For those of you who filed a claim in the Ch. 11 proceedings for a replacement battery, I received a call from Dana DeCosta at Vectrix Corp. today who told me to expect its arrival in about 3 weeks. Apparently, the Omni Group has finally authorized them to proceed with honoring these claims from the $2M set aside for that purpose, and they'll be shipping from the Gold Peak warehouses in Hong Kong soon.
If you live close to an authorized Vectrix dealer, the plan is to ship the battery there so that an authorized service rep can do the replacement. If not, he said that they'll be able to ship it directly to you and send a Vectrix rep to do the replacement on-site.
He sounded pretty excited to kick off this replacement program on the phone, and I'm just relieved that they're honoring this big warrantee claim. It will be nice to see how the new battery performance compares to the old one, which has almost 10,000 miles on it now.
BTW, he said on the phone that Vectrix would be honoring the remainder of my warrantee term. (That is, as long as the $2M set aside hasn't been exhausted, I assume.) So if you didn't file with Omni Group, there still may be a chance to get replacement parts and service under warrantee.
That is great news! Keep us fellow Americans (and worldwide Vectrix enthusiasts in the loop).
Adam - Denver, CO
2007 Vectrix VX-1 charged with the power of the sun = zero carbon footprint
Hello All,
I received the exact same phone call a week and a half ago. I was just getting ready to tear down my battery pack and replace the bad cells with used ones. So happy I will not have to do that now!
Hi, have a look at "europositron.com" , the finns new type of battery.
Regards
Got a quick status update from Dana DeCosta today. Apparently, my new replacement battery is still on the water shipping towards us. He was hoping they would send a few via air so they could speed things up but the weight of the batteries makes the cost for air freight high.
Also, he expects Vectrix will soon have all parts for the VX-1 available for dealers who sign new agreements. Right now there are just a couple of items (like batteries) in short supply.
Great news - thanks for the updates!
Okay, we're now past the 3 month milestone, which has exceeded even my most liberal interpretation of "about 3 weeks". The latest word is that Vectrix is in the process of assembling newly delivered battery modules into battery packs so Dana can personally start driving across the country on Monday, June 28th. He will be on the road for two weeks fixing bikes, and we may even be able to follow his progress on Facebook.
Well, I was watching 4th of July fireworks last night when I received a happy message from Dana DeCosta letting me know he had made it to Seattle and was ready to get down to business. He pulled up to my house in his heavily laden pick-up around 10am this morning, and we spent the next few hours swapping out my damaged battery and motor controller. I'm happy to report that the operation was a success, and I'm back on the road! He's got 5 batteries left that he'll be distributing to the remaining owners with Ch. 11 claims along the Pacific coast, so those folks should expect a call soon.
As an added bonus, he upgraded my firmware and my new top speed is 68mph!
Of course, I had to sign a release on my claim, but I did so happily. While I had some other out-of-pocket repairs through our local dealer that should have been covered under warranty, the motor controller failure happened after the claim deadline and I was just relieved that such a high-cost part was replaced at no cost to me.
He mentioned that most of the $2M set aside in the Ch. 11 settlement for warranty claims was still unspent, so folks with outstanding repairs that occurred before their warranty expiration date should call Vectrix ASAP to schedule service...even if you didn't file a Ch. 11 claim. They're using these funds to honor all existing warrany repairs, and what isn't spent will be returned to Hong Kong.
I wish they'd send some of it to Australia.
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There is always a way if there is no other way!
was having the same thought...mind you, mine hasn't missed a beat really. only 3200km though.
I just have to say I am so happy. Dana came up to my house in Maine 2x for repairs. The first was a replacement of the recharging unit. It had burnt out over the winter. He did this back in May and then on his second trip, he updated the software/firmware. All is well I am now riding my Vectrix happily. I also got the upgrade to 68mph. Great guy and I appreciate his efforts.
I completely agree. It's amazing how just one person who's going the extra mile (or thousands of miles, in this case) can have such a huge impact in customer satisfaction for a product. Dana genuinely loves these bikes, and after spending an hour or so with him you can't help but fall in love with yours all over again.
I have a new 2008 vx-1, do I need such upgrades with software/firmware like your bike got?
JOLT
Good question but that might be a question for Dana. I have a 2007 bike and was told I did not have the latest software when I bought the bike. Perhaps one way to check is do you have a delay for charging? Part of the software allows for a delay to charge the bike when plugged in. That could indicate latest software.
Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that everyone should have the latest firmware updates. That would include the Fall '08 major revision that added the pre-charge cooling delay, over-charging protection, and longer horn chirp delay, but also this latest revision to the motor controller firmware that Dana installed to raise the top speed to 68 mph (110 kph).
Getting that last update seems only possible from Dana at this point, though.
We might hear more about software incompatibility problems and bugs, though! You guys are the brave beta-testers!
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There is always a way if there is no other way!
Mik, surely a software upgrade wouldn't be released before all the bugs were ironed out?
Surely!
ROTFLMAO!
This information may be used entirely at your own risk.
There is always a way if there is no other way!