Disabled veteran says movers mangled pricey lift chair

A disabled veteran claims her lift-chair, prescribed for injuries and pain, was damaged by a local moving company.

            And she says, months later, neither the US Navy, nor the moving company, has paid to fix the still-damaged chair.

            Stephanie McNeal contacted KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators because she wanted help.

            She told reporter Amy Clancy that she filed a claim for a number of broken items and damage to her apartment, but that her biggest concern was her medical lift-chair.

            When Clancy visited McNeal’s Lake Stevens apartment, the veteran showed how her chair makes strange noises when operated. 

 “That’s what the chair is doing. It’s going to quite working,” she told Clancy.  “See? It’s slowing down.  That’s the damage to the motor.”

McNeal served 6 years in the Navy and claims she suffered two back injuries while on duty.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t have severe pain from my injuries.”  She says the chair helps her sit down and stand up, and that living without her chair is very difficult.

McNeal claims that for the past three months, she hasn't been able to use her lift-chair because the motor was damaged.  And she claims the damage was done by employees of Lincoln Moving and Storage.

            The Navy hired Lincoln to move McNeal from Everett to her new Lake Stevens home this past summer.

            McNeal says the move did not go well at all.   She was particularly disturbed by how she says the movers treated her chair.

 “He brought my chair in and slammed it on the floor.  Just dropped it.  It’s not supposed to be carried like that.  It’s supposed to be carried on a dolly.”

McNeal says she submitted a claim to Lincoln, listing the chair and her mattress --- which she says was also damaged --- as “high value” items.  She hoped the Kent-based company would replace her mattress and at least fix her chair's motor, and other damaged items.  She also complained about stains and rips to the chair.  Lincoln did offer $74.99 to re-upholster the lift-chair.  But “they refuse to fix it.  They said that they don’t believe that the damage to the chair was caused by the move,” McNeal remembers.

Clancy:  “Was it?”

McNeal:  “Yes.”

And it's not just McNeal who says so.  Lincoln Moving and Storage hired Bruce Bolton of Bolton Mobility Services in Edmonds to examine the chair, and give the company an estimate.  (SEE ESTIMATE HERE)

            Clancy:  "In your opinion, how was that chair damaged?"

Bolton:  “By improper handling, pure and simple.”  Bolton went on to say, “it was pretty evident to me that it was the moving damage.”  He claims he made his opinion very clear to Lincoln employees:  (SEE BOLTON’S EMAIL HERE)   “When I explained the situation to them I sent pictures (SEE PICTURES HERE), explained the pictures, all of it, and the responses I got were completely inappropriate.”

Clancy: “Why?”

Bolton:  “They didn’t even hear what I was telling them.  They had their own agenda and it was not in the customer’s best interest.”

Bruce Bolton estimates it would cost $1,200 dollars to replace the chair, $488 to fix its motor, and between $400 and $700 to reupholster it.

Definitely not the $74.99 Lincoln offered McNeal.

“I think they should have just settled and basically bought her a new chair,” Bolton says, “because they destroyed it.”

However, Lincoln Moving and Storage says it was in the process of responding to McNeal's claims promptly when McNeal herself made pursuing that course of action impossible. 

Lincoln replaced McNeal’s mattress within days of the move, at a cost of $1,019.76.

            But according to company president Chris DiJulio, the chair was operating when movers left.  And he tells Clancy, the claim was turned over to the Navy because McNeal was, quote: "uncooperative."

            DiJulio continues:  "Had we been given the opportunity to have a formal claim filed, documented, submitted and processed I am sure we would have properly adjusted the chair." 

According to DiJulio: “we at Lincoln cherish our relationship with the United States Military"  and "treat all military members with respect and dignity."

But that's not how Stephanie McNeal feels.  “What they did to me wasn’t right.  And it wasn’t acceptable,” she tells Clancy.  “And hopefully, it won’t happen to anybody else.  Especially veterans who are worse off than I am.”

            McNeal’s claim is still being processed by the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s office, or “JAG.”

Meanwhile, Chris DiJulio has given Clancy his word that he is waiting for the JAG to finish its claim, then he’ll be happy to donate or repair the chair on the JAG is done.  But he will not “interfere with government procedure.”

            DiJulio also tells Clancy, one of the workers who moved Stephanie McNeal that day was fired soon after.  But he says it was because of rudeness.  DiJulio would not comment on whether the worker's termination had anything to do with Stephanie McNeal's experience.