Apple Scooter disaster!!

[sazzifrazz]

I just returned home from a week long stay. We booked an apple scooter and a stroller months ago. I also ordered a rain cover for each. I emailed them 2 days before arrival to confirm the order, specifically the rain covers. They immediately responded with the confirmation. When we arrived at BCV the stroller and scooter were there waiting as promised. Both were pretty banged up looking. They claim to wash the strollers after each rental....the parent console they included was crusted with crap. The stroller rain cover was not there. I emailed them a request to send out the rain cover. 26 hours later i still hadn't heard back from them

My mom has been disabled for about 10 years. It took us a year to convince her to come on this trip. She didn't want to be a burden and knew she couldn't keep up in the parks. She can't stand or walk far distances. We promised her that a scooter would solve all of her concerns and she would enjoy the trip with her only grandson. Thanks to Apple scooter she did not enjoy the trip, and felt like a burden.

My mom has never used a scooter before. That first day in the park she complained how difficult it was to use. Long story short...it was not working properly. she could not use the "throttle" to control speed at all. it was either full steam, or none at all. She could only control speed by the speed dial...hard to explain but I personally tried it and figured out it was not right. the next afternoon she was fed up and exhausted from trying to use the scooter in crowds. I called the scooter company and the first person I spoke to tried to blow me off. I explained that i thought there was something not right...and that they also forgot my stroller rain cover. He eventually said he would have the service manager call me. The service manager (i think his name was Jose) was very nice. He met us at the resort and took a look at the scooter. He agreed there was something wrong with it. He gave us a new scooter and said "This one is fully charged". We left for the magic kingdom with the dial showing full battery. this one worked fine...until is stopped working completely!! At 11:15PM in the back of magic kingdom near splash mountain!! It would go about an inch then stop. by this point my mom is fighting tears, I am at my boiling point. Apple scooter is closed! Fortunately a cast member came out and tried to problem solve. They lent us a wheel chair and we had to leave the scooter there. We pushed my mom all the way to the bus stop, and took the wheel chair back to the resort with us. So this was the second day this damn scooter has ruined! First thing the next morning I call Apple. The dingaling who I spoke with on the phone was no help. he was more concerned with how he was going to pick up the broken scooter. I wanted to know when I was going to get a new one! Again, i had to demand a call from someone. He said his boss would be in after 9. great...we had to cancel plans we made 180 days ago! Fan-freakin-tastic Apple Scooter!
In the mean time about 9am Jose (service manager) calls me returning my call I left on his cell phone the night before. He is unaware i already spoke to the office. He again is very apologetic (more than I can say for the people in the main office at apple!). However, he is at the shop getting his brakes fixed and cant come out right away. We waste the morning sitting at the resort waiting for a new scooter to be delivered. Third day affected by this scooter! Now a third scooter is delivered. He says he has to go to MK to get the rain shield off of the broken one but will call us in a bit and meet up with us at MK (since we are heading there anyways). We never heard from him and we never did get the rain cover back. This third scooter works fine for a few days...until it doesn't work at all! Our very last day there it will not move at all! fortunately we were checking out so it didn't ruin plans again. It had charged all night. We call Apple and the jerk on the phone asks if we can push it down to the lobby!! Are you kidding me?!! I told him to come pick up the piece of *%&%, it will be right here in room 360 whenever he gets here. My mom was so fed up. She says she will NEVER got back to disney. She really had a terrible trip. She was constantly waiting for a new problem to come up with the scooter.

This was a terrible experience. I booked with them because I had read good reviews on the Dis. Not only are their strollers crap, so is their customer service. When I was booking/paying they responded to emails within an hour. Once the stuff was delivered/paid for they didn't respond to emails at all! I plan to follow up tomorrow and will be involving my credit card company...I want a full refund.

 

[tigger&tigerlover]

I'm now worried about my trip in 2 weeks. I've reserved with Apple for a scooter with a rain shade as well. The one I've requested is the "3 Wheel Pride Mobility Victory 10 Scooter."

Please keep us posted if you hear anything back from them.

 

[sazzifrazz]

Thats the same scooter we reserved. I just now learned on the dis facebook page that apple gives a % to disney and thats the only reason they are considered a disney approved vendor. If i had to do it again I would look into "walker". We saw a lot of them in the parks. BTW, I am not trying to scare you.

 

[TBLaube]

Yikes. We are leaving in a few days and have rented a wheelchair. Hopefully it will go well!

 

[WheeledTraveler]

I'm really sorry you had a horrible experience. I'm one of the folks who has had good luck with Apple (including their coming out to my hotel to replace the powerchair I had in under an hour, outside of their business hours, when it wasn't working correctly). I don't know why it seems like they're having increased problems unless it relates to the whole "preferred providers" thing. I haven't been to Orlando since WDW started the preferred providers system and I'd say most of the complaints I've heard about Apple have been since then.

One thing I do want to note is that scooters are meant to only have speed controlled by the dial. I used a scooter for an entire school year (now I'm a powerchair user) so became pretty skilled with one and the amount I could change speed with the throttle was miniscule. It does sound like that first scooter also had a problem, but I didn't want someone to have one working normally and think it was broken. I really suggest that anyone who isn't used to a scooter spend some time practicing before going to a park and leaving the speed down near the bottom most of the time until you really feel comfortable.

I'm so sorry this experience was bad enough that your Mom is saying no more WDW. She really didn't have the typical experience (including most folks who rent from Apple). Definitely dispute with your CC and, IMO, it's worth filing a BBB complaint as well as a letter directly to Apple. You might also consider letting WDW know since they are a "preferred provider" and it's not going to help WDW if people have bad experiences renting from the places that WDW has specifically said are "preferred".

 

[aubriee]

Wow, we've used Apple several times (both before and since they started the approved venders) and have never had a problem with them. In fact, we have an ECV reserved with them for Dec 6th-16th. Alex is the person we have usually dealt with.

We have also used Walkers and always had good luck with them too, except that once we got a bad ECV. They replaced it though.

 

[Schmeck]

I just returned home from a week long stay. We booked an apple scooter and a stroller months ago. I also ordered a rain cover for each. I emailed them 2 days before arrival to confirm the order, specifically the rain covers. They immediately responded with the confirmation. When we arrived at BCV the stroller and scooter were there waiting as promised. Both were pretty banged up looking. They claim to wash the strollers after each rental....the parent console they included was crusted with crap. The stroller rain cover was not there. I emailed them a request to send out the rain cover. 26 hours later i still hadn't heard back from them

My mom has been disabled for about 10 years. It took us a year to convince her to come on this trip. She didn't want to be a burden and knew she couldn't keep up in the parks. She can't stand or walk far distances. We promised her that a scooter would solve all of her concerns and she would enjoy the trip with her only grandson. Thanks to Apple scooter she did not enjoy the trip, and felt like a burden.

My mom has never used a scooter before. That first day in the park she complained how difficult it was to use. Long story short...it was not working properly. she could not use the "throttle" to control speed at all. it was either full steam, or none at all. She could only control speed by the speed dial...hard to explain but I personally tried it and figured out it was not right. the next afternoon she was fed up and exhausted from trying to use the scooter in crowds. I called the scooter company and the first person I spoke to tried to blow me off. I explained that i thought there was something not right...and that they also forgot my stroller rain cover. He eventually said he would have the service manager call me. The service manager (i think his name was Jose) was very nice. He met us at the resort and took a look at the scooter. He agreed there was something wrong with it. He gave us a new scooter and said "This one is fully charged". We left for the magic kingdom with the dial showing full battery. this one worked fine...until is stopped working completely!! At 11:15PM in the back of magic kingdom near splash mountain!! It would go about an inch then stop. by this point my mom is fighting tears, I am at my boiling point. Apple scooter is closed! Fortunately a cast member came out and tried to problem solve. They lent us a wheel chair and we had to leave the scooter there. We pushed my mom all the way to the bus stop, and took the wheel chair back to the resort with us. So this was the second day this damn scooter has ruined! First thing the next morning I call Apple. The dingaling who I spoke with on the phone was no help. he was more concerned with how he was going to pick up the broken scooter. I wanted to know when I was going to get a new one! Again, i had to demand a call from someone. He said his boss would be in after 9. great...we had to cancel plans we made 180 days ago! Fan-freakin-tastic Apple Scooter!
In the mean time about 9am Jose (service manager) calls me returning my call I left on his cell phone the night before. He is unaware i already spoke to the office. He again is very apologetic (more than I can say for the people in the main office at apple!). However, he is at the shop getting his brakes fixed and cant come out right away. We waste the morning sitting at the resort waiting for a new scooter to be delivered. Third day affected by this scooter! Now a third scooter is delivered. He says he has to go to MK to get the rain shield off of the broken one but will call us in a bit and meet up with us at MK (since we are heading there anyways). We never heard from him and we never did get the rain cover back. This third scooter works fine for a few days...until it doesn't work at all! Our very last day there it will not move at all! fortunately we were checking out so it didn't ruin plans again. It had charged all night. We call Apple and the jerk on the phone asks if we can push it down to the lobby!! Are you kidding me?!! I told him to come pick up the piece of *%&%, it will be right here in room 360 whenever he gets here. My mom was so fed up. She says she will NEVER got back to disney. She really had a terrible trip. She was constantly waiting for a new problem to come up with the scooter.

This was a terrible experience. I booked with them because I had read good reviews on the Dis. Not only are their strollers crap, so is their customer service. When I was booking/paying they responded to emails within an hour. Once the stuff was delivered/paid for they didn't respond to emails at all! I plan to follow up tomorrow and will be involving my credit card company...I want a full refund.

11:15 PM is pretty late at night - the scooter probably needed to be charged at that point? You did plug the scooter in each night, right?

 

[triciari]

My daughter broke her ankle on Saturday the 9th, and our trip began on the 10th! Upon returning from the ER, I googled wheelchair rental, and opted to rent from Apple for the week - $69.20. Seemed reasonable to me. They charged my debit card immediately, and promised it would be at Yacht Club when we arrived the next day. It wasn't. Nor was it there on the 11th, nor was it at Beach Club. Luckily, a great manager at YC gave us a wheelchair for free for the duration of our trip. I called Apple a few times and got voice mail, but didn't leave a message. When I finally got Kelvin on the line on Wednesday or Thursday and he refused to believe that the wheelchair had not been delivered and refused to refund the amount I'd been charged. Also, he was very rude and asked why I hadn't contacted him earlier. I told him that I was on a vacation with 3 kids - one of whom had a broken ankle - and didn't want to spend my days chasing $69.20 around, although I'd be damned if I'd let him keep it! Yacht Club reimbursed me $60.20 for the rental (they intended to pay the full amount, but mistakenly thought that that's what I'd paid.) So, I'm not out any money, but I think it's incredibly unfair that Apple Strollers has been unjustly enriched by their negligent, and possibly intentionally deceptive, practices.

I do not recommend Apple Stroller for any rental.

Tricia

 

[disgram]

Although Walker Scooters are not a "preferred" company with Disney, I have used them for the last 7 to 10 trips to WDW. I have no complaints. They have come when I needed them and fixed the problem quickly and made sure that I was ok. I take that back. One time two years ago, I was in EPCOT and the scooter jumped to very fast. I couldn't control it. I turned it off and was ok. then I called the company and told them. They asked that I have it taken "behind the scenes" and they would pick it up and have a new one waiting for me the following morning. At 8 am the new scooter was waiting and we were able to continue our vacation. They gave me the money back for the one day when it was really only a couple hours at night. They are polite and very friendly. I carry the battery charger at all times and whenever possible, plug it in when we are eating or in a show. I would recommend Walker to anyone, and have many times! Great people, Great company!

 

[SashaFarce]

I suspect demand and expansion for Apple is causing some growing pains. For ages we only dealt with Alex and lately we have been dealing with Jose and now Kelvin as well... can't get an updated confirmation # for our trip to DLR after multiple requests. I was also met one night for a battery replacement by a guy who was not very professional, so I wasn't fond of that either.

I still like Apple and they have always been helpful to us when we have had issues, but we rent from them 5-6 times a year and I have seen a slight lessening of quality. Alex did say about 2 months ago that they were in the process of getting an all-new fleet, and Jose confirmed this was in progress last month, so perhaps with the introduction of new scooters there will be less service issues.

In retrospect, I kind of wish we'd invested in buying scooters. Had I known I was going to need one forever, this would have made more financial sense.

 

[sazzifrazz]

schmeck-The second scooter was delivered to us around 6pm. Jose took it out of his van and said "This has a full battery". We left for magic kingdom at 6:30. We sat at the dessert party for an hour and a half. At 11:00 it still showed full battery. After getting off splash mountain at 11:15 it would not work.
Yes we charged the battery every night on all of the scooters we were given. my mother was well below the weight limit also. This was not a used up battery...this was a faulty one!
My mother spoke with Jose on the phone today. It was a very heated convo. He basically says he has no control over refunds, billing handles that but he would not give her the number to someone there. Now i have to waste even more time calling my credit card company to get them involved...and possibly the better business bureau. I absolutely will be contacting Disney about their "preferred" vendor.

 

[Schmeck]

schmeck-The second scooter was delivered to us around 6pm. Jose took it out of his van and said "This has a full battery". We left for magic kingdom at 6:30. We sat at the dessert party for an hour and a half. At 11:00 it still showed full battery. After getting off splash mountain at 11:15 it would not work.
Yes we charged the battery every night on all of the scooters we were given. my mother was well below the weight limit also. This was not a used up battery...this was a faulty one!
My mother spoke with Jose on the phone today. It was a very heated convo. He basically says he has no control over refunds, billing handles that but he would not give her the number to someone there. Now i have to waste even more time calling my credit card company to get them involved...and possibly the better business bureau. I absolutely will be contacting Disney about their "preferred" vendor.

That's horrible - the battery should definitely last longer than just a few hours! I hope you get a quick, full refund!

 

[nydancemom]

I am so sorry your poor mother had such a horrible experience with Apple. I posted on another thread too, but I also had a bad experience with them this past week. I have always rented from WDW at the parks in the past, but on my last visit in April they ran out of ECVs and my daughter had to push me around in a wheelchair all day, so I decided this trip I'd rent from offsite so I'd have the ECV for sure. Also my husband and I were staying at Poly for only a three day anniversary celebration, which has always been my dream to stay at Poly but it has always been out of our budget. But we decided to splurge before all the changes occur there and so I decided to rent from Apple since I knew that I would need the scooter at the resort due to how spread out it is, not just the parks. Well the scooter was at Poly when we arrived and a couple hours later we headed for MK. As I mentioned, I have several trips of ECV experience. This one did not work correctly after only a couple of hours. It said it had full battery, but when I drove it up the ramp on the riverboat, it died. Then it started again, but it kept saying it had no power every couple of minutes, varying between full battery and no battery! So we had to find someplace to plug it in, thinking it must need to be plugged in, which made no sense because we'd hardly used it (and I am not a large person). I drove it again for a few minutes, oops, needed to find another place to plug in!! Such a waste of the little time we had on our first day. So we left the park, got on the monorail and it died completely except for some continuous beeping noise (still saying it had plenty of battery power)! My husband had to disengage it and push me off the monorail and into Poly and all the way to our longhouse! I immediately called Apple, at 10:45PM. The voicemail said their hours were until 11PM, yet they were already not answering. I left a message. The next morning I got a phone call saying they would bring me over another ECV immediately and I did remind them that we were only there for three days (not even really three full days). Well IMMEDIATELY turned out to be 4 hours later!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was stranded at Poly and we lost a whole morning of our three day vacation! I was so angry I couldn't even speak at that point and it almost ruined my entire day, but I got it together and we had a nice day. But it was Monday the 11th, last day of food and wine at Epcot which we've never been to and had planned to spend the daytime hours at. We already had tickets for Mickey's XMas party for that night, so missing half the day of our only chance at F&W was really annoying!! The second ECV worked fine for the two days I had it, but it was very beat up and even had a broken handle but my husband was told they were sorry but that was the only one they had left! I have called and spoken to someone and asked to have one day of our rental refunded since we wasted so much time the first night having to keep finding places to plug in for what turned out to be no reason since it obviously wasn't the battery, as well as leaving the park at 10:30PM even though it was open until 2AM that night, then losing the entire morning the next day. The man I spoke to on the phone said he'd look into it, and call me back. I've heard nothing. We'll see how this plays out. I will be filing a complaint with my credit card company unless I get that one day refunded.
I will never rent from them again, that's for sure. It seems like they have issues.
I really hope your Mom will give WDW another chance, with a different ECV company. I'm so sorry this trip was a disaster

 

[jross1971]

Hi Sazzifrazz,
I'm a long time lurker to the boards and when I read your post I took the plunge and registered so I could express my experiences earlier (this summer) with Apple.

As stated earlier we had a similar situation happen this year, for us it was a once in a lifetime trip and was completely ruined by this company. I should have done my homework before the trip but being a “Disney preferred vendor” it did'nt cross my mnid to do so. Since being home I have discovered that their Better Business Bureau rating is an “F” and their Google reviews are just as bad! (I can now seee why we had such a bad experience). It seems this company and their employees have NO customer service skills and really don’t care about the individual.

I don’t know what Disney’s process of selecting vendors is but in my humble opinion they did'nt do their homework and made a VERY BAD choice.

I hope you guys at least get some compensation for your troubles because they can’t go back in time and make your vacation better!!

I am sorry your Mom had an awful time and felt like a burden. A Disney vacation should be magical. I am also sorry to read that so many other people are having bad experiences with Apple Scooter.

 

[TBLaube]

We are renting a wheelchair for my mom who has Stage Four breast cancer and this trip is her dying wish. She will be devastated if there are issues so I am praying we have a good experience with them. I am stressing out. If we get there and there are issues, I will bite the bullet and pay for another wheelcheer with a different company. I cannot have her vacation affected by this!

 

[Kellykins1218]

We absolutely love Apple. They've always gone out of their way to make sure we were well taken care of. I'm sorry you had a bad experience but we've never had a bad experience with them in all the years we've used them. I wouldn't hesitate to rent from them again and I tell everyone I know to rent from them.

 

[Bete]

We absolutely love Apple. They've always gone out of their way to make sure we were well taken care of. I'm sorry you had a bad experience but we've never had a bad experience with them in all the years we've used them. I wouldn't hesitate to rent from them again and I tell everyone I know to rent from them.

I agree.
I'll report back here after our trip in December.

 

[Jonell]

We visit WDW multiple times a year and for the past 3 years we have rented from Apple. I will say, I have noticed that during the past 3 trips we had battery problems with our scooters. The last one I rented in Sept was very beat up. It looked to have had multiple parts replaced and it never worked correctly for me all week. Maybe Apple needs to upgrade their scooters and batteries This makes me nervous about renting from them in March.

 

[sunset7132]

My daughter broke her ankle on Saturday the 9th, and our trip began on the 10th! Upon returning from the ER, I googled wheelchair rental, and opted to rent from Apple for the week - $69.20. Seemed reasonable to me. They charged my debit card immediately, and promised it would be at Yacht Club when we arrived the next day. It wasn't. Nor was it there on the 11th, nor was it at Beach Club. Luckily, a great manager at YC gave us a wheelchair for free for the duration of our trip. I called Apple a few times and got voice mail, but didn't leave a message. When I finally got Kelvin on the line on Wednesday or Thursday and he refused to believe that the wheelchair had not been delivered and refused to refund the amount I'd been charged. Also, he was very rude and asked why I hadn't contacted him earlier. I told him that I was on a vacation with 3 kids - one of whom had a broken ankle - and didn't want to spend my days chasing $69.20 around, although I'd be damned if I'd let him keep it! Yacht Club reimbursed me $60.20 for the rental (they intended to pay the full amount, but mistakenly thought that that's what I'd paid.) So, I'm not out any money, but I think it's incredibly unfair that Apple Strollers has been unjustly enriched by their negligent, and possibly intentionally deceptive, practices.

I do not recommend Apple Stroller for any rental.

Tricia

I was charged 194 for 9 days and the scooter malfunctioned and I reinjured my post surgical knee for a second time while here when I felt it sliding backwards down the ramp and I got scared and jammed my allready hurt legs up using them like brakes ....i had already gotten injured at the resort with that scooter 5 min after arrival. I was in bed for half the trip and suffering when I wasn't. They arrived quickly and the service guy was above and beyond nice and gave us a better chair for the same price. My entire $7000 vacation that took a year to plan was ruined. I'm home now and can't walk at all yet since it happened... Never had such a bad experience on a vacation.i will NEVER travel with an ECV ever again

 

[NYCrules]

I had issues with Apple several years ago and came accross Walker Mobility. I have used Walker for years now and NEVER had an issue with their sccoters (we rent 2 at a time for me and my wife) and customer service is fantastic! After reading this thread concerning Apple I highly recommend Walker, although not on Disney's "preferred vendor" list (big mistake on Disney's part) I will continue with Walker for all my future scooter needs.
Next trip 5 weeks and counting...