Saturday, December 13, 2008

Oh no! Please don't let this be true...

I just received a message from "anonymous" asking if I've heard that IT is going out of business. I hope this is not true... though I wouldn't be terribly surprised. Crap. I've googled it but didn't come up with anything. Does anyone know anything about this? I'm very worried.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

stop spreading rumors dummy!

Anonymous said...

I got a letter today from IT. They are going to stop selling the iBOT as of Jan 2009, but will continue to honor service contracts.

The iBOT has given me so much freedom. I wish insurance companies, medicare, the VA, etc. would get that quality of life is as, if not more important than quantity.

Nancy

Anonymous said...

It is no rumor, Independence Technology will cease sales of the Ibot January 2009. They will continue tech support, parts and warranty thru 2013.

I had a FedEx letter delivered this morning from IT.

IBot owner in Utah

Anonymous said...

I received the Fed Ex letter today - no more sales or marketing after January. It is already included under iBOT on Wikipedia. Irv

Anonymous said...

Shannon,

I'm afraid it's true... the folks at Independence Technologies are packing it in. Needless to say, I'm just as shocked as everyone else. I've only had my bot since October of 07 and it certainly has been a life changer. There have been so many magical moments.......... traversing snow-covered sidewalks, shopping in stores that were previously inaccessible and the absolute best, "standing" next to my mother for the very first time in my life.

Most of the anger I'm feeling can't help but be directed at the folks at Medicare that shot the IBOT down during the review process. By doing so they severely limited the potential market and all but sealed their fate.

As someone that uses assisted stairclimbing, my biggest concern is how are they planning to continue providing the required training to assistants? To date this has been provided by the consultant/marketing staff. According to the letter, those people are going poof January 1. Where that leaves us is very disconcerting to say the least. I called technical support inquiring about this specific issue and received a, "We'll get back to you." response. Sounds to me like the whole thing is going to hell in a handbasket.

Maybe, just maybe, another company will acquire the IBOT's core technology and continue to develop it. I certainly hope so considering the number of folks whose lives could be transformed by this ground breaking device.

Scott -- Vermont IBOT owner