We bought a cargo bike, a tricycle actually. Our intention was to go car-lite and use it for most of our errands. The majority of shopping is within biking distance. My DH was going to do the biking with DD in tow, and the cargo bike had plenty of room for groceries, etc.
We finally got it yesterday. It is just gorgeous and obviously very solidly made. Unfortunately, the tradeoff in being solid is that the thing is heavy. We knew it was heavy, but really had no idea how HEAVY it is. We live in a hilly terrain and had asked the dealer if the model was ok for hilly terrains, and we were assured it would be no problem.
My DH is 31 and is in good shape, but on his test run, it was a HUGE effort to get it up a small slope, and he had to walk it up another slope. Our house is on a serious incline (I don't know, maybe 30 degrees) and we did not think we would be able to do anything but walk it up the hill, but WALKING the cycle up the hill absolutely wiped DH out, and he had no groceries or anything on it.
It just isn't usable for us. We called, we complained. They have a no return policy but were willing to waive it. They quoted a 15% restocking fee, fine, we'll live with it. We were also prepared to pay for the shipping back (originally $300 for frieght). But they told us that we would have to ARRANGE the shipping back, not just pay it.
We got quoted over $850 by Yellow Frieght and UPS Frieght, the two places they recommended as being the cheapest. DH asked the freight companies how that could be, since the original shipment was only $300, and the answer was that the quotes are different depending on what kind of account you have.
Our options as I see them:
- Call them back and insist that they arrange the freight through their accounts, though naturally we will pay. This has been done, and we're waiting for their response. We'll see. I am not optimistic since they probably feel they've done enough by accepting a return at all.
- Hire a uHaul truck and drive it back ourselves. I think it would probably be about a 6 hour drive each way, maybe a bit more. Obviously it's the cost of the rental, cost of gas, a wasted day, and - worst of all - 12 hours in a car with a 3 year old. The costs are probably ok but I just can't get past the idea of torturing my 3 year old and blowing a hard day (probably also stressful) on this.
- Call it a loss and just keep it.
- Try to sell it locally or within the state (would probably only get about 10-20% of what we paid for it since it's a custom item). I would hate to sell it truly locally since it's a hilly terrain and I think not a workable piece of equipment here. It's probably quite workable in more flat terrain, though.
Other ideas? Thoughts on what you'd do on the above? Commiseration? We feel really crushed about it since we were so excited, and then waited 11.5 weeks for it (originally promised 4-5 weeks, and then we had to make several increasingly urgent calls to push for updates). I just feel we were let down, and told whatever we wanted to hear to make the sale, and then our satisfaction was not at all important since it took well over twice the promised time to deliver.
We finally got it yesterday. It is just gorgeous and obviously very solidly made. Unfortunately, the tradeoff in being solid is that the thing is heavy. We knew it was heavy, but really had no idea how HEAVY it is. We live in a hilly terrain and had asked the dealer if the model was ok for hilly terrains, and we were assured it would be no problem.
My DH is 31 and is in good shape, but on his test run, it was a HUGE effort to get it up a small slope, and he had to walk it up another slope. Our house is on a serious incline (I don't know, maybe 30 degrees) and we did not think we would be able to do anything but walk it up the hill, but WALKING the cycle up the hill absolutely wiped DH out, and he had no groceries or anything on it.
It just isn't usable for us. We called, we complained. They have a no return policy but were willing to waive it. They quoted a 15% restocking fee, fine, we'll live with it. We were also prepared to pay for the shipping back (originally $300 for frieght). But they told us that we would have to ARRANGE the shipping back, not just pay it.
We got quoted over $850 by Yellow Frieght and UPS Frieght, the two places they recommended as being the cheapest. DH asked the freight companies how that could be, since the original shipment was only $300, and the answer was that the quotes are different depending on what kind of account you have.
Our options as I see them:
- Call them back and insist that they arrange the freight through their accounts, though naturally we will pay. This has been done, and we're waiting for their response. We'll see. I am not optimistic since they probably feel they've done enough by accepting a return at all.
- Hire a uHaul truck and drive it back ourselves. I think it would probably be about a 6 hour drive each way, maybe a bit more. Obviously it's the cost of the rental, cost of gas, a wasted day, and - worst of all - 12 hours in a car with a 3 year old. The costs are probably ok but I just can't get past the idea of torturing my 3 year old and blowing a hard day (probably also stressful) on this.
- Call it a loss and just keep it.
- Try to sell it locally or within the state (would probably only get about 10-20% of what we paid for it since it's a custom item). I would hate to sell it truly locally since it's a hilly terrain and I think not a workable piece of equipment here. It's probably quite workable in more flat terrain, though.
Other ideas? Thoughts on what you'd do on the above? Commiseration? We feel really crushed about it since we were so excited, and then waited 11.5 weeks for it (originally promised 4-5 weeks, and then we had to make several increasingly urgent calls to push for updates). I just feel we were let down, and told whatever we wanted to hear to make the sale, and then our satisfaction was not at all important since it took well over twice the promised time to deliver.
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