BRANDON, Fla. — Gil and Shirley Alfaro bought their home over 30 years ago. Back then, they didn’t imagine there would come a day when navigating the two sets of stairs in the tri-level home would become impossible.
Shirley said the onset of debilitating back and leg problems in recent years made the stairs difficult to navigate.
In April, the couple paid $5,500 for two stairlifts to help them get up and down the stairs that lead from the front door up to the main living area of the home and down to the garage.
“I expected to get something that worked correctly," Shirley said.
The price included installation, but the couple said the chairs have never worked as they should. They said they even made repeated calls to the manufacturer's third-party repair company.
One tech came out in August, but after he left, the Alfaros said the remotes did not work, and one of the chairs could not be used because it beeped for hours on end and would not hold a charge.
Now Gil, who was recently diagnosed with late-stage cancer, can’t walk and doesn’t trust the lifts to get him safely up and down the stairs.
Gil told ABC Action News they’ve asked for a different tech to come out, but so far, nothing.
“We are not asking for anything, we are asking to finish the job," he said.
ABC Action News emailed the seller AmeriGlide and relayed the Alfaros story.
“The last notes we have with this is that the customer no longer wanted to work with the installer assigned to that particular job," the company said in an email. "I have directed staff to, of course, reach back out to our customer and see if she wants the needed repairs done. If indeed she wishes to no longer work with the same installer, we will do everything in our power to reach out to other regions to provide support. This can cause delays, etc. With that said, AmeriGlide is 100% committed to resolving this issue.”
A service company has since come out and made the needed adjustments. The Alfaros are now able to move about the house as they please.
