Got It!

YAY!!! Here it is!

I ended up getting a Pride *Go Go Ultra.* It's a step up from the *Go Go* I was looking at over at Chair Care. I went to another store I learned about from DC: he'd left a comment about a link showing the Go Go at a good price on the net, by *The Easy Mobility Company.* So I clicked. And guess what else that site said? *New Store in S. Florida!* Now THAT was very interesting. The store is called *Scooters and Lifts,* at 8973 Taft Street, Pembroke Pines, FL; phone 1-877-432-3279, or 954-432-7970.

I called. They were open until 5. Walter came home with the hitch and platform installed, and still had enough energy to drive us out to Pembroke. We got there around 4:30.

And the person manning the shop - one of the proprietors, it seems - was very nice, very informative, and quite lacking a little bit of a hard-sell flavor that Rich at Chair Care had.

I really don't like doing business with hard-sell types. They're untrustworthy and rude and make me feel icky instead of warm fuzzies, and usually the tiniest whiff of hard-sell tactics will send me packing. Most people probably wouldn't consider Rich hard-sell. He hides it carefully. But there was enough of that edge to put me on guard. Certainly we didn't want to walk out his door yesterday with a scooter in hand; we'd decided that before we walked in.

I was glad, too. There were some significant errors in what Rich told us. Example: He never mentioned that the Go Go was discontinued by the factory. However, Walter and I took a guess at that, because on our way out the door, Rich said, --Would you like me to hold this for you? It's the last one we have left, not sure I can get another one in.-- That meant what we suspected it did. Folks, that matters. It's a material difference if it's a discontinued item. I do NOT want parts issues to arise.

The guy at *Scooters and Lifts*? That's one of the very first things he told us. And he had both models to try to sell, too. He didn't make any kind of issue out of it; just explained it was why the Go Go cost less than the Ultra, because it was being discontinued.

The newer version, *Go Go Ultra,* has a few nice upgrades. First, it comes apart and reassembles even more easily. Second, the heaviest part when it's disassembled is 28 pounds, not 32. In real life, that matters. Third, we could get an upgraded battery pack for an additional $55. Most battery packs in our scooter class hold a charge for *up to* 10 miles. The upgraded pack goes 13-15 miles instead. It may not sound like much, but believe me, that's an important difference. *Range* is a significant spec when you get to actually using the thing. You don't want to run out of juice in the middle of shopping.

Rich at Chair Care didn't tell us about the battery upgrade option, which only fits on the Ultra. He also told us the heaviest part on the Go Go, disassembled, was 24 pounds. It isn't. It's 32. BIG difference. Really big mistake.

He was also mistaken about the Class 1 hitch weight: Uhaul says it pulls 2000 pounds - not 200. See, Rich was pushing us to get a lift, which is much more expensive: $500, and I think that was before installation. We told him a lift was absolutely out of the question financially. He kept talking *lift.* We said *no lift* several more times. Then he threw in a little scare tactic about how the scooter might fall off a cargo carrier on the highway.

Maybe he forgot he was talking to people who'd owned a furniture shipping business. We're not idiots. We know how to tie that sucker on pretty damn good. We tied furniture in the oddest ways sometimes: on top of a highrise elevator, on all sorts of handtrucks, loaded inside the truck in difficult ways; sometimes, yes, on the OUTSIDE of the truck. And driven like that for hundreds to thousands of miles. We never, ever, ever, lost an item. Ever.

After my phone calls the last few weeks, Rich knew all about the Scooter War with BCBS HO M&M; that we're totally broke; that being scooterless is genuinely dangerous for my foot; that my wonderful blog friends got together to get me this scooter; and that we were going to be pretty vocal on the net about this for a while, even after the scooter was purchased, because it's a nasty and wrong health insurance situation that hurts a lot of other people besides just me. He knew I'll try to get a second, heavy-duty scooter for yardwork next year as well, using my new insurance company and a $500 copay. Those scooters cost much more money. A bigger sale down the road, if Rich was interested enough in us as customers.

My point? He had any number of good reasons to work with us on the price. With Rich, I didn't want to ask for a discount; I wanted to see if he would make that offer. He did not.

Prices: Rich at Chair Care was selling the Go Go for $850, and the Ultra for $950.

Scooters & Lifts was selling the Go Go for $749, and the Ultra for $799.

Yup. The better model for $150 less. For $50 less than the discontinued model at Chair Care! Plus...the nice people at Scooters & Lifts throw in a free drink holder too. Another $20 right there. $20 I wouldn't have spent, even though I really, really, really wanted one. This way I got my cupholder, guilt-free, oh happy!

Chair Care pretty much sold only Pride models. Scooters & Lifts had a wide variety of brands, and a much bigger selection overall. We looked around, and I test drove a Phantom, same class, $50 less, some nice features like a headlight. But the Phantom just didn't have the sturdy quality and great pickup of the Pride model. Pride is the biggest, the #1 selling scooter company, and I can see why. Those are good scooters at good prices. Cool.

Really, both stores had good prices. These things generally retail for over $1000. Even the model we saw at Sam's Club for $784 wasn't nearly as good. So maybe we're splitting hairs a bit. But the comfort level we had at Scooters & Lifts was much greater, too. Just the errors Rich made, alone...yuck.

So we bought it.

Here's the total cost: Pride Go Go Ultra Scooter $799, 17 amp battery pack $55, sales tax $51.24, grand total $905.24. If you look on the internet, it would be hard to beat that price unless you waited a couple weeks for free shipping. And I haven't seen much on offer about the battery pack upgrade. That's a BIG peace of mind thing, there.

(Forgive me this, GrannyJ...)

And what did that nice man do when I asked if he had a blue one, instead of red?

The night before Thanksgiving - and it was way past closing time already - he said the only blue one was at a storage place, not on the premises. We did up the papers at the store, and he drove out to get the blue scooter, with us following him in our car. He found it, the guys loaded it on the cargo carrier and tied it down, and we came home. Beaming all the way.

Isn't that great?

Now THAT is a store I'll do business with any day of the week, and send all my friends to, and talk up on my site, and tell all the neighbors about.

oh BOY!

You know what this means?

I can cook Thanksgiving dinner.

Walter just LOVES turkey!