New member hello and 2 questions

[RooGM]

Hi guys!  Great forum!  I've been reading for about a week now and since my Magic Pie and Smart pie will (hopefully) be coming soon I have a couple of questions.

1. I ordered from GM Canada and I'm only a few hours away from GM Canada myself.  I ordered on Sunday and it's Thursday now with no sign of the order being shipped.  Getting email replies about my order ETA is not easy but being Spring I guess they are quite busy and I understand that.  How long does it normally take for orders in stock to ship?  I booked this weekend off to do the builds but that's looking unlikely now.

2. I have a 36V 10AH Lifepo4 battery that I'll be using with the rear Magic Pie 4.  I'm thinking of ordering 4 new 10AH cells from GM to add to the battery to get it 48v.  It will only add about $150 to my build cost.  Is this worth doing? 

Thanks!

[Bikemad]

Hi Roo andto the forum.

Gary (GM Canada) is usually very good at sending out stock items, especially when you consider that he works full time during the week and has to organise the running of GM Canada during his time off (and he also has to fit in family duties as well).

Shipping and processing times.

When you place an order and the item is instock we do our best to ship it within 24 to 48 hours. In most cases all the orders from any particular day are packaged and labeled in the evening. Then they are dropped off at the post office the next business day. We do our best to get them ther by the 4:30 pm cut off time but that is not always possible. This is why we say 24 to 48 hours processing time to ship. Also at peak times it can take an extra day or two to get the shipment out but we do our best to avoid these delays. Honestly we do our best, but we can't perform miracles.

Most of the above is completely understandable, with the exception of the last part, because I don't believe it's physically possible to do everything that Gary manages to achieve without the occasional miracle.
You also need to realise that items being shipped within 1-4 days does not mean they will be delivered within those 1-4 days. 

Regarding the battery question, it will be difficult and awkward to charge and properly balance the cells unless you intend to do this separately using a suitable additional charger (and power supply) with the required balancing capabilities.
You would also need to add some sort of cell monitor to the new cells to ensure your new cells are protected against being overdischarged or imbalanced etc. as any BMS incorporated into your existing battery will not be able to monitor or protect the additional cells.

Alan
 

[Trim4]

Wow ! great filter for what must be a lot of unhappy customers!
I simply HATE to enter a forum this way, unhappy and no one to communicate with.
I think Gary has been into this business long enough to realize its no longer a one man band. What is the point of a customer ticket system if he clearly does not have the time to invest in customer support?
I received an order that was missing an item, and had mismatched items, and its obvious no check lists are followed prior to shipping.
Sorry, I  don't accept excuses that truck driving and family time are valid reasons here, that's what employees are for.
 My order number  106114
 Ticket support number  499467

May I suggest Gary post an alert on his website stating he is not able to respond to queries at the moment? and an estimate on time frames for response?
Canadian companies are constantly complaining about canadians shopping foreign stores, hmmmm I wonder why?

[RooGM]

Alan - Thanks for the reply.  I've seen a lot of great info from you on this thread and your knowledge seems to be the stuff of legend around here.  About the battery, charging is no problem but yeah like you said, the BMS I have on the battery is only designed to manage 12 cell packs.  I don't know if it can be used with 16 cell packs.  I hadn't thought of that before you mentioned it.  I suppose if I really wanted to go to 48v I could find an aftermarket BMS that can manage 16 cells and there should be no problem. The battery is good for 60amps so it should power my Magic Pie 4 just fine.

Tonight I got a shipping confirmation (or at least a label creation) email so I'm hoping it will ship tomorrow and be with me by the middle of next week.

Trim - You might want to start your own thread about your issues rather than post them in here but I do understand your frustration as I have found my first buying experience to be a bit less than I had hoped for. Email support started off good when I was thinking about buying but once I placed the order it dwindled and I wasn't able to get the help I needed.  According to my order status one crucial part I ordered has not shipped with the rest.  Having said that, I know what it's like to run a small business or several businesses by myself and it's not easy.  I'm sure GM Canada will make sure I get the parts I need eventually but as a first experience and not knowing anything about GM Canada it has come across as a bit less professional than I'm used to with other companies I normally buy from.  Again this is probably due to the lack of time the business owner has but if not for this thread I wouldn't have known that and could only have assumed that the customer service left some desiring.  I believe in giving a company a fair try and I very much sympathise with small business owners so of course I'll stick with it and see how it goes but I also believe in being honest about my experience.

I'm still really looking forward to getting my two Pies and getting these bikes up and running!   

[Bikemad]

Trim - You might want to start your own thread about your issues rather than post them in here

Roo, I placed the reply here as it appeared to be in response to my reply to your initial post, but as an unconfirmed member Trim was unable to reply here.

Sorry, I  don't accept excuses that truck driving and family time are valid reasons here, that's what employees are for.

Why is being open and honest such a difficult concept for you to accept? Surely it's better to know the truth and be given a genuine explanation than being told a complete pack of lies?

Are you suggesting that Gary should employ people to drive trucks and spend time with his family so that he can devote 100% of his available time to Golden Motors?   

In an ideal world, you wouldn't need to worry about paying mortgages, utility bills, buying food and clothes, maintaining the house and cars and still have plenty of money left over to pay all your employees as well.
Unfortunately, most of us (Gary included) live in the real world.

Alan
 

[RooGM]

Alan, ah yes sorry, that makes sense about the post relocation, I didn't realise.

[ElectricEssence]

I ordered my Magic Pie from Gary in early April and had it at my door in 4 days, and I am 1700km away in tbay!

[RooGM]

You were lucky!  Mine looks like it'll be slightly over a week from order to delivery if it arrives on Monday.  That's for part of my order.  The last part will be a day or two later.  And I live a 90 minute drive away.  Still,  that's not a bad delivery time if it does come when I hope it does.  If everything is correct I'll be more than pleased.