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[ZeroHopeful]

2014 SR - no luck

Why, no luck?

From June 21 to June 27 - I tried to purchase a new 2014 SR from two different California dealerships
-but- a few questions needed answers before I went forward.
Both dealerships pre-sale customer service was poor to horrible.
A call to Zero customer service on June 27 proved fruitless.

June 21, Dealer 1: I asked about a possible option/accessory on Sat, June 21. I was informed it would take a few business days for an answer. After 3 business days (Jun 25, Wed), I queried another dealer.

June 25, Dealer 2: On Wed morning, I asked via e-mail for an estimate. Within one hour I was provided an Estimate = $18.1k (approx). Within one hour, I replied with the following as I wanted to verify the estimate:
~~~~~~~
2014 SR without Power Tank
Any luck with the following questions:
1. Yes or No to: $18,107.80 total cost? (based on an 8.225% Fresno sales tax).
2.  If I ordered a 2014 SR today, when would it be ready for pickup?
3.  To order - Required deposit is how much?
4.  Power tank cost is how much?
5.  Cashiers check OK?
~~~~~~~

Dealer 2:
Thu, Jun 26 (day 2): no response
Fri, Jun 27 (day 3): no response as of 0800 aprrox
Followup via e-mail send about 0800 Fri.
About 1300, still no response.
1300, telephone call placed - I was informed he was out-to-lunch. I asked that my contact return my telephone call or e-mail me. Business Response: Please call back in an hour. My response: It would be better that he contact me.

About 1330, still no response from Dealer 1 (5 days) or Dealer 2 (3 days).

Fri, 1330 - I called Zero. They are approx 150 miles from me, thus the same time zone.
Customer service response to both dealership ‘no-service’ issues was: It’s a busy time of the year for the dealers. My response - Good luck, I now know Zero feels business is very good and doesn’t need my business.

Fri, 1400 - I sent three e-mails stating I was no-longer interested to [1] Dealer 1, Cc Zero, [2] Dealer 2, Cc Zero, and  [3] Zero.

Note: Today, July 2 (Tue), Dealer 1 sent me an e-mail. It stated in part- Sorry, I was unavailable the past 7 business days. Are there any other questions? My response - No Thanks.

Good news, I still have my $$$.
Not ever owning a Zero, the best I can offer is: I think Zero has a good to great product, closer to great than good.
          
Question: Whatever happened to reasonable customer service?
Question: Don’t businesses employ the ‘Pickle Principle’ anymore e.g. answer queries in a reasonable period of time?

Summary: A Zero turned out to be a big Zero for me.

This forum, for the short time I was a member, I enjoyed all that was offered.
Thread ‘2014 or 2015' - lots of great knowledge.

Time to look for something else.

Good luck and Thanks to all.

[Justin Andrews]

And dealers wonder why Tesla wants to avoid the dealership model all together...

[Mike Werner]

That's more or less my experience here in France, but in this case it was both dealer and Zero France who failed me. I was much more patient, 5 month patience until that ran out. And you're right, they have a great product, but because I guess they need to use mostly mom & pop dealers without extensive support mechanisms things take longer.

Today I ordered by BMW C Evolution, the electric scooter. Things went very smooth, and hopefully I'll be riding away with it on Saturday. That is order on Wednesday, delivery Saturday. Big change with Zero. I would have preferred the Zero, but the C Evolution is a pretty awesome bike as well.

[ZeroHopeful]

Thread ‘2014 or 2015' mentioned Zero’s believed business plan was likely price.

Maybe - Sell direct as Tesla does (Justin Andrews, Thanks for the reminder).

Dealership deafness - One dealers antics is a fluke. A second with similar antics is a pattern.
-and- when Zero falls into step, Zero solidifies the pattern.

After the second dealer fail, I thought I should try with the third and last California dealer.
I also thought about a road trip to Portland, Oregon or even Vegas. Nope, not doing it.

I hope Zero is listening.
Customers - are speaking with their pocketbooks - it’s as it should be, should always be.

With Mike Werner’s post, that’s two lost sales.  A rarity - Zero now knows the real why.
Two lost sales - lost profit is what?  Who owns the company?

Zero needs to immediately redirect - to focus solely on ‘real customer service’.
Here’s a novel approach - Focus on real customer service -and- sales will follow.

CEO, Mr. Richard Walker - are you listening???

Final thought - Mike Werner, I, and many more believe in your product.
The fix is simple - MAKE  IT  HAPPEN or fail.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll rethink my position in 2015. Maybe I’ll think about trying again -or- Brutus V9 is starting to look attractive.

To all, Safe riding.
Always Keep the dirty side down.

[Richard230]

 I agree that Zero's dependence upon established IC motorcycle retailers is risky and some of you are seeing the results of that decision.  When I bought my two Electric Motorsport GPR-S bikes a couple of years ago, EMS was first selling the bikes to customers themselves, when that became a hassle for them they shifted to letting a (very) small mom and pop shop in my area sell the bikes for them.  A year later the independent shop went out of business and EMS stopped selling production DOT road-ready electric motorcycles and is now only selling kits to DIY customers.

Just being a manufacturer and distributor makes life much easier for you by letting the retail dealer handle all of the hard work dealing with customers, warranty, reliability, parts, service and related issues.  But for a new company producing and marketing a brand new technology, that carries a lot of risk.  Fortunately, my dealer, Mission Motorcycles in Daly City, and of course Hollywood Electric in the LA area, both seem to have the knowledge and enthusiasm to sell and service Zeros (although getting replacement parts from Zero remains an issue for their parts department), but that appears to be the exception in the motorcycle sales business.  Most established IC motorcycle retail shops really didn't (and you wouldn't expect them to) know what they were getting into when they took on the sales of Zeros as they had no experience with the technology.  Likely they thought they could just sell them like a refrigerator and never have to service and maintain them.  Now they are learning that is not really the case and some dealers are getting cold feet about the whole idea.

I think Zero may have tried to expand their dealerships too fast by using dealers with no EV experience and not having enough factory staff to support them.  I know that my BMW dealer realized early on that they didn't want to sell electric motorcycles because they didn't understand the technology and were not convinced that it was a good business plan at this time.  They intend to let the market simmer for a few years before rethinking the whole EV idea. I think they were relieved when BMW decided to not market the C Evolution scooter in the U.S.

Perhaps it is time for Zero to consider spending some real money on educating and training their dealers' sales people and service technicians about how to market, service and maintain their motorcycles.

[Justin Andrews]

Richard, I totally agree with you.

Basically mechanics are going to need to become electrical engineers, and that is not going to occur overnight.

[Electric Terry]

ZeroHopeful, sorry to hear of your troubles.  Most of us on this forum have purchased our Zero's from Harlan at Hollywood Electrics.  He can give you the answers on the spot because he knows his stuff.  The only motorcycles his dealership sells are Zero Motorcycles.  He's been the #1 Zero dealer worldwide every year for good reason.  Give him a call and I'll bet you'll have your Zero at your door within 2 weeks and be having the time of your life on it.  The rest of us do!

Here's the info:
Hollywood Electrics
901 N Fairfax Ave
West Hollywood, CA
323-654-8271

I look forward to your post in a couple weeks on your new SR!



edit: I just realized that you may or may not have tried to contact them while the Hollywood Electrics team was at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Race (http://www.ppihc.com/).  Almost the whole team was there the last few days of June and first couple days of July, or about the time you mentioned.  If that was the case, you will need to be understanding that this occurs once a year and the remaining staff at the shop is way overloaded that week, and the other 51 weeks of the year it's not that hectic.

Read this article from Motorcycle.com posted ironically the same day you posted this thread, July 2nd:  http://blog.motorcycle.com/2014/07/02/events/jeff-clark-fastest-electric-motorcycle-pikes-peak-year

I would suggest calling again if you did while the team was in Colorado, and ask for Harlan and he will answer your questions and take care of you.

[Harlan]

Hello ZeroHopeful.

I'm sorry to hear you've had a poor experience with Zero thus far. I've scanned our emails for the last several weeks and see no record of an email requesting a quote for an SR from anyone unknown so I don't believe we were one of the dealerships you tried to contact.

If you are still interested in a quote, we'd be happy to provide one for you. You can email me directly at harlan (at) hollywoodelectrics.com. You can also reach us at the shop at 323-654-8271. We're closed on Mondays but you can leave us a voicemail and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

We have many customers worldwide and have much experience shipping bikes so lets get the ball rolling on getting you a bike!

Best regards,

Harlan

[trikester]

Just contact Harlan and start riding a Zero! 

I was with the team at Pikes Peak and I was teasing Harlan because he was on his phone and e-mail day and night. I probably even suggested that he have it surgically implanted in his hand.  I'm confident that had you called or e-mailed him you would have had a reply soon after, but if you contacted his store during that time period then those guys holding down the fort might have been overwhelmed in the guru's absence.

I waited 105 weeks for my first Zero 2010 DS (factory direct in those early days) and was prepared to lose my $500 deposit if this new company, that no one had heard of, went under while I was waiting. The wait was well worth it and since that first DS I've owned a 2012 DS, a 2013 FX, and a Zero Powertrain equipped custom trike.

Trikester

[WindRider]

I have purchased 2 Zeros now (12 DS and 13 FX) and I have gotten excellent local service from my local dealer, Big Twin BMW Zero.   I would have not purchased any Zero motorcycles if I did not have confidence in the local dealer.   It is a new technology and when things go wrong I want to know that someone local is going to be there for me.   

I have had one problem in almost 10 K miles of Zero riding now and my local dealer and Zero both took care of the issue quickly.  I did overhear a phone conversation between the local service person and Zero HQ where my local service rep was insisting that the warranty part is shipped right now, not tomorrow and definitely not next week.  I got the impression that if the local dealer was not pushing the issue Zero HQ would respond a lot slower. 

My own experiences with either calling or emailing Zero have been terrible.   I have left several VMails and emails to Zero Support and only got one return call and that was several days later.  All emails that I have sent to Zero Support have gone unanswered.    There is no point in sending email to them, they don't answer them.   I will never bother attempting to call or email Zero again as it has proven to be a waste of time. 

My impression of Zero factory support from my own experiences is that they are laid back California surfer dudes who don't really want to be bothered with pesky customers.   

If Zero did not have a dealer network in place I would not be riding Zeros and I feel sorry for anyone who has to rely on the Zero factory for support. 

If you are close to a good dealer, Zero motorcycles are a great product.   

I would echo the other comments in regards to Hollywood Electrics as well.  Harlan really knows his products and market and he delivers excellent support and Service so if you live near Hollywood Electrics you are in good hands.   

[scZero]

My own experiences with either calling or emailing Zero have been terrible.   I have left several VMails and emails to Zero Support and only got one return call and that was several days later.  All emails that I have sent to Zero Support have gone unanswered.    There is no point in sending email to them, they don't answer them.   I will never bother attempting to call or email Zero again as it has proven to be a waste of time. 

My impression of Zero factory support from my own experiences is that they are laid back California surfer dudes who don't really want to be bothered with pesky customers.   

If Zero did not have a dealer network in place I would not be riding Zeros and I feel sorry for anyone who has to rely on the Zero factory for support. 

If you are close to a good dealer, Zero motorcycles are a great product.   

I would echo the other comments in regards to Hollywood Electrics as well.  Harlan really knows his products and market and he delivers excellent support and Service so if you live near Hollywood Electrics you are in good hands.   

I had the same experience with Z's customer service when dealing with my 2010 glitch issue.  No calls returned that were promised from CS.  Luckily I live only 10 miles from their Scotts Valley home base.  So I ended up just stopping by and asking for CS personally.  Honestly, when you speak to them personally face to face they're very very helpful and want to do everything they can to help.  I passed on the feedback I've been seeing about poor CS responses and the CS agent replied back that they are understaffed and try to get back timely to the customers.  I made it quite clear that its giving a very bad impression to the customer as if Zero just didn't care and that itself can multiply its effect very fast in a negative way by word of mouth which is the best advertising.   Unfortunately after that discussion I had the same response from CS, no responses after calling.  Note that I was contacting the same person over and over.  I have heard from those on this forum that they had a successful CS experience and that the rep was very helpful and prompt.  So it may be a person by person thing depending on each individual work load and availability.  At any rate, I'll keep reminding them of the CS response issue and start to escalate it further up the ladder.

As for Hollywood Electrics I've heard nothing but great things about the company and Harlan and the feedback in this thread as well as Harlan's response is very professional as well as appreciated.  So I have no doubt he'll do everything in his power to get you what you need from Zero.  Its the next best thing to living 10 miles from Zero's home base   I also find it very cool that Harlan races these bikes, pushes them to their limits and then some, and provides Zero feedback.  Zero actually commented that they find this input valuable and making the bikes better for future generations. Lastly its awesome seeing Harlan making aftermarket kits/upgrades, like the SuperMoto Wheel setup.  Most importantly taking the time to make the CNC caliper relocation bracket that's truly custom.  Also if you need your forks/shocks modified to suit your needs, he's the guru to ask and send them out to.  The 2013 Zero FX front forks come to mind here since I feel their quite underpar for serious offroading and when your front wheelies return to earth and landing hard.