Thank you - definitely always nice to see people trying new things in this space. It might be a bit risky to rely on a wheelchair that doesn't have a good support ecosystem, though, unfortunately.
This actually touches on something that seems to have changed in the past 10-15 years: in my experience, shops now absolutely refuse to touch wheelchairs that they did not themselves provide. I'm lucky that I can generally do my own maintenance, because even something simple like a deep cleaning is met with worries of voided warranties, etc. etc. I'm not sure when this changed, but throughout the aughts I was able to get service at shops in multiple different cities without any issues.
Sigh. I dealt with NSM a few years ago to get a new manual wheelchair. The tech who fitted me for it, and delivered it, was great, but very obviously always in a rush. The chair itself was not made to spec, so it was just not useable for me as-is. After many months of trying (and failing) to get NSM to help me mod it and get it as close to spec as possible, I gave up and just continued using my old chair.
But even more frustrating than that? NSM continued sending me phony bills for parts that I did not order. I just trashed them until it went to collections. (Fortunately, the collection agency they use is even more incompetent than they are, and I've been able to put them off with standard anti-collections form letters.)
I figured I'd go with Numotion when insurance is ready to re-up me for a new chair, but reading this article, it doesn't seem that would be any better.
This actually touches on something that seems to have changed in the past 10-15 years: in my experience, shops now absolutely refuse to touch wheelchairs that they did not themselves provide. I'm lucky that I can generally do my own maintenance, because even something simple like a deep cleaning is met with worries of voided warranties, etc. etc. I'm not sure when this changed, but throughout the aughts I was able to get service at shops in multiple different cities without any issues.