A stairlift designed to make living with elderly parents easier turned into a four month-long process for a Bristol family with a unique circumstance.
The grief is still fresh for Cathy Campbell and her husband Tom Martino.
Last November, the couple consulted Stannah Stairlifts for measurements to help Campbell's 93-year-old mother, Connie, get up and down the stairs.
“As she was getting older, she was having more skeletal problems with her joints and all that and we had talked to her about the possibility of getting a chairlift,” Tom Martino said.
On Nov. 16, 2016, Cathy Campbell wrote the company a check for $4,450. It cleared six days later, on November 22. And on November 23, Connie passed away.
“We immediately knew that there were X number of phone calls we had to make that day,” Martino said.
After friends and family members, one of those phone calls was to Stannah Stairlifts. The company cancelled their order, then mailed them a refund check.
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But Martino immediately noticed they only received a partial refund; it was missing $890.
A Stannah agent told him the company already started production on the chair and the $890 charge covered those costs.
Martino said he had a hard time accepting that explanation and reached out to NBC Connecticut Responds.
“Where we could get no relief, we got relief from NBC Connecticut,” Martino said.
Our consumer team contacted Stannah Stairlifts. A representative told Responds the charge was a misunderstanding because Martino and Campbell fell within the seven-day window every Stannah customer has to cancel an order for a full refund.
The company issued Martino and Campbell a check for the remaining $890.
“With everything else we had to deal with and tidying up my mother in law's estate, it really was a weight off of us. It is,” Martino said.