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Searching For a Discount Wheelchair Online?
Who wouldn’t want to find a great deal when making their next wheelchair purchase? If you have made the decision to purchase a manual or electric wheelchair from an online retailer then putting in a little bit of effort could save you a lot on your purchase. The important thing is to not settle on the first few results that you find. To use a fishing metaphor: the wider you cast your nets, the better your catch. The more retailers you include in your discount wheelchair online search, the better.
I would like to share with you here some (hopefully) helpful tips and suggestions for searching for a new manual or electric discount wheelchair online.
Free Shipping?
One basic tip is to check whether an online retailer is offering you free shipping with your order.
Quite often an online retailer will have requirements to qualify for free shipping, such as a minimum purchase amount, however it is more than likely that a purchase as substantial as a wheelchair will tick that box.(and remember, even a discount wheelchair online purchase should be substantial enough!)
Warranty Details
Check to see if a retailer offers free return shipping to deal with customer support issues or if they instead offer a network of brick and mortar warranty centers that will handle any and all support issues after purchase.
The last thing you want to see is the savings from your online discount wheelchair purchase go up in smoke because the retailer you bought it from doesn’t offer free return shipping when dealing with warranty issues, or in the case of having service and repair centers, not having a location close enough to you to be of any real use to you.
What’s in a Price?
Remember to not only make a note of the price that each website is offering but also of any possible differences in the options or add-ons being offered.
If you have dialed in on a specific make and model of a manual or power wheelchair it is important to look beyond just the price of the specific brand name and model number and to take into account whether each website is offering any possible differences in the options or add-ons being offered .
Also, don’t let yourself be swayed just by claims of huge price discounts: make a note of the original retail price on any site that you are considering for possibly making an online discount wheelchair purchase from and see how it compares to other retailers. If they are starting at a higher retail price compared to other sites, then of course they will be able to claim that they are offering some pretty impressive discounts off of their regular prices. (one retailers 50% off online wheelchair discount might be no better than another retailers 30% off online discount offer)
The Amazon Effect?
So… what do I mean by “the Amazon effect”?
Basically, that is the name I have given to the idea that consumers can expect to find unbiased reviews of a product available from the online retailers that are actually offering that product for sale on their websites. Over time people shopping for almost anything on Amazon have come to expect that they will find (for the most part) unbiased user reviews of products available to them at the click of a mouse. This concept has clearly spread to many, many other online retailers – and online retailers of mobility aids such as power wheelchairs are no exception. This has made the process of purchasing a discount wheelchair online that much easier knowing that you are purchasing something with an overall positive rating.
Don’t Forget the Little Guy…
Another potential money-saver is being open to the idea of going with an alternative brand of discount wheelchair online that you find is being offered at a lower price point.
Some smaller companies that handle the manufacture of their own line of both manual and electric wheelchairs will sometimes offer them at prices lower than you would pay for the same category of wheelchair if purchased through one of the more well-known manufacturers. If you have any doubts about the quality of these mobility aids, it should not be too hard to find a variety of reviews online for any manufacturers wheelchairs considering the resources available to anyone online today.
Here are some examples of just a few of the smaller online retailers offering their own brand of power wheelchairs:
Vocic.com is an example of a smaller company offering their own brand of wheelchairs through their website. They also have a review section on their site however it is always prudent to do your own digging for alternative sources for reviews. As well, Vocic has a storefront on Amazon.com where their wheelchairs are often being offered at discounted prices.
Asjmreye.com, is another online retailer that is offering their own branded power wheelchairs to customers at a price point that appears considerably lower than some of the larger manufacturers.
Alton Mobility is a retailer that offers a wide range of airport-friendly foldable electric wheelchairs with many of their portable wheelchairs being budget friendly offerings; they also have a storefront presence on Amazon where their wheelchairs are frequently offered at a discount.
Porto Mobility is an online retailer that offers their RANGER line of lightweight electric wheelchairs and even claim to offer the world’s lightest folding power wheelchair weighing in at 40lbs.
Discounts on Top of Discounts!
One last out of the box tip is to look and see if an online wheelchair retailer is offering any additional discounts to its online customers. There are a couple of ways this can be found:
1. One way to find an additional discount is to sign up for a retailers online newsletter. This is nothing new to most savy shoppers: you sign up for a retailers online newsletter and in many cases you receive an instant discount offer that can range anywhere from 5% to 15% off your next purchase.(just remember to use a secondary or ‘junk-friendly’ email account if you don’t want to end up having your primary email account inundated with retailer newsletters – especially if you have signed up for a number of retailers online updates!)
2. Another way to find discounts is to check the retailers website to see if they are offering any kind of minor Seasonal discount code on their site.
Many retailers are always on the lookout for ways to get potential customers to follow through with a purchase on their site and offering an additional smaller discount is one way that they do this. One version of this that I have noticed more recently is an online retailer offering a sitewide discount of 15% off of any purchase of $35 or more for pick-up orders. The business in question was Walgreens and you might not think that the offer is relevant to the subject of shopping for a wheelchair – that is until I remind you that Walgreens does in fact offer both manual and power wheelchairs for sale in the shop section of their site!
If you visit the same sites often enough, you will likely notice that retailers will replace one expired seasonal discount offer with another offer. When you think about it, the natural order or rotation of seasons is an ideal way for retailers to regularly refresh their sites discount offers: after Spring has sprung and is done it is time to slide into Summer. Soon enough it will be time to rake in the Fall savings (or maybe even time to ‘Fall’ into savings, get it?) and not long after it will be time to savor the Winter savings. You get the idea…
In fact, if you find that you have just missed out on a seasonal site-wide discount code offer, than it is perhaps worth reaching out to the retailers customer service department and letting them know that you were interested in maybe buying one of their wheelchairs and that you were hoping that they could offer you a one-time discount code to use on their website or perhaps even offer you a discount similar to the expired offer by letting you make the purchase with their sales department over the phone? There is definitely no harm in asking!
Well that about sums up the tips I currently have to share with you here. I hope that you were able to find something here to help you in your search for a discount wheelchair online. Happy hunting!