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[rick]

I emailed Zero asking about the new "Drive Motor Commissioning and Timing" maintenance requirement every 8,000 miles of 12 months for 2016 models.

I'm looking to possibly pull the trigger on a ZF13+Power Tank this year for my 80 mile commute. I'd prefer to do as much maintenance as possible at home due to the frequency my commute will require it to be performed and because my nearest Zero dealers is a good 4-1/2 hour round trip drive. If they can't do that while I wait then it's 9 hours of driving.

I was hoping they'd say that it would be okay to do it yearly or point to a class our instructions on how to perform it. Ideally with a Sevcon Hand Held Calibrator which is much cheaper to rent or buy than the full software.

Interestingly they told me that, "all service must be done at a Zero dealer to maintain warranty on the motorcycle."

The very first hit for that exact search phrase on Google says that tie-in sales provisions like that are illegal under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Another website explained it like this:

"Tie-In Sales" Provisions

Generally, tie-in sales provisions are not allowed. Such a provision would require a purchaser of the warranted product to buy an item or service from a particular company to use with the warranted product in order to be eligible to receive a remedy under the warranty. The following are examples of prohibited tie-in sales provisions.

In order to keep your new Plenum Brand Vacuum Cleaner warranty in effect, you must use genuine Plenum Brand Filter Bags. Failure to have scheduled maintenance performed, at your expense, by the Great American Maintenance Company, Inc., voids this warranty.

The 2016 Zero Owner's Manual seems to continue with that tie-in requirement, stating that the owner must, "use only Zero approved parts and Zero accessories" as well.

I read somewhere that all that would be okay if you Zero covered all the costs of all standard maintenance during the warranty period but, they  specifically exclude that on their warranty:

In addition, this Limited Warranty does not cover:
The cost of parts and labor involved in any routine care and maintenance [...]

So, (a) this makes me sad and (b) any thoughts about all this?

[Zen]

What does this required maintenance cost?

[MrDude_1]

Is it legal? No.

The problem is, who is going to be the first to push it with legal pressure to make them change their tune?

[MrDude_1]

So I just talked to my lawyer friend who specializes in lemon law and consumer law.  The perfect guy to talk to about all this.

We looked though the 2016 Zero S/SR/DS/DSR manual and couldnt find anythign stating "all service must be done at a Zero dealer to maintain warranty".

Can you find some written info about it? not just verbal...
If we can pull together some info on it, I can send it to him, and he'll either publish an article about it, or pass it on to his friend who writes about this stuff.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

This is just some customer service person taking defensive speaking too far.

Commissioning the motor/controller might require more than the vanilla Sevcon support because of proprietary firmware customizations that Zero makes. (It could even be specific for IPM motors) Or, even more subtly, if anything goes wrong, they don't want to be blamed when you've managed to make your own vehicle unrideable.

I say this as someone wanting to do this maintenance myself, but I appreciate a certain amount of caution here. Anyway, Zero tends to be generous with warrantee coverage, but Sevcon programming straddles that line. What I'd interpret this as is: "if you carelessly brick your bike and come crawling to us and we figure it out, you're paying for the fix".

[rick]

Nice!
The, "all service must be done at a Zero dealer to maintain warranty on the motorcycle" statement was not written in the Owner's Manual - only in the email sent to me by Zero. The only thing I noticed in the Owner's Manual was that, "use only Zero approved parts" which seemed to follow along with the tie-in requirement Zero mentioned in the email.

Hi Rick,
Thank you for contacting us with your interest in Zero Motorcycles.

I checked in with customer service and said that yes, all service must be done at a Zero dealer to maintain warranty on the motorcycle. It's important to get the latest software updates as well.  The battery life is performing even better than we have expected.  This is very important to the rider when your running very low on charge and the bike does not cut off unexpectedly before the display shows 0%.

Best regards,

[Name Withheld]
Zero Motorcycles, Inc.
Inside Sales
[Phone Withheld]
[Email Withheld]

I'm not sure if it's against forum rules to post the email and/or simply tacky with regards to calling out the specific Zero employee who wrote that statement.

[rick]

I completely agree that the maintenance needs to be done correctly and that this particular maintenance item may be too difficult for your average owner. On the other hand, reports on this forum from people watching the dealer perform this service say it only takes a couple of minutes and suggest that at least some dealers are just following written directions and may not have any deep understanding of what they're doing. So, it could also be really easy too.  ...It could go either way really. It does make the 2015's seem more valuable just to avoid this though.

I was more surprised by that blanket statement requiring all maintenance to be performed by a dealer to maintain warranty coverage.

[Kocho]

I have an '15 SR and the dealer recently did that sync for me (as part of a repair, but he mentioned it would have had to be done anyway soon, based on mileage). Although, it is not listed in the owners manual for the '15 S-SR-DS... I wonder if it is listed for '15 S and DS with the non-IPM motor? Can anyone check?

It does make the 2015's seem more valuable just to avoid this though.

[Richard230]

I have an '15 SR and the dealer recently did that sync for me (as part of a repair, but he mentioned it would have had to be done anyway soon, based on mileage). Although, it is not listed in the owners manual for the '15 S-SR-DS... I wonder if it is listed for '15 S and DS with the non-IPM motor? Can anyone check?

It does make the 2015's seem more valuable just to avoid this though.

I have never had that procedure performed on my 2014 S and it is still running fine. So perhaps it only applies to the new IPM motor.   

[rick]

Yeah, could be!
...So, Zero has not responded to my reply commenting that their, "all service must be done at a Zero dealer to maintain warranty" statement seems to be illegal based on Google searches and that I'd be very curious to hear their thoughts about all this.
I imagine their continuing silence as a big, "Oops!" 

[aaronzeromoto]

Rick,

As you have pointed out, the email from our inside sales person is incorrect. I will follow up with the person to address the error.

In general, I ask all our employees to NOT interpret the Limited Warranty or information in the Owner's Manual to avoid such errors.  It's also why I generally don't comment on these discussions online.  Instead, it is best to review the specific terms on our website here:

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/warranty/

Thank you for helping correct this.

Regards,
Aaron

[rick]

It seems like it may be a wider ranging issue at Zero since I was relayed that statement by Inside Sales from Customer Service. It's not like it's a new law or anything, it was enacted way back in 1975. Not to mention California's Song-Beverly Consumer
Warranty Act passed in 1970.

Pretty scary when you contact a vehicle manufacturer about scheduled maintenance and they immediately start making "incorrect" statements on warranty coverage.

Still, thanks for responding Aaron!
I's there any possibility of getting that service performed somewhere within reasonable driving distance or at home? 4-1/2 to 9 hours of hauling the bike to the nearest dealer every few months is probably a deal breaker for me.