Information
Notification of 2012 Price Increase of Selective Freedom Products:
Dear Valued Customers,
Freedom Designs, Inc. will be increasing retail prices on a few of its custom coded seating and positioning products effective January 1, 2012. This will exclude our trays and lateral product lines as well as a broad array of items in our parts catalog. We recognize the difficult nature of funding in our industry and commit to offsetting some of these increases with select decreases in some of the parts and accessories. The full price list will be published on the Freedom website soon.
Freedom will not be increasing wheelchair frame prices even though the costs of raw materials have increased substantially. We will continue to address increases in the raw materials by improving processes in our USA plant and will continue to absorb standard freight costs domestically on our wheelchair frames for normal delivery in the US.
The majority of parts pricing will remain unchanged for 2012 with the exception of several that will have decreases due to process improvements in our manufacturing.
As always, any orders or quotes that have been processed prior to the January 1, 2012 increase will be honored for 90 days. You have our commitment to the highest product quality and value and as always, we appreciate your continued patronage. Please contact your Freedom sales representative with any questions.
Sincerely,
Bob Gardner, GM
Freedom Designs, Inc.
Notice of Change of Service for “Freedom’s Install Program”
As you, our customers know, Freedom Designs has always made possible the service of installing and adjusting Freedom Seating on competitive wheelchair manufacturer’s products. To accomplish this service, the team at Freedom must receive, unpack and in most cases make several adjustments to the wheelchair frame itself to properly fit Freedom Seating to their frames. Once adjusted the team must then repack and reship at Freedom’s expense, the wheelchair to its final destination. This process requires a significant amount of time, labor, material and cost to achieve. During this process but prior to installation, the frame must be inspected for any type of “pre-existing” damage and a record kept on file. As a result, if any cosmetic damage occurs to the frame during the install process, Freedom has to assume the responsibility. Additionally, once Freedom takes delivery of a competitive manufacturers wheelchair, the responsibility for the delivery of that wheelchair to its final destination undamaged, lies solely with Freedom Designs. On several occasions, a wheelchair arriving at its final destination has incurred damage in the shipping process. In these instances, it is clear that the damage was caused by the shipper. Again, in these situations, it is common for the competitive manufacturer to, rather that taking the high road and replacing the frame, assume no responsibility. This leaves Freedom with the burden of “making it right” by purchasing and shipping a replacement competitive manufacturers wheelchair. Freedom Designs can no longer assume these responsibilities at no cost.
Effective February 1, 2012, Freedom Designs will charge a flat rate minimum of $35.00 to install Freedom Seating on competitive manufacturer’s wheelchairs. Although this minimum rate doesn’t begin cover the cost of the install program, Freedom believes passing along the cost in its entirety would not be fair to our customers. Also effective February 1, 2012, standard shipping costs will apply for shipping competitive manufacturer’s wheelchairs from Freedom Designs to their final destination.
We trust that in this environment of tight funding, reduced budgets, competitive pressures and ever deeper discounts, our loyal Freedom customers will understand.
The Freedom Team
