Addmotor Tricycle Nightmare Experience

[atrikeowner]

Hello! I'm new-ish to the e-bike/e-trike experience. My friend bought an e-bike and it looked really cool but also seemed like it would be dangerous in the winter and I want to commute year round with an e-something so after looking around I bought the Addmotor Motan M-350 tricycle. I placed the order around July/August 2021, it arrived sometime in November/December 2021.

I put the wheel on, wheeled it out to my garage, and stored the battery inside until around February. We had a really nice day so I decided to try my commute. I got 3 miles in and my pedal fell off and the trike controller died. I went back and forth with Addmotor, they sent me a new controller, I put that on, that lasted around a day and that died. I went back and forth with Addmotor again, they offered to ship my trike back to them and do a warranty repair. This was in May or June. At this point I've paid $3,000 for a tricycle that I've ridden for around 3 miles. I ship it back to them, they tell me they've replaced the motor and the head unit, keep in mind this tricycle has already had a controller replaced so the only thing that hasn't been replaced is the battery. They ship it back to me.

I received it last week, I want to say Tuesday or Wednesday, and put the trike together only to have it say Error 25. I email my support ticket with Addmotor, they say "don't worry, it means a brake is loose." I fidget with the brakes, now I'm no longer getting an Error 25. I do some riding around... the Pedal Assist doesn't work at all, it registers 0 Watts and I can't hear the motor kick in, the throttle mode doesn't work reliably often erroring out with an Error 21 which I can clear by turning it off and back on, and sometimes, randomly, the whole thing just dies and I have to turn the battery off and back on again. It has been roughly a year since I ordered this thing and I want my money back or I want a tricycle that just works.

Is this the typical experience with e-trike manufacturers?
Do I have any form of recourse?

I financed it with Affirm and it's now paid off, I'm worried I've lost more leverage to get a fix by doing the right thing and paying my financing off. Addmotor support is still responsive, but where they used to respond within a day they are now responding within 2. I won't be satisfied until every feature on this tricycle works as it should work and works reliably, that includes the throttle only mode, the pedal assist mode, the brakes, and the battery fully charging overnight.

 

[Solarcabin]

I think at that point I would tell admotor you want a full refund and take their ebike back.

You can threaten a small claims action in your state and filing fee is usually under $100.

How much you can ask for varies by state but in my state it is up to $10k.

Usually just threatening small claims case will get a dealer to refund because they can't send a lawyer to fight it and would cost more than the ebike to defend in court.

Good luck!

 

[dodgeman]

I would ask for a refund also. Small claims court? Lots of luck there, you will probably win but will never collect. No judge is going to drive to their office to collect and they just won’t pay.

 

[atrikeowner]

I want to update this. I've asked AddMotor for a refund or a new tricycle. They're refusing either. They've stated that "when they received the tricycle some bare wires on the motor wire showing and that's not typically covered under warranty and they've already made an exception by fixing the motor." The problem is the wires were like that when I received the trike so I guess my bad for not documenting that within 14 days? Like I'm an expert? Even with the wires like that the trike worked for 3 miles until, I'm guessing, water from melted snow got on those wires on my first real ride outside of my parking lot.

 

[ganther5000]

good luck buddy ! amd welcome

192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1​

 

[atrikeowner]

good luck buddy ! amd welcome

192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1​

Thanks! I took some time off from work to contact AddMotor over the phone today. The gentleman I spoke to told me he would talk to the support person I'm working with but apparently its in her hands whether I get a refund, a replacement trike, or not. I explained to him that I've been working with her for 6 months, including sending the tricycle in, and she obviously isn't resolving the issues I'm having because even if the error codes go away, the trike could still potentially randomly die and the pedal assist doesn't work. What are we going to do? Keep sending controllers back and forth? Keep shipping a tricycle back and forth? I'm not willing to continue remote troubleshooting. I don't care if it's just re-seating connections, it takes time to send them all the videos and pictures they want. This is a nightmare experience because they lack the presence to effectively service their tricycles. The funny part is, they tried to recommend a local guy here and I called that shop and the shop explicitly said they do best effort repairs only because AddMotor isn't a vendor of theirs. AddMotor blamed me for that answer too, saying I didn't ask for the owner of the shop.

 

[Kerrith]

Do you have an email address for Addmotor's support and service? I have written 2x with no replies. I have hearing problems or I'd call them.

My main concern is that the LCD display does not present the adjustments described in the manual (upon start) for speed or torque. It doesn't record trip mileage and it always displays 1000w no matter what speed I'm going.

Another problem is that 50% of the new starts require that I manually move the M-350 A backwards or forwards a few inches before the twist throttle starts working.

It's too bad, I love the M-350 A. Neighbors are watching in envy to see if I can get any answers (fixes), all are waiting to see how this turns out. We have a great community for etrikes.

 

[atrikeowner]

Sorry for the delay in responding, I used [email protected] like their website suggests, and was able to provide them with purchase information including the order number, also form their website. Right now I'm trying to figure out if this cheap Prowheel Pioneer crank set that is on the front is a square tapered or splined crank set and what type of wrench I need to pull it off because they took the battery and charger back, then sent me the same battery back with a new charger, and a new sensor for my Electric Pedal Assist. I have to put the sensor on, which means I have to remove the crank set. This is such a nightmare experience. It would have been fine if they had just sent me a working product from the start.