advertised powerful 10kw e-bike kit

[Sunder]

You can check whether your credit card company will do a charge back, but I get the feeling you didn't pay by Credit Card/Paypal.

They never registered an ABN as far as I can see. Their domain ownership is through a web hosting company, so no contacts there. They never put up their full address, but they did put up a phone number. A lawyer could probably put in a request to help you find the owner based on that, but since it's more likely a civil matter than a criminal one, I doubt police would help you, which means it'll probably cost you more to find the guy than you'll get back from him.

I've been stung for minor amounts a few times now. Never more than $250, but this is why you don't shop at dodgy looking website shops, and you mark refund expiry dates in your calendar. Two days before the Paypal/Credit Card charge-back guarantee expires, you lodge a charge back and you accept no excuses. I've heard of other people who have been done by everything from "If you cancel your charge back, I'll send you back your money today" (Once you cancel, you can't put in another one) - to "I just sent your goods this morning, here's the tracking number, please cancel the charge back, or we'll have you charged with fraud". (Can't validate a tracking number for 48 hours usually) It's all crap.

Sorry your first introduction to Electric Bikes was this experience. Though if you stick around, you'll probably learn enough to build a better electric bike for about half the cost of what they were advertising (from Google Cache and Wayback Machine), and it'll probably be better quality and you'll have the skills to look after it too.

 

[jetpower]

Thanks for your words, Sunder. I totally agree to your suggestions, as I normally follow these golden rules too. My bad I failed on this one big time.

I have 2 different addresses of them, one in Breakwater (VIC), one in Kyabram (VIC). On 21th July 15 they said they moved recently their house and workshop 250 miles away. Maybe someone knows if the mentioned cities are already the new addresses or old ones.

John

 

[Samd]

Pretty sure they were in Kyabram and moved to Geelong somewhere. I think Breakwater is a suburb of Geelong?
Where are you based Jetpower?

 

[Sean9002]

Pretty sure they were in Kyabram and moved to Geelong somewhere. I think Breakwater is a suburb of Geelong?
Where are you based Jetpower?

Yeh its about 15 mins from my house, on the other side of Geelong.

How can I help? What was the address you last had listed for them in Geelong?
PM me if you don't want to print it up here.

 

[ridethelightning]

I remember seeing their web store some time ago..the photos of 10kw bikes that looked like a huffy with a lunchbox strapped in the frame.... :lol:
good luck hunting em' down, i hope you get a refund somehow.

 

[ozman]

I hope you got this sorted.
I think the guy Ben who operated this so called company Insane electrics used to live in Sydney
I am pretty sure he was in the Army back then because when i was first looking at building an electric bike back in 2012 i visited his house in Holsworthy and rode one of his bikes.

 

[John Bozi]

I expect this kind of retarded salesmanship from China, for example Greentime. However, when I see it happening in our own backyard it is infuriating.

I am sorry for your loss.

 

[ozman]

Yes John its a shame he didn't find ES before handing over the cash.

With a bit of advice from the members here he could probably built something himself.
Or Samd could have sold him a pretty sweet ride

 

[John in CR]

Why are you lumping Greentime in the same category as an Australian scammer? I know from experience a few years ago that Leo (Greentime) can be slow, but he always came thru, and I considered my special orders that required some development and testing time on his end to be reasonable to cause some delay. If something has changed I'd like to know.