Westlafadeaway
Active Member
- Region
- USA
I ordered a Juiced cross-current and had some problems with shipment and thought I'd share my story now that the refund has gone through. Sorry if this is long. Short of the story: if you get a damaged bike, don't let them pull a "restocking fee" on you (at least if you live in California).
I ordered the bike around the holidays, and was surprised, based on stories here, to get it so fast- 9 days later. They are in SoCal and I live in Los Angeles. Of course the fed-ex ground shipper dropped the box off at my door and didn't knock- just left it. We realized it was there because of an Amazon package arrived. I later looked it up on fed-ex and the delivery guy signed my name (misspelled my name, too).
Had I checked the box first, I'd have rejected it- the top rear corner was all chewed up. But since the delivery guy was gone I figured I might as well look. It had a lot of styrofoam type packing to absorb damage and seemed ok and I immediately start building. I get to the last item of the build- the rear wheel, and I realize the rear pannier was bent down about 3 inches. Hmmm.... and I can't turn the wheel. So I snap pictures and send them off. Within a few minutes I get a response back, "we'll send you out a new pannier." Ok, great response and super timely- so I remove the pannier, and then I realize just how heavy and solid the pannier is (10 pounds?- seriously solid piece of metal) and the amount of force it would have taken to bend it... then as I remove the screws I note the screws holding it are all shot- the frame holding the screws are all cracked and stripped. Then I start envisioning the box getting hit by a truck, dropped off the truck on the corner at a high height, or something slamming into the back corner... now I know why the driver signed my name. And the poor battery pack and all those wires, who knows what hit this thing and what problems might come up in a month or when it gets wet.
I immediately call Juice and explain the problem, and I offer to just come down and do an exchange. Sure, that's not a problem, they said, but with Covid it might take some work because there's no one at the delivery site as everyone's remote working, so a supervisor will call me back. Ok. Then radio silence.... I have to call and email and I got a little frustrated with the sudden lack of communication after such prompt responses. I finally get an email from customer service, saying they'll only replace the pannier. Screw that. So I reply I don't want the bike anymore. I'll drop it off tomorrow. No, they reply, I am only entitled to a new pannier and if I have electronic issues I need to send a video of the issue. So I go into litigious mode and double check the California small claims court rules. Because the contract was entered in Los Angeles County, but they are based in SD, I could choose jurisdiction. So they'd have to come here or do a zoom call. I've gone to small claims a few times and it's all document and oral argument- show the documents, show the damage, make your argument, and the judge decides. I'd win.
So I emailed back and said I don't want the bike, and if they don't give me a full refund immediately, let me just drop it off, and when the dust settles I'll take you to small claims court and you'll pay me back in full, and pay the court fees and process server costs (ie about $200 total). Response: Ok, here's a slip- mail it back. Shipping it back in the ripped box was a headache.
I just got my full refund, so now I feel ok to tell my story here (I held off because I'm sure they'll read this eventually and didn't need to slow my refund down as pay back for this review). I have no bad feelings with Juiced. It would have been a good bike had the delivery not f-ed it up, and if there wasn't COVID they might have just let me come down and do an exchange, so it was mostly out of their hands. That said, I am now convinced that if you receive a damaged bike, and discover the damage after accepting the bike, they have to give you a full refund. Their boilerplate "restocking fee" I see on these ebike pages is garbage- the shipping container is a regular cardboard box meant to ship televisions that can be fully encapsulated in styro, it is not designed to hold 80 pounds, and it weighs too much for how they packed it to guarantee the bike will arrive in 100% good condition. I believe Juiced gave me excellent service up until they realized they'd have to eat the bike and shipping, but someone made a bad call that soured my relationship with them. For the price, the bike was a good bike, and I'd have been pretty happy with it (for the price) had it arrived in better condition. I hope they have insurance on the shipping and get money from fed-ex.
Another challenge I had was the box: it was ripped up and so I went to fed ex and said I have a bike I need to ship but I'm afraid it's going to arrive more damaged than it is and can they pack and ship. "Sure- $25 for the box and $35 to pack it". That weekend, I show up with the bike and someone says "Oh, we don't carry that bike box, go to the bigger store at x address, they must keep those boxes in stock. So I drive there, and the kid is like "oh, you know, we don't have that box in stock"... and he glances at the old timer next to him who nods... they just didn't want to do it, the bastards. after calling around someone offered to pack it for $400. I ended up buying a $10 roll of super strength tape and using the entire roll on the box and paying a fee to have them come to me to pick it up.
And yes, having looked at it, I payed almost 4 times more for a really great bike that I will hopefully have in 2 weeks....
I ordered the bike around the holidays, and was surprised, based on stories here, to get it so fast- 9 days later. They are in SoCal and I live in Los Angeles. Of course the fed-ex ground shipper dropped the box off at my door and didn't knock- just left it. We realized it was there because of an Amazon package arrived. I later looked it up on fed-ex and the delivery guy signed my name (misspelled my name, too).
Had I checked the box first, I'd have rejected it- the top rear corner was all chewed up. But since the delivery guy was gone I figured I might as well look. It had a lot of styrofoam type packing to absorb damage and seemed ok and I immediately start building. I get to the last item of the build- the rear wheel, and I realize the rear pannier was bent down about 3 inches. Hmmm.... and I can't turn the wheel. So I snap pictures and send them off. Within a few minutes I get a response back, "we'll send you out a new pannier." Ok, great response and super timely- so I remove the pannier, and then I realize just how heavy and solid the pannier is (10 pounds?- seriously solid piece of metal) and the amount of force it would have taken to bend it... then as I remove the screws I note the screws holding it are all shot- the frame holding the screws are all cracked and stripped. Then I start envisioning the box getting hit by a truck, dropped off the truck on the corner at a high height, or something slamming into the back corner... now I know why the driver signed my name. And the poor battery pack and all those wires, who knows what hit this thing and what problems might come up in a month or when it gets wet.
I immediately call Juice and explain the problem, and I offer to just come down and do an exchange. Sure, that's not a problem, they said, but with Covid it might take some work because there's no one at the delivery site as everyone's remote working, so a supervisor will call me back. Ok. Then radio silence.... I have to call and email and I got a little frustrated with the sudden lack of communication after such prompt responses. I finally get an email from customer service, saying they'll only replace the pannier. Screw that. So I reply I don't want the bike anymore. I'll drop it off tomorrow. No, they reply, I am only entitled to a new pannier and if I have electronic issues I need to send a video of the issue. So I go into litigious mode and double check the California small claims court rules. Because the contract was entered in Los Angeles County, but they are based in SD, I could choose jurisdiction. So they'd have to come here or do a zoom call. I've gone to small claims a few times and it's all document and oral argument- show the documents, show the damage, make your argument, and the judge decides. I'd win.
So I emailed back and said I don't want the bike, and if they don't give me a full refund immediately, let me just drop it off, and when the dust settles I'll take you to small claims court and you'll pay me back in full, and pay the court fees and process server costs (ie about $200 total). Response: Ok, here's a slip- mail it back. Shipping it back in the ripped box was a headache.
I just got my full refund, so now I feel ok to tell my story here (I held off because I'm sure they'll read this eventually and didn't need to slow my refund down as pay back for this review). I have no bad feelings with Juiced. It would have been a good bike had the delivery not f-ed it up, and if there wasn't COVID they might have just let me come down and do an exchange, so it was mostly out of their hands. That said, I am now convinced that if you receive a damaged bike, and discover the damage after accepting the bike, they have to give you a full refund. Their boilerplate "restocking fee" I see on these ebike pages is garbage- the shipping container is a regular cardboard box meant to ship televisions that can be fully encapsulated in styro, it is not designed to hold 80 pounds, and it weighs too much for how they packed it to guarantee the bike will arrive in 100% good condition. I believe Juiced gave me excellent service up until they realized they'd have to eat the bike and shipping, but someone made a bad call that soured my relationship with them. For the price, the bike was a good bike, and I'd have been pretty happy with it (for the price) had it arrived in better condition. I hope they have insurance on the shipping and get money from fed-ex.
Another challenge I had was the box: it was ripped up and so I went to fed ex and said I have a bike I need to ship but I'm afraid it's going to arrive more damaged than it is and can they pack and ship. "Sure- $25 for the box and $35 to pack it". That weekend, I show up with the bike and someone says "Oh, we don't carry that bike box, go to the bigger store at x address, they must keep those boxes in stock. So I drive there, and the kid is like "oh, you know, we don't have that box in stock"... and he glances at the old timer next to him who nods... they just didn't want to do it, the bastards. after calling around someone offered to pack it for $400. I ended up buying a $10 roll of super strength tape and using the entire roll on the box and paying a fee to have them come to me to pick it up.
And yes, having looked at it, I payed almost 4 times more for a really great bike that I will hopefully have in 2 weeks....
