Thought I'd share a letter I sent to Lectric on behalf of all of us waiting for our bikes.
- Thread starter gthax
- Start date
Here is Lectrics reply to my letter:
Hey Lectric Rider,
Your bike has crossed a ton of bridges to find your doorstep, making its delivery significantly closer to your home. However, now that you are in the final stage of shipping, we are working closely with FedEx to follow through on the delivery of your bike. This process is taking a bit longer than expected due to a shortage of Fedex trailers. As a result, we anticipate the wait for your delivery to increase by about two weeks.
The great news is that the bikes are here in the U.S. We know you are excited to receive your bike, but the exponential demand for Lectric eBikes is so great that it has created a challenge for even the most well-known name in delivery services. FedEx has informed us that there are not enough trucks to deliver our bikes from some of our warehouses in the Los Angeles area.
We are currently working to resolve the bottleneck by deploying our resources to smooth these temporary road bumps. In doing so, we have directed half of our customer support team to assist with warehouse duties – so we can help FedEx during these unprecedented times.
For example, the customer service representative you spoke to on the phone is most likely dripping with sweat right now because they are working tirelessly to load bikes into a FedEx trailer that was rerouted to a hot, stuffy warehouse in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to the high demand for our bikes, FedEx is also dealing with other shipping issues caused by the pandemic, contributing to the delays.
According to FedEx.com, "The COVID-19 pandemic has created record-breaking shipment volumes. As more people shop online to avoid crowds in stores, those numbers have grown even more. This has created shipping volumes that are taxing logistics networks nationwide, which may cause delays."
We understand this may be frustrating, and we are equally discontented, but we're a small company caught in the crossfire of a global interruption. We promise we are doing everything in our power to lubricate our logistics strategy, and we are working around the clock to accommodate your delay. We are even implementing an all-hands-on-deck approach, but we can not pause pandemic-related disruptions.
We sincerely appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you on the road. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, we promise to stand by you every step of the way. Thank you again for choosing Lectric!
My response:
Or perhaps it's because you are shipping bikes of orders who are paying 150.00 to get there bikes sooner. Obviously only so many bikes can go on a truck, so people who pay more get on the truck first, pushing others down the list. This sucks. That's not fair to us who have been waiting for weeks on end. If you want to offer faster shipping for 150, start that offer AFTER all the orders made before that offer was available ships. You said the 150 is to pay to fly the bikes on planes from China to get them here sooner, bullshit! I guess you didn't read your own statement on your last excuse letter. You said the delay WAS NOT a supply issue. You said you have the inventory. You said the bottleneck was a DOMESTIC SHIPPING issue. (Not enough Fed Ex trucks available to pick up the orders). Now on your website you say orders placed now ship within 4 weeks, bullshit! How is that possible when you just added at least 2 weeks more to everyone's order and I've been waiting about 8 weeks? I guess the answer is that "within 4 weeks" statement is, bullshit! You would be better off not sending these letters of excuses when we know money talks and people who pay more can jump the line and us who can't afford to pay more are second class customers. You also stated that the ones who pay the 150 will not effect the time the non paying orders ship, bullshit! If my order would normally ship this week before you offered line jumping for 150 and there are 500 orders who paid the 150, obviously my order will wait to ship after those 500 who paid. You guys should really READ what you tell customers before you try to b/s them. If you did you would see some of the things you say don't make sense. All customers want is honesty. This is very disappointing that your company operates in this manner. A little advice. Don't send these letters of excuses. All it does is remind people they still don't have their bike and it's going to take even longer. (out of sight out of mind goes a long way ). Hope I get my bikes before Christmas! No hard feelings. Thank You.
Hey Greg,
We completely understand the frustration but per our Respect Policy, please stay clear of any curse words as we both need to stay professional and respectful to each other.
The estimated time on our website is for when the bikes are delivered to us and the time to get moving bikes out of our warehouse is a different time frame. To give you a break down of what we are experiencing regarding delays, we are receiving 16,000 bikes per month for the remaining of the year. Before it was only 4,000 and we were not prepared to receive the amount of orders we did and that caused one of our delays. With the new quantity of bikes coming in, it would put us on track and even ahead to where bikes can ship out within days of someone ordering.
Although our warehouse is prepared and ready for the huge amount of bikes we are receiving, FedEx was not ready for that amount of bikes to be shipped out. Due to their shortages on both drivers and trailers, they are taking longer than anticipated to pick up labeled bikes. For example, we have orders from May that have been labeled for about 3 weeks that are pending FedEx pick up. This is another delay we are experiencing.
We are so very sorry Greg for the frustration all this has caused and the delay on your order.
We see your patience and we truly do appreciate it! Let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you.
Best,
Beysa
As you can see they didn't even address the main subject of my letter, about letting people pay to Jump the line if they pay 150. I guess the word bullshit offended them also. Really?? Must be... well you know. Don't want to offend anyone.!
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rawlus
Active Member
- Region
- USA
16,000 bikes per month is impressive. Lectric CS told me earlier today FedEx has only been taking approx 500 per day.
It’s a shitty situation for all, I’m quite sure this is not how Lectric would prefer to do it, and it’s def not how customers would want it… but i don’t see an obvious solution amidst the chaos…
It’s a shitty situation for all, I’m quite sure this is not how Lectric would prefer to do it, and it’s def not how customers would want it… but i don’t see an obvious solution amidst the chaos…
We completely understand the frustration but per our Respect Policy, please stay clear of any curse words as we both need to stay professional and respectful to each other.
rawlus
Active Member
- Region
- USA
yeah i get that, i mean the people we are talking to online or by phone aren’t the ones setting policy so they don’t deserve to feel shitty about their job too… emotions run high when money is at stake and i am empathetic to the fact CS personnel are on the front lines there taking it from every angle amd probably feeling quite powerless to deliver the solution the customer wants. and they are prob working under guidelines in terms of the information they are permitted to share. so it ends up being our choice to wait or to cancel.
if they are bringing in 16,000 bikes per month i’d say that despite the delay issues, people are still pretty committed to waiting it out because there really aren’t a ton of alternative options at the price point and feature set.
I can understand the frustration of everyone waiting on their bikes. I too shared in that frustration a few months ago. I'll offer this. After the estimated timeframe was up, or close to it (I can't exactly remember now), I started to send emails to inquire about my order. I was polite and respectful, and each time I was given an update to which I followed up with another polite email after that. In the end it took a little longer than expected, but I truly believe that my approach led to me getting my bikes sooner rather than later.
Food for thought.
I will also offer that the faster they have to work to do whatever final inspection and assembly is necessary, the more likely that you will receive a bike that has issues. That's just logic. For me I'd rather have a bike free of issues than have one that I can't ride anyway because it was quickly done. Remember that they do have your money right now, so constant email or harassment via email or phone calls doesn't change anything for them at all. Other than for them to care less about the work they are doing getting these things together. Does anyone respond well to getting yelled at? Does it make you work harder, faster, or with more pride? I think we can all agree the answer is no.
Lastly, I feel most people, when spending this amount of money on a bike aren't doing it frivolously. Research has been done, these forums as well as others have been visited and with that said, before clicking the "buy" button, I would guess everyone knew going in that it was going to take a long time and they could experience delays.
With everyone and their brother trying to buy these things and not just from here, I imagine other company's are going through the same thing, and if they are not, they soon will be, if their bikes are anywhere close to this price point/content.
So far I have been very happy with my bikes, and customer service to correct a couple of minor issues has been fast to react.
Food for thought.
I will also offer that the faster they have to work to do whatever final inspection and assembly is necessary, the more likely that you will receive a bike that has issues. That's just logic. For me I'd rather have a bike free of issues than have one that I can't ride anyway because it was quickly done. Remember that they do have your money right now, so constant email or harassment via email or phone calls doesn't change anything for them at all. Other than for them to care less about the work they are doing getting these things together. Does anyone respond well to getting yelled at? Does it make you work harder, faster, or with more pride? I think we can all agree the answer is no.
Lastly, I feel most people, when spending this amount of money on a bike aren't doing it frivolously. Research has been done, these forums as well as others have been visited and with that said, before clicking the "buy" button, I would guess everyone knew going in that it was going to take a long time and they could experience delays.
With everyone and their brother trying to buy these things and not just from here, I imagine other company's are going through the same thing, and if they are not, they soon will be, if their bikes are anywhere close to this price point/content.
So far I have been very happy with my bikes, and customer service to correct a couple of minor issues has been fast to react.
I get what you are saying..... but , I think most customers are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt most of the time. When you place an order for an item and they give you a time frame most people expect them to deliver then, give or take a couple weeks. But when you receive e-mail after e-mail with another 2-3 week delay , IT GETS OLD!! They should just get it over with and just state on the website that you will receive the bike within 6 months. They chose to get in this business and dealing with customers is a big part of it. Their would be no business without customers. I bet a lot of orders would have been cancelled if some knew when they were REALLY going to receive them. I think they say "2 more weeks" just to string us along so we won't cancel. I would rather be told it will take 4 months and get it then, rather to think it will be 2 months and keep being told to wait a little longer time after time. I get it that they are busy but I think they know when they send out another "2 week delay" message that it is going to take longer. This process reminds me of Covid. Every time you think you will (get to take off your mask) get your bike this month, they push the goal post back another "2 weeks." If you go back and read my e-mail, the subject is about letting people jump the shipping line for $150 and delaying orders that were placed before . Nowhere do they mention one word about that in their reply. Guess they don't have a reasonable response (for us) to that. Any way I've waited too long to cancel now... Just got an e-mail from Lectric!! Damn... another 2 weeks!
clickme236
New Member
- Region
- USA
I ordered on 5/27, order #764** and I received the comfort package yesterday. The chart they emailed showed that the bike should have shipped by 8/1 so I emailed for another update. At this rate, I'll be lucky if mine even ships in August, based on your delivery date.
I agree there might be better ways for them to have handled the bottleneck for sure. I also imagine that for every single "other" way there would be some other kind of backlash as a result. Personally, I would have liked to see a "we don't charge your card until we ship" approach, but then people would complain that their checkbooks don't balance or some other thing. I think the saying "You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time” applies in this case.
As for this $150 jump the line thing. I've read the statement put out by lectric on this, and I'm not sure how or where it got twisted into "jumping the line". The way I read it, if you want to pay to expedite your shipping, because shipping via plane is faster than fed-ex ground, then you can and the cost is $150. I really doubt any of that is profit. My thought process is that when they get to your bike getting a label...it gets put on a plane instead of a truck. It might seem that you jumped the line but you likely just got it a week maybe week and a half sooner.
Again this could have been handled differently by allowing at the time of order, multiple ways to ship product and the cost for each. But I am sure from a selling standpoint, it looks better to say "shipping is free". They could have still offered a "free" shipping option and also an expedited option. I would be willing to take a guess that they got enough calls from people waiting for their bikes asking about expedited shipping, that it made sense to offer it, still it shouldn't have come as a separate emailed option, it should be right on the website. Still it is not, but I would guess if you ordered today and called tomorrow you could add it.
FloridaNative
New Member
- Region
- USA
The way I understand the $150 thing and the way I read the email describing it, was that the $150 buys your bike a ride on a chartered cargo plane from China to the USA instead of a boat ride. All other shipment time frames remained the same.
And, they explicitly said in the email that it was still a loss for them… the cost of the chartered plane was more than $150 times the number of bikes that they could fit on said plane.
-Mike
And, they explicitly said in the email that it was still a loss for them… the cost of the chartered plane was more than $150 times the number of bikes that they could fit on said plane.
-Mike
You know what, you are 100% correct. I totally misread that, my apologies.
I still don't think I can consider that jumping the line. In all actuality, those paying the extra while getting their bikes sooner, they are also likely freeing up bikes that might already be on a boat?
It sounds to me as if they have zero stock in house in that case.
rawlus
Active Member
- Region
- USA
At a time of unheard of demand, it would be foolish for any company to accept an order in advance of payment. That would just create a scenario where cuto,ers have no skin or not enough skin in the game, would result in customers placing orders with several companies and aging for the first bike that comes in and cancelling the rest.
if you don’t want to put all the money down in advance, finance it through affirm or something.
if you don’t want to put all the money down in advance, finance it through affirm or something.
FloridaNative
New Member
- Region
- USA
My wife’s step-thru came with the battery in a box and we did not pay for air freight. My bike (on exact same order as hers) is in la la land with a label having been printed 3+ weeks ago but is not on a truck yet.
-Mike
ki11a
Well-Known Member
Simpley put, Lectric is a drop shipper.
They've never really kept product stock on hand, I forgave them for it last year when they were still a relatively new company. But now they are far beyond that, and still pulling the same tricks? Its time to grow up or lose a bunch of customers, I'd say.
They've never really kept product stock on hand, I forgave them for it last year when they were still a relatively new company. But now they are far beyond that, and still pulling the same tricks? Its time to grow up or lose a bunch of customers, I'd say.
clickme236
New Member
- Region
- USA
Well, I'm happy to report that to my surprise, after my last email asking for an update, they labeled the bike on 8/5 and Fedex picked it up on 8/6! I should hopefully get it by Friday and I didn't pay the extra $150.
Cement Shoes
New Member
- Region
- Canada
I sent them a link to this thread
your welcome I singlehandedly got you your bike early so you don’t publically complain
your welcome I singlehandedly got you your bike early so you don’t publically complain
Eu224
Member
- Region
- USA
Sorry, but any company can charge your credit card the moment you place an order and agree to their terms and conditions. How many of us read those? Almost all current mail order ebike companies charge your credit card immediately upon order. That is despite the fact they can't deliver your bike for weeks or months. They need the influx of capital from orders to maintain a cash flow which for many of them with small capital reserves is life or death. Knowing your ebike is many weeks or months away involves some risk. You accept that risk but place some trust in a company that they will fulfil your order when you expected it. When a company looses that trust by too many customers they're in trouble.
Credit card companies place a time limit on how long after the transaction is made you can dispute the charge. Some credit card companies will allow credit card disputes to occur beyond their stated cut-off date under certain circumstances.
So, if a ebike company charges you immediately, then fails to deliver the bike within the credit card company's stated transaction dispute period because of any number of reasons including going out of business be prepared to provide some exceptionally detailed documentation to support a credit card transaction dispute claim.
Let The Buyer Beware.
I'm very sure you had nothing to do with it.
