I don't think many people are doubting Tora's skills and integrity. What is frustrating is a lack of communication at times, and clear and concise answers to direct questions.
You bring up a very good point. As someone who does repairs on these e-bikes, I can vouch for the difficulty and challenges of communications from a number of these E-Bike OEM's, and the lack of clear or concise responses when attempting to repair their products. It is very frustrating when you have to wait days for an answer, and worse when the response comes back very vague. Or they have to wait to speak with the factory in Asia, and their interpretations are incorrect due to the language disparities. Meanwhile, you've invested many hours, which as a dealer you do not get reimbursed for, and no customers would be willing to pay you anywhere close to what you have spent in time on the repair, and trouble-shooting. That just kills whatever little margin on the e-bikes that is offered. When it's a newly launched product where they have very little history, it becomes magnified, and quite often the OEM's will simply come back with 'we have never seen that before', acting like its either not happening or must be the 'customer's fault.' Well of course they can think that or say that...they haven't had their ebike out on the market very long, and haven't been through any complete product life cycle at all, to know whether its a manufacturing defect, a one off mistake, or an on-going quality issue. What's important for any emerging industry, is to get the products to be very reliable, focus on quality, and keep the issues down. Right now, any brave (or naive) dealers willing to take on these e-bikes, are having to 'eat' the costs of these issues, which is why the vast majority of regular bike shops know better than to deal with these e-bikes (just yet), and they are likely being quite wise, because they have dealt with new product launches over the years, and thus they are likely taking a more conservative wait and see approach. By the way, dealers have to cover the warranty costs of labor with most of these e-bike brands, where the e-bike OEM's typically only cover parts. But back to your point about communications, and being clear and concise, if the e-bike OEM is new to the business, and trying to ramp up quickly, striking a balance between revenues coming in, and covering his own costs of employees etc, and staying solvent, the thing that is likely to suffer the most is having enough time in the day, and expert employees with any seasoning in this business, to be able to handle all of the issues coming in for repairs and failures of the product. Even a 1% failure rate can be daunting, if you are selling these e-bikes across the country and selling thousands of them per year. Every time a new product is launched, it multiplies, because that is just how product launches are. There are always some bugs to be worked through. Its more challenging when you are contracting out, and don't actually own the manufacturing firm. You have to work through issues because humans, and processes, and manufacturing (especially if they are striving for low price points) are never perfect from day 1. Personally, I'd much rather see the industry be successful with fewer new models launched too quickly, and working extremely hard to make every new of these early adopter customers have a great experience from day 1, and for many months and years after their purchase. That is how an emerging industry grows successfully and it's products become mainstream. Evangelism can only go so far, and 'rooting' for someone, doesn't change the outcome of their product quality. The products have to perform, and dealers have to be able to make money and stay in business, not be inundated with repairs, or have to spend hours to resolve issues that occur with any piece of equipment that is mechanical or electrical as these e-bikes are. It sounds like you have experience with Juiced, and I personally don't have that so I can't speak for their communications. So I am just talking in general as to what I have seen, and offering a perspective that many new e-bike buyers don't have - they haven't dealt with many of these OEM's or dealt with repair issues. In fact, I would bet many buyers simply aren't set up to do their own repairs. You'd be amazed at how many regular bike buyers don't even have a set of tools, don't know how to do something as simple as putting on a chain or repairing a flat or installing a tire on a rim, and certainly would not be able to trouble-shoot any electronic or motor issue on a more complex technology such as an e-bike. So they are totally at the mercy of an E-Bike OEM, or a dealer.
