I Got a letter this morning as I'm sure all you did as well? Lets use this thread as a place to discuss it
Tracy

I feel your pain! I was sitting back trying to think of what chair could replace the iBOT. I can't for the life of me think of it. This is the only chair that can do 4 wheel drive and go inside. Man this hurts. I hope the employees at Indy dont get hurt by this. Man this was the best company I ever delt with.

I wonder if J&J will sell the technology to another company. Has anyone heard anything? I also wonder about stocking up on parts? Suppose we can get a service manual & a part catalog?

Paul.

Hi Paul, I think we will be ok for the next few years. I bet Indy will stick up to their warrenties and provide us parts for the next 5 years anyway.

When I first heard about IT, my hope was that another company would take over the marketing and selling of the iBOT. With more thought, I think this is incredibly unlikely. Who would want to take on this company when they are losing huge amounts of money?

I don't know what can be done but we have to do something. If you go to the iBOT webpage and read about some iBOT owners, you will see that one of them is a lawyer and two of them are in politics. I think we gotta pull these guys in to help.

Also, I have a few ideas I wrote on my blog... http://wheelchairrevolution.blogspot.com/

Hello Everyone,

I was very saddened when I received the letter from Independence Technology too. I am sure that this was a business decision on J&J's part. With Medicare only approving 20% of the cost, it made it difficult for many people to get reimbursement. This severely limited the group of SCI patients to those who could afford to buy one. It also has a lot to due with the state of the economy. With our economy tanking, many companies are looking for ways to cut losses and stay afloat. I feel bad that other SCI patients will not have a chance to enjoy the freedom that I enjoy using my iBot.

Don't worry, we won't have to turn our iBots in 2013 and we won't have to stock up on parts. I would be very surprised if someone doesn't form a company to maintain the iBot. Enough of them have been sold to support a service operation. Independence Technology is required to support the iBot for 5 years. Relax and enjoy the ride.

Political action might help on the Medicare front. I have heard that there are a couple of congressman that own iBots. I am now covered by Medicare but when I got my chair, I was covered by Blue Shield. They picked up the entire cost of the wheelchair.

Getting together is a cool idea. I am not sure that we could change anything but it would be fun.

I just replaced my batteries at a cost of $1100. It is a lot of money but Indy can't be making much on these batteries. I got 14 months out of the last set. I think we can do better. I would like to hear from the group regarding battery life. I will start another thread on this subject.

I think this forum is a great place for iBot discussion. I will put a link to this site on disaboom. There is a thread there on the iBot. Does anyone know of any other discussions where we can link here?