I think this organisation could do with producing info for "normal" bike shops explaining that e-bikes are not impossible to service, and also providing points of contact for obtaining spare parts. The LBS did charge slightly extra for labour but I accepted this due to the slight differences involved. I did feel that the repair could have been done in quicker than 3 days as I've usually had 1-2 day service on my unpowered pushbikes but as I said I think they were overloaded with e-bike repairs due to the intransigence of other businesses.
IMO there must be a very strong emphasis on timely and accessible customer service. These machines are premium priced and increasingly younger people will be using them as replacements for motor vehicles and will expect acceptable levels of service from their dealers - such as 6/7 day week opening hours, real humans picking up telephones and responding to emails within hours or a day at maximum, and when stuff is put in for repair providing the correct paperwork and giving accurate timescales..
Of course I'm not advocating one person constantly does 12 hour days 7 days a week; it would be unhealthy and they will burn out - but there needs to be adequate resources behind the sales.
I've noticed from personal experience and anecdotes on here the industry seems to have the resource to gain new business but slack off on after sales service, and often high profile manufacturers representatives (such as Norman of Wisper or Wai Won Ching) are clearing up things dealers should have sorted out much quicker, often because the customer has got so exasperated they have gone public with the full details of their problems.
I am having to do a lot of the work in sourcing spares myself. Now I have been in the electronics and IT industries for nearly 20 years and am an engineer at heart so I am able to do this, but this is going to put off non techies. And in areas without shops who will openly, willingly and quickly repair ebikes it limits their appeal to older couples or people with large cars to transport the machines back and forth to dealers (which defeats some of the object of having an ebike in the first place..)
It worries me that here are a lot of British companies with good products, who have a potential opportunity to make thousands of pounds worth of sales in a potential brief respite from the recession (just a few months before the doom and gloom gets worse), but without the customer service the opportunity will be missed and not come back.
At present as much as I enjoy riding mine, I wouldn't recommend a friend got an e-bike unless they were mechanically minded, especially here where there is a lack of dealers.
I'm in the curious position where I've got the money to buy a Wisper 905SE City but haven't found anyone who can both sell and support it, so I am loath to spend the money as yet as I could see any teething problems or even just getting servicing becoming a long drawn out nightmare... I'm almost regretting moving away from SE England/London despite the traffic!
IMO there must be a very strong emphasis on timely and accessible customer service. These machines are premium priced and increasingly younger people will be using them as replacements for motor vehicles and will expect acceptable levels of service from their dealers - such as 6/7 day week opening hours, real humans picking up telephones and responding to emails within hours or a day at maximum, and when stuff is put in for repair providing the correct paperwork and giving accurate timescales..
Of course I'm not advocating one person constantly does 12 hour days 7 days a week; it would be unhealthy and they will burn out - but there needs to be adequate resources behind the sales.
I've noticed from personal experience and anecdotes on here the industry seems to have the resource to gain new business but slack off on after sales service, and often high profile manufacturers representatives (such as Norman of Wisper or Wai Won Ching) are clearing up things dealers should have sorted out much quicker, often because the customer has got so exasperated they have gone public with the full details of their problems.
I am having to do a lot of the work in sourcing spares myself. Now I have been in the electronics and IT industries for nearly 20 years and am an engineer at heart so I am able to do this, but this is going to put off non techies. And in areas without shops who will openly, willingly and quickly repair ebikes it limits their appeal to older couples or people with large cars to transport the machines back and forth to dealers (which defeats some of the object of having an ebike in the first place..)
It worries me that here are a lot of British companies with good products, who have a potential opportunity to make thousands of pounds worth of sales in a potential brief respite from the recession (just a few months before the doom and gloom gets worse), but without the customer service the opportunity will be missed and not come back.
At present as much as I enjoy riding mine, I wouldn't recommend a friend got an e-bike unless they were mechanically minded, especially here where there is a lack of dealers.
I'm in the curious position where I've got the money to buy a Wisper 905SE City but haven't found anyone who can both sell and support it, so I am loath to spend the money as yet as I could see any teething problems or even just getting servicing becoming a long drawn out nightmare... I'm almost regretting moving away from SE England/London despite the traffic!
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