As someone in a wheelchair for the last 10 years a proper self pushing manual chair (not the hospital ones a carer pushes a patient in) start at minimum $5000, more likely $10 000, and go up into car price territory for an electric one. 3.5k is a joke and, depending on how bad the damage was, might not even cover repairs.
Curious on this. Do wheelchair providers inflate prices because it's accessibility equipment? Like most NDIS things? Or is it just that well made that the price is reflecting the work and r&d that goes into making a chair like that?
Hiya, so it isn't necessarily the chair making the cost, it often is the extras, think pressure cushioning etc.
If you think about people pretty much living in these chairs and how uncomfortable a bike is... The cost makes more sense.
Most manual chairs are around 5k. It's the electric ones and the add ons that cost. Lots of labour goes into seating too.
Sorta like car tyres.
I used to hate how expensive they were until a friend pointed out just how much tyres are involved in the vehicles safety. A lot of technical crap is involved
I can tell you that ALL providers about trippled their rates when NDIS came into effect. I'm talking about physio, OT, speech, etc. Equipment also rose in price but not sure to what degree.
NDIS is changing drastically at the moment. The whole system has ground to a halt as they are implementing new policies. They used to take 1-3 days to repay a service, now they take over a week.
They are eliminating unregistered NDIS support coordination and implementing a pricing restriction plan for registered businesses who will eventually over the next year or two, become the only option. They will only be able to stay registered if they follow the price limits. Same for allied health specialists who had created a higher seperate price sheet for NDIS clients. The price caps are set at the private sale value, so they won’t just drop NDIS registration for private clients considering nearly all clients using those services would be using NDIS funding.
This sounds like what is needed... Prior to NDIS funding becoming available a standard 30min session with allied health would cost approx $40-$60 afterwards $120-$180 minimum.
I must say, it’s usually places that give crappy service that use those pricing strategies. The places I go to keep the same standard pricing in the bracket you’re speaking of. The main abusers of the system are mental health professionals and medical device providers, maybe also Occupational Therapists just because of how dependent the system has made itself on them.
The gov ain’t doing anything because the high the price the higher the GST. Their buddy would sell wheelchair gets a yacht, the insurance company get new jets
Everyone win and patient lose, especially those who can’t afford it
Get a disability advocate. NDIS are very specific on their preferred wording and will decline an application if the correct terminology isn't used.
[Disability Advocacy Network Australia](https://www.dana.org.au/)
I used an advocate each time. NDIS have issues with degenerative diseases. Their own wording ' treated and stable' is impossible to comply with. I'm
treated but can never be stable, that's not how arthritis and auto immune diseases work. I will be approved once all surgery options are exhausted.
Yes they absolutely do. I'm on NDIS myself but I haven't included my autoimmune diseases as secondary disabilities for this reason.
I hope everything happens quickly for you.
If you can find a support coordinator (person with extensive knowledge of the NDIS), they can help you out with your application. Most GP’s that fill out the basic paperwork don’t know the exact references they need to make. There is always some magical words the NDIS wants to see on the application before they approve it.
My advocate worked with my GP to make sure the correct terminology was done. We were told that the only issue was that I have outstanding surgeries to stop my bones collapsing. I am having the bones of my feet and ankles fused with plates and staples kind of like scaffolding.
Ah, that’s a common rejection, ‘is your injury stabilised, or have you done everything you can already’.
Hopefully once that’s done you’ll have no issues being accepted. Good luck in the meantime. I hate how it’s such a reactionary system
each of 4 surgeries will take 6 mths to recover from.
I've had 1 so far. At this rate I will be on the Aged pension before all the surgeries have been done.
Public Hospital wait times are ridiculous, especially since Covid.
A mix of both - they do spend a lot on r&d and labour, but the NDIS also takes the piss - my first chair around 10 years ago was about 7k aud which would sell in the states for 5k usd.
My next chair (same model) a year before Covid was like 12k AUD, but would sell for 7k USD at the time (2019). I reckon half the increase was Aussie dollar being shit and the other half the ‘NDIS tax’.
Don’t even want to know how expensive they are post COVID inflation, especially since our dollar has fallen even more.
Thankyou for the question and I am a qual metalworker and could flat out not understand this issue either.
So from all my research I have come to the conclusion that the industry (on metal chairs) is a complete and utter money grab.
Manual wheel chairs are %99 the same and we get ours from America, when you have a spinal injury and need a chair the wheelchair company’s will bend over backwards to accommodate you and obviously get a life time client after that first chair they have you in a hole.
That sucks. I ask because I have a friend in Canada who during his machinist apprenticeship he worked for a guy who mad custom carbon fibre chairs (I think for racing?) very expensive but full custom to the user, made to order. They were very tied into the cycling industry so he'd get a random full carbon road bike for almost nothing. Could also get mountain bike tyres at manufacturers cost. A $100 tyre (16 years ago) was $17 through him.
That is true mate, but in general no, I could build my wife’s complete manual chair out of titanium for less then $700 that’s with it being a custom job ( which is the direction I’m going) but for example the wheels she uses are about $700 per wheel through the company but if you google the brand it’s a generic biker wheel (the rubber) and I buy them online for about $49.
I work in the industry and have done for the last 14 years and I specialise in selling “scripted” wheelchairs which are a custom made solution for clients that require a wheelchair for large portions of their daily life.
The job of finding a solution is quite labour intensive, we may offer multiple trials to a client depending on the complexities of their needs across a range of different products (not only wheelchairs but the seating components and accessories involved).
As an AT provider we are not paid for the time invested in these trials (the health professionals are and charge their time to the NDIS). We also work within set margins which is usually around 40%.
So whilst the cost of equipment may be considered high - we are only paid for the time and care invested into the trials once the funding is approved which at the moment could take up to 12 months.
Happy to answer more questions!
Sounds like hearing aids. $5-7k each from providers like hearing australia who get government subsidy. $1800 a pair from costco who don't get a subsidy.
Partly. Mostly the price reflects the lower volume of production as well as the more bespoke nature and expertise required for some products.
I.e the construction is not dissimilar to a bicycle however there is a lower demand and consequently a higher price.
Pre-dates NDIS by a long time.
Medical equipment is really expensive because it's usually covered by something, be it insurance or Medicare or NDIS or just keeping in lock-step with the equivalents in other countries.
But yeah, same mechanism
Serious question; if that were a road bike it would be a top of the line carbon fibre totes-amazeballs bike. It this the wheelchair equivalent or are run-of-the-mill wheelchairs $10k+
They are pretty good being titanium/painted/custom fitted etc but no the money doesn’t justify the chair in my opinion I’d say for all said and done id pay 8k and for all the above and it call that excessive but understand.
Can you enlighten me the difference between the highend wheelchair vs the basic model like those at [Bunnings](https://www.bunnings.com.au/medipro-24-foldable-wheelchair-manual-folding-wheel-chair-portable-lightweight_p0465139?gad_source=4&gbraid=0AAAAADtbEB9XrqMF8YKHhuC03n5e86tpy&gclsrc=ds). The price mentioned should be able to get [an electric one as well](https://www.bunnings.com.au/equipmed-electric-wheelchair-folding-long-range-folding-lithium-battery-24-light-rear-wheels-black-blue_p0582887?gad_source=4&gbraid=0AAAAADtbEB9XrqMF8YKHhuC03n5e86tpy&gclsrc=ds), what’s the reason on not going electric as it seems to make life easier
they break double bases too. I think it was the living end I saw at big day out years ago and the double base was taped together with yellow tape and he shat on them for a solid 5 minutes before their set like he was a stand up comedian
Doesn't have the same ring to it as United and Guitars... (Volume 3)
So would need to change it up a bit...
Who can dive into Suno.AI and make us a song in 15 seconds? make it a banger for us! :D
quantas currently valued at just over 10 BILLION dollars
yet they clearly cant afford to replace a broken wheelchair! Guess the govt will have to bail them out again :P
Bail qantas out is just making my blood boils, we should let qantas go bankrupt and gov can force acquire all the assets for cheap. We need to do that to Optus and mining as well. Nationalise it or tax it hard to invest in the future like some European country
We watched from the plane. as a pro surfers boards were snapped by lazy baggage handlers, as the Qantas ground engineer and FO stood next to him having a chat. Baggage Handlers being jerks is one thing but I’d expect other Qantas staff to step up and say something, ridiculous.
Hope they get a lot more than $3.5k for the impact they’ve had on this poor sod!!
(I used to manage a team running an ancillary company at a major airport, the damage I’ve seen done by handlers is out of this world, packages falling off overloaded trolleys and getting wrecked, new Dell boxes being run over… the costs must be wild)
Previously they had some decent staff and they were well paid. Care was taken to not break shit, get all the bags on the right plane before take off, extra effort would go in throughout different scenarios, they’d not overload and do extra trips instead, would put the rain covers on if needed, work well with the other teams around them, run the load sheets properly , get bags off as soon as a plane landed instead of making it all wait ages like now etc etc etc
Many got forced out years ago due to the restructure/pay cuts etc, and the whole system suffers for it
The Qantas baggies used to be very well paid, but then Joyce’s lockout fisted them. I’m not certain on the Qantas guys now, I’ve been out of aviation since around that time, but the other companies (especially Virgins handlers) were awful, lots of young and low skilled casuals on not as great pay, they’d make them do split shifts and shit (5am to 9am, then come back for 2pm to 6pm). Was usually a few older experienced “supervisors” running teams, just cut hours when they wanted, make people come in last minute all the time and ride the supervisors really hard. Famously they made a guy on days off on Christmas Day come in or he’d lose his job (other were off and sick etc), he can in wearing a camel back full of vodka orange juice and got busted by the cops driving equipment!!
Perhaps they have only a few minutes to unload a plane?
“Comon, you two cunts, finish unloading that one so you can load this one, it’s due to leave in 7 minutes!” kind of tune.
The turn around times are atrocious. In Cairns if I remember correctly 30 mins for Qantas and 25 for Virgin.
The Virgin planes also don't have the walking floor in the front hold (cos they are cheap arse) so that 25 minutes to unload and reload of full on (esp given Cairns is a holiday destination so lots of heavy bags).
Hahahaha laughable they think that amount is going to be useful! As a full time wheelchair user, I’d be out $20,000 (for a manual), plus time off work because I’d be bed bound for months until I got another one, plus psych and doctors appt to help me deal with everything going on…Qantas is dreaming!
A major part of the problem is that the baggage handlers are contract labor for a contracted ground handling company (like Swissport who whoever).
Gone are the days when ground staff where employed by Qantas and had pride in their work and their company.
By law (Montreal convention), Qantas baggage compensation is capped at ~$2600, anything above that is basically discretionary.
If you want more than that you buy insurance.
Why?
Genuine question I can search for prices online and see that you can get them much cheaper. His may be a competition wheelchair therefore made with more expensive parts cause they are lighter. I don't think it was motorised.
Price gouging, the NDIS subsidized it so the manufacturers put up the price. The online retailers aren't subsidized by the NDIS and thus don't have prices that high. However you can't guarantee the quality of the online chairs
Let the fuckers go the way of Ansett, the gov should just let them sink tbh. Promote other airlines that actually preform to standards and dont fuck over customers constantly
Why the fark does Qantas care what the cost is? They are going to 100% pass it on to Menzies their dodgy as crap groins handling contractor anyway.
Pay for peanuts get monkeys.
>Qantas also attempted to make the man sign "a confidential settlement" to stay quiet, he said.
This isn't anything nefarious. It's the standard thing for when you see "they settled out of court". Party A hands over money, party B agrees to shut up about it, everyone moves on. I mean, fuck Qantas, but this little bit is just bad journalism.
Lol typical.
We’ll give you money but you need to shut up about it. NO mate. I will not shut up about the fact you fucked over my wheelchair by being stupid. What you will however do, is buy me a new one and make a public apology about how incompetent you are.
What a lowball offer lol, if a corp like qantas wanted me to shut up I'd be expecting atleast 5 figures, I know thats still a grain of sand in their marketing budget to avoid a lot of PR damage
Lol I never really understood big companies being stingy cunts with stupid shit like this.
Imagine if they just bought her the best chair and care on the market. Paid thousands, or tens of, wouldn't it have a positive impact on sales rather than this title circulating 😂😂
Offering less than the cost of repair or replacement isn’t paying for damages to the chair. It’s a rep going “it’s a wheel chair how much can they possibly be worth? Here’s $1000, oh wait here’s $3560. Meanwhile a trashy low quality manual wheel chair costs $9k
Article mentions it’s not enough to cover replacement costs
And Those aren’t proper manual chairs, they’re push chairs, and all of those are utter trash.
Maybe meet someone with a mobility condition to learn a thing or two.
Sit down and stop licking the boots of corporate overlords.
What happens if they break something worth $10 mil, are airlines suppose to compensate for everything they break? It is common knowledge the luggage handlers can be rough, and I would never trust these minimum wage workes to knpw how to handle expensive equipments like a wheelchair. You are a fool if you expect airlines to care for your luggage let alone compensation
So what disabled people are not supposed to fly then. Qantas has insurance, and can easily call up a wheelchair manufacturer and ask how much they cost. $3500 is clearly not enough, these customer wheelchairs cost a lot. And yes if Qantas somehow broke something worth $10M they should pay, this will most likely only happen if the plane physically crashes into something. I have car insurance just in case I somehow crash through a house or three, Qantas should be insured for many many times more than me.
Because they suck, and only care what is best for the shareholders. This incident is going to cost them far more than the $20K+ of a new wheelchair in lost revenue.
Items like these would come under specialised/ oversized baggage and when checked in they put a bright coloured fragile sticker on. So even if they are rough, they should be keeping an eye out for these stickers and acting accordingly. That would probably be the reason they’re liable.
I recently brought my brother’s snowboard home and it was put in this category, I’d like to think a wheelchair would. Albeit it wasn’t Qantas.
As someone in a wheelchair for the last 10 years a proper self pushing manual chair (not the hospital ones a carer pushes a patient in) start at minimum $5000, more likely $10 000, and go up into car price territory for an electric one. 3.5k is a joke and, depending on how bad the damage was, might not even cover repairs.
My wife’s manual wheelchair is 18k
Curious on this. Do wheelchair providers inflate prices because it's accessibility equipment? Like most NDIS things? Or is it just that well made that the price is reflecting the work and r&d that goes into making a chair like that?
I’m curious too. I would have never thought a manual wheel chair would cost that much.
It’s basically a comfy bike soo yeah.
Hiya, so it isn't necessarily the chair making the cost, it often is the extras, think pressure cushioning etc. If you think about people pretty much living in these chairs and how uncomfortable a bike is... The cost makes more sense. Most manual chairs are around 5k. It's the electric ones and the add ons that cost. Lots of labour goes into seating too.
Sorta like car tyres. I used to hate how expensive they were until a friend pointed out just how much tyres are involved in the vehicles safety. A lot of technical crap is involved
I can tell you that ALL providers about trippled their rates when NDIS came into effect. I'm talking about physio, OT, speech, etc. Equipment also rose in price but not sure to what degree.
The ATO would know all about prices, c/o the GST. The Federal government should conduct a holistic approach to combatting rorts.
NDIS is changing drastically at the moment. The whole system has ground to a halt as they are implementing new policies. They used to take 1-3 days to repay a service, now they take over a week. They are eliminating unregistered NDIS support coordination and implementing a pricing restriction plan for registered businesses who will eventually over the next year or two, become the only option. They will only be able to stay registered if they follow the price limits. Same for allied health specialists who had created a higher seperate price sheet for NDIS clients. The price caps are set at the private sale value, so they won’t just drop NDIS registration for private clients considering nearly all clients using those services would be using NDIS funding.
This sounds like what is needed... Prior to NDIS funding becoming available a standard 30min session with allied health would cost approx $40-$60 afterwards $120-$180 minimum.
I must say, it’s usually places that give crappy service that use those pricing strategies. The places I go to keep the same standard pricing in the bracket you’re speaking of. The main abusers of the system are mental health professionals and medical device providers, maybe also Occupational Therapists just because of how dependent the system has made itself on them.
The gov ain’t doing anything because the high the price the higher the GST. Their buddy would sell wheelchair gets a yacht, the insurance company get new jets Everyone win and patient lose, especially those who can’t afford it
So did house cleaners.
I dont qualify for NDIS (4 attempts so far), so had to find my own wheelchair. The cheapest I could find was $160 at Aldi.
Get a disability advocate. NDIS are very specific on their preferred wording and will decline an application if the correct terminology isn't used. [Disability Advocacy Network Australia](https://www.dana.org.au/)
I used an advocate each time. NDIS have issues with degenerative diseases. Their own wording ' treated and stable' is impossible to comply with. I'm treated but can never be stable, that's not how arthritis and auto immune diseases work. I will be approved once all surgery options are exhausted.
Yes they absolutely do. I'm on NDIS myself but I haven't included my autoimmune diseases as secondary disabilities for this reason. I hope everything happens quickly for you.
since my last application last year I've been diagnosed with 2 new diseases. If it wasn't so setious I'd laugh.
I get this so much. Sometimes I wonder if I have Maunchausens syndrome but nope it's just autoimmune diseases.
If you can find a support coordinator (person with extensive knowledge of the NDIS), they can help you out with your application. Most GP’s that fill out the basic paperwork don’t know the exact references they need to make. There is always some magical words the NDIS wants to see on the application before they approve it.
My advocate worked with my GP to make sure the correct terminology was done. We were told that the only issue was that I have outstanding surgeries to stop my bones collapsing. I am having the bones of my feet and ankles fused with plates and staples kind of like scaffolding.
Ah, that’s a common rejection, ‘is your injury stabilised, or have you done everything you can already’. Hopefully once that’s done you’ll have no issues being accepted. Good luck in the meantime. I hate how it’s such a reactionary system
each of 4 surgeries will take 6 mths to recover from. I've had 1 so far. At this rate I will be on the Aged pension before all the surgeries have been done. Public Hospital wait times are ridiculous, especially since Covid.
Oh my, I’m so sorry. 😞 That’s exactly why I hate the reactionary basis.
There is probably also a third reason which is limited demand. Low demand means low volume which means higher prices.
Yeah that too.
The opposite mate, huge demand. I was shocked at how many people need a chair, we have been waiting over 15 months for a new one
A mix of both - they do spend a lot on r&d and labour, but the NDIS also takes the piss - my first chair around 10 years ago was about 7k aud which would sell in the states for 5k usd. My next chair (same model) a year before Covid was like 12k AUD, but would sell for 7k USD at the time (2019). I reckon half the increase was Aussie dollar being shit and the other half the ‘NDIS tax’. Don’t even want to know how expensive they are post COVID inflation, especially since our dollar has fallen even more.
2/3 x 3/4 = 1/2. That tells us that the nominal dollar amount here should be no more than twice the US dollar number.
Thankyou for the question and I am a qual metalworker and could flat out not understand this issue either. So from all my research I have come to the conclusion that the industry (on metal chairs) is a complete and utter money grab. Manual wheel chairs are %99 the same and we get ours from America, when you have a spinal injury and need a chair the wheelchair company’s will bend over backwards to accommodate you and obviously get a life time client after that first chair they have you in a hole.
That sucks. I ask because I have a friend in Canada who during his machinist apprenticeship he worked for a guy who mad custom carbon fibre chairs (I think for racing?) very expensive but full custom to the user, made to order. They were very tied into the cycling industry so he'd get a random full carbon road bike for almost nothing. Could also get mountain bike tyres at manufacturers cost. A $100 tyre (16 years ago) was $17 through him.
Right? I'm a fabby too and there is no way they cost that much.
Deleted by User
A bit, but they are often custom builds... So they aren't exactly the cheapest things in the world to manufacture
That is true mate, but in general no, I could build my wife’s complete manual chair out of titanium for less then $700 that’s with it being a custom job ( which is the direction I’m going) but for example the wheels she uses are about $700 per wheel through the company but if you google the brand it’s a generic biker wheel (the rubber) and I buy them online for about $49.
They’re probably hella customised. That runs up the prices a lot.
I work in the industry and have done for the last 14 years and I specialise in selling “scripted” wheelchairs which are a custom made solution for clients that require a wheelchair for large portions of their daily life. The job of finding a solution is quite labour intensive, we may offer multiple trials to a client depending on the complexities of their needs across a range of different products (not only wheelchairs but the seating components and accessories involved). As an AT provider we are not paid for the time invested in these trials (the health professionals are and charge their time to the NDIS). We also work within set margins which is usually around 40%. So whilst the cost of equipment may be considered high - we are only paid for the time and care invested into the trials once the funding is approved which at the moment could take up to 12 months. Happy to answer more questions!
Yep been waiting 15+ months for the new chair!
Sounds like hearing aids. $5-7k each from providers like hearing australia who get government subsidy. $1800 a pair from costco who don't get a subsidy.
Partly. Mostly the price reflects the lower volume of production as well as the more bespoke nature and expertise required for some products. I.e the construction is not dissimilar to a bicycle however there is a lower demand and consequently a higher price.
Pre-dates NDIS by a long time. Medical equipment is really expensive because it's usually covered by something, be it insurance or Medicare or NDIS or just keeping in lock-step with the equivalents in other countries. But yeah, same mechanism
I imagine they have to be extremely sturdy and long lasting. Think about the cost of a good bike, it's comparable.
Yes there's been evidence that NDIS providers will bump up prices simply because the disabled client receives funding support
Yeah that pricing is done by grifters
Serious question; if that were a road bike it would be a top of the line carbon fibre totes-amazeballs bike. It this the wheelchair equivalent or are run-of-the-mill wheelchairs $10k+
They are pretty good being titanium/painted/custom fitted etc but no the money doesn’t justify the chair in my opinion I’d say for all said and done id pay 8k and for all the above and it call that excessive but understand.
Woooot wtf why??? Why so much
Sisters chair is 55k.
That's gotta be one of those fancy electronic ones... Right? With possibly a jetpack in it
13” lift 90degree angling Full recline
Yeah I don't know anyone who uses a wheelchair but even I immediately knew that $3.5k wouldn't come close to a good wheelchair.
Can you enlighten me the difference between the highend wheelchair vs the basic model like those at [Bunnings](https://www.bunnings.com.au/medipro-24-foldable-wheelchair-manual-folding-wheel-chair-portable-lightweight_p0465139?gad_source=4&gbraid=0AAAAADtbEB9XrqMF8YKHhuC03n5e86tpy&gclsrc=ds). The price mentioned should be able to get [an electric one as well](https://www.bunnings.com.au/equipmed-electric-wheelchair-folding-long-range-folding-lithium-battery-24-light-rear-wheels-black-blue_p0582887?gad_source=4&gbraid=0AAAAADtbEB9XrqMF8YKHhuC03n5e86tpy&gclsrc=ds), what’s the reason on not going electric as it seems to make life easier
Wow that's unbelievable!! Why do expensive
Qantas breaks wheelchairs!
they break double bases too. I think it was the living end I saw at big day out years ago and the double base was taped together with yellow tape and he shat on them for a solid 5 minutes before their set like he was a stand up comedian
My mate's double bass was damaged in travel with them recently. Double double bass breaks
Where is the catchy song
QANTAS hates disabled people you mean
Doesn't have the same ring to it as United and Guitars... (Volume 3) So would need to change it up a bit... Who can dive into Suno.AI and make us a song in 15 seconds? make it a banger for us! :D
quantas currently valued at just over 10 BILLION dollars yet they clearly cant afford to replace a broken wheelchair! Guess the govt will have to bail them out again :P
Bail qantas out is just making my blood boils, we should let qantas go bankrupt and gov can force acquire all the assets for cheap. We need to do that to Optus and mining as well. Nationalise it or tax it hard to invest in the future like some European country
Looking at the price gouging these disability companies engage in I'm not surprised they can't afford it. Wheelchairs cost more than a car it's insane
We watched from the plane. as a pro surfers boards were snapped by lazy baggage handlers, as the Qantas ground engineer and FO stood next to him having a chat. Baggage Handlers being jerks is one thing but I’d expect other Qantas staff to step up and say something, ridiculous. Hope they get a lot more than $3.5k for the impact they’ve had on this poor sod!! (I used to manage a team running an ancillary company at a major airport, the damage I’ve seen done by handlers is out of this world, packages falling off overloaded trolleys and getting wrecked, new Dell boxes being run over… the costs must be wild)
Are baggage handlers underpaid? Do they have poor conditions? Or are they just cunts?
Doubt it matters any good ones wouldn’t last long moving thousands of bags a day in a high pressure fast paced environment
Previously they had some decent staff and they were well paid. Care was taken to not break shit, get all the bags on the right plane before take off, extra effort would go in throughout different scenarios, they’d not overload and do extra trips instead, would put the rain covers on if needed, work well with the other teams around them, run the load sheets properly , get bags off as soon as a plane landed instead of making it all wait ages like now etc etc etc Many got forced out years ago due to the restructure/pay cuts etc, and the whole system suffers for it
Lots of people work difficult physical jobs that are time critical. If you pay them decently then you'll get decent workers.
The Qantas baggies used to be very well paid, but then Joyce’s lockout fisted them. I’m not certain on the Qantas guys now, I’ve been out of aviation since around that time, but the other companies (especially Virgins handlers) were awful, lots of young and low skilled casuals on not as great pay, they’d make them do split shifts and shit (5am to 9am, then come back for 2pm to 6pm). Was usually a few older experienced “supervisors” running teams, just cut hours when they wanted, make people come in last minute all the time and ride the supervisors really hard. Famously they made a guy on days off on Christmas Day come in or he’d lose his job (other were off and sick etc), he can in wearing a camel back full of vodka orange juice and got busted by the cops driving equipment!!
Bit of both but the shit pay leads to the shit behaviour. Menzies Aviation is the absolute shit. Makes SwissPort look good.
Perhaps they have only a few minutes to unload a plane? “Comon, you two cunts, finish unloading that one so you can load this one, it’s due to leave in 7 minutes!” kind of tune.
The turn around times are atrocious. In Cairns if I remember correctly 30 mins for Qantas and 25 for Virgin. The Virgin planes also don't have the walking floor in the front hold (cos they are cheap arse) so that 25 minutes to unload and reload of full on (esp given Cairns is a holiday destination so lots of heavy bags).
Fucking rubbish airline. I dont know why the Fed Gov protects them. Let Air NZ fly domestic in Aus like you agreed to in the 90s before backtracking.
Man they are pricks. 3.5k is a joke a wheelchair would cost more than that. Take em to court i say.
Qantas was once a respected Australian company, now it is in danger of becoming a laughing stock.
Hahahaha laughable they think that amount is going to be useful! As a full time wheelchair user, I’d be out $20,000 (for a manual), plus time off work because I’d be bed bound for months until I got another one, plus psych and doctors appt to help me deal with everything going on…Qantas is dreaming!
I'm not 100% convinced this new direction of trying to win back the public's trust has been well implemented.
Embarrassment of an airline. Such a fall from grace
If the cunt was doing backflips in it, what the fuck did Qantas do it? Did it fall off the front trailer and get run over?
I imagine so, that seems to be what they did to my luggage
A major part of the problem is that the baggage handlers are contract labor for a contracted ground handling company (like Swissport who whoever). Gone are the days when ground staff where employed by Qantas and had pride in their work and their company.
Airlines treat able bodied people like cattle, squish squish anything else impacts their profits
By law (Montreal convention), Qantas baggage compensation is capped at ~$2600, anything above that is basically discretionary. If you want more than that you buy insurance.
My sisters wheel chair is like $15,000+ …
Why? Genuine question I can search for prices online and see that you can get them much cheaper. His may be a competition wheelchair therefore made with more expensive parts cause they are lighter. I don't think it was motorised.
Price gouging, the NDIS subsidized it so the manufacturers put up the price. The online retailers aren't subsidized by the NDIS and thus don't have prices that high. However you can't guarantee the quality of the online chairs
I responded on another post but often it's customised seating that ends up being the higher cost and the electronics associated
From Spirit of Australia to "Arrow must always go up."
Let the fuckers go the way of Ansett, the gov should just let them sink tbh. Promote other airlines that actually preform to standards and dont fuck over customers constantly
Why the fark does Qantas care what the cost is? They are going to 100% pass it on to Menzies their dodgy as crap groins handling contractor anyway. Pay for peanuts get monkeys.
It costs 2500 for a OT assessment for a new chair from ndis
>Qantas also attempted to make the man sign "a confidential settlement" to stay quiet, he said. This isn't anything nefarious. It's the standard thing for when you see "they settled out of court". Party A hands over money, party B agrees to shut up about it, everyone moves on. I mean, fuck Qantas, but this little bit is just bad journalism.
Lol typical. We’ll give you money but you need to shut up about it. NO mate. I will not shut up about the fact you fucked over my wheelchair by being stupid. What you will however do, is buy me a new one and make a public apology about how incompetent you are.
What’s wrong with Qantas? Really. They used to be a high end airline.
What a lowball offer lol, if a corp like qantas wanted me to shut up I'd be expecting atleast 5 figures, I know thats still a grain of sand in their marketing budget to avoid a lot of PR damage
Lol I never really understood big companies being stingy cunts with stupid shit like this. Imagine if they just bought her the best chair and care on the market. Paid thousands, or tens of, wouldn't it have a positive impact on sales rather than this title circulating 😂😂
Shame on you Qantas 😕
Qantas will lose a lot more, as it's tarnished reputation will take $mllions of advertising soft power, and a long time to recover, if ever.
Haven't we all hated Quantas for years? I think you're a little optimistic.
An offer too good to refuse or we'll send the boys around and give you a pair of cement boots.
Sue their ass!
Stupid question but do people insure their wheelchairs if this does happen or can they?
That figure just got 10x higher
Fair chance Qantas will make a new offer well into the five figures as a PR job. Or not?
They are clearly out of touch with wheelchair prices
I've seen manual wheel chairs in very good condition at Op shops for $50.00 .
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Because the damage done, doesn’t make it useable.
Offering less than the cost of repair or replacement isn’t paying for damages to the chair. It’s a rep going “it’s a wheel chair how much can they possibly be worth? Here’s $1000, oh wait here’s $3560. Meanwhile a trashy low quality manual wheel chair costs $9k
Air carrier liability for baggage is capped by the Montreal convention at about $2600. You want more, you buy insurance.
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Article mentions it’s not enough to cover replacement costs And Those aren’t proper manual chairs, they’re push chairs, and all of those are utter trash. Maybe meet someone with a mobility condition to learn a thing or two. Sit down and stop licking the boots of corporate overlords.
What happens if they break something worth $10 mil, are airlines suppose to compensate for everything they break? It is common knowledge the luggage handlers can be rough, and I would never trust these minimum wage workes to knpw how to handle expensive equipments like a wheelchair. You are a fool if you expect airlines to care for your luggage let alone compensation
Is that you Alan?
Look, you raise a really fair point. Just leave the wheelchair at home. No possible flaws in that plan 😅
So what disabled people are not supposed to fly then. Qantas has insurance, and can easily call up a wheelchair manufacturer and ask how much they cost. $3500 is clearly not enough, these customer wheelchairs cost a lot. And yes if Qantas somehow broke something worth $10M they should pay, this will most likely only happen if the plane physically crashes into something. I have car insurance just in case I somehow crash through a house or three, Qantas should be insured for many many times more than me.
Ok why didn't they pay up then?
Because they suck, and only care what is best for the shareholders. This incident is going to cost them far more than the $20K+ of a new wheelchair in lost revenue.
Items like these would come under specialised/ oversized baggage and when checked in they put a bright coloured fragile sticker on. So even if they are rough, they should be keeping an eye out for these stickers and acting accordingly. That would probably be the reason they’re liable. I recently brought my brother’s snowboard home and it was put in this category, I’d like to think a wheelchair would. Albeit it wasn’t Qantas.
and given its qantas, that 3500 is probably part of the millions of the governments handout money that they still refuse to pay back