Posted by Scot Guariglia on the Struggleville Blog
December 05, 2009 at 05:34 AMI bought a XM-3500 electric scooter from X-TREME SCOOTERS for $3000 this spring of 2009. Upon delivery I found a vibration in the front wheel and an electrical problem producing no tail light or license plate light at night unless the breaks are applied. This of course makes it totally illegal and unsafe on both accounts as there is no rear lighting at all when the bike is in operation. The bike can be used during the day if not going to fast especially in corners as the front vibration could lead to lack of traction. The switch for the lights has to be in the off position or the bike will not run at all because it will be put in park mode otherwise. It is strange that the front headlights work with the light switch in the off position and this is the only way the bike will operate at all.
To make a long story short it is December and no issues have been resolved. After making tickets, and waiting for responses on and on they have had me take the bike apart three times to keep sending photos of wiring connectors after they delete the ones already sent while I wait for parts. For the last month and a half they have had excuse after excuse or just done nothing while telling me they will send a new wiring harness that never gets sent to resolve the problem. They have pointed out that if you have a ticket they will delete it out in a month no matter if anything has been resolved or not. They have sent a few parts earlier in the year but changing them out did nothing to resolve any issues. Now they do nothing. ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR TAKING LEGAL ACTION against X-TREME scooters would be appreciated. Their warranty has been useless.
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December 05, 2009 at 05:44 AMThe XM-3500 electric scooter when tested with a GPS unit on flat ground with no wind will top out at 39.5 MPH or so. They advertised 55 MPH but when topped out going 39.5 MPH the speedometer shows 46 MPH. X-TREME SCOOTERS and the manufacturer of the XM-3500 are misleading the public on these specifications which is critical criteria for purchasing the unit. I bought it to replace a Honda Rebel thinking it would save gas and maintenance. Thanks to misrepresentation I have been let down on all accounts. ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR TAKING LEGAL ACTION AGAINST X-TREME SCOOTERS WILL BE WELCOME!
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December 22, 2009 at 06:45 PMUpdate from previous posts:
X-Treme Scooters is now working with me to determine the problem with the XM-3500 I bought from them. They sent a wiring harness which I replaced to see if the unending lighting problem could be resolved. Installing the harness took about seven hours and by the time it was done the temperature had fallen from 40 degrees to 28, that was a long day! Well now I have tail lights, in fact they all work now but the bike will not run at all. X-Treme scooters have now promised to come and pick up the bike and either repair it if possible or send a new one. I live five hours from them but there is no other option. SO THINGS ARE LOOKING UP.
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February 20, 2010 at 04:50 PMX-Treme Scooters picked up my XM-3500 electric scooter Jan. 14th. I called them three weeks later to learn they have not looked at it yet. Called again five weeks from the pick up to learn they don't know when they will be able to look at it. It's been ten months and I still don't have a scooter that is legal on the road as advertised! Do you know it costs $187 in Illinois to get that certificate they give you exchanged for a title? This scooter cost me $2999 plus shipping, it is not a toy. So I think of the insurance and plate cost all down the drain also. It's BBB time folks.
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Thank you Scot for your information, and good luck! Sounds like they're trying to push the repairs way outside any warranty timeline and/or make it so inconvenient for you that you'll just stop "bothering" them about it. I've seen this happen many, many times.
In the final weeks of me as an Authorized Dealer having to deal with X-Treme Scooters, when I couldn't get them to acknowledge my complaints about their lack of customer service, parts, or even just giving a damn, I issued several payment disputes with PayPal against them. THAT got X-Treme's full attention! Apparently, if a business gets enough disputes against them, PayPal will revoke their ability to send/receive payments, effectively stopping their only flow of money. I was able to get refunds back to my customers buy using this tactic, but in exchange, X-Treme removed me from their Dealers' List:
One more dispute on my PayPal account, and your dealership account with us to sell our product will be terminated immediately.
...and attempted to have my website removed (as well as everyone else on my host's UK server) by filing a Copyright Infringement complaint (because their pictures were still on my site). They also went after my YouTube pages and tried to get them shut down.
So for those of you still having problems with API / X-Treme Scooters / Green Max Distributors Inc - I would suggest you take full legal actions when you can, pay only through PayPal and file disputes WHEN X-Treme fails to address problems, and watch your back for retaliation if you're a Dealer.
For anyone who may think this is slander, I have saved ALL emails to and from X-Treme, PayPal, and have records for all my customers' transactions and emails dating back to March 2007 for any legal eagles who may have a problem with me.
There is one person who can put enough pressure on API to fix your scooter in a timely manner and that is Mountain Chen. Perhaps you should take your problem directly to him?
Mountain Chen He is the president of ZAP EV the manufacturer of X-Treme. He appears to be very sensitive to problems with his product being resolved quickly.