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Twisted Throttle - A little disappointed

silverhound

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I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong area on the Forum or if we are prohibited from calling out vendors on specific issues so moderators please delete or move this post as appropriate. Now with that disclaimer out of the way here's my beef.

I had not purchased anything from TT before buying the NCXD for my wife. I was impressed with their website and the fact they had a NCX "Project Bike". I was also impressed they had a presence in this forum. My first order was for several items which included the SW-Mototech Crash Bars. At the time of my order the website showed these to be in stock but upon trying to check out they showed out of stock. I called, spoke with a very helpful CS person who explained they were waiting on a shipment. I didn't feel like waiting so I ordered the Givi Crash Bars instead...ok no problem but was a little miffed that the product page had shown the item in stock.

Last Friday I ordered the Givi mounts and the V35 PLX hardcases. Both items also shown in stock on the product page AND when I checked out. Since I received no shipping confirmation or follow-up e-mail about any problems with the order in the following two business days I called them today. Turns out the mounting brackets were NOT in stock after all. So I have two primary issues.

1. If your inventory availability is not accurate as shown on the product page then really why show it at all? This is very misleading and yes I do order things based on the availability shown.

2. Why did I have to call TT to find out there was a problem with my order? I should have received some type of e-mail notification.

Both of these issues relate to customer service and accuracy of information. Two key elements of whether I decide to do business or continue to do business with a particular vendor. Plus while the total spent should not really be related to the level of customer service provided I'm a realist and don't expect a vendor to be as responsive to a tiny low dollar purchase as to perhaps a larger one but between these two orders I have given TT north of $1000 in business so yeah, maybe I do expect a little higher degree of responsiveness.

Does this delay cause me a great deal of inconvenience? Honestly no. However the Givi luggage was to be a present for my wife which will now be delayed. I'm not going to cancel the order but rather extend them the benefit of the doubt that the Givi mounts WILL be in next week as I was told on the phone. We'll see what happens...rant over. ;)

To my fellow forum members, should you decide to order something from TT and need it within a certain time frame it would behoove you to call them and double check the availability until they get this "data update" between their systems worked out.
 
There is actually a "Vendor Review" Forum made for just this, but you have to look waaaay down (I doubt you ever saw a show called The Friendly Giant Friendly Giant Beginning and Ending - YouTube as a kid, but if you did you'd lol) (sigh) near the bottom of the Forums page.

If you do not mind, I will put this in there.

Not at all...ergo my big disclaimer at the beginning. I may have "glanced" at the different forum venues but didn't notice it. In my defense I was reviewing and editing international business agreements for work today and must have exceeded my attention to written details with that little exercise. :cool:
 
Not at all...ergo my big disclaimer at the beginning. I may have "glanced" at the different forum venues but didn't notice it. In my defense I was reviewing and editing international business agreements for work today and must have exceeded my attention to written details with that little exercise. :cool:


At least you have a valid excuse...I'm just plain scatterbrained and easily distracted most of the t oh look, something shiny!
 
Vendors not having the claimed stock REALLY annoys me too. so I can sympathise with your position.

I do wonder why stock lists should be inaccurate at all, given that nearly all sales are processed through some sort of computing system now and should be able to update instantly. Things do go missing though but at the very least firms should be able to automatically generate an apologetic email or letter with a refund offer. Or, as you say, have somebody ring you. Crummy service means loss of reputation and future business.


The same thing happens off line too. If I have to ride or drive any distance now I nearly always ring first to check if they actually do have the items they claim to stock. And when I get the "yeah, we sell those..." answer I get them to go and actually eyeball the shelves, and if possible put one aside for me to look at. It really cheeses me off when I waste time and travel costs just because some slack person can't be bothered walking a few feet to check. :mad:

I had an hour's travel on Monday to look at a leather jacket, so rang the shop owner first. He not only discussed the sizing issue and got me to measure my chest, but was honest about the sizes he didn't have (including one I would have liked to try). He then put the best candidate aside for me, even though it was his only one. Result: I went over and bought it, and checked all his other stock out for future reference too. Happy customer. :)

I hope they at least partly redeem themselves by getting your brackets to you quickly.
 
I know what you mean. I order a pair of winter gloves from Amazon and a week later they say the gloves are on backorder and it will be after the first of the year before they will be shipped.
 
Funny you posted this. On my second order I placed with TT, I got no order confirmation, no shipping info, no nothing. After about 5 days I called and asked, "uh, so what's the status of this order?" Turns out they had just shipped it that day, but I was bit disappointed with the lack of communication. I got the tracking info from them on the phone call.

Greg
 
I am in no way taking a side on this, but I did a video review of TT on a product I ordered from them. It didn't work, nor would it have. They returned it no questions asked, and gave me a refund. I was overall happy with the transaction, and would do business with them again. Not sure what the issue was with your situation, but I am sorry it did not work out for you.
 
I am in no way taking a side on this, but I did a video review of TT on a product I ordered from them. It didn't work, nor would it have. They returned it no questions asked, and gave me a refund. I was overall happy with the transaction, and would do business with them again. Not sure what the issue was with your situation, but I am sorry it did not work out for you.

I didn't mean to imply that I wouldn't do business with them again either. That's why I worded my post in a diplomatic way. I am simply disappointed and hope if they read my post (since I know one of their staff is a forum member) that they take my comments constructively in an effort to improve things for me and for other forum members. They seem to do a lot of things right and I would hope they strive to be even better. Clearly they feel that providing the data on whether something is in stock or not is of value for customers to make decisions and a benefit to them. However, if the process is broken then it serves neither well. My comments and those of others here should help to emphasize that this is not a trivial issue and can be either beneficial or detrimental to their business.
 
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I have had the same issue with TT, in fact, I'm still waiting for a part for my wife's bike I ordered more than two months ago.

They also messed up one of my orders, a paperwork issue, so it didn't get across the border via the USPS service I selected.
It was returned to them, and they reshipped it FedEx, I eventually got the parts, and now I have a bill from FedEx for the bike parts that should have no duty on them, when I didn't even choose FedEx as my delivery method!
 
At my place of employment at a discount auto parts store the inventory is always off. Is normally right 90 percent of the time but not always. I don't know how big a company tt is but they look to have a bunch of options but not a lot of stock of said options. Low overhead is nice until it causes a problem.
 
I've never had an issue with anything I have ordered from Twisted Throttle. But, and this is no excuse for them, the majority of things they sell are imported and may not always show proper availability. Sometimes it's the opposite. I just ordered a windscreen for my Ninja 650. It said "In Stock" but the drop down to select color said "call for availability". Well I called and they DID have it. Strange stuff.

The guy I talked to was quite frank in that the website is not always properly updated and that a lot of times they are at the mercy of the companies they import from.

So, rule of thumb for TT, call before you click buy! Shouldn't have to be that way, but they carry a lot of cool stuff not available anywhere else so it's worth the extra minute or two to do so.
 
Update

So I just got an e-mail that my order has shipped. Guess they got the Givi mounts in a week earlier than expected. To all those who have responded, as I said earlier I am realist and I know that not everything on a sales website updates in real-time. My main point was that of the two orders I placed that both had some level of inaccuracy of what TT showed having in stock vs. what the reality was and a heads up e-mail would have gone a long way to improving my customer experience. Sometimes it's not about mitigating the problem but rather just acknowledging it and providing accurate info on the status. I'm a reasonable guy. It's like when I travel for business and my flight is delayed (which happens a lot). Of course I get disappointed if there's a problem but knowing exactly what the issue is and getting regular updates is more important than to be left wondering.

In any case, will I do business again with TT? Probably yes. I just won't assume that the availability info they show is correct. Lesson learned.:)
 
I didn't mean to imply that I wouldn't do business with them again either. That's why I worded my post in a diplomatic way. I am simply disappointed and hope if they read my post (since I know one of their staff is a forum member) that they take my comments constructively in an effort to improve things for me and for other forum members. They seem to do a lot of things right and I would hope they strive to be even better. Clearly they feel that providing the data on whether something is in stock or not is of value for customers to make decisions and a benefit to them. However, if the process is broken then it serves neither well. My comments and those of others here should help to emphasize that this is not a trivial issue and can be either beneficial or detrimental to their business.


I did see your post and have started a "ticket" to look into this. I actually agree with you 100%.

We have certain limitations with our stock management system that makes it difficult to "talk" to our website. I am aware that the IT team is working on improving this. Since switching over to this new website last year there have actually been some changes that have helped improve the accuracy of the stock status tool. One limitation I am aware of is that when you have items that require you to select options like size or color it appears that there is inventory until you select those options. If it is in stock, it will show as available. If not, it shows "Call for Availability". I'm not sure that there really is a way to resolve that issue but people far smarter than me are working on this. Will we work out all of the bugs next week? Nope. I can promise that we are always looking to make it better though.

I appreciate that you have not completely written us off yet.

Kevin
 
I did see your post and have started a "ticket" to look into this. I actually agree with you 100%.

We have certain limitations with our stock management system that makes it difficult to "talk" to our website. I am aware that the IT team is working on improving this. Since switching over to this new website last year there have actually been some changes that have helped improve the accuracy of the stock status tool. One limitation I am aware of is that when you have items that require you to select options like size or color it appears that there is inventory until you select those options. If it is in stock, it will show as available. If not, it shows "Call for Availability". I'm not sure that there really is a way to resolve that issue but people far smarter than me are working on this. Will we work out all of the bugs next week? Nope. I can promise that we are always looking to make it better though.

I appreciate that you have not completely written us off yet.

Kevin

Just the fact that a vendor has a active presence on this board impresses me. :)
 
Well Kevin, thanks for stepping up. Also to add some more accuracy to my saga I just listened to a voicemail left by Mike from TT and he explained that the Givi mounts would be shipping directly from Givi USA to me. So all in all I am extremely pleased in how TT has remedied the situation and of course I can't possibly forsake TT now and lose my 3600 Twisted Points. ;)

That said, I wish you luck in having IT improve the data interface between the website and your inventory system. I am sure that while the majority of the time the process works well, my situation is a testament in how it can also cause problems. Anyhow, this dead horse has been beaten sufficiently now. The fact that you're aware of the issues and are taking steps to improve it is positive progress.
 
Just the fact that a vendor has a active presence on this board impresses me. :)

Good Point! Kevin, how many hours a day do you spend doing PR on motorcycle forums? - Gees, there must be at least a dozen, maybe even more, on the internet. :)
 
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