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[aaronzeromoto]

Walla2,

Our Customer Service department has read your posts and wants to help you through this situation.  We are unsure which dealer you are working with and we can't match your forum profile to anything in our customer database.  Would you please send an email to service@zeromotorcycles.com and include the last 7 digits of your VIN and the dealer?  We are looking for this so we can get this resolved.

Sorry that you are having issues.

Regards,
aaronzeromoto

[walla2]

Funny.  Customer service calls just go to voicemail now.  My last email got "lost in a filter" and took 5 business days to reply to. 

I left a voicemail again today on my third call in.  I'll email again and see what happens.   I'm glad someone at Zero is, interested, but I just want a working bike back.  The dealer isn't doing anything because only 1 part has shipped in 2 months. 1 freaking part.  Lousy. 

[ctrlburn]

What i found, when Customer service was lacking.

Press 9 to dial by name (instead of 2 for "customer service")

Voicemail dials by firstname - "Aaron"   

Will reach the guy who wants to talk to you.

Even hitting directly to technical support - I dial by name to avoid the general mailbox.

[zap mc]

Your experience echoes my frustrations, there is something seriously wrong at Zero when they allow a customer to experience this level of poor service. They seem blind to that fact that a dissatisfied customer will typically tell 10 other people about their bad experience.
I put it down to the fact that they are not a proper company in a trading sense in that they don't operate at a profit and are financed by investment from the State and their financial backers Invus so there is no reason for them to worry about the company going bust because of low sales, unreliable products or bad service as they are just continually bankrolled regardless of how they perform. The products have become overly complicated to the
point where a simple diagnosis or rectification is hardly ever possible without a high level of technical knowledge which they do not willingly distribute.

[Richard230]

Zero may be having a problem with dealing with distance to their customers.  I have had very good service from Zero.  But then I live only about 70 miles away from the factory.  Twice in 2012 they sent a truck to my home, picked up by bike, took it to the factory and replaced a throttle assembly and later reprogrammed the computer to fix the "glitch".  Earlier this year they sent a technician to my dealer's service department and he spent two hours getting my power tank to work properly (when the dealer's technician couldn't) while I waited.  I suspect that they are much more focused on selling new bikes, rather than repairing sold ones.  If that is the case, I would agree that they are being "penny wise and pound foolish" - unless the plan is to sell the company relatively soon to some big outfit that wants to buy into the technology without needing to perform the R&D themselves. 

[peter]

zap, in this instance 10 may be an underestimate.

My experience (and okay, this is anecdote): There's lots of interest in the Zero (when it's on the road) but once people hear about how long it works vs how long it's been off the road, there's this - oh - response. And folks who've seen it over the year we've had it and are interested in motorcycles are now at the - well it seemed like a good idea, didn't it - stage.

Not great advertising.

Back on topic - walla2, any news?

Peter

[walla2]

The bike is still dead.  Over 3 months now and over 2 months in service.     

Zero called Monday and blamed the dealer for not ordering parts but the dealer says they have been waiting for parts.  Knowing that a month ago Zero said they were overnighting the BMS chips and had talked to my dealer doesn't give me a lot of confidence in what I've been told from corporate service at least in my case.  Corporate did apologize for all that is worth.  I told Zero to fix it by Friday or keep it.  Today is Friday and all I know is that my BMS chips finally arrived on Tuesday.   

Dead and unchargeable batteries for 3 months will likely hurt their range and longevity.  I am very concerned about this given that most of the cost of the bike is the battery.   I doubt that will be addressed at all by Zero or the dealer even though not charging voids the battery warranty . . .

 Everyone that knows I have the bike has asked where it is.  Saying the new bike has been in service for 3 months = zero more sales in my area.

[walla2]

BMS chips didn't fix it according to my conversation with the dealer.  Now supposedly new batteries and more boards are on the way but shipping Lithium is an issue that will slow things down.  Another week lost but maybe my damaged batteries will be replaced after all. 

[devoS]

I wanted to let Zero know that I was very tempted to buy the 2014 FX and was very close to heading over to the local cherry hill nj zero dealership. I was excited about the low maintenance promise of the bike as advertised and I planned to keep it inside my loft condo at night plugging it in and riding it during the day to work in Philadelphia. However after reading through this forum and this topic specifically I feel reliability and excellent customer support are lacking. I hope you take the issue of word of mouth seriously and improve your product and service.

[dkw12002]

Hard to say. I have 7300 miles on my 2013 S and after a year have only had one issue...a turn signal solenoid that needed replacement. That was a 2-day repair since they had to get the part from Zero. They did have the recall for new firmware and the dealer/owner picked up the bike in the morning from my house, did the recall work that day and returned it to my house that evening. So my bike has been dependable and dealer service has been excellent.

Don't give up on Zero. You might consider a demo if you have/or can find a good dealer. At least then you know the bike works and you might get it for a better price too. That's what I bought. Mine had 255 miles on it...(a few of those miles were mine from test-riding it). What I like about the bike is no warming it up, it is light and FAST, has a little storage, and doesn't overheat in bumper to bumper traffic in hot Texas summer.  I'm too short for an FX, or I might have got that model.

No reason you couldn't take the bike inside to charge it if there are no stairs and you can get it through the doors of your condo without too much trouble.  Nothing could leak except brake fluid and there's no gas smell for sure.

[oregonrider89]

This is an interesting thread about the level of service and communication from dealer to Zero and vice versa.

My own experience as a three-year Zero owner has been very good. I have had problems with the motorcycle including some downtime but Zero has been fantastic in resolving issues and being very supportive with parts even after my warranty expired. The caveat for me has been that I did all the repair work myself as I am not near a dealer. I don't have any advanced electronics knowledge, actually no electronics knowledge at all, but the repairs have all been easy to do. All correspondence with Zero was through email and a few phone calls. I have to say 9.5/10 on the support directly from Zero. I have 16,000 miles on my 2010 DS.

My experience with the nearest dealer has been negative, even to the point that the salespeople were derogatory about electric motorcycles when I called to ask about the new models. I get the impression that this "idiocy" is pretty common with dealerships judging by what I see on the forums (other than a few like Hollywood electrics and Mission in SF) and I feel that dealer service departments lack the commitment to actually learn enough about the motorcycles to be able to repair them. That is just my opinion, however. I had a single experience with "my" dealer trying to work with Zero and it went nowhere, that seems to be a common problem.

When it comes time to buy another electric I will likely choose Zero (they need standard level 2 charging before that happens) but I really do not want to through a dealer to get it unless I have to. If Tesla can sell direct why couldn't Zero do it too? I think the dealer system is archaic and it can hurt sales and maybe even service as much as it helps.

I think most Zero owners are extremely happy with their motorcycles and they accept that there could be a few bumps along the way.

Oregonrider89

[walla2]

I'd love to love my Zero, but its been broken longer than functional.  I really hope I can get a working bike and enjoy it again.  The idea of having every component replaced sounds like I bought a refurbished bike and not a new one though and the time in service is or at least can be ridiculously slow.  If it starts working,  I'll accept the refurbished bike back but with less than 100 miles on it again this seems a bit much to have had done and the lack of urgency in tracking this repair is something that needs to change. 

[firepower]

They should also extend your warranty for the time itvtaken to fix it.

[walla2]

69 days in service today and 90 days since the bike died and it remains in service.  My dealer is still waiting on parts. 

No other contact or update from Zero.  Zilch.  Over two weeks since I complained heavily to Zero and still no progress on the repair. 

I really don't see what else I can do except wait further or seek counsel.

[WindRider]

Sorry to hear that you are still down walla2.

This seems really odd to me that it could possibly take that long to troubleshoot and solve a battery problem on an FX5.7.   The battery modules with embedded BMS can be removed from the bike in seconds.   There are 2 of them so it should be really easy to tell if the problem is from the battery module or the bike.   

If the problem is in the battery module Zero should have swapped out the whole module by now and just fixed it for the customer.