loamoaf
Active Member
- Region
- USA
This. Someone bought a Hydra black after me and received it - seeing that post is what prompted me to make an EBR account and start whining. I whined to WW about it and they told me it was because the black frame ships to them with the motor installed, my order was waiting on a motor. Now 6 months later my order is waiting on a controller but this Hydra black order that was placed weeks after my order got a controller put in it? This is what gets me. For nearly 6 months I was under the impression this was all waiting on a motor, and in most of my attempts to contact WW I had sought assurance that a controller was set aside for my order so that this very thing wouldn't happen - which of course went unacknowledged (again they had announced ordered before (9/1 were covered by current controller supply, my order was mid-July so I can only guess where 6 weeks of orders worth of controllers went)I'm not sure why Wattwagons doesn't stop taking orders when there are more orders than they can fulfill with existing inventory like many other reputable vendors do. Once existing inventory is exhausted, they mark the product as "sold-out" and let you leave your email with them to get notified when more product is in stock. You might loose a few sales, but its much better than the negative feedback you get by not fulfilling orders. Wattwagons would still likely sell everything they make.
Another option is to set up and track a written waiting list with a very small deposit and let people know what their approximate place number will be in the waiting list before they send their deposit. Then send weekly automatic emails to everyone with their place number in the waiting list so they can see how their position in the list is progressing. Not zero effort like the "sold-out" option, but it would not be difficult to set up.
There's a lot of talk of "oh well they need the money to buy the stuff to build your bike, of course they can't give you a full refund if they can't deliver in 6 months what they promised in 14 days, they had to order the stuff and now without the sale covered they'd be out money." That's just not how business operates. You don't go to a restaurant and pay money then wait for them to go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients to make your meal. WW does not lose any money from a cancelled order if they still have those items they bought to resell for that order. They are not spoiling goods, and they've clearly no shortage of orders to try to keep up with. I'm also pretty positive sans-actual contract the multiple emails received with lead times, deadlines, and promises can be considered a contractual agreement and one could argue that due to the nature of the goods in question there is no financial loss to the seller and thus the customer should have 100% of their money refunded. I used lawyer words like 'sans, due, & thus' so I know I am right.