Blown motor on E3 Dash with 29 miles on it

A warranty isn't too useful if your dealer is 2 hours away and the bike is down more than it's up. I'm willing to chalk this up to a fluke as I'm back to using my homemade ebike with 700+ miles on it for this weekend. The whole buying experience hasn't been the best so far. The dealer (recommended by Larry Pizzi) asked for a down payment on my CC prior to ordering, ended up charging the entire bike on it. Said it'll be ready within 10 days. 15 days later that charge hit my CC without the bike (13% apr @ $2960 = $46.80 charge, I wanted to pay cash for the bike btw). I was fine with this as long as the bike was assembled and charged when I came up (which it was, and they stayed open 10 minutes late for me). The bike had 9 miles on it prior to me receiving it (Not sure if that's normal for testing)
Within 20 miles and one battery charge of me having it; the bike fails. It's now almost 20+ days and I still cannot use my bike, and I'm not paying off my CC as there's protection on it for such an instance. But I'll prolly get hit on another APR charge next month. So now it's 4+ hours just to get it fixed @ $25 a tank of gas and this is quickly becoming an expensive eBike that I should just accept .

I've been waiting for this bike since I saw it leaked in 2013, I was excited for it. I'm used to buying high end equipment for my job and life and when something doesn't turn out how you expect it, it's dishearten to say the least.

Again, I'm not posting this all over the net with negativity. EBR is where I did a lot of research for this bike. I'm willing to give others a chance, but there comes a point where I have to call game. We'll see, I suspect Monday I'll have to take off work to travel and get this fixed and then it'll be 100% perfect for years... I hope.

Two hours ride is a PIA to return a bike that you just purchased, plus you havet to wait or come back after they figure out what went wrong, then parts shipment... Suggest you tell the dealer, or the distributor that you would be open to having them mail your replacment part to them then pay the return freight for the crapped out wheel... Problem may be that they can't TS without the bike in their hands.

If it were me I would gently insist that they just give you a new bike.
 
Should I just go ahead and preemptively give support a call and get a second motor shipped as a backup before my bike gets here? Highly visible customer service does a lot to inspire confidence in a company, I'm happy I purchased through a company that has warranty support channels, but a high quantity of said customer service doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the product. Larry, can you give us a frank analysis of the problem from an internal perspective? Bad batch of motors? Not enough QC burn-in time during the build phase? Whats the scuttlebutt around the office?
 
So....Larry should have (public) detailed answers (which I frankly don't believe he is obligated at any time to offer up) ...to an unconfirmed (warranty) problem...that hasn't even been analyzed at any level...beyond sending out a part that hasn't even arrived at the dealer's door as of today.

And your question starts as follows:
"..Should I just go ahead and preemptively give support a call and get a second motor shipped as a backup before my bike gets here?.."

I happen to have a Dash in transit as well.
I'll just leave it at that.
 
I understand the guy's complaint. Kind of defeats the purpose of an ebike when you have 4 hours car time to get a new ebike fixed... If they were really into it, they would go to HIS house and take care of it... Sounds silly but that's what Ultramotor did for me.
 
Dear EBR Community Members:

Thanks for your posts and suggestions. Once the subject motor is back in our hands, we can accurately assess the problem. Until then, we would only be speculating as to the cause.

We have shipped hundreds of IZIP E3 Dash eBikes since February when they were released in the market, with a very small percentage of issues, mostly minor ones that have been easily resolved in future productions. We take quality very seriously and throughly investigate any and every issue as part of our quality assurance process. We are not perfect, but we work hard to deliver the best products possible at a competitive price.

I personally stand behind our products 100% and assure complete customer satisfaction. If someone purchases one of our products and is not completely satisfied, we do everything in our power to make them happy and if we can't, for whatever reason, we'll give them their money back.

Additionally, I'm accessible to anyone that would like to reach me directly by telephone or email. I'm constantly looking for opportunities to improve how we conduct ourselves in this business we throughly enjoy. Thanks for your patience when we have an issue as well as your continued support.

Best regards,

Larry Pizzi
[email protected]
805-915-4901
 
Sorry if I came across as on the offense, I was using a bit of dry hyperbole to make a point. To quote gskbrew from the other IZIP trouble thread , "I also purchased the Path Plus and I am on my fourth motor in one month (2 motor replacements, 1 full bike replacement) for the same issue." There is only so much you can claim as anecdotal evidence before a pattern starts to emerge. These are all 500w direct drive gearless motors, presumably sourced from the same manufacturer around the same time frame. Of course I dont think any company is obligated to provide detailed answers about the goings on of their manufacturing, the fact that the CEO is here answering questions personally is already above and beyond what most would do, and I do understand that things like this happen.

...But, and the point I was trying to make, is if there were a wider problem and it was something that had been analyzed and tracked down to batch X from production Y, I'd feel better as a consumer knowing that there was a bad run and it is going to take Z weeks for a new shipment to arrive, go through QC, and ship out. A commitment to satisfaction isn't just promising to send new motors until eventually one of them doesn't fail.

Now, on the other hand, this forum is a fairly small and vocal community. If something isnt right, those who frequent the forums are more likely to voice the problem (and resolution) and everyone who hasn't had a problem doesn't really chime in, so it can warp a relatively small problem and make it seem like its bigger. If this is the normal rate of failure and it just so happens to be under the microscope because of the relatively small and vocal sample pool, well shame on me. But it doesn't hurt to ask these questions and get a dialog going.
 
I would offer that timing of any dialogue is critical...especially if it involves Larry (at his level) and information that he obviously can't wrap his hands around yet. Two things:
  1. How would you like to solve even a potential issue (non-confirmed through MANY failures) half-way around the world on somebody else's time schedule...over a bike (not a manufacturing line down costing thousands of dollars a minute...but a bike).
  2. Secondly, we all make choices. The Dash is right for me because of the price. Currie evidently has 2nd generation Bosch motors in some bikes...for a price. If your service center is 4 hours away and you make the choice to go with brand 'x' motor rather than choose the Bosch product for whatever reason...whose responsibility is this? What risk do you take (I know, most are not keen with the personal responsibility mantra) even if you DO buy the absolute best in today's far-flung global economy? Do even the absolute best motors not only have problems...but contain some of the same potential problem parts that the less expensive motors do...to compete?
We're in an age now where if you expect your bicycle to be the pinnacle of engineering and quality controlled parts assembly...you've probably got another thing coming (and that goes for every single manufacturer out there).
 
Good luck, and many wishes for a trouble free repair, and thousands of trouble free miles.

Keep us updated!!!
 
I haven't even picked up my manual (it's in the shop)...but what is the break in procedure for these motors (if any)...and/or what is the proper feeding and caring for the motor assembly in general? Not to go off-topic...just asking so that my motor doesn't end up in the same boat from my doing.
 
I put 15 miles on the new motor tonight. I broke it in only using pedal assist 3 and taking some breaks in between so not to get it too warm. (Nice cool night too)

My manual is as generic as it comes. Not even model specific. You're not missing much.

Props to the dealer as well. As soon as I rolled it in they took it and swapped it within 30 minutes and I was on my way.

But damn that Stromer ST1 was $3400 in the show room, very sweet bike.
 
I put 15 miles on the new motor tonight. I broke it in only using pedal assist 3 and taking some breaks in between so not to get it too warm. (Nice cool night too)

My manual is as generic as it comes. Not even model specific. You're not missing much.

Props to the dealer as well. As soon as I rolled it in they took it and swapped it within 30 minutes and I was on my way.

But damn that Stromer ST1 was $3400 in the show room, very sweet bike.
Love my Stromer, even more than my last bike an A2B Metro.. You'll feel the same about yours after awhile... Good luck!
 
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