LA Segway Delivery/Training - how long?

[jillmac]

Hi guys..... A friend of mine has ordered a Segway for a friend and colleague who has mobility problems.

I have been to meet him twice so that he can try out my Segway and have talked with him at length. He does very well on the Segway and on my second visit took Segway's advice and leaned it against a wall in order to keep it steady while stepping up onto the platform. This worked really well and he rode it like a pro on his second session (ex motorbike rider).

The Segway was ordered direct from Segway LLC after several phone conversations. It has been on order I believe, for about three weeks. He has received his video package, but has not been given a date for training.

Any suggestions? Are the regular training sessions in S.California over? Do they have to send someone out specially? Any ideas on how we can get this moving would be very much appreciated. It is frustrating when this gesture on one person's part to get his friend mobile again is working slowly - any and all suggestions would be very much appreciated.

I have also suggested that the purchaser come over to Segwaychat to see if anyone has an idea what to do.

Jill

Nothing is inexplicable, merely unexplained..... Dr. Who

[pam]

Jill, I would suggest he call LLC. He can always say he's trying to firm up vacation time. I think Segway is doing individual training, but don't know the exact detail of how it's worked out. Lord knows, we all called Segway on a daily basis from the first release <G>. They won't take offense, I don't think.

[wheels]

quote:Originally posted by jillmac

Hi guys..... A friend of mine has ordered a Segway for a friend and colleague who has mobility problems.

I have been to meet him twice so that he can try out my Segway and have talked with him at length. He does very well on the Segway and on my second visit took Segway's advice and leaned it against a wall in order to keep it steady while stepping up onto the platform. This worked really well and he rode it like a pro on his second session (ex motorbike rider).

The Segway was ordered direct from Segway LLC after several phone conversations. It has been on order I believe, for about three weeks. He has received his video package, but has not been given a date for training.

Any suggestions? Are the regular training sessions in S.California over? Do they have to send someone out specially? Any ideas on how we can get this moving would be very much appreciated. It is frustrating when this gesture on one person's part to get his friend mobile again is working slowly - any and all suggestions would be very much appreciated.

I have also suggested that the purchaser come over to Segwaychat to see if anyone has an idea what to do.

Jill

Nothing is inexplicable, merely unexplained..... Dr. Who


A friend ordered last Monday and was told about a week before training and delivery shortly after that. He is on Oxygen so another person is being 'Set Free'.

BTW: we will miss you (and your husband) at SUG LA Saturday. My mission was going to be to convince him you needed another HT so you could Glide together as Linda and I do.

"Life's a wheelie when you're on a Segway"

[stevew]

Schedule on Amazon.com shows July 20th in LA

[MagiMike]

I just ordered my "i" and was given a ship date of only seven days later and a "come to my house" trainer to be expected "shortly thereafter". Exact date not yet set due to 4th of July Holiday issues. By the way for reference I ordered directly from segway not via Amazon.
Mike in Houston TX

[Karamozov]

MagiMike:

Are you aware that there is a retailer in Houston?

www.segwayoftexas.com



"Any town that doesn't have sidewalks doesn't love its children."
- Margaret Mead

[MagiMike]

WOW !!!
No that came as a total suprise to me.

[jillmac]

Well, he got his Segway today - but still no training. I'm not sure what the deal is - maybe like another thread here they will arrange training soon. Needless to say, I have offered to go over again to help out - it makes me a bit uncomfortable knowing it's there and that he hasn't had training. Things are a'changing!

Jill

Nothing is inexplicable, merely unexplained..... Dr. Who

[scepter77]

Segway has changed their website to reflect that training is now just "highly recommended" and so it seems it is no longer required.

[jillmac]

Wow! Scepter - this seems a little disappointing. We have all been stressing training and education for months and now they say it doesn't matter!!!! Hmmm. Not good.

Surely this plays right into the hands of the people who say there will be sidewalks full of crazy riders.

:(

Nothing is inexplicable, merely unexplained..... Dr. Who

[Karamozov]

What is going on here?

Is Segway selling more units than they can send trainers for or is the cost of providing training becoming an issue?



"Any town that doesn't have sidewalks doesn't love its children."
- Margaret Mead

[BruceWright]

I can't say I didn't see this coming. I am disappointed, however at least Segway is up-front about it.

Folks, it's time to take upon ourselves the mantle of safety training. What say we create a buddy-system registry on Segwaychat where new gliders can find a buddy for safety training in their hometown?

-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream

[vpv]

I did see this coming when I asked a Segway trainer during my training back in 2/03. I asked him point blank. Will training be "required" in the near future?. He indicated that it will not be required since it will be common place.

Although I stress SAFETY on any machine use (cars, bikes, etc). Learning a Segway is a no brainer. It's not even like learning to ride a bike. You will, however, fall one day whether you see a 30-min video or not. The inevitability of an accident (or death) on a Segway is irregardless of whether someone spent 2 hrs training with Segway LLC.

Even if someone has 1000 miles + experience in riding the Segway HT (no pun intended to anyone here) but decided one day to run over a pedestrian is irrelevant to whether that person has gone through training or not.

Let's do however, stress safety, no matter whether there is training or not.

[vpv]

oops.. sorry for the double posting.. my dialup is acting up again..

[stevew]

When I got my training pack back in Feb I noted that it seemed to stand alone -- ie no formal training required. The video actually recommends you recruit a neighbor to help you mount the HT for the first time. Now it looks like the transition is happening. May all these new HT buyers be safe and smart!

[Linc2000]

Hey vpv! I am counting on my first Segway accident to occur some time after I have taken leave of this planet. I am routing for pt to do the same. I am not hoping for an early departure for either of us. I am over 500 miles and over 500 demos. (knock on wood) I hope it stays that way. Lincoln [8D] P.S. May we all glide safely and happily.

<center> http://www.wwwebhosting.com/tm3wwwlogo.gif</center>

[pam]

quote:Originally posted by vpv

oops.. sorry for the double posting.. my dialup is acting up again..



I took care of it. vpv and other forum members, I believe you can delete your own posts. Is there a little trashcan at the end of your line of icons at the top of your post? If so, just use that on the one you want to delete. Otherwise, let me know and I'll be happy to do it for you. Just send me a note through my profile.
Pam

[pam]

I'm trying to think of the book... Can't remember the title, it's a legitimate anthropology book, I believe (i.e., not SF), but the first story in it was about a bunch of (observed) monkeys on an island. How they ate their food, dirt and all. One day one monkey figured out how to wash his food and he taught his brother, who taught someone else, who taught someone else. Although prior to that time noone had washed their fruit. Once a certain percentage of monkeys had been taught, suddenly everyone was doing it - - The point made was that there was a critical mass in consciousness and suddenly everyone "knew" it.

I've often thought that the orientations were similar. Very needed when there were so very few of us with the HT, but once a certain percentage of people had the "experience" of it, orientations would not be necessary. (Now, I'm not saying here whether that mass has been met or not, just the concept.)

I do think it would be a great idea, if we were able to set up people in different areas who could help with orientations. Either through local "clubs" or a list that Segway might recommend (although they might be concerned about liability issues). Such a list exists on the SegwayUsers site, I think.
Pam

[BruceWright]

Ah, the old Hundreth Monkey story. It's actually a false story made from fudged data. It's a famous new-agey idea about changing conscioness and mass acceptance, but unfornately it's wishful thinking by Ken Keyes. One of those stories that was too good to be true. Keyes has since admitted that the story was a product of his imagination, but it lives on. Maybe when 100 people know it was false, we can put this myth to bed.

http://www.csicop.org/si/9605/monkey.html

I would like to set up something to orient (not "train") new Segway riders. Call it a buddy system. There should be a "New owner? Find a local Segway Buddy" button on Segwaychat. ANyone else up for this idea?

-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream

PS. My spelling is wishful thinking in this post. I'm too lazy to fix it. SUFFER! ;)

[pam]

quote:Originally posted by BruceWright

Ah, the old Hundreth Monkey story. It's actually a false story made from fudged data. It's a famous new-agey idea about changing conscioness and mass acceptance, but unfornately it's wishful thinking by Ken Keyes. One of those stories that was too good to be true. Keyes has since admitted that the story was a product of his imagination, but it lives on. Maybe when 100 people know it was false, we can put this myth to bed.

http://www.csicop.org/si/9605/monkey.html

I would like to set up something to orient (not "train") new Segway riders. Call it a buddy system. There should be a "New owner? Find a local Segway Buddy" button on Segwaychat. ANyone else up for this idea?

-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream

PS. My spelling is wishful thinking in this post. I'm too lazy to fix it. SUFFER! ;)


Iteresting, because the author that I read was Lyall Watson who wrote the book "Lifetides" in 1979 and he based his assumptions
on five scientific articles by japanese researchers (Imanishi 1963, Kawai 1963 och 1965, Kawamura 1963 och Tsumori 1967). (Finally managed to do some research on it after I posted.) (it was based on research done with Macaques in Japan)

The Hundredth Monkey I think was some sort of "pop" version. The ethology book I mentioned previously apparently didn't make any conclusions --just that one young female started washing her food, then taught it to her offspring, and some of the others started copying her. Finally a fairly large percentage (not nearly all), some of which were not her descendants and had not been taught by her, were washing their food if it had sand on it. I probably made the conclusion &lt;G&gt;.

I do think that as the HT becomes more widely known and accepted that the need for training - the formal training that some of us have had - will be considerably lessened. Just exposure to the unit, plus the ability to watch others who use it and model those behaviors, will make it "easier" to use. I think the idea of an orientation "buddy" is a good one, though.
Pam

[BruceWright]

Yeah, on the monkeys, I think the Jungian "collective unconscious" pop version popularized by Keyes presumes an acultural transmission of knowlege from monkey to monkey. This would have been in vogue at the time, to propose an idea, any idea, to explain the transmission of knowlege other than by culture. It's the old humans-as-only-intelligent-species argument that has kept us from accepting that other animals have culture, make tools, communicate, etc.

Interesting that some folks would be ready to propose a psychic link between monkeys rather than admit to themselves that monkeys have a culture, and humans maybe aren't as special as we think!

-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream