Biktrix: An 8-month journey into delays, empty promises, and outright lies

[jasonatepaint]

In an attempt to make a tl;dr, here's the highlights:

• Purchased the Juggernaut Ultra 8 months ago.
  • Paid for upgraded suspension and got the standard suspension.
  • Brakes were listed as hydraulic and I got mechanical
  • I had this bike for a couple weeks with quality control issues and required several trips to my local eBike shop to have them make adjustments.
• Continuous issues and ultimately the motor fails and I contact Roshan to get it replaced. There are none in stock, so I have to wait for a new batch.
  • I notice they have "limited stock" for the Juggernaut Ultra FS. I inquire about it and told it's not actually in stock, but that I could upgrade to it and it would be available in February.
  • The bike is shipped back to Roshan
• In late May, the bike is finally making it's way to me. Before it ships, I verify with Roshan (multiple times) the specs of the Ultra FS to make sure, namely, that it had hydraulic brakes. I am assured they are hydraulic brakes.
• The bike arrives to my local UPS depot. They contact me because the box is so poorly packed and is damaged. They bring it out for inspection and the entire bottom of the box is blown out and the front forks are hanging out.
  • The bike was put into a very thin, single-walled box. Nothing tied down and no padding.
  • While inspecting the bike, I notice that on top of minor damage (that I could visually see), it also had mechanical brakes on it... AGAIN!
• I refused the shipment and began the refund process.

Eight months ago I started looking for a new “fast” eBike. It was going to be my third and I wanted to go all out on something. After a lot of searching, I realized that many companies were using the same motor/controller (Bafang Ultra) systems and frames. I figured all parts equal, that good customer service could make the sale. And that’s exactly what happened. After a weekend chat with Roshan Thomas, the owner of Biktrix, which was almost rapid fire (at all hours of the day/night) to answer every single question I had. There was never a “No”, it was always, “Sure. We can do that”. I was smitten and immediately pulled the trigger and bought the Juggernaut Ultra with the 20ah battery. At $3659, It checked almost all of my boxes.

Eight months later, what I learned was that quick responses does NOT equal a great customer experience. At first I really was amazed with Biktrix. I thought this was a guy who really loved eBikes. But what I experienced was someone who would say what ever he had to, to make the sale... A used car salesman.

I was given false information often... beyond shipping dates. I understand dealing with shipments from China and Customs can slow things down, but the false statements and lies through omission were outrageous. They included:

• Website showed the Juggernaut Ultra with hydraulic brakes. According to Roshan:

  The hydraulic brakes is a typo in our webpage. We have since updated it.

• Website had a $160 upgrade for Top Gun suspension. Showed up w/stock suspension. When I ask, Roshan tells me:

  Thanks for pointing out the discrepancy. I'll get that clarified on the website today. I will refund your $160.

• Website showed that the Juggernaut Ultra FS has "limited stock". When I inquire about upgrading, Roshan tells me:

  There must be a typo on our website. I'll check it out. Both bikes are expected to ship around the same time in late Feb.

• Website STILL shows that the Ultra FS has hydraulic brakes. It arrived with mechanical brakes. According to Roshan:

  Hydraulic brakes were included in the box separately. They take literally 10 mins to put on.

  • First thing.... no, they were not in the box. Although I told him I did not look thru the entire box, I did (to see what sort of lie I would get at this point)... and they were NOT in the box. It's possible they fell out of the box as it had holes in it. See attached picture.
  • Secondly, others noted that the China factory pictures that showed the Ultras had mechanical brakes. Roshan noted that the bikes are shipped to Canada and they put on all the upgrades. So if that was the case, WHY would the hydraulic brakes not be installed instead of shoved in a box?

• The Shipment dates shifted every month.
  • February - Original ship date
  • March - Roshan says:

    The bikes are just waiting to be loaded onto a ship.. They are getting loaded next week and expect bikes to reach here 2-2.5 weeks after that.

  • April - Roshan says:

    Expected to land this Friday. Customs clearance early next week.

  • May - After asking again and telling Roshan the original date was February, I am told:

    We were a couple of weeks away in Feb - from shipping you a hardtail Juggernaut Ultra. But you decided to go with a FS - this is the first run of the FS and hence the delays. FS was originally anticipated to be shipped at the end of April and now the bikes are just awaiting customs clearance. Once that's done, they are shipped to us (typically takes 2-3 days). Then they are built here and shipped to customers. So realistically you'll be getting the bike around 15-16 May.

    • It's true, I did switch to the Ultra FS... but as he already stated previously, both bikes were shipping at the same time.
      

Bottom Line
I'm a reasonable person and understand a business like this can be difficult and competitive. Roshan is very easy to work with. You'll never get a "No, we can't do that" response. While I always got a fast response from him, I never knew what was actually true. It always felt like a "Will he notice?" approach to pushing his product. The most important part is to get the bike into someone's hands and deal with the fallout/lies later.

That was the bizarre part, for me, as a business model.... instead of marketing and selling a product w/accurate specs, his website over promises w/inaccurate specs and hopes that only a percentage will notice/speak up. For the ones that do, he's willing to spend hours wheeling and dealing to find a way to fix the problem.

I ended up buying an FLX Blade (not a fat tire that I was originally going for), but uses the same Bafang Ultra. I ordered on a Thursday and had the bike shipped to Austin by the following Tuesday. It was double-boxed with everything tied down. Additionally, the website's information was 100% accurate... including it's 203mm rotors and quad piston hydraulic brakes... something you REALLY need for a bike w/this motor on it. The Blade has been amazing and the buying experience exactly what I had hoped the Biktrix would be.
------

NOTE: To the person in the US that got my used 20ah battery, I hope it was sold to you as a used battery. Instead of shipping everything back to Canada, I was given a FedEx form to ship the battery and charger to another customer in the US to avoid the cost/customs charges. This seemed shady to me, but I complied to speed the processing of my refund.

P.S. Here's how the Ultra FS showed up before I ultimately refused the shipment

 

[Barry S]

"Wow!" I hope at the end of the day you got a FULL refund from Biktrix.

 

[jasonatepaint]

"Wow!" I hope at the end of the day you got a FULL refund from Biktrix.

I did, with the exception of $200 (packaging/shipping cost to get everything back to them) and all the custom stuff (grips, bottle holder, bell, and rear tire) I added to the original bike just because I just wanted it to be over.

 

[Fred]

That is indeed an unfortunate story. My experience with purchasing a Juggernaut was just the opposite.

I received it as promised, well packaged, and, in fact with a few extras that I hadn't expected. Also my post-sales interaction with Roshan was very positive.

 

[roshan]

This was indeed unfortunate. We tried to get Jason a great bike by shipping 2 bikes and in the end paid for 2 bikes going back and forth - almost $250 each way. But that's okay, sometimes, this is bound to happen. So this makes the first Juggernaut that we've gotten back in 5 years. Oh well!

I'm sorry your experience was bad. We are working torward fixing this. Our bike specs change as new versions come out. And it has been challenging keeping our website up to date with the latest specs. That said, I'm glad you're on an ebike now and you're enjoying it! If there's anything we can do for you, keep me posted!

Cheers,
Roshan

 

[roshan]

"Wow!" I hope at the end of the day you got a FULL refund from Biktrix.

He did indeed. We ate the cost of shipping two bikes and a few accessories back and forth.

There were a couple of things that made it way worse for Jason:
1. His Ultra motor failed - the first bike Jason got was the first gen Ultra that were notorious for the nylon gear breaking. But what was curious was that his motor's nylon gears were fine, but the windings were burnt. We sent this back to bafang and had another bike built for Jason - exactly as he wanted. But he didn't want that anymore, he wanted to upgrade to a FS - which we had just launched with a pre-sale and delivery dates promised to be March/April.

2. Pre-sale delays: the March/April bikes didn't show up till May. When we shipped these bikes, we oversaw the build list for Jason's bike because the build requests were in part lost in a 100 emails that we had to parse. This is indeed by fault and I should have tracked this better.

3. Damage in shipping: UPS did a terrible job with our bike boxes this time around. Most boxes were getting dinged pretty bad but we fixed this for future shipment by wrapping the box with foundation wrap as shown below. The box is now really, really resilient. Here's how it left:

Here's how it arrived:

So, thanks Jason, you have helped us improve our packaging. It's better than ever now!

I must say, we did try to make it work. With over a 100 emails back and forth, this was by far the toughest sale ever. In hindsight, I should have just said no to all of Jason's requests and then we wouldn't be getting bashed the way we are now.

 

[jwt355]

I have 100% faith that if you stuck with it Jason that Roshan would of come through big for you. Im a new buyer who just dropped close to 6k on my fully upgraded Juggernaut I have 100% confidence that he will deliver what I ordered. Glad you found a bike that worked out for you. Sometimes these growing pains have to happen in order for companies to work out issues. To bad you had to be the one to be part of that journey. But I take great comfort in the fact that Roshan was working with you to try to make it right. Sometimes things just are not meant to be. This sounds like the situation for you.

Best of luck and hope to see you out on the trails.

 

[TForan]

I've had nothing but good dealings with Roshan. I received my Ultra a week after ordering and I've also bought several other items from Biktrix without a hitch. He even sent me replacement steel gears on his dime. Running a small but growing company , as I well know, can be extremely difficult. Glad the OP is on an E-bike and is enjoying it.

 

[Barry S]

Thanks for responding Roshan. I'm sure every company has a customer experience they wish they could do over. The new exterior wrap is a definite improvement.

Having worked for a subcontractor hired by UPS to handle their packages at RDU airport, I can tell you firsthand that the labels "FRAGILE" and "THIS SIDE UP" have no meaning to the non-UPS employees crawling in the plane's belly to extract loose packages and those working on the conveyor belt unpacking the larger containers as fast as possible so they get onto the trucks by the departure deadline. Heavy, bulky items requiring a second person to assist slows things down prompting shouts from UPS managers carrying clipboards. I've seen items tossed and dropped just to keep the pace going. Now, if the higher premium air freight is getting that kind of treatment, imagine what ground freight gets. A twist on a popular saying, "Package it expecting the worst, and hope for the best." Reminds me of the old American Tourister commercial.

 

[MisterM]

Lol, perfect description for Roshan is a used car salesman - my experience exactly - will tell you anything to make the sale. Cannot believe anything the guy says.

Love how he conveniently rewrites history with his original "late Feb" delivery suddenly became March/April in this post (which in reality meant last week of May/early June). The guy is a liar, plain and simple.

Did he really ship the FS with mechanical discs? Website clearly said hydraulic and I confirmed that with him via email months ago. Love how he said it's a "typo" on the website months ago - yet to this day they are still listed as hydraulic discs. Misleading info? Quelle suprise!

The new "enhanced" packaging wrapping plastic geodrain around the box - face palm. How about paying your Chinese supplier to double box?

Roshan - Fix the website - show accurate specs and high-res pictures (main low-res picture still shows Rockshox fork which none of your bikes offer) and start providing realistic shipping times. And stop the blatant lies about when you will deliver the bikes. You still keep showing June delivery for the second batch and you already admitted on another thread that it's already a mid-July delivery (but I'm confident that's just another whopper like so many before - have the bikes even been assembled, let alone shipped yet??).

People need to stop mindlessly defending such shady practices from Biktrix.

 

[jwt355]

Lol, perfect description for Roshan is a used car salesman - my experience exactly - will tell you anything to make the sale. Cannot believe anything the guy says.

Love how he conveniently rewrites history with his original "late Feb" delivery suddenly became March/April in this post (which in reality meant last week of May/early June). The guy is a liar, plain and simple.

Did he really ship the FS with mechanical discs? Website clearly said hydraulic and I confirmed that with him via email months ago. Love how he said it's a "typo" on the website months ago - yet to this day they are still listed as hydraulic discs. Misleading info? Quelle suprise!

The new "enhanced" packaging wrapping plastic geodrain around the box - face palm. How about paying your Chinese supplier to double box?

Roshan - Fix the website - show accurate specs and high-res pictures (main low-res picture still shows Rockshox fork which none of your bikes offer) and start providing realistic shipping times. And stop the blatant lies about when you will deliver the bikes. You still keep showing June delivery for the second batch and you already admitted on another thread that it's already a mid-July delivery (but I'm confident that's just another whopper like so many before - have the bikes even been assembled, let alone shipped yet??).

People need to stop mindlessly defending such shady practices from Biktrix.

Proof is in the pudding MisterM We already know your story so I will tell you mine once my bike arrives then we can reconvene this conversation.

FYI I cant find anywhere on the Ultra 1000 Page that it says it comes with Hydraulic disc brakes. I do show the hydraulic brakes for sale as an add-on in accessories though. Which I promptly upgraded too.

 

[Barry S]

Back in the days of CRT monitors, and even present day with some IT hardware, the product was shipped in a box encapsulated by self-conforming foam. The foam doesn't stick to the product because it remains contained in a plastic wrap. Obviously, the cost to do such for an entire bike would be outrageous but perhaps around some of the most vulnerable components or to simply fill voids is an option. I mentioned before that it would be interesting to open a box from the various bike companies to see how each one is packing their product.

As for shipping date promises, right now I think every company could make improvements.

 

[MisterM]

Proof is in the pudding MisterM We already know your story so I will tell you mine once my bike arrives then we can reconvene this conversation.

FYI I cant find anywhere on the Ultra 1000 Page that it says it comes with Hydraulic disc brakes. I do show the hydraulic brakes for sale as an add-on in accessories though. Which I promptly upgraded too.

The bike in question is the Ultra FS (OP upgraded after returning the first damaged bike). Specs indeed still show hydraulic discs:
Brake levers | TEKTRO Hydraulic disc
Front Brake | TEKTRO 4 piston Hydraulic DISC BRAKE-180mm
Rear Brake | TEKTRO 4 piston Hydraulic DISC BRAKE-180mm

I hope your experience is better (shouldn't be too difficult to beat my experience with Roshan).

 

[jasonatepaint]

I must say, we did try to make it work. With over a 100 emails back and forth, this was by far the toughest sale ever. In hindsight, I should have just said no to all of Jason's requests and then we wouldn't be getting bashed the way we are now.

I would have been fine with "No"... I never asked for more than what I paid for (or thought I was paying for). Through the 100+ emails, I was never irrational or demanded anything more than I was entitled. I took the long and bumpy road because you, while it seemed like things were in chaos, always replied. I gave you 8 months of benefits on doubt, but the last straw was getting the FS w/mechanical brakes after multiple inquiries that they were indeed hydraulic.

Roshan, as you, I'm a software engineer and total stickler for details.... So while my sale may have been tough, it didn't have to be. Market and sell the SAME product and you won't have disappointed pain-in-the-neck customers like me... only asking for what they paid for.

 

[jasonatepaint]

FYI I cant find anywhere on the Ultra 1000 Page that it says it comes with Hydraulic disc brakes. I do show the hydraulic brakes for sale as an add-on in accessories though. Which I promptly upgraded too.

Correct. As I stated in the original post above... I pointed this out after receiving my bike w/o hydraulic brakes. And Roshan said:

The hydraulic brakes is a typo in our webpage. We have since updated it.

So this is why you don't see the issue. However, the Ultra FS page still says it has hydraulic brakes.

 

[roshan]

We are going through our website now completely and making sure they are on-spec. We did have the first few FS bikes with Hydraulic brakes but now went with all mechanical as the Tektro Hydraulic brake timelines for China delivery were too long.

That being said, any customer that thought the bike had hydraulic brakes and paid for it either got a $200 credit or got a set of hydraulic brakes mailed out to them.

 

[roshan]

Lol, perfect description for Roshan is a used car salesman - my experience exactly - will tell you anything to make the sale. Cannot believe anything the guy says.

Love how he conveniently rewrites history with his original "late Feb" delivery suddenly became March/April in this post (which in reality meant last week of May/early June). The guy is a liar, plain and simple.

MisterM, pre-order dates ALWAYS change. Clearly you haven't dealt with pre-orders in your life before. Even tech typhoons like Elon Musk and Tesla can get delivery estimates wrong. We're just a small start up with a few thousand orders a year. I am just using the best info I have to give my customers the best estimate to delivery time. If that makes all of us used-car salesmen and liars, sure, I'm okay with that. On your other thread, I've already answered why your bike took time and also why we refunded your money. Let's keep that thread at bay there.

Did he really ship the FS with mechanical discs? Website clearly said hydraulic and I confirmed that with him via email months ago. Love how he said it's a "typo" on the website months ago - yet to this day they are still listed as hydraulic discs. Misleading info? Quelle suprise!
.

We did ship the first few bikes with Hydraulic brakes last winter. They under-performed in the cold and a lot of customers who commuted in the winter complained. This plus the delivery delays from Tektro (who took 6mo last time to deliver our brakes instead of the promised 60 days) made us decide to go with mechanical brakes as default and offer Hydraulic brakes as add on to folks who wanted it later.

The new "enhanced" packaging wrapping plastic geodrain around the box - face palm. How about paying your Chinese supplier to double box?
.

Our requirement spec did specify double box of 4 ply cardboard. But if you have done any business with importing things from China, you will know that in China, specs get missed all the time. We didn't know about the boxes till the boxes arrived in our warehouse in Canada. Hence we had to re-wrap them here with foundation wrap. You think I love to spend $50 + 0.5h labor in re-wrapping boxes if I didn't have to? It's easy to be a keyboard warrior.

Roshan - Fix the website - show accurate specs and high-res pictures (main low-res picture still shows Rockshox fork which none of your bikes offer) and start providing realistic shipping times. And stop the blatant lies about when you will deliver the bikes. You still keep showing June delivery for the second batch and you already admitted on another thread that it's already a mid-July delivery (but I'm confident that's just another whopper like so many before - have the bikes even been assembled, let alone shipped yet??).

People need to stop mindlessly defending such shady practices from Biktrix.

We are fixing the website - right now we have FS in stock and we have new pictures and specs updated on the website.

 

[roshan]

I would have been fine with "No"... I never asked for more than what I paid for (or thought I was paying for). Through the 100+ emails, I was never irrational or demanded anything more than I was entitled. I took the long and bumpy road because you, while it seemed like things were in chaos, always replied. I gave you 8 months of benefits on doubt, but the last straw was getting the FS w/mechanical brakes after multiple inquiries that they were indeed hydraulic.

Funny thing is that your hydraulic brakes were included in a separate box with the bike. Something you didn't even see. We also had an extra battery in there for the hassle + some more goodies like pannier bags, sealed bearing pedals, GP3 grips, and even a thanks for your patience card that I hand-wrote. Unfortunately, you didn't even want to open the box and take a look. Oh well.

Roshan, as you, I'm a software engineer and total stickler for details.... So while my sale may have been tough, it didn't have to be. Market and sell the SAME product and you won't have disappointed pain-in-the-neck customers like me... only asking for what they paid for.

We try our best to market and sell the exact same product. The Ultra bikes have been one of a kind with availability of parts dictating the specs to keep delivery time reasonable. This is why all our other customers who pre-bought the bikes were totally understanding and carried through with us. All but 2
I have worked with each of them individually to make sure they got what they least expected to get and are happy campers at the end of the day.

Now this is behind us as we have bikes in stock.

 

[roshan]

Oh and just so you know, we stated 9sp Deore for components on Ultra 1000 - and all early adopters got free upgrade to a 10sp Deore. It's not a crazy big deal but it is a bonus for those who stuck with us.

 

[jasonatepaint]

We also had an extra battery in there for the hassle + some more goodies like pannier bags, sealed bearing pedals, GP3 grips, and even a thanks for your patience card that I hand-wrote. Unfortunately, you didn't even want to open the box and take a look. Oh well.

I would love to believe that. As I said in my post, I did look through the entire box. I told you in the email that I did not, to see what you would say.... The only thing in there was the bike and the box that had my parts from the previous bike. There was no extra battery and no box with anything.... maybe they fell out of the box during shipment? A battery, out of all the things you mentioned, would have been obvious... it just wasn't in there.