Here's the timeline from ordering to delivery:
I'd had some great pre-sales support from Alec Sharp at EEMC, so I phoned him on 23rd June to confirm the details of the bike I would buy from them. The initial estimate was that they could get a bike in from Zero's European warehouse in the Netherlands, and fit the Charge Tank within 7 to 10 days. Al Ashington at EEMC emailed an invoice over on the 24th, so I paid the deposit, sent over a copy of my driving licence, and selected the registration number on 25th June. I also requested an updated invoice from Al with my name spelt correctly, which came on the 26th.
I heard nothing for a week or so, so emailed for an update on 6th July. I didn't get a response so phoned in and was told that the bike was on the boat from the Netherlands. This was already outside the original 7-10 day estimate, but with Brexit and a pandemic I guess things take a little longer. On the 13th I got an automated email to say that the bike was going through the pre-delivery inspection (PDI) process on the 14th. I sent another request to get my name spelt correctly on EEMC's systems.
On 16th July Oli Knights at EEMC emailed to confirm the delivery address, followed up by a call from Mandy at A2B Motorcycle Movers to agree the delivery date of 29th July, after they'd picked it up from EEMC on the 23rd. But on the 22nd Alec emailed to report that Zero hadn't sent a complete Charge Tank fitting kit, so the bike wouldn't be ready for A2B to pick up the next day. If the part came in by the 27th, then potentially the bike could still be collected from EEMC on the 28th and delivered to me on the 29th.
On the 23rd I paid the balance of the invoice, and then had to email on the 28th to get confirmation that the payment had been received, which arrived later the same day. The delivery date of the 29th came and went without any contact from either EEMC or A2B, so on the 30th I emailed for another update. Oli responded that they'd still not got the missing part of the Charge Tank, and would be back in contact on or before 3rd August.
I sent another request for an update on the evening of the 3rd. On the 4th Oli emailed to confirm that the bike was on the bench and would be ready the same day. Mandy from A2B phoned later in the day to arrange a new delivery date to me on the 11th. That's 7 calendar weeks on from placing my order on 23rd June, a tad longer than the 7 to 10 days originally promised.
On the 10th I got a call from Mandy to confirm that Matt would be arriving on the 11th with the bike, which he duly did. The bike arrived with 17 miles on the clock, a Type 2 charging cable (more on that later), and a little pouch containing the final invoice, the PDI checklist, 3 keys and a EEMC keyfob, and the owner's manual on a credit card shaped USB memory stick. I had a lookover the bike, and apart from the signs it had been ridden up and down a muddy track (as a part of the PDI test ride?) all looked to be in order, so I signed on the dotted line for Matt, and he went off to the next job of the day.
All in all, not the buying and handover experience I was expecting after spending over £20k. Maybe in the coming days someone from EEMC will get in touch to follow up on my purchase, but based purely on my own experience I would not recommend buying a bike from EEMC.
To be constructive, once it became clear the original schedule wasn't going to be met they could have shipped me a demo bike to ride until mine was ready. More pro-active communications throughout the process would have been great; I shouldn't have to chase at every step and missed milestone. And finally, given how late the actual delivery has been, some sort of gesture of apology, such as a discount on future servicing or even a free t-shirt, would have shown some acknowledgement on their part. Just making sure the bike was clean prior to shipping would have been nice. One or more of these would completely change my perspective and likelihood to recommend EEMC to others.
