Enertion - One Big Con?

[SpeedSloth]

Hi all, :lol:

Since March I've been keen to build an electric longboard and finally bit the bullet and started ordering parts some of which were from Enertion. I already had a deck, made my own mounts and ordered motors and batteries etc from Hobby King.

The other parts I needed were more specialist, I'd looked at the RC car ESCs people were using but came across Enertion who offered a specialist product that looked ideal for what I needed. I explored the website and it looked great, enough to convince me to place an order for the Vesc-x, Nano X, Wheels and bearings. At the time there appeared to be a sale (which is still ongoing!) and the constant pop ups showing products being bought live convinced me to order from them.

This is a story of my current experience and a cry out for help either from Enertion or someone who knows the best ways to deal with this kind of situation. I honestly right now feel like I've been conned out of my money by this company and have lost all motivation for this project… After looking into things further it appears Enertion aren't as great as their website makes them appear.

So…

Firstly at the time the Nano X was for pre-order only with stock expected on the end of March. As this was a new product I could understand that this date was subject to change so expected it within the near future. Something I didn't want was the Nano X to delay my order at least I could build my board while I waited for it to arrive. Before I ordered I went on the online chat and asked if it was possible for everything to be sent immediately and the Nano X be shipped when available. They said that it wouldn't be a problem so I put an order on with an extra note requesting the same thing.

Chat transcript from 16th March:

Something interesting I learnt from this chat is that the electronics parts came from the USA and the mechanical parts were to be shipped from Australia. Either way I was expecting to have everything within two weeks except for the Nano X which could come later.

So on the 16th of March I ordered all four items from Enertion.The wait was on and I was excited for the project.

You may notice that my order is so far partially shipped and this is still the case… On April 6th I contacted them and was told that nothing had been shipped because of the Nano-X despite them agreeing to send things separately. What's worse is that the Nano-X has delayed my mechanical parts which should have been shipped from a different continent!

I mentioned that they had said they would ship the parts and included the transcript but they came back with a response that barely makes sense:

I'd assume that the Nano-X is classed as an electrical part, so basically I'd been told:

'Despite your request and our agreement we haven't sent your mechanical parts from Australia because we are waiting for your electrical parts to ship to you from USA'

Great… I was starting to realize that this wasn't going to be easy. I accepted that it wasn't worth the hassle to get the rest of the parts before the Nano-X and with the suggested shipment date had already passed I figured that it would be soon so I waited a little more.

Towards the end of the month I'd still heard nothing so sent the following email:

To which they replied:

Fantastic! I thought I was actually getting somewhere, I even was able to get my first apology out of them and things seem like they will improve and I waited. What's better is that my order status changed to partially shipped a few days later! What surprised me however was the US tracking number…

However last week some parts actually came! I opened a parcel which contained: A Vesc-X and a Nano-X! Hurrah, I'm nearly there

My excitement turned to disappointment however after opening the Nano-X I found that there was no receiver in the packet. I turned the room upside down incase something fell out the packet when I opened it and checked everywhere but no, it wasn't ever there

Upset I went back to my good friends at Enertion to tell them about the issue and went back to them with this (they still haven't sent the mechanical parts they promised

To which I got a reply that didn't really tell me anything:

I'm not sure who the concerned person is but no ones got back to me and she's still saying the same old rubbish about the mechanical parts. Again, no apology about any of this…

A few days later I went to contact them on their online chat when this happened:

At was this that started to make me doubt the legitimacy of this company. At this point I thought that I'd never hear from them again. There's a lot they aren't telling me or being fair about… :rage:

Luckily however she came back a moment later and we had a little chat:

Now the manager should be aware of my issues and I'm expecting a response within 24-48hrs. So far it has been over 24 and I am yet to hear anything and to be honest I doubt I will until I chase them again.

TL;DR

1. I ordered parts early March and were promised them in 7 days - it's been over two months and many haven't even been shipped.
2. My Nano-X didn't come with a receiver.
3. Customer Service is hopeless and aren't resolving my issues

I'm starting to lose it with this company, they seem to be pushing for people to lay down over $1000 on a complete raptor board when they can't be trusted to deliver a set of wheels... I'll pass on that Raptor 2 thanks guys...

There's a lot of front to the website and YouTube channel etc but behind it there seems to be no parts, no structure and no customer service. To me now the entire company feels like one big con...

Worse is when you look at the review on their website, all very positive as you'd guess by a moderated system however every single one has far more dislikes than likes!

The Facebook page tells a similar story

As does reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ElectricSk...enertion_boards_customer_service_is_shocking/

The electric skateboarders forum is owned and moderated by Enertion, I was going to post this there but wasn't able too!

I don't know if anyone else has suffered from similar experiences, maybe I'm just a one off but as far as I am concerned this company is to be avoided at all costs! Any help from any Enertion staff, people in the know or people in a similar situation would be most appreciated right now. I will keep the thread updated with any further developments - I just really want to finish my board this year :wink:

 

[Dauntless]

Bots are not customer service, though the companies tell themselves they are.

 

[s28400]

Yeah, I would stay as far away from them as possible. I had multiple very poor experiences with them and ended up just accepting the money I lost and moving on. This pretty much sums it up: https://www.radicalcreation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=46

 

[chuttney1]

From all the stuff I read regarding the positive comments and negative comments. Enertion gets 2/5 stars for spotty customer service. I have not bought anything from them. I actually use a 4-star scale when reviewing stuff. The fifth star is the unexpected category from me.

 

[tomjasz]

I ordered a board VESC X. It said ships immediately from USA Warehouse. Well it didn't. Turns out further down on the order page it reads, ships after the 14th of May. Ride chat, but get some snippy twat with an attitude. Waited a few days to cool off tried again. Same BS. Site error, we appreciate your patience...same on their FB page. No direct answers, sometime after the 14th. Tried one last time and decided to simply cancel and file with my credit card company for no delivery of good.

My take, slick web pages, 12 year olds handling support.

Anyone know who they appropriate person is? I just ordered another from Aliexpress. I get better communication there. WTF?

 

[amberwolf]

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?author_id=33033&sr=posts

 

[SpeedSloth]

It's scary to see all this stuff, does anybody know how Trading Standards work in Australia? In the UK they could be very easily taken to court and prosecuted.

Unfair commercial practices
A practice is unfair if it fails to meet the standard of "professional diligence" (the standard of skill and care that would reasonably be expected of a trader in its field of activity) and it materially impairs an average consumer's ability to make an informed decision, causing him to make a decision he would not otherwise have made.

Providing misleading information about the main characteristics, availability or origin of a product.

Falsely stating a product will only be available (or available on certain terms) for a very limited time to persuade the consumer to make an immediate decision.

 

[dannydoyle2]

Yup, checks out with my experience with that shitty company as well.

I usually order my stuff from diyelectricskateboards and I've been relatively happy with everything I got from them, except for the relatively expensive shipping fee to europe that is 40 bucks and their v4 motor mounts which sit loose on the truck unless you put some shrink tube between the truck and the bracket that gets screwed onto it. Especially considering that the trucks are also the ones they sell and that the older version of motor mounts fit perfectly. But the other parts are all pretty much great and do what they're supposed to do.

Then last year they were out of stock of VESCs and I decided to go with Enertion and order two from them. Their website said that they still had some in stock, so I ordered two for i around 180 eurobucks.
And then the shit show started. After about one week I contacted them to check on the status, since it hadn't changed yet and I pretty much already had all of the parts I needed for the rest of the build at home. Another week later I got a reply that my VESCs would be sent out throughout the week, which never happened. Instead, they kept pushing out the date and whenever I asked them about it, I either got no response at all or another apology for being late.
The stuff was already booked off my credit card, so I couldn't even reverse the payment (hence why you should always use Paypal when you can - in case a seller pulls shit like this on you).

Eventually they sent it out, except that I placed the order at the beginning of may and I got it at the end of august. To top it all off, I had to pay another 70 bucks on import tax (which is not their fault of course, but I never had to pay anything with diyelectricskateboards so it was a bit surprising that they'd list the actual price on the package. But alright, can't fault them for the import tax. Still a dick move to ship out three months late.

By then I had already purchased a different ESC from Hobbyking that worked great and is still in use. I didn't have time to play around with the VESCs so I still have them at home. Sealed in their package.

Now I'm working on a different build right now which will require two ESCs but I'm a little uneasy about out of box defects, since I read somewhere that a lot of enertion VESCs have out of box DRV errors. So naturally, I'm uneasy about it.

If I learned anything from this experience is to never buy from enertion again. I even kept a few friends from doing so because it's just too much of a hassle to deal with their shitty business practices and shitty customer support. You can get all parts from diyelectricskateboards or hobbyking as well. And if you're looking for a good controller, You can get the torqueboards controller of aliexpress for about 35 bucks. Did that and it works great.

 

[tomjasz]

Ten days later the site STILL says immediate USA shipping. A ploy?

 

[SpeedSloth]

Yes a ploy! Mine said that two months ago! I would not recommend giving any payment to this site as they don't offer any kind of protection such as PayPal.

An update on my case, after having no manager response I got the same crap when I went though support. I was able to get a response rather quickly when I started to mention taking legal action.

Ashley
May 10, 19:10 PKT
Chat started: 2017-05-10 01:41 PM UTC
(01:41:13 PM) Customer Service: Hi Ashley, welcome back! What can we help you with?
(01:42:13 PM) Ashley: Hi again, I was promised an update within 48 hours from my last message but have yet to receive one.
(01:46:33 PM) *** Jessica M joined the chat ***
(01:46:43 PM) Jessica M: Hi Ashley. Let me check for you.
(01:51:04 PM) Jessica M: We have forwarded your concern to Shipping. Once they ship the remaining items, you will be informed.
(01:52:13 PM) Ashley: I was promised a response from a manager within 48 hours
(01:52:35 PM) Jessica M: Your request was forwarded to the manager as well.
(01:52:35 PM) Ashley: Does your business have a trading address/phone number
(01:52:38 PM) Ashley: ?
(01:52:51 PM) Jessica M: The only contact information we have is the email address.
(01:53:29 PM) Ashley: Legally as a registered business you need an address that you MUST make readily avaliable
(01:53:54 PM) Ashley: Has the manager read my request?
(01:55:50 PM) Jessica M: I do not have that information. I did forward your request. If you want, I can tag the manager again.
(01:56:07 PM) Ashley: Please do, I do not want to have to take your company to court
(01:56:33 PM) Jessica M: We get a lot of queries and it does sometimes take longer than 48 hours to respond. I hope you understand that.
(01:56:39 PM) Jessica M: I can understand your concern as well.
(01:56:53 PM) Jessica M: I will put a note for you again.
(01:56:58 PM) Ashley: It's been more than 48 hours
(01:57:07 PM) Ashley: That was just since our last message
(01:57:16 PM) Ashley: I have been more than fair here
(01:57:47 PM) Jessica M: I do understand and I am extremely sorry for the wait you have had to face.
(01:58:07 PM) Ashley: Can I ask why the manager hasn't replied?
(01:58:50 PM) Jessica M: As I mentioned before, we get a lot of queries daily and that sometimes poses a delay.
(01:59:28 PM) Jessica M: We do try our best to respond in a timely manner.
(02:00:18 PM) Ashley: You might do but your manager does not
(02:00:34 PM) Ashley: Is my case going to be a priority for him?
(02:00:57 PM) Jessica M: I have marked it urgent on the note today.
(02:01:20 PM) Ashley: When would you consider a reasonable time to hear back from him should be?
(02:02:01 PM) Jessica M: Please wait for 24 hours. I have sent the note for him to make this a prority.
(02:02:32 PM) Ashley: Thank You, Jessica. I'll be in touch tomorrow if he hasn't got back to me
(02:03:09 PM) Jessica M: Thank you Ashley.
(02:04:49 PM) Jessica M: Is there anything else I can help you with?
(02:10:41 PM) *** Jessica M left the chat ***

After posting multiple times i their support forum tagging the owner onloop I finally got a positive response:

Hi Ashley,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for the delays in reaching you out. I have arranged shipment for the receiver to you and it will be shipped today. I will provide you the tracking # as soon as I have it.

As for your mech parts, these will be shipped this weekend. Since we are discontinuing all mech parts and are almost out of stock so, shipments from Australia will be finished.
Kind Regards,
Ossama Ahmed
Customer Service Manager, Enertion Boards

This was also followed by pictures of a receipt for posting and tracking number! It seemed that was what it took to get a response from the company. I'm not going to consider this dealt with however until I have all parts in my hand working!

If anyone is in a similar position and wants to take things further with them the details (available for free) are as follows:

Name: ENERTION BOARDS PTY LTD
ACN: 612 421 628
ABN: 71 612 421 628(External Link)
Registration date: 16/05/2016
Next review date: 16/05/2017
Status: Registered
Type: Australian Proprietary Company, Limited By Shares
Locality of registered office: BROADMEADOW NSW 2292
Regulator: Australian Securities & Investments Commission

It is possible to pay the Australian Business Register and get an address if anyone local would like to pay a visit!

 

[Emoto]

Well i hope my experience makes you feel a bit better, i bought a evolve gt so i didnt have to go through all the associated probs with a sk8 build , all good until my 5th ride, and got a remote dropout , when the power came back on, it ejected me off , the result was me on crutches for 3/4 weeks

 

[DadFox]

Hi,

It seems all energy has gone in to the Raptor 2 board and the support team is just supposed to sell it as much as possible.

Im in Aus and bought some gear thinking it will get here quick and supposedly on sale. I also watched a lot of the guys videos and thought he was doing his best. But then....

I tried asking some technical questions about dimensions and all I got was links to the raptor 2. I was buying drive pulleys and the guy was telling me they were add ons for the raptor 2 and dimensions were on the raptor 2 kickstarter page.

He also told me that you could only make a single motor board when using the blue power wheels and not a dual motor board.... and again refers me to the raptor 2 kickstarter page... WT???? Is this guy a human???

So I say I'm not confident at all from the expirience and going to cancell my order.

I email a cancellation, just hours after my order, no reply. Next day I forward it again and say just following up my cancellation before they try to sting me 20% for packing it. I get a reply back saying if I want to cancel my order to email them that request.... that was the reply to the forwarded cancel request. Essentially 2 requests to cancel and they want me to email my cancel request again.. so I say it was already in the email trail twice and presto, a dude that's a moderator on their forum writes to say it'll be refunded.

I posted a poor review for technical support and they squashed it. I asked about that using the only help and they of course they said yes, they filter reviews.

I should have noticed the thumbs down....

 

[riverie]

I originally bought their vesc on Feb. Then I saw this thread and other people also mentioned their poor customer service. Tried to cancel the order afterwards in March and they also tried to charge me 20%. I was hopeless and let it roll. Fortunately they email me lay month saying they have delay and whoever want to cancel, they will reward it with no charge, which of course I did.
Went to buy from ollin board and couldn't be more happier.

 

[riverie]

And they kept giving me empty promises like we should ship it soon, end of this month, they missed it and when I reached out to them, they saying next week....next week they missed again and said sorry some delay, no worries next 2 weeks etc...

 

[scepterr]

[strike]My personal experience with enertion has been rather positive. I ordered the nano-x and Focbox last week of May, it said on focbox page shipping early to mid July. I got the nano-x 2-3 weeks after order and the focbox 3 weeks ago. I had an issue with the nano-x, the casing was bulging on one side from battery expanding, I emailed support, response a day or 2 later, I sent pic and they sent a replacement nano-x I got a week later and they let me keep the original nano-x to play with. Overall, couldn't be more pleased, both products working great with daily use for the past 2 weeks[/strike]
WOW I mustve jinxed myself or something, my focbox died a day or 2 after I posted here and Im getting the same experience most people here. It seems their business model relies on voiding free warranties and selling plat warranty, shameful.. Included is a pdf of my whole interaction with them. I will never trust them again.