Am I Asking For Too Much?
 

Here’s my story...

About 7 months ago, the reality of turning 50 years old set in. What would make a GREAT 50th birthday present? How about a Grom clone?!? I looked around the internet and decided on a Hellcat from Family Go Karts. They have a 6 month lay-a-way plan and I would have it paid off in time for my birthday.

I work in an Operating Room in a small hospital in Florida. I rearranged my work schedule so I could have the 8th through 11th off from work. I ended up working 18 days straight before my vacation and then 11 days after my vacation!

Fast forward 6 months, I’ve paid off the Hellcat and it’s been shipped to the Tampa terminal of Saia Freight. I called the terminal and they confirm that my Hellcat is there! The terminal has pick up hours from 5am -10am Tuesday through Friday and 5pm - 10pm Monday through Friday.

I arrived at the terminal around 9pm on March 8th. They can’t find my Hellcat! I was told that I will have to call back on Monday and see if they found my bike. Really?!? WTF?!? How do you loose a piece of freight? I explained to John, the night supervisor, that this was my only opportunity to pick up my bike.

Every time I called the Tampa terminal I get some call center off site. I explained to them what happened. They put me on hold and talked to someone at the terminal. Yeah, the bike is sitting in front of the office!

On March 19th, after only a few hours of sleep, I get up at 4am and drive an hour to Tampa. After they load the bike on my trailer, I noticed a hole in the side of the shipping box, like maybe a forklift had hit it.
Attachment 16285
It’s been raining on and off, so the forklift operator notes the hole on the bill of lading and I start on my hour drive home.

After I got home, I looked at the bike and found a box of ceramic tiles inside the shipping box!
Attachment 16286
Apparently, a forklift didn’t hit the bike, a box of high speed, flying tile did!

Yesterday, March 23rd, I got my first opportunity to look the bike over. I can’t decide if the tractor trailer was involved in a crash or nothing was secured in the trailer! Along with a lot of cosmetic damage, the front wheel and swing arm were damaged and are unusable.
Attachment 16287

Now, instead of getting a Hellcat, I have an unwanted Hellcat project! Happy birthday, right!?!?

I would be pissed but I also wouldn't have left shipping Company until I inspected my bike. If there was any damage I wouldn't have accepted it. Hope all turns out good for you.

I think a family go karts guy was on this site ,you might want to get in touch with him .

I mean "really!!". Why do so many have trouble with the shipping companies?!?!? We all want cheap shipping. I get it. At what point is it not worth it? China Bikes are not the only things being shipped. These companies are destroying other things too. How do they stay in business paying all the claims? My guess is they pay the people actually doing the "real work" hardly nothing. The higher-ups are soaking in the money and making enough in profits to offset the losses. They make their money and move on somewhere else before anyone realizes what happened to their company.

Pay the people doing the "real work" real money. This will get the quality that is needed. People will care more because they make more. If you loose a low paying job - so what? If you loose a high paying job - oh shit!


I hate your bike got destroyed. I know it is a bad feeling. Getting something new and finding it this way is not good. Go as high up the ladder as you can to get this fixed. Shipping company and wherever you bought it. This is the only way this kinda thing may get the attention it needs.

That is a shame that after you waited all this time and when you finally get the bike it's all busted up. I would request a new bike and enough tile to do the entire bath room. Lol I hope they care of it and get you another bike or at least all the replacement parts.

Famillygokarts, the woman I spoke with prior to taking delivery of mine told me to accept delivery no matter what. Which contradicts their liability form you have to initial and send back.

I hope you get it fixed @kirbo7106. Familygokarts has been horrible when it comes to resolving customer issues regarding damaged and defective merchandise.

I really hate to say it ,but googling family gokarts gives you a very scary picture of a business who seems very dirty .Many horrible reviews .Any chance you used a credit card to make those payments ?

True. I looked at the BBB reports last night. They were all bad. The few positive ones were obviously fakes.

B.W. Incorporated (familygokarts)

https://www.bbb.org/us/mn/browns-val...-0704-14001779

If you get stuck with it there is a bright side. The way the front rim is damaged looks like it won't affect riding it. The spacer goes between that side and the fork if I'm not mistaken.

A new swingarm is $56 https://partskit.com/#/product/602757 (but partskit is known for bad service too)

A real Grom swingarm or one of these is just around $100 http://www.msx125accessories.com/hon...sx125-swingarm

I bought my bike at Venom Motorsports and they told me
to inspect bike before signing receipt otherwise
they would not cover any damage claims, I personally had very good experience buying through them.

I would think that's impossible. The delivery person would have to be willing to wait around until you unboxed it, disassembled the cage, unwired the front rim and other parts connected to cage and inspect every thing. Then if something was wrong, wait around to re-assemble the cage and box it back up.

I get it though, you could check for signs of damage to the box. For me the condition of the box was fine. It was only after getting everything out of the cage I started to find problems here and there.

All of the payments were on my credit card. I will get in touch with them tomorrow.

Everything was assembled , is all I had to do was put the handle bars on and I made the delivery guy wait while I un-boxed and inspected.
Sure I didn't look at everything but I did look at the most important things such as wheels, tires, engine, cosmetics. I paid for it so it better be what I paid for period.

Make sure to 'print to PDF' your trouble ticket history with them and let your CC company look at it. So they can see fgk does nothing to address any problems except give the run around.

The spacer goes on the disc side and the speedometer sensor goes on the damaged side. I will have to get a new wheel.

Before I would buy another clone swing arm, I would buy an aluminum one. Thanks for the link.

As for the BBB, I should have checked it out better. The Hellcat was probably fine until Saia got hold of it. The box of ceramic tiles, traveling at a high rate of speed, is what damaged the bike.

You're right about the spacer. I wasn't thinking.

I made the same mistake as you - ordering from them. Neither of us were planning on a project bike but we got one. I planned on doing a z190 swap but after riding it for a bit, getting a better swing arm and shock has become a priority. There is a lot of slop with the stock one. So in a way if you were planning on doing upgrades, it's not too bad since that may be one of the first things you'd want to replace. At least that's how I'm trying to justify it. Cause it doesn't look like I'm getting anywhere with fgk.

Have you tried to start it yet or is it still in the cage? I wonder if the carb and speedo on yours is defective too.

Oh, also i was reading around about the aluminum swingarms, some are hollow others are solid.

Yeah, I should have gone with Venom Motorsports! I really like the Hellcat, but not that much!

My Hellcat is still in the cage. If I can’t get any help from Family Go Karts, Saia or my Credit card company, it will probably be put in my storage unit until the fall. I have a lot of “crazy” going on in my life right now and I don’t have the energy or money for another problem.

By any chance, did you ask Family Go Karts about their “60 Day Money Back Guarantee”? I would do that in a heartbeat!

I haven't. I believe there is a restocking fee involved and you pay for part of the return shipping. This would have left me with an even smaller budget to get cheap transportation ASAP.

Replacing the carb, chain tensioners and drivers side mirror got me riding 'safely' for around $45 out of pocket. But I still want them to come correct regarding the unresolved cosmetic and or non critical related defects/damage.

So your swing arm is actually broken?

When you start unboxing the bike, the front tire is wired between the crate and the rear swing arm of the bike. Whatever happened during shipping caused the front wheel to impact the swing arm right at the chain tensioner. It bent the threaded rod and collapsed the square tubing.

I could probably rig it to get by, but I would definitely replace it ASAP!

Crap

Partskit.com has front wheels. (Grom replicas) on sale for 35.bucks right now

Thanks!

Who’s in my wallet? Capital One! And they are disputing the charges for my Hellcat!

I just got off the phone with Capital One and they are taking care of my problem! It might take a while.

I’ll keep you posted!

I think that is the only way to purchase an internet bike ,unless it’s a local dealer ,use a credit card to protect yourself .

I hope you have good photographic evidence of all the damages.

I took pictures of all the damage and sent it to Family Go Karts. I have saved all my emails to them also.

Really bummed to hear customer service not being awesome for Family Go Karts... they've been super nice on the phone and easy to work with. I'm waiting on my Hellcat but it worries me if I have issues I'll foot the bill since they're giving you the run around.

I hope you get one without any damage.

I hope you get a good one! What color did you go with? Keep us posted!

Enjoy the Ride!

This sucks to hear about your issues and also, family go carts. They're "Local-ish" here in Vallejo and I was hoping for better service. The last thing we China Riders needs is another Manny.

Not to get off topic too much, but where abouts in Vallejo are they? I have been to GoKartsUSA in Benicia.

Whoops. My error. You're correct. GoKartsUSA in benicia.

I got a blue one, I wanted white but they only had one at their store front fully assembled and wanted more money for it. I figured with the extra money I'd spend I could just buy new grom plastics for close to the same price. Hopefully it goes without a hitch but we will see.

I thought the same thing! As soon as it started going sideways, I felt like it was Txpowersports all over again!
:doh:

Follow up from FamilyGoKarts.com...
 

Hey guys, Brad here from FamilyGoKarts.com. I usually try to follow up when our name comes up in the forum. I'm sorry I haven't responded sooner, but I didn't get a notice and just found this discussion today.

I'm really sorry to hear about all the problems you've experienced. The biggest problem we have in this industry, besides Chinese quality control issues, is shipping damage, and that is by far the number one issue we constantly deal with.

We recently switched from UPS Freight to Saia because of these problems, and we've been carefully monitoring them to see how it goes. For the most part, it has been much better, but there are still the occasional hiccups. So let me first thank you for reporting your experience in detail. I understand it takes a lot of extra effort to have to deal with a problem that never should have happened in the first place. Your report makes it easier for us to work on improvements both internally and in the industry as a whole. I definitely will be referring our Saia rep to this thread.

Secondly, please know that we really do try to make it right when things like this happen. However, we're generally at the mercy of the vendor/distributor and shipper when it comes to replacement parts, warranty concerns and shipping claims. Now, that's not to say we aren't sometimes to blame. I'll be the first to admit that we occasionally screw up support tickets and let a customer down. Sometimes we just get too busy with 'business', and an issue falls through the cracks. Other times, issues aren't cut and dried or easily resolved. And still other times, even though we solve the problem, we can't solve it as fast as the customer would like.

Nevertheless, this is not to try to offer excuses. A problem is a problem, and problems should be resolved. Customers expect to receive rideable products, not 'projects' as someone here has perhaps accurately called it. We get it. We want every order to go smoothly and every customer to be totally satisfied, and it's in that spirit that we try our best to fix every problem that comes up.

I wish I could say we always get it right... but we don't. So to you scoot newb and kirbo7106 and any others that we may have failed, I offer our sincerest apologies.

If you continue to have problems, and need to reach out, feel free to reply here and I will personally relay any input directly to the top or to the vendor or shipper. I'll do what I can to help.

Having said that, if you'll indulge me for a moment, I'd like to speak to the topic of FamilyGoKart's reputation that has been brought up in this discussion.

Competition in this industry is stiff (and sometimes even cutthroat), and margins are tight. Pile on quality control problems, crazy high shipping costs, delayed or damaged deliveries, and slow or uncooperative vendors and the challenges can be mush greater than most customers realize.

It's easy for businesses, especially online businesses, to seem impersonal and distant, but we do care very much about every customer and every order that comes through. We're a very real, albeit relatively small, family-owned business with around 20 super dedicated, hard-working employees that pour their hearts and souls into their jobs. We couldn't ask for a better group of people. Most of us are located in the tiny little town of Browns Valley, MN, but some are distributed across the US from California to Arkansas. And even though we may sell Chinese imports for the most part, every order placed with us helps to support real US workers and put food on the table for real families, adding to local economies from coast to coast.

We're a conservative, family-centric, God-fearing, US-loving bunch of folks, and we work hard to personify that culture to our customers. We understand that may not sit well with some people given the current political and social landscape, but it's who we are.

However, even though we're small, we are the largest online retailer for most import distributors with whom we have a relationship. Other dealers don't even come close. Our employees have served well in excess of 50,000 customers over the years and the vast majority have been satisfied. The last time we ran the numbers, we were in the 99.997% satisfaction range. So I take slight issue when people point out negative reviews they've found online.

Of course, we've certainly had our share of unhappy customers. And those customers are always the most vocal, seeking out any and every platform to air their grievances; even platforms of highly questionable business practices, of which we consider the BBB.

Most people think the Better Business Bureau is some kind of altruistic, non-profit organization that looks out for consumers' interests. In reality, the BBB is anything but fair and impartial, and it most certainly is not non-profit, although it does little to dispel that myth. The BBB is just another business, plain and simple, and it makes it's money by collecting passive reviews and then forcing real businesses to pay exorbitant fees and invest man hours in dealing with their paperwork all because a customer thought it was a good idea to file a complaint. We have a mighty low opinion of the BBB and consider it to have highly questionable business practices that border on extortion and do little if nothing to help businesses actually improve customer relations.

If you'd like to know more about some of our misfortunes with the BBB, check out this article on our blog:

https://www.familygokarts.com/blog/w...aid-of-the-bbb

It's a little dated by now, but the experience taught us a valuable lesson about dealing with the BBB.

The same is true of the myriad other so-called "online complaint sites" that only collect passive reviews. If you don't believe me, just spend a little time Googling some of them from a business perspective. They have literally destroyed businesses and ruined the lives of the people who owned them. They are shady, unethical sites that prey on consumers beset by the emotions of a deal gone bad and then use the content they milk from these people to blackmail businesses to pay huge fees to repair their reputation.

We do continue to respond to BBB complaints, but we do so only as a courtesy for customers that don't understand how the BBB is taking advantage of them. Basically, we place a higher value on trying to make customers happy than we do on stiffing the BBB. However, we much prefer to deal with customers via a valid, third-party, active review service or even an unbiased online forum like this one. There are plenty of reputable ratings platforms and legitimate review services out there to get to know a business's reputation. Google Business Reviews is one example. We use a third-party review system called Shopper Approved that lets customers rate our company and review the service we provide. And unlike online complaint sites, only verified customers are allowed to submit a review, and we see every review that comes through... and we respond when necessary to resolve any bad ratings.

For reviews from real customers, check out this page:

https://www.shopperapproved.com/revi...ilyGoKarts.com

There's also more information on that page about the difference between Passive and Active reviews.

Now, I said all that to say this; we really do care and we really do try. We never leave fake reviews anywhere. And we never leave a customer unhappy when they have a valid complaint. We don't have a magic wand that can fix every issue that arises, but we will do whatever we can do within reason to compensate a customer if a problem occurs. These machines are very expensive to ship, and everybody loses if one is returned and shipped twice. So we do our best to help customers correct any problems they might experience.

All we ask is that our customers also do what they can to help.

If you've read this far, I commend you! For those of you that have ordered from us, thank you for trusting us with your purchase, and thank you for supporting the families that make our company what it is. We genuinely appreciate your business!

And scoot newb and kirbo7106, please do follow up here if I can help with your issues in any way.

Sincerely,
Brad Holland
CIO - Director of IT
Backer Wencel, Incorporated

Yes, you have a disclaimer on your site about the BBB. The positive reviews are obviously fake. I urge anyone reading this to see for yourself. The negative reviews are spot on and match the lack of service I've been receiving.

It's been 2 weeks since I've taken delivery of the Hellcat and nobody there has done anything to get the bike up to Dot or State inspection standards. If I hadn't spent money and time it wouldn't even be running yet.

What are you going to do about this? How much longer should I wait before these problems are resolved?

Jeff should be able to fill you in on the problems. I can PM you the trouble ticket number if you'd like.

I mean really the weekly reply from Jeff always has some excuse about him 'not being in the office', so he is the only person assigned to handle problems? It is beyond ridiculous.

Brad’s response was nice and detailed...but what matters are results. The time spent writing that post could/should have been spent resolving his (and other’s) problems with their orders.

Exactly.

Guys, let's not turn this into a bash familygokart thread. Brad is posting in good faith. Hopefully he see that every one gets there issues resolved.

Fair enough. Let's see what happens.