American Lifan Dealer left me with a Un Licenseable bike...

[dsrt4]

*I posted this on American Lifans Customer forum as well*

Alright, the time has come to voice my concerns about New Athens PowerSports in New Athens IL.


I Went out of My way to the Next State to get this bike Solely on the fact it was a American Lifan and this was a actual Store front.

The Problems started when I mistakenly left my Drivers License at the store the day I bought my bike. I Had planned on going back nearby there in a week but he offered to mail it to me. I never got the License back and I Had to Pay for a new one. When I Finally got ahold of the guy he couldn't even remember the address he sent it to. < This right here should have been my first clue about the guy.


After Getting a new License I tried getting the Bike registerd and licensed. The Dealer didnt fill out anything on the back and it took me another 2 weeks to get that info from him.

By This time I Had resorted to using other peoples Phones at work because the guy would never pick up when I called. He has 3 lines to that place of business and I knew them all and had been trying to call for days at that point. One call from my friends phone got him and I Was finally able to get a fax with the info needed for the bike.


The Bike did get licensed and I pretty much just wrote off the whole experiance and moved on.

Now 4 months later the State sends a notice to my Insurance saying they have the incorrect vin. My Insurance contacts me and LOW AND BEHOLD........ The Vin on the bike doesnt match the MSO.

Shortly after that the state contacted me and told me I needed to get the correct MSO and bring that in and not to ride the bike.

It took me a week of calling to actually get the Dealer to pick up the phone. He Told me he would look for it and get back with me. After About a week I Started calling him on a friends phones again.

He Picks up and says "Yeah *soandso* says we have it here we just have to find it" I Specificly Stated to the Man that if he found it "DO NOT MAIL IT TO ME".. and that I Would come and pick it up.

So.....Another week rolls around. Still no answer to my calls and he doesnt seem to have a answering machine because it just rings of the hook. I Call again not 3 minutes later from a co-workers phone and he picks up and I Can tell he is pissed because he trying to brush me off by not answering to my #. I Asked if he had found the MSO and he Says. "Yeah *SOANDSO* sent it out in the mail to you last week." I asked why it was mailed when I Specificlly told them I Wanted to pick it up. I just got the "Its in the mail you should get it in a day or two"

That was over a week ago now and I only live in the next state less than 150 miles away. There is no other person at his place of business other than Him. He Told me he was One man Show the night I bought the bike. The MSO mostly likely has been shipped off with another bike and he probably doesnt know who has it.

A Call to American Lifan when this all started garnered me nothing more than a "Keep at him"

When I started freaking out 3 weeks AFTER I contacted him about the MSO, I Called American Lifan again to see if they couldnt just fire off a new MSO to me so I Wouldnt have to deal with the guy anymore. Fat Chance....... My call to them gained me nothing but 7 dropped calls while on hold and finally a "We just Distribute the bikes, you are on your own". I would be lying if I Didnt say I felt a Little let down by American Lifan as well.

Now I Am Stuck with a brand new $1000 bike I cannot register.

Awesome.....

[TeamCheap]

Well that sucks.

I'd bet A.L. will just a memory soon.

[DDG1976]

It looks to me like if A.L. wants to stay in the bike business they need to start helping their customers. They'll probably be importing something else if a couple years, hopefully something that doesn't involve paperwork.

[dsrt4]

I made the mistake that all "grey" market bikes are bad and that I Really needed to go with American Lifan in order to get a legal bike.

Basicly I Fed into the Line of BS. And I lost my Ass on this bike.


What I should have done was went to Hooper Imports or Trailbuddy to get the Lifan LF110gy3 I wanted.

It Still irks the crap out of me That I have a bike I Sunk a Bunch of money into and now cannot get it street legal Just because a Dealer does not want to do his job.

I Waited along time to voice anything about this giving him and American Lifan the benefit of the doubt. I Will be Calling the IL State of Attorney on WED if I Do not get this resolved by then.

[phil]

i bet you get banned from the al website, sounds like you had the pleasure of talking to shawn i didnt see it for myself but i was led to beleive that al could and did print mso's, but then i have been misled before :wink: i would try again, on my freinds phone and ask peter i would also try to see if that state the dealer was in has what here is called a dealer motor board or some other oversite ran by the state. what bike did you get sounds like the price was too low

[dsrt4]

Why would I get Banned? I'm stating fact not fiction..

The bike was a LF110GY-3 Trail 70 replica...

[DDG1976]

Originally Posted by dsrt4

Why would I get Banned? I'm stating fact not fiction..

The bike was a LF110GY-3 Trail 70 replica...

They don't care if it's fact, it's bad news about them on their forum.
I would be on the BBB website www.bbbonline.org filing a complaint against both the dealer and AL, the BBB will assign you an arbitrator who will deal with both the dealer and AL to get your problem resolved. I bought a "grey market" bike from Atvdiscounters and went through some MSO problems. The arbitrator from the BBB had my correct MSO in the mail to me in 3 days time, a week after filing my complaint I had my bike registered correctly.

[dsrt4]

They have to be in the BBB for that to work though right?

American Lifan nor the dealer are BBB Accredited.

[dsrt4]

It looks like AL gives 2 craps what the bbb thinks about them. Heres the file the bbb has on them.

BIG F for FAIL!!!!!!

http://www.dallas.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Re...&firm=90021234

[phil]

i like the bike i have one but i never have tried to tag it its geared to low for the street. as for stating only fact they (al) have no idea what that is and once they see it and then see it over in the "gossip" forum im sure they will be here as normal to "help" anyone with a problem. did you happen to read new ways from american lifan in this section i stated facts and have paperwork, recepts and emails to back up everything as for the bbb that will only do good if they want to save face but i doubt al cares so take serious actin now if you have a lawer buddy use him. the state board, army whatever resources you can http://www.library.sos.state.il.us/contact/contact.html

[dsrt4]

I spent $40 and regeared it for street use. 55mph is easliy had with a regear. Its pretty zippy on the street now. I like Lifans alot as well. Just Not American Lifan.


I have Located the IL Consumer affairs division and My State DMV (At the Capitol) told me for fact yesterday that this essentially amounts to fraud on his part if he does not sort it out.

Heres the IL Consumer affairs/Attorny General's site.
http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.g...ers/index.html


The Dealer will have until Wed to figure it out. If it takes sending me a Frame and a MSO so Be it.....

American Lifan has already stated they wont do anything and "Good luck" with the dealer. If they had the capability of getting me a New MSO I would assume they would have already done that.

I will tell you what though. I Am ready to buy a Lifan z50 Replica and I Will Be going through Hooper Imports to get it. I Should have done that in the first place with this Ct 70 replica.

[culcune]

I have not dealt with Hooper, but he seems to be a stand-up guy. As far as I can tell, there has not been one member complaining about him since this site was started, and even before that on my Jetmotogroup site, and on the now-defunct lf200gy group. I think Hooper will be ok to deal with.

[dsrt4]

I have heard of a few complaints against Hooper but they have always been corrected and that was it.

People are allowed to make mistakes...... Its Just when they dont correct them is when there should be a issue.

[IronFist]

I expect Shaun to show up here soon, to smooth cooling balm on your pocketbook, and to sweep aside any bad press. He said we had a bad attitude, so I promised to be positive. I'm sure he will take care of you.

[culcune]

Originally Posted by dsrt4

I have heard of a few complaints against Hooper but they have always been corrected and that was it.

I think there will always be problems with Chinese bikes (heck, any bike for that matter, but more so with Chinese), but if the dealer takes care of problems, that is what is asked for.

Ironfist-who cares if someone thinks a site is mean? They can open their own site and put their products in rose-colored splendor, which is what they did.