Maintenance on Segways

[pam]

quote:Originally posted by chbrowning

I just don't understand the great concern these underwriters have. For many years people have been renting bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, jet skis, speed boats, four wheelers and many other way more dangerous things than Segways and they have been able to get insurance.

I think it's because the HT is so new they don't know for sure how to approach it. The are looking for a history on it - or on something comparable - so they can figure the statistics and probabilities and put them in their actuarial tables. (Is that a real word? Do I know what I'm talking about? )

If we get a few more years with favorable history, I think we'll find more and more companies willing to take the risks.

Pam

[Stan671]

quote:Originally posted by chbrowning
I have a friend who owns a successful scooter rental business in Las Vegas and they repeatedly have damaged scooters, and yet they still turn a profit. They take a damage deposit and if you bring back the scooter damaged, the renter loses his deposit

And I am sure this leads to many unhappy customers after the rental. A number of years ago, I rented a motor boat. I did not do anything unusual with the boat and certainly did not damage anything. When I returned it, they claimed I damaged the prop and charged me $150 for a new one. I was pissed, but there was nothing I could do to prove I did not do the so-called damage. What made me madder was that I knew it would not cost them that much for a new prop and they were probably not going to even replace it anyway.

Stan Dobrowski

[florin]

Hi Coy,

I rented a few times a Segway in Montreal, I didn't explicitly ask for it, but I don't think that they have an insurrance either.

Before you can take a segway for a glide, you have to fill in several papers. One says that they are not responsible when you get hurt.

Another one says that when you damage the segway, you have to pay for it (they also make some kind of temporary reservation on your credit card (I thought it was 250$, but I don't know for sure).

Last but not least they check the segway together with you for any previous damage, personally I think this is a good thing, I don't mind the reservation on my credit card as long as all the previous damage is written down, so I made sure to look (together with the renter) for all the damages and made sure that they were written down, then I knew for sure that I was on the safe side.

Normally I also want to have 2 Identification papers which they want to keep when you are gliding. Since I was a tourist there I said that they could make photo-copies of them and that I wanted the originals back directly. I don't think They really like it, but they did it.

Perhaps you can find some more info at www.segcanada.com, this is the place where I rented them.

I hope that my story contains some useful info for you.

Kind regards,

Florin


Visit http://www.florin-webdesign.nl/segwayinfo if you want to stay up-to-date on the situation about the Segway HT in the Netherlands.

[chbrowning]

Stan, I would also be mad if that happened to me. I sure don't wish to take advantage of anyone or rip them off, but if they do something like crack a fender, I think it's fair to charge them for it even though I may not replace it right away, if ever. And if something happens to the machine and I don't know for sure that they caused it, I sure wouldn't charge them for it. I do believe in customer service.

[Stan671]

Coy, that sounds like a good customer service policy.

Stan Dobrowski

[Stewbonz]

"I frequently see posts in this forum talking about damaged segways and obtaining insurance in a rental business. However, I have a friend who owns a successful scooter rental business in Las Vegas and they repeatedly have damaged scooters, and yet they still turn a profit."

All my Segway rides are supervised, but, I did a bare rental to a company ONE TIME in a carpeted hotel ballroom.
The guy managed to break the handlebar.
A replacement, sent to Bangkok cost over $900.
Yes, he paid.



JEFF JARVIS
http://www.thailandsegwaytours.com/

[Segman61]

For Coy and anyone else interested in starting a successful Segway rental business we (Magic Scooter) offer a Rental Manual that Daniel (the owner) and I personally wrote.

We have given over 15,000 paid rides WITHOUT any major incidents. We have been in business conducting tours since August of 2003 and continue to this day.

As we started our rental business a year and a half ago we of course went through all these headaches that are currently being discussed. About 4 months ago Daniel and I decided to sit down and pound out a manual that would help those seriously contemplating starting a Segway rental business.

We decided to put the manual up for sale in order to really focus our efforts in making it worth its weight in gold. If we had been able to buy this manual a year and a half ago it would have saved us thousands of dollars in replacement Segway parts, lost man hours, and operation down times.

Over the course of our "Segway Rental" adventure we have learned ALOT about running a successful Segway rental business. So much so that it would literally take volumes to write all of it down. Because of this we have also decided to make ourselves available to our customers 24/7 in order to answer any immediate questions or to go more "in depth" into any subject found in the manual.

If you have any questions you can email me at [email protected]
You may also contact Daniel directly at 801-278-6600.

[Florida Ever-Glides]

Please keep in mind that a 'operational manual' while containing some useful information can in NO WAY make you a successful Segway 'related' business person. Nor any other business for that matter. A book on personality and business savvy is just as important, or more.



Tom Jacobson
http://www.floridaever-glides.com

[SegwayUtah]

It would be _very_ cool to know the kinds of "lessons learned" from doing over 15,000 paid demo rides. I wonder if the company would ever consider giving it away for free for the benefit of the Segway community and the company itself.

To be honest, I have kind of a love/hate relationship with mass demo rides, so I'll throw out a few "free" tips here. If done by people who care about the image of the machine and the safety of the demo rider, demos seem to go very well. If done in a rush or inattentively, they can go wrong quickly (well, as wrong as things can go on a self-balancing machine moving at 6mph).

I've had numerous people "walk up to me," happy to let me know how they fell off of a Segway HT while getting a paid demo--by running into a wall, or a garbage can, or whatever. It's usually because the person giving the paid demo wasn't super-attentive and concerned about the rider's safety, or wasn't following all the "orientation" specs properly--like keeping within arm's length of the new rider. Once the possibility of making money off the deal comes into play and mass-production kicks in, it seems that quality control and, generally, concern for safety seems to slip away at least a bit.

In any Segway rental or tour operation, it must be the safety of the individuals that's paramount, followed by profit. Man hours, broken machines, etc. are all part of profit--but broken parts can usually be fixed by not ever getting broken in the first place through good safety and teaching practices.

Always remember -- there's a reason that babies are born to be resistant to falls and have really short legs so they can't run fast As they get training from a parent and a bit of practice and they grow older, they generally become ready to go faster. On a Segway HT, that "training" mode is induced by the black key and a little bit of training and care from an instructor.

I applaud all the Segway HT owners who give free demos and keep things safe for new riders, and I also applaud all the Segway-related business owners who take safety seriously and let profit follow as a result.

Chris

[Florida Ever-Glides]

Chris,

You have it exactly, SAFETY HAS TO BE #1!!! Nothing else matters if you can't keep the rider safe during a demo or a tour. I NEVER give 'demos'. Everybody has to go through our training process and at the end of our 2.5 hour experience all of our riders are confident. This month we will have taken 4,000 riders on our tour. I could have hit 15,000 quickly if the were 10 minute rides but that is not the right way to teach someone about the 'real' enjoyment/benefits of the Segway...

Tom Jacobson
http://www.floridaever-glides.com