I don't see it this way and I say that as someone that built their own.
I understand a dealer getting frustrated at someone that bought online to save a few bucks then wanting a local dealer to take care of the issues that pop up. Obviously that does not affect you as you can take care of these issues yourself. Many can't or won't. I understand the dealer getting frustrated when someone that bought elsewhere wants their bike fixed ASAP, but they are going to get their customers bikes in and out first.
My daughter is fairly talented musically. We have bought all her instruments at the local music store because it is also where she takes lessons and it helps keep them in business. I do not know instruments very well. When something is not right we simply hand it to them and it's quickly fixed. Generally with no charge.
By the way, I am NOT frustrated that people buy on-line or from other places. That is natural competition, and I knew full well before going into this, what I was up against. The competition is healthy, and its a natural dynamic of all industries. I faced competition in sales for 34 years in the corporate world in energy technologies.
I would LOVE to be able to service and help every person who bought on-line, but I have learned it is just not possible, with no consistent standards, and so many different designs of batteries, controllers, different form factors, and with the lack of a US supply chain for so many different parts. The average buyer probably just thinks its like a regular bike, or may not even think at that level of all, assuming there will be support from any number of places. 10 years from now, as the industry grows, that may well take place. But right now, this is still very much an emerging industry. Very few industries with this few of unit sales, would have 300 different brands. That is a sign of a very young industry with no real dominant player yet. A symptom of that, is all the widely varying component designs that are part of the electrical system on an ebike. Most everything else on the bike, is the same as the rest of the bike industry. In that you have a few dominant players on things like groupsets such as derailleurs (everyone knows Shimano - do they have 300 competitors ? no - its more like 2 or 3). That benefits dealers in that you have either Shimano, or SRAM, that you can easily find parts for from many places. Brakes are similar, Cassettes, shifters, and so on. So dealers can usually fix many other brands beyond just the ones they carry in a regular bike world. That is just not the case YET with ebikes, on the electrical side of things.
Its obvious not everyone is going to buy local, especially with big players like Amazon continuing to be successful with all kinds of products. Its just that with Ebikes, its not yet a mature industry, and so the consequences of that might not be as obvious to someone new to the world of buying an ebike. Its also a more complicated piece of equipment, and long term reliability remains a complex endeavor to prove out for the whole industry. My only consideration in writing this thread to begin with, was really to help people face some facts in their decision process that they might not have been aware of, before they put a big chunk of money on the line, and to be careful about any assumptions they might be making. Anyone can make a rebuttal to any of my points. That's what free speech and these forums are about, right ?
