Drive Knee Walker is flawed in 2 areas: brakes and height adjusters.
We bought a Drive 780 knee walker in January. Within 3 weeks, the brake cable broke at the handle. We returned the equipment for repair only to learn the health equipment provider had nothing to repair the knee walker with - Drive had not provided them with parts. So we got a loaner/replacement.Within 3 weeks, the loaner had also a broken brake cable (in the same place). Upon returning the 2nd knee walker, we were told there were no more knee walkers with working brakes to be had. After a week of using the knee walker with no brakes, I was concerned about my husband's safety, so we called the provider back and were told to please bring the 2nd knee walker back for a replacement. In the meantime, we began calling other health equipment providers in town to see if they maybe had parts for this brand. We were given a number for Drive directly. We also went online and found Drive Mobility Equipment's website but no source for parts. We then called Drive and were advised that they could not by law sell to the public - only providers. At this point we called Consumer Affairs at the Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs for the state of Florida. The counselor was very helpful and suggested we call the provider and tell them of our frustrations.We called the provider back and were reassured that they would make it right for us and for us to bring the 2nd knee walker back. We did this and sat down and talked with the manager, Jan and a LPN Trish - both of them were more then willilng to work with us agreeing to "buy back" the knee walker we bought and apply our purchase cost toward rent until we no longer needed it. This worked out for us but we are righteously concerned about other patients who were also issued knee walkers, experienced the same failure of brakes we did and there were several of them - we ran into them in doctor's office and at dinner in restaurants. All of them had experienced brake cable failure. When we took the 2nd knee walker back, Jan told us they now had 11 knee walkers down for the same problem and they were sorry they had ever purchased the equipment in the first place. We are now on our 3rd knee walker - the brakes never worked very well to start with and now that cable has also broken. We are close to be finished with our need for a knee walker. But what can be done about this company and their faulty equipment? We believe the idea of a knee walker is good but the actual equipment is basically flawed and the company needs to recall them and/or redesign the knee walker for the safety of those who use it.Our 3rd knee walker experienced the second design failure - the height adjustment buttons on one of the rear legs came off - we had to work it back into position and then use adhesive tape to hold it in place. We taped the other back leg to forestall a similar failure. Both back legs are wobbly.Thank you for anything you can do to help get this situation corrected for the safety of patients who must have a means of navigating without putting any weight on their foot.
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