Scooter bug

[Tom/Val]

I’ve read bad reviews on scooter bug. Is it really unreliable? Wanted Gold Mobility but our flight leaves early and Gold Mobility won’t pick up at 5:30 am. Scooter bug allows us to leave at bell services.

 

[Debbie Jean]

I use Gold and always have very early flights. I just have them pick up the scooter the night before, usually around 6-6:30…. Their last pick up is 7, I believe. I’m usually packing and organizing anyway but I’ll manage without the scooter at the resort the last evening.

If you feel lucky I guess you can give Scooter Bug a shot… but do read the many reviews posted here.

 

[Tom/Val]

I had gold booked then realized that Candlelight at Epcot was available the night before our departure. Our show is at 5:30. We won’t make it back until after 7:00 pm.

 

[gottalovepluto]

If you don't have a choice, you don't have a choice. They were fine for my ECV user until he got a bad scooter and then they seriously sucked and he won't touch them again.

Used Buena Vista at Portofino Bay a couple weeks ago for a 2 night trip, they were fine. They offered more options than Gold (who wanted like a one week min rental) as we only needed a 2 day rental, don't know what their pick up/drop off sched is though. Unfortunately he can compare SB customer service with BV customer service because he got an ECV that had a broken charging tracker (went from full to empty to full as he drove it) at Portofino from BV. He called BV and they arranged to meet him at the hotel a couple hours later and do a swap, so much better than the absurdity SB put him through of making him wait forever on the phone, bouncing him around to reps, and then failing to switch out his ecv overnight at bell services as promised resulting in him getting to do it all over again the next day.

 

[smrice95]

We (I book it for my mom) have used Scooterbug twice. Both experiences were wonderful. The first time the scooter did stop working. We were able to get her back to the hotel. We called that night and by the next morning we had a new scooter waiting for us. If it had happened in the parks, they said they would have met us there. The second year the scooter appeared to be pretty new. We also received a discount because we were repeat clients. (I made the reservation by phone.) We will continue to use them.

 

[Curiousporpoise]

We rented from scooterbug at Disneyland and our scooter was ready at bell services when we arrived. We extended our trip, and scooterbug said it was no problem, and made the process really easy. We returned it to bell services at checkout and didn’t have any issues. There were some scooters a the parks that looked faster and newer than the one my mom had, but we’ll continue to rent from them for the convenience factor.

 

[Lewisc]

Swan and Dolphin allows Gold, and other vendors, use of bell services.

 

[Lewisc]

Scooterbug wouldn't be in business if the bad experiences related by some posters is typical.

I'll agree Gold is typically a better option but occasionally Scooterbug is the better option.

 

[Selket]

I’ve read bad reviews on scooter bug. Is it really unreliable? Wanted Gold Mobility but our flight leaves early and Gold Mobility won’t pick up at 5:30 am. Scooter bug allows us to leave at bell services.

I got a lemon from Scooterbug in July and had to swap it (it would roll forward/backward uncontrollably on inclines and wouldn't move sometimes). It was actually dangerous and I almost took out a lady at MMRR. I had the bus driver help getting it up and down the ramp to get it back to the hotel. They did replace it and another one was at the Bell when I went downstairs the next morning. Both were in meh shape. Yet I'm renting from them again for a very short trip because I don't want to pay the weekly price of Gold and I really need Bell drop off. I got their upgraded ECV this time (has the captain chair style) and damage waiver and it's still $70 less than Gold.

I saw a bunch of Scooterbug scooters at All Star Music last month waiting for pickup and the ones with the captains chair looked great/new so ... fingers crossed. A bad rental messes up your day and that's especially bad when your trip is short but sometimes you have to take Scooterbug lol.

 

[Selket]

I thought I'd follow up with my Scooterbug experience this past weekend (end of October). TLDR: won't rent from them again.

I got the larger captains chair version and it was a better ECV and didn't look as much like they air-dropped it out of a helicopter. The bad part was it was a very short trip, and around 11:30am the next morning I lost my key -it fell off the wrist fob I was using. I immediately called Scooterbug and told them and asked if they could bring me a key or another ECV at the AK park (my keyless one was in the Dinosaur ride). A super nice CM in Dinosaur gave us an ECV to use and tried to find the key (no luck). They called me back in 30 mins because she forgot to charge me the lost key charge of $25 so I paid that.

That was the last time I heard from them.

Long story short - I called them back at 2pm - and around 6:30pm (AK closed at 7pm). None of the reps could help me nor could they escalate me to a manager or someone in Orlando. No one ever called me back. I had to rent a park scooter at Epcot where our dinner was that night (and thankfully they gave us a WC to use to get back to the resort). A couple of times I tried calling (expect 15-20 mins for someone to pick up and it is a call center), I got a message saying they were too busy to keep me on hold for the next agent and my call would just drop.

They did - magically I guess - bring me a replacement scooter and it was at the hotel the next morning. I thought I'd call bell to see if they did and was super surprised.

ZERO communication from them. Even if they would just have called me and said tough luck we can't replace it until tomorrow (I mean - what if was a broken scooter and not my fault - would they have left me without nothing?) it would have at least been something.

At this point I paid the same amount I would have paid with Gold Mobility for a week rental and gotten a nicer scooter. Even though I only had two park days.

Well - now I know! I just wanted to put this here in case anyone is considering Scooterbug. I think they should refund me a day of rental but I honestly never want to talk to them again. Losing the key was my fault but the complete lack of communication was ridiculous. I will let Disney know their preferred vendor is massively incommunicative if you have a problem.

 

[Evita_W]

And Scooterbug claims that if you have an issue with your rental in the parks all you have to do is ask ANY CM and they will get it resolved for you, I'm not buying into it.

Yeah, Gold Mobility will always be our preferred vendor, Disney should seriously just partner with them, they would likely need to hire more people, but still.

 

[Lewisc]

Gold generally gives you the backup emergency key.

One key operates almost all the Pride Scooters.
Similarly two keys will operate almost all the Golden Tech scooters. Getting you a new key should have been a piece of cake. I'm surprised either the rental place in the park or bell services couldn't give you a key

 

[Evita_W]

Gold generally gives you the backup emergency key.

One key operates almost all the Pride Scooters.
Similarly two keys will operate almost all the Golden Tech scooters. Getting you a new key should have been a piece of cake. I'm surprised either the rental place in the park or bell services couldn't give you a key

The ones in the park use either a key from the Club (yes, that club that you used to put on your car in the 80's and 90's) or a headphone jack, neither of which are used in pretty much any publicly available mobility scooter.

Bell Services doesn't keep extra keys unless someone happened to have found one.

But Gold Mobility used to put the backup emergency key in the back pocket of the seat, they tend not to do that anymore, as too many scooters were getting stolen that way, but they will come to you very quickly with a new key if needed.

 

[Lewisc]

The ones in the park use either a key from the Club (yes, that club that you used to put on your car in the 80's and 90's) or a headphone jack, neither of which are used in pretty much any publicly available mobility scooter.

Bell Services doesn't keep extra keys unless someone happened to have found one.

But Gold Mobility used to put the backup emergency key in the back pocket of the seat, they tend not to do that anymore, as too many scooters were getting stolen that way, but they will come to you very quickly with a new key if needed.

As recently as 6 months ago Gold put the spare key in the rear pocket of my scooter.

Bell services at the Dolphin keeps the keys separate from the scooters. Bellhop was complaining none of the vendors puts the customers name on the key. They gave me a BP Mobility tagged key with my Gold Scooter. I said something. You have the scooter with your name on it. The key works. What's the problem? I couldn't argue with that unique logic. I texted Gold to let them know they may be getting a BP Mobility key with my scooter. They said they didn't know other companies keys worked their scooters.

 

[Chirple]

I've rented from them 3 times since February 2020, and never had an issue with charging. The second time the ECV itself ran slower than usual. We are renting again this weekend for my husband because he fractured his foot last week. If we have a charging issue, I'll come back and post. We get the one with 3 wheels.

We're back and wanted to share this trip's Scooterbug experience.

The ECV was fine overall; one of the arms was a little loose so my husband left it up. It did not affect his first time on a scooter. The speed controls worked well. When we were back in our room and ready to charge overnight, we noticed that the prongs were bent and prevented the charger from working. This was Sunday night.

On Monday morning (Labor Day), I called Scooterbug to see if we could get a replacement charger. They answered promptly and said someone would drop one off when near the Contemporary; they would text or call when dropped at Bell Services. I went to get coffee at Contemporary Grounds; shortly after I sat at a table to drink it, I got the text that it was delivered. This charger worked as expected.

@Tom/Val, I quoted myself from this past August and September so you can see our experience with Scooterbug.

 

[KPeterso]

But Gold Mobility used to put the backup emergency key in the back pocket of the seat, they tend not to do that anymore, as too many scooters were getting stolen that way, but they will come to you very quickly with a new key if needed.

As recently as 6 months ago Gold put the spare key in the rear pocket of my scooter.

So we lost our key from Gold's in September at the AK rainforest cafe. We ended up waiting about 1.5 hours for a new key after looking around quite a bit for the key. Gold did ask us to check the back pocket for a key, but there was not one in there. Once we got the new key, my mom wandered back into RFC to go to the bathroom and was looking around. A RFC employee asked if she was looking for something and when she told the person, they ran off to get the manager. They had found the key after we were gone and gave it back. So Gold ended up getting 2 keys back from us (the original and the replacement) when we returned. I just carefully tucked the second key in my purse as a just in case we lost it again.

 

[Selket]

So we lost our key from Gold's in September at the AK rainforest cafe. We ended up waiting about 1.5 hours for a new key after looking around quite a bit for the key. Gold did ask us to check the back pocket for a key, but there was not one in there. Once we got the new key, my mom wandered back into RFC to go to the bathroom and was looking around. A RFC employee asked if she was looking for something and when she told the person, they ran off to get the manager. They had found the key after we were gone and gave it back. So Gold ended up getting 2 keys back from us (the original and the replacement) when we returned. I just carefully tucked the second key in my purse as a just in case we lost it again.

Lucky! This makes me dislike Scooterbug even more - haha! I lost my key on the Dinosaur ride. Clearly it couldn't be found because I must have lost it when we went back in time.

 

[JoJoGirl]

My mom and dad used Scooterbug for their trip last week.

Mom’s scooter was a little beat up but worked fine over the five days we were on property.

Dad’s first scooter was making a loud squeaky noise and one wheel looked a little wobbly. This got worse over two days, so Mom called Scooterbug and they provided a swap at bell services.

Dad’s second scooter held a charge long enough to get him from the Poly (via bus) to Dinoland in AK where it died. He charged it a few hours at Restaurantosauraus, hoping that it had been delivered with less than a full charge. It got him from there to the Safari where it died again. Scootebug told him to leave it at AK, and they would deliver another to the resort. With the help of an outstanding CM at Tusker House, I got dad a park scooter to get him to the front of the park, and he walked to the bus stop.

Dad’s third scooter held a charge long enough to get him from the Poly (via monorail) to the Land pavilion at Epcot, where it died. We limped it to Epcot ECV rentals, where we rented him a park scooter for the day - so he didn’t miss another day of park time messing with a faulty scooter. The Epcot rental station charged the Scooterbug unit all day for us until we returned the park scooter. The Scooterbug unit only barely got him back to the resort before it died again.

There was not a fourth scooter because we left for home the next morning.

So, out of the four Scooterbug scooters we had last week, only one was an actual working unit. Needless to say, we are NEVER using Scooterbug again.

 

[Selket]

My mom and dad used Scooterbug for their trip last week.

Mom’s scooter was a little beat up but worked fine over the five days we were on property.

Dad’s first scooter was making a loud squeaky noise and one wheel looked a little wobbly. This got worse over two days, so Mom called Scooterbug and they provided a swap at bell services.

Dad’s second scooter held a charge long enough to get him from the Poly (via bus) to Dinoland in AK where it died. He charged it a few hours at Restaurantosauraus, hoping that it had been delivered with less than a full charge. It got him from there to the Safari where it died again. Scootebug told him to leave it at AK, and they would deliver another to the resort. With the help of an outstanding CM at Tusker House, I got dad a park scooter to get him to the front of the park, and he walked to the bus stop.

Dad’s third scooter held a charge long enough to get him from the Poly (via monorail) to the Land pavilion at Epcot, where it died. We limped it to Epcot ECV rentals, where we rented him a park scooter for the day - so he didn’t miss another day of park time messing with a faulty scooter. The Epcot rental station charged the Scooterbug unit all day for us until we returned the park scooter. The Scooterbug unit only barely got him back to the resort before it died again.

There was not a fourth scooter because we left for home the next morning.

So, out of the four Scooterbug scooters we had last week, only one was an actual working unit. Needless to say, we are NEVER using Scooterbug again.

Wow - yeah Scooterbug is awful. Please email Disney what you've typed here - I've emailed them about my experience already. I think we need to let them know how bad their only company that can leave ECVs at the Bell are so maybe they'll change them. I'd just as soon they not have that service than have such an awful one. I'm sure it happens to many guests.

 

[Evita_W]

Wow - yeah Scooterbug is awful. Please email Disney what you've typed here - I've emailed them about my experience already. I think we need to let them know how bad their only company that can leave ECVs at the Bell are so maybe they'll change them. I'd just as soon they not have that service than have such an awful one. I'm sure it happens to many guests.

Sadly, They aren't likely to change anytime soon, Scooterbug pays them too much money by all accounts to remain the exclusive preferred vendor. But people do need to write Disney about all of the problems.