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.