Lift Servicing Victim

We have an Aritco lift, installed 2012.  It has been unreliable, despite expensive 'servicing'.  Recently the lift has cost me £3000 + in 'engineer' visits culminating in replacement of the main U5 control board - unnecessary I believe.  The lift packed in again and could not be re-set.  In desperation, I removed the main panel in the lift only to discover the problem for myself - batteries (2).  Both were covered in dust, one more so than the other.  The dustier one's coating of dust matched the 2012 dust elsewhere behind the panel (see pictures below).  Clearly, just one battery had been replaced some years ago.  I now know these lead/acid batteries last for 2 1/2 years or so - not for 11 years!

I shall 'service' the lift myself in future if I know that somebody honest and knowledgeable is at the end of a smartphone as back-up. 

For years now the lift has been 'serviced' by E.A.Foulds Ltd of Colne.  For the past two annual service visits I have told the service man that the lift beeps annoyingly when in use.  "Oh, all Aritco's do that" was the stock reply.  

I now know that the beeping noise is a warning that the batteries need replacing.   If they are not replaced the circuitry eventually slips into another mode and stops the lift working at all.  That is precisely what was happening with our lift.  Below are the old batteries as I removed them from the lift.  The one on the left is heavily coated in dust and was totally dead.  The one on the right is old but obviously newer.  It had life in it.  They are each 12 volt batteries, connected in series = 24 volts if both are good.

Why, you may ask, does a lift require 24v batteries?  They give sufficient power to lower the lift to the floor level immediately below to enable release in the event of a power cut.

Second picture shows the batteries in situ.  The lighting is poor but you can just discern the dust on the left hand battery.  The dust on the horizontal rail below the battery box is clear.

Third picture shows a sample battery, Yuasa make - original 12v, 3.2 Amp hours, battery.  Easily obtainable still.  Two cost me £34.82p online, delivered next day.  The probably unnecessary 'repair' cost around one hundred times as much.

Googling the problem I discovered, too late, that lift servicing is wide open to exploitation, of the elderly especially of course.  Service intervals of six months are the norm - those batteries are good for 2 1/2years remember?  Those six months are a gift to the industry.  Service charges are extortionate.  Repair charges even more so.  Hourly rates for 'lift engineers' would make a solicitor blush.  They must be accompanied by a second person 'for health and safety' - a 'service engineer' on a lesser hourly rate.  Mileage charges must assume the use of Bugattis or similar, including depreciation.