Wheelchair rental service swamped with negative Facebook reviews after leaving elderly folks stranded

A wheelchair rental service is being inundated by a wave of negative reviews on its Facebook page after an event organiser accused the company of irresponsibly backing out of a job at the last minute. 

Unable to find a suitable replacement on the day of the event — an excursion at Jurong Bird Park — the elderly attendees were said to have been forced to walk for a significant amount of time due to the lack of wheelchairs to go around. 

A Facebook user who goes by the name of Nafiz SerbaBoleh went onto the “Carousell - Singapore” group page to allege that the company Revwheelchair were “unreliable” in providing its services. According to his post, he arranged to rent 40 wheelchairs from the company (which had advertised its services on Carousell) for an event organised by welfare organisation Happy People Helping People Community. 

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Held yesterday (Sep 8) morning, the event brought 108 elderly attendees — said to be cardboard collectors — for a day out in Jurong Bird Park. Nafiz noted in the post that the attendees were between 60 to 98 years of age, and walking long distances would be an issue for most of them. 

“So we managed to source out 40 wheelchairs from this Carousell seller Revwheelchair,” he wrote. “The plan was our elderly beneficiaries will take turns on the wheelchairs because it is impossible to rent 100+ wheelchairs.”

A check on Revwheelchair’s Facebook page reveals that it is run by a team of Singaporeans who help to rent out, resell and repair wheelchairs with an office in Eunos. On its Carousell page, the company rents out various models of wheelchairs for as low as $5 a day. It's unclear if Nafiz or anyone from the charity organisation already paid the $50 deposit for each of the wheelchairs rented.

A day before the event, Revwheelchair had to pull out of the job. According to text exchanges shared by Nafiz, the firm stated that its delivery vehicle and staff had been involved in a traffic accident. The condition of its vehicle was said to have been pretty bad, and Revwheelchair had no way of transporting the 40 wheelchairs promised. 

While the company insisted that it did not have any staff members available to help, it eventually managed to find a transportation solution in the morning of the event. Revwheelchair stated that the rental for the transportation vehicle would be an extra $200 on top of the wheelchair rental fees. Nafiz reluctantly agreed to pay the extra costs but the company spokesperson shortly mentioned that it would not be possible after all. 

“Regrettably we don’t have an active vehicle nor the manpower to follow through with your request. Our sincere apologies,” wrote the Revwheelchair employee in a message. “We hope you can understand our situation as well. Our operations are currently down at the moment.” 

“The show must go on”

In the end, Revwheelchair didn’t turn up with the much-needed wheelchairs. Still, Happy People Helping People managed to bring the elderly cardboard collectors around the park — and judging by the pictures uploaded, they had a grand old time.

1.2 out of 5

Since word got out about the Revwheelchair situation, its Facebook page has been blowing up with dozens of netizens slamming the company for its alleged irresponsibility. As of writing, Revwheelchair has a less-than-stellar rating of 1.2 out of 5 stars, along with 23 negative reviews — some from the volunteers who were helping out at the community event. 

We’ve reached out to Revwheelchair to get their side of the story and will update this article once we get a reply. 

ilyas@asiaone.com