeks due to all the run around they gave me!

We have it because my wife is seriously disabled, not some sort of fashion statement or stairs ornament. On Monday (13/10/2013) I'm going to demand the wretched device be removed so my wife can have the space to crawl up the stairs! Then I will get a reputable company to fit a stairlift which works and is reliable. If I don't get a full refund from the retailer, I will take the them to court and get them and the manufacturer the publicity they deserve.

My husband watched the serviceman do his work.

It appears some part on the unit is slightly defective, but the serviceman was able to adjust it. Currently, it is working.

He wrote on his work order, if we have this happen again, the panel must be replaced.

I could not get the serviceman to state what was wrong or if a part was defective.

I must assume the serviceman feels there is something wrong with that part of the lift, but his adjust should have straightened out the problem permanently.

If not, we have, in the servicemen's writing on the work order, that the serviceman feels the control panel is some how defective and will need to be replaced.

I feel he should have replaced the questionable part at the time, and told him so. The serviceman assured me his "fix" solved our problem with the chairlift. Should it fail again, he would replace the control panel himself at no charge for parts or labor.

We were not charged for this call since it was not due to any fault of ours. The unit is not quite right, but is working.

So we shall see if the "fix" the serviceman did worked. So far so good.

Can't fault him for trying. That he did very well.

Original Review: Sept. 18, 2013

We had our Acorn Superglide 120 Straight Outdoor Stairlift installed 7-21-13. It was used 1-2 times per day to take our little Papillon dogs out to the backyard to do their business. My husband 180 weight) is the only one that uses this unit, since I too, am disabled and cannot sit in the hard chair on the lift. About one month after installation, the go/stop switch stopped working. It would not work with remote controls or by the unit. We called for service. We were informed if a service person was to come out, there would be a $250.00 "service fee" if there was nothing wrong with the unit. The service person explained over the phone how my disabled husband could fix the problem. My husband turned the unit off and on several times, and it finally started to work. This appears to be a very good indication that the switch on the unit is defective considering we had only had it a very short period of time. My husband went into the hospital shortly thereafter for several operations.

Fast forward - 9/18/13 is the next date my husband was able to get out of bed and try to use the unit. He tried to turn it on. It would not turn on. Not with the unit switch or the remote controls. We phoned all the phone numbers given to us when we purchased the unit and finally got a person on the phone who scheduled us for an appointment the following day. We will see what happens. My husband was a mechanic, and has done electrical work. He KNOWS this is a bad switch and the company should replace it at no charge to us.

However, if the service person they send does not agree, they will charge us $250.00 for the service call even though the unit is not even 3 months old. Purchasing one of their "service contracts" is prohibitively expensive for the elderly (approx-$600 for a one-year, $900 for a 2-year and $1,200. for a 4-year plan). It was difficult enough to come up with the original cost of the brand new unit - $3,745.00 and took us 2 years to save up for that!!!!! We asked the company if they could just remove the unit and return our money. THEY REFUSED!

Once you have purchased a unit from this company, YOU are stuck! It DOES NOT STATE anywhere in the paperwork we signed that "All Sales are Final" and I believe it is supposed to do so, by law. This is a deceptive practice to say the least. I will write again tomorrow after the service person shows up "sometime between 9am -11am 9/19/13". More tomorrow on how we were treated after the service person does whatever he does.

Today the stairlift was supposed to be installed between 10:30 and 12:00. This time window came and went, no Acorn representative, no phone call. My father-in-law had to call Acorn to find out where they were. He was told that there were problems with the first installation of the day and it would now be 4 pm to 5 pm. This is a totally unacceptable way to run a business and it demonstrates they have no concept of customer service. At a minimum, Acorn should have contacted the customer when they knew they were not going to keep their appointment. If they cannot plan their installations better than this, they should not be making false promises.

Is it because they know they are dealing with frail elderly people who are stuck at home and so desperately want a stairlift that will make their life easier? I rearranged a repair for my own house this morning to accommodate this appointment and took time off work to sit at my father-in-law's house for three hours. I would not recommend Acorn, and I think paying Stannah a few more pounds would have been worth it for the customer service that a family owned and run business must provide in order to stay in business.

Two days later the serviceman that installed the chair came out and said nothing needed replaced it just needed grease and stated he would check back in 30 days. In June nothing had changed and now there was a lot of banging and jerking. I called and complained. The same serviceman came out, same report that unit was within company equipment parameters. Please God help us!!!! Next contact was in August wanting us to buy a four year warranty for $1700. I gave this nice gentleman a piece of my mind. He was very nice but I am really put out by this company and would like the lift serviced for my poor relatives. They stated they would come out and if nothing was wrong I would be charged $250.00 plus. It was still under warranty at the time.

The telephone staff were very pleasant and the surveyor was at my house the day after I contacted them. He was very knowledgeable and friendly and explained the various options. The stairlift is extremely ease-to-use and I have never had any problems with it. It’s comfortable to ride and looks great in my home it has literally changed my life instead of shuffling up and down the stairs and struggling I have no problem. I would highly recommend Acorn as a company, they make the lift so it’s their reputation on the line. They supply stairlifts globally exporting to the USA, Australia and Germany. I would advise to go direct and cut out the middle men of mobility shops that increase the price and cannot give the best aftercare support.

My friend saw a a commercial on TV for a company that manufactures and sells a device that transports a person up their stairs by riding on a chair that is connected to a motorized lift. The company is called Acorn from England. They have office spaces here in the States, but everything is made across the pond, so to speak. He called the toll-free number in the TV ad, and a surveyor came out to his house to measure his stairs and gave him an estimate. I was there when all of this happened, so this is not a third party account of what transpired.

The price for the lift was $3500, which was more than Elgin was prepared to pay. The surveyor, who sounded more like a salesman, tried many ways to coerce my friend to purchase his unit that day. However, Elgin was not prepared to buy that day. The Acorn representative finally left the house, after which, Elgin & I had a chat about the entire sales hype experience. Elgin concluded that he preferred to hold off & simply consider having to pay that amount of cash. Four days later, the telephone rang at Elgin's home & it was Acorn once again. They professed to have a canceled lift order at a storage warehouse in New Jersey & that they would allow him to purchase it for only three thousand dollars if he was able to place a down payment on it that day.

Elgin was certainly not able to provide a deposit, so he passed on the deal. Then, ten days after that call, a sales rep from Acorn telephoned Elgin & confided to him that they were holding a special confidential sale, & that he can purchase a brand new Acorn for only $2500, the so-called best price on an Acorn lift. Elgin asked the individual on the telephone just how the cost could go from thirty five hundred dollars all the way down to twenty five hundred dollars in only two weeks. The individual on the telephone did not offer a credible explanation, so Elgin simply hung up on the person who had called him.

My friend subsequently purchased a Bruno stairlift, because he can always get local service and get it at a better price than the Acorn, even after all of the suspect discounts that they offered. Had Elgin given in to the high pressure of the Acorn surveyor, and purchased it when he was there, Elgin would have been ripped off for $1000.

When the installer was putting in the lift, I asked him what was the difference between a regular and heavy duty model. He laughed and said, "This sticker that I'm going to put on the unit." At my amazement, I asked the installer if he was serious. He replied, "Yes, it's a little known gimmick that Acorn uses to pad the cost of the stairlift."

This is outright fraud and done to a senior citizen. How can this company get away with this practice? They charge extra for a heavy duty model, and then install a regular unit with a sticker on it. They are selling a product that doesn't exist and charging extra for it as well. I can only hope that the Attorney-General here in New Jersey ends this type of fraud and deception.

I contacted the company again about installments, a man called Tret called and said he would give installments, first $800, then $1000 next month, then $1700 and what would I suggest. I asked how to pay, he asked for my checking account number and Bank ABA and a check number. I said I do not have a check number and he said to call later. Busy at work, I did not call.

Next day a very aggressive woman called to say they would come to install the stair lift. I still did not call to give the check number and looking at my finances of how to pay, I realized that they had taken $800 without me giving the check number. I called Tret and he became very aggressive that he would not give installments and would wait for me to save the money and pay the whole amount.

I went to borrow some money and called again a man Rob said that Tret was not there. I said that I would pay but I have to say that they should not have taken the money without my consent or without giving them a check number. He said, "but you gave him your account number and ABA". I said, "but I did not give a check number," and this was not right and they should not take any more money without asking me first. Then he said I would pay with a personal check to the installer.

A man came to install and told me something like after the warranty. I would have to pay for more services, even if I just paid a lot of money. He really recommends that I pay for more warranty. Then I realized that the chair was not turning automatically then lock. In addition the stairs are only 29" and the rail takes almost half the space and there is a little shitzu dog going up and down which makes it dangerous. People also go upstairs with care.

I wished to say that this company, if selling to elderly and handicapped, is not treating the customers properly. I realized that they did not show me any catalogs of other models. There was no showroom for demonstration, for instance, what if my mother cannot anymore get up the two first stairs before the platform? They did not show curved ones.

Worse yet, is that in this situation, there isn't any warm relation with the customer for questions and follow up and this is very bad when dealing with elderly and handicapped problems.

There is another family business which treats customers with compassion for their elderly and handicapped that offered a catalog with several models and all kind of other things for handicapped and elderly. They offer a contract, rent, used, buy back etc. One can go to the store and try. They have a curved model which will save space on the stairs because installed on the ramp and thus safer for a small dog and for those going up and down.