british air way damaged my scooter!

[evgal/nj]

anyone had their scooter damaged by the airline? did you have problems getting them to fix or replace it?

 

we bought a new scooter for our ta cruise, arrived 1 wk before the cruise.choose british air over india air b/c they said they allow gate check.

on arrivial to phl airport they said they changed their policy 2 yrs ago & we were given the wrong info. they finally allowed us to gate check the scooter.

 

as we started taxing on the run way & the captain announced "we have to go back to the gate "somebody didn't do their job & there's a unsecured mobility scooter crashing about" well you can imagine how we felt! the stewardess said the scooter was fine but it was "just a formality" that we have to turn around & have it checked.

 

on arrivial in venice, the wheel of the scootere was broken, there is a hole in the control pannel where the horn button was & some scratches.

we spent about 2 hrs filling out paperwork, the airport staff were great they found someone in venice to fix the wheel delivering it the next day to our hotel. we had to pay 125 us but @ least dh would have the scooter for the 21day cruise.

 

unfortunately the scooter doesn't work right, it stops without warning, then just stopped working all together, one of the pax's took a look @ it said he didin't think he really did anything but it started working again.

 

we got home sat, i called b air yesterday & they said i don't have a claim filed, the file # they gave me in venice doesn't exist!!

i have to go to their web site & fill out a claim, since the flight was 1 month ago it won't let me! after 5 calls to them they said i have to write them explaining everthing, i thought i was calling their custumer service department but was told their customer service dept.doesn't accept calls, she told me they don't even have a phone # .can you believe that!

 

i have a bad feeling about this , i think i'm going to be doing a lot of work for nothing, or maybe thats what they want me to think lol

[katisdale]

I think you will be ok IF you have a copy of the paperwork filled out in Venice. If not, even with the claim number it will be harder. I would check if the European Union has a complaint area for Europe based airlines. I think that site may be listed on the BA website??? I would also consider running this by their US partner American Airlines. Even if you did not use them to book your fare I know they are part of American's alliance (can't remember the name at the moment). Good luck. By the way what type of scooter do you have?

[PBC29]

I've always wondered how they secure items such as scooters and wheelchairs. Always thought they were just put between suitcases with brakes on or in the off position and thats it.

 

I always get my chair in the cabin closet these days as it folds up nice and easy since Delta broke my chair when I was younger the X brace under the seat was cracked in half making the chair totally unusable.

 

But I know this can't be done with scooters or power chairs but your problem has made me think:

 

How are they really secured in the belly under our feet????

 

On my last flight I was watching out the window after boarding the luggage man took a wheelchair out the jetway door to bring it down to load it, basically tossed it down this make shift slide and nobody was at the bottom so it just crashed onto the ground was so glad my chair was in the closet after seeing that.