E.R.T \ Alan Hu nightmare.

Hey guys, i need your help as a community.

I have some trouble with Alan Hu \ Electric Race Technologies. 1st of all, i wouldn't wish to my worst enemies to deal with this kind of service ( and i'm ultra patient guy ).
It used to be Ok at 1st, but as the time passed ( i bought about 50 controllers over the time ), it became worse and worse.
almost 2 months ago i've ordered a batch of controllers.
after numerous attempts to get some info on whats going on with the shipment, after 1 MONTH, 1 M_O_N_T_H he finally answers me and says he doesn't have all the controllers i need, and i'll get just 2. ( i have a customer waiting for a peace under warranty, which is covered ). during this month i've been told a couple of times that it will be shipped -"tomorrow" or -"in a few days". (as i write this i just realize how pathetic the whole process has been ).
Anyway, now that im finally getting some pieces of info, i got a tracking number. but it is -"scheduled for shipping" for a week now. seems like it just there for me to shut up.

the worst part is that i do not get any clear answers on wtf is going on. if it were just 2 extra controllers i would've dropped the idea, get a refund and forget about this horrible relationship. but 1 controller has already been paid for and other is under warranty, so i kind of have to have them.

Do any of you have a way to reach the guy, so i can finish this nightmare and never be involved with this company again? i think im getting grey hair due to all this.. jesus...


p.s
i've spoken to at least 5 people who were experiencing exactly the same thing. i really dont know what to do. Asi HQ couldn't care more about this either.

How many posts about this scam of a "business" before the community does something? Oh right I guess the community can't really do anything, and users are too naive to do research before buying expensive controllers.

In answer to your question OP there is nothing you can do besides a chargeback or wait for a controller that may eventually arrive, maybe not to your specifications, and will be locked down in such a way you can't reconfigure it.

And the band played on.

Ive heard this song and dance so many times before about this guy. I think the best solution is for someone with business letterhead to become a dealer for ASI (other than the guy who currently has you monopolized). A few controllers in the hands of some capable people on here, with a long thread outlining the information and his business essentially goes away, or becomes severely limited to the ill informed.

Until that happens, doing business with snakes will eventually see you bitten.

Thanks for the replies.
i've been trying to not harm his reputation,while we worked together, ive had numerous mistakes and delays, but i didn't do a thing because eventually it was a big part of my income ( i do upgrades on EVs ).
But i've reached this point where i'd rather to starve and not work with this guy anymore. just this last very important shipment and we're done for GOOD.

There are already a ton of threads on here about ERT and Alan's bullshit so I'd say his controllers are already pretty limited to the poorly informed.

Unfortunately it's still not right to scam people even if they're ignorant or stupid, so the community really should step up and make sure everyone bans this guy from doing business.

If you read the post above yours, I think there is a business opportunity here.

ASI charges $150 a pop for one hour of tech support. Alan sells them without the support. Hell, he sells them without the hardware.

a buck fifty profit per unit seems pretty good for one hour.

You would need to qualify your customers better than he does, but IMO this is doable.

Also, there is, SFAIK, one, and only one, user here who has had and continues to have a positive relationship with Alan, not sure if he can help but it is likely the only thread on this site with "alan hu" in it that is not a complaint thread.

Fellow vendor not just a user amiright?

At first I thought you meant the OP is a douche, but the real douche is Alan Hu ERT.
My bad.
What does acronym ERT stand for?

flat tire said:

How many posts about this douchebag before the community does something? Oh right I guess the community can't really do anything, and users are too naive to do research before buying expensive controllers.

In answer to your question OP there is nothing you can do besides a chargeback or wait for a controller that may eventually arrive, maybe not to your specifications, and will be locked down in such a way you can't reconfigure it.

Click to expand...

Right in the second sentence

Electric Race Technologies

The user I spoke of has a good rep and I do not wish to create an impression of association with bad business. But, yes.

I have actually thought of the tech support angle as that's what I do for a living and am pretty good at reading through arcane manuals, but my impressions of the ASI product, more directly its implementation, is that they are winging it, figuring it out as they go along, applying constant bug fixes, and not nailing down a reliable product in the hardware itself. The ongoing issues just getting the thing working correctly in different installs just reek of a basically unfinished product.

Great capabilities, sure. But a consumer-grade product, no. Selling the sizzle and not the steak.

It's not a product I would choose to sell. $150 per hour for tech support, nice but I got a feeling that a good percentage of the time I would call the factory techs to help a client their response would be along the lines of "we have no idea why it is doing that". Been there, done that, not worth the hassle IMO.

But what's that leave for big amps in FOC?

Sevcon even worse that way.

Would be great if Grin did a bigger Phaserunner but no.

Ideally, looking to get every bit of power out of QS 273, 20kW with 500A phase and 300A battery is at the low end.

Nucular has what 6mo waitlist, now maybe a year?

Maybe Sabvoton, big enough? Easy to tune? dunno?

ASI isn't that bad to deal with. They will respond to support emails if you don't ask stupid questions. And their programming environment is far more noob friendly than sevcon's. There is documentation and everything in the app has tooltips. If I could figure out ASI surely many of you could too. For direct drive motors the controllers are easy to setup yourself.

Also, there is Nucular, but availability may be an issue.

I had a similar experience buying a motor from him about 4 years ago. Nothing has changed, he is incapable of functionally running a business and communicating to even a basic degree.

Chargebacks are the way to deal with this BS, call your credit card company and get your money back.

flat tire said:

There are already a ton of threads on here about ERT

Click to expand...

a few
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=102675
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=104271
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=96264
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=101390

After more than 2 months of promises, my package is FINALLY on the way.
Have to point out, the guy is not a scammer, he just might murder your soul with no info or updates on something you've paid .
so if you have a schedule of ANY kind, wouldn't recommend buying there. If you dont mind waiting for months, go ahead.

could you answer or call me and solve the problem with bac8000.
You took my money and sent a product that has defects and cannot be reprogrammed.
It's unprofessional and embarrassing.

arek_arecki said:

could you answer or call me and solve the problem with bac8000.
You took my money and sent a product that has defects and cannot be reprogrammed.
It's unprofessional and embarrassing.

Click to expand...

Are you talking about the threadstarter or ERT?

ERT obviously

I bought a BAC800 from him 13 months ago. What I found interesting, was that it keeps going after you turn the throttle off. No controller I had ever purchased does this. It just keeps throttling along at a slightly lower speed after I take my handoff the throttle, cruise control style. this is awful. https://youtu.be/YCiRFO0te4s?t=550

He said ASI doesn't allow end consumers of resellers credentials to log into their controllers. Ok, fine, but why are you programming controllers to do this? This auto-cruise control thing is the most insane, counter-intuitive thing I have ever used.

They have a lot of videos on Youtube to comment on, if one were so inclined to help give their business the publicity they deserve.

Anyone who makes important decisions based on YT videos, and especially reading the comments (???!!! really???!!!)

deserves the consequences of such foolishness.

thender said:

He said ASI doesn't allow end consumers of resellers credentials to log into their controllers. Ok, fine, but why are you programming controllers to do this?

Click to expand...

Have you got a copy of the ASI pc software? A login is not required to program the controller over the serial interface.

john61ct said:

Anyone who makes important decisions based on YT videos, and especially reading the comments (???!!! really???!!!)

deserves the consequences of such foolishness.

Click to expand...

I don't disagree but for a company like this the more bad press they get the better off we all will be.

district9prawn said:

thender said:

He said ASI doesn't allow end consumers of resellers credentials to log into their controllers. Ok, fine, but why are you programming controllers to do this?

Click to expand...

Have you got a copy of the ASI pc software? A login is not required to program the controller over the serial interface.

Click to expand...

I can't get that to see a controller. Thank you to the anonymous kind soul who sent it over.

I do have a login to bacdoor, as I paid for another ASI evaluation kit. I thought I'd try using it to log into this BAC800 and change that setting. There is a parameter access code that is required. Alan had shared it with me in the past, but I couldn't get certain settings to save. I tried that access code now and it doesn't work at all - no login. I had asked ASI about getting into the controller and they suggested I use the 1 hr paid support I had paid for... but this is a password. This is an email, not even a topic for a phone conversation. I emailed back and hope to hear tomorrow. It would suck to use up the hour consult they give you with an eval kit just to get a password.

Wish me luck ridding this thing of cruise control!