Hi all,
I'm reaching for other European owners feedback/opinion on how Vectrix Europe has given (not?) them after sales support.
As some of you may have read on a couple of other threads here, I've had the infamous throttle calibration problem, to the point of not only loosing the "GO" status but also to have experienced unwanted acceleration, something I knwo for sure NHTSA would love to hear about a bike being sold in the USA...
Trying to summarize it as much as I can:
1) I noticed I had a problem with the bike exiting "GO" right on the first week after buying it new, this September;
2) Some time after I sometimes could not get "READY" at all, so I cried for help to my dealer and to my Vectrix importer;
3) The bike got really dangerous, stalling at intersections, failing full throttle accelerations to overtake, etc;
4) Some weeks after report I'm asked by the importer to go take a memory dump from the bike at my dealer, to be sent to Vectrix Europe;
5) Over another week later Vectrix Europe still had not given any feedback to my importer, so I complained directly to Vectrix Europe;
6) My dealer and my importer are "left out on the cold", with no word from Vectrix, the importer suspects on the throttle;
7) After telling about the unintended acceleration events to my importer, they finally send the new throttle parts to replace last week;
8) Up till now I still know nothing about the memory dump, or anything else from Vectrix Europe, who was totally absent AFAIK.
As you can imagine I'm not impressed with Vectrix Europe, and this is a serious understatement!
From my search here on this site, I've come to found that:
1) Improper throttle calibration can cause the full throttle/regeneration "out of GO" and missing "READY" events as proved here on numerous threads;
2) At least KingCharles was assisted last year by his importer Escini with Vectrix Europe recommending a new throttle, so they know the problem exists;
I cannot believe Vectrix after-sales support knows less about its own bikes than visforvoltage forum members do. I cannot believe that Vectrix Europe when hearing about a bike that:
1) stalls at random;
2) stalls upon full acceleration;
3) sometimes can't even show the READY steady, less alone the GO;
4) starts to lock on accelerate even if the throttle handle is released.
I cannot believe it does not suspect there is a serious problem with the throttle. Even worse, I sent some videos proving that my bike was not behaving correctly, I sent some videos showing I had to turn the throttle a bit into regeneration to get the READY on display (see http://www.youtube.com/user/jmmp00)... what else did they need?
Why has Vectrix Europe just sit still while a Vectrix owner (me) was complaining, and why did they not assist the importer Masac?
Is this normal? Have you experienced something similar already?
There is another user in Portugal claiming the theory/thesis that Masac is the importer and Vectrix has nothing to do with it.
He claims Masac has to solve the problem, not Vectrix. I don't agree. If Masac needs help, it should be able to get it.
What do you all think? What is your current experience with Vectrix Europe, and how do you rate what I've just told you?
Thanks in advance.
-jp
I think it is the importer who can make the difference.
I believe Escini has sold quite some bikes so may have (had at the time of my problem) some leverage at Vectrix Europe.
Also what I read between the lines is that Vectrix Europe and Vectrix USA are growing apart. And I guess this is what is causing the service degradation in Europe. There is probably too much internal hassle to deal with and no time left to take care of customers...
Vectrix has been notorious in not being able to deliver spare parts though, so maybe you just need to wait before the throttle assembly arrives.
Once you go EV, Gas is history!
I bought my Vectrix in France in March 2009, since then I'm waiting for a piece of body that had been scratched during delivery. The situation in France is not clear, there is no official and serious importer, only a few dealers and all of them have to cope with scooters waiting for spare parts for ages.
Escini has bring more trouble in our landscape than solutions during their short presence. Some dealers have paid for parts and never get delivered...
There is no after sale service in France to make it short.
Le site des utilisateurs français (The French user's website) http://www.vectrix.fr/
I completely agree.
In spain there's a solid importer, goingreen.
My personal experience with them is really good.
I have a 2009 Vectrix since May 2011 and I can say that my opinion on Vectrix Germany is very good. I needed some spareparts because of an accident and in august I bought a new charger from them. They are delivering very fast, it took only two days after calling and I had my new charger here :-)
If you have any (technical) questions, just call and you get professional support.
There's only one thing they could make better. I would appreciate if they would deliver software updates via the "VIP update kit" for people living not in reach of a Vectrix dealer. This would not only save time and money, it would make the Vectrix a bit greener, too. In my case they wanted to send a tecnician from Berlin to my place (~500km * 2 = ~1000km) wasting diesel for making a software update after changing the charger.... :-/