werx Posted May 9, 2015 My Ride Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 (edited) Well I selected Adventure Specs Bash Plate and Crash Guards for by 2014 Tiger 800XC. I selected them because they seem to fit the bike well and the bash plate and the crash guards complimented each other as far as coverage of the front of the engine and exhaust. Long story short...1) this UK company has no clue regarding fitment of the bash plate with the USA charcoal canister that we in California are used to removing. I was trying to help them improve their instructions...or no instructions for the bashplate...but their responses are polite and pompous in my opinion. <<<IF YOU PULL THE CHARCOAL CANISTER...MAKE SURE YOU CORK/PLUG THE HOSE GOING TO THE INTAKE>>> 2) they sent me the wrong bolt kit and their instructions for the crash guards have obvious flaws...which they fail to acknowledge. ADVENTURE SPECS SECOND AND FINAL REPLY AFTER LOOKING AT PHOTOS Eric, From your photograph it is immediatley clear that you have been provided with the wrong fitting kit. This was our mistake and I am very sorry. However, we provide a set of instructions with a list of the items you should have in your fitting kit and clear pictures of each of the parts so you can check that you have exactly what you need before you start fitting your bars. This is, in part, designed to remove the possiblility of anyone starting the fitting process with any of the incorrect parts. You have already commented on our speed of delivery, we could have had the correct fitting kit couriered to you within a few days if you had let us know there was a problem. As a company we can only provide any necessary support and help if you contact us and tell us you have problems before to attempting to unilaterally resove them. As you have pointed out below, our shipping and email responses are prompt. That's because we care about our products and our customers and we really do want to help you! At this point we can learn from your problems and we can use this information to help other purchasers of these products, but we can do very little to help you. This is not good place for either of us to be. With regards to the crashbars, by attempting to fit our products without the correct parts I am not at all suprised you experienced problems and had to make trips to your local hardware strore. With regards to the bashplate, we'd LOVE to hear from Triumph about these issues, but they are not remotely interested in working with us to support an aftermarket hardparts trade, I only wish they were. As I said in my last mail we will take all your comments very seriously and look towards making changes to our documentation in a bid to reduce the likelyhood of this type of event occurring again. I'm not sure what to say to your final comment really... *<<>>* Erm. OK... Dave my responses are in brackets <<<>>>> below: ADVENTURE SPECS FIRST REPLY, BEFORE LOOKING AT PHOTOS (MY SECOND EMAIL WITH <<>> AND PHOTOS) Eric, I'm not sure exactly what to say to your email, so I'll start one point at a time and do my best to answer each point in turn. Firstly I should say that I am confused. We sell bundles for Triumphs almost daily and have been doing for years now. We don't doctor any of our reviews and monitor forums quite closely to see peoples reactions so we can get feedback for our products. At this time with the exception of a few issues which we are aware of and which are discussed below we have never heard any feedback like this before. <<>> 1. The bashplate: When we first got the bike and fitted the parts fitting of the bashplate required the removal of 6 fasteners followed by dropping the standard bashplate, You then pushed our bashplate into place and replaced 5 of the six fasteners. It was that simple. So simple that we chose not to provide instructions. After we had sold around 100 plates we got feedback from the USA that you guys get your XC's with something called charcoal filter fitted. We have never seen one of these items over here in the UK so we couldn't comment on the fitting oursevles, however we noted carefully peoples reaction in the USA and following a number of comments some of which are posted below (by users on our product reviews page) we decided that as we could never get a US spec bike here in the UK and riders who bought the parts told us removal was a simple process we'd leave things well alone (some of these comments and links can be seen on the bashplate product questions and reviews). 'Super easy to install. I did have to remove the charcoal canister on my US spec Tiger, but that took 5 minutes.' 'When I mounted it to the bike, I did have to remove the charcoal canister on my US spec 800XC to get it to fit. It was a very easy process.' http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20956283&postcount=705 I have now added a note to the product description stating that removal of the canister is a necessary part of fitting the bashplate if you are in the USA. << >> In addition we don't have any wiring under our engine, I'm guessing this might also be a US spec issue, but it's the first time anyone has mentioned this to us. <<>> <<<I assumed when I wrote you that you were not familiar with the charcoal canister, however, we're kind of a large market here, we deserve thorough instructions and you should not assume everyone can figure it out. Yes it's easy to remove, but did any of your customers plug/cork the line to the intake? Or are they riding around with small vacuum leaks? I mentioned to plug/cork the hose to the intake because this is probably another issue you are unaware of. Adhoc comments on a forum are not reliable. You should be talking to Truimph about his!>>> 2. The crashbars...perhaps you did have the wrong fitting kit (all the pieces are shown clearly on the instructions in detail both in writing and image so you should be able to tell exactly whether it was correct or not). I would hope that after checking if the parts in the box did not match the instructions you would have contacted us ASAP so we could have couriered you another fitting kit assuming there was an error. If your fitting kit was incorrect it is little suprise that you will have struggled to fit the bars correctly. <<>> <<<Attached is a photo of the bolt kit provided. Your photo shows hex head bolts and instructions refer to allen head...see item 2. And I'm missing 20mm M8 bolts. You didn't address the depth of the M8 bolts from my email. Are they really 25mm??? I'm not so sure about that.>>> We do know that as the years have moved onwards Triumph have changed two of the fittings head types from the initially stated instructions (which were correct when we went to press), but that the thread on both parts still works perfectly. <<>> <<<Attached is a photo of the small wiring harness running between the case and the plate...it looks like a black hose, but the most right tube is a wiring harness with a couple small wires.>>> 3., You mention about a thread not being of the correct pitch. The only item we know of on the bike that is relevant to the crash bar fitting this is not a metric course thread is the nut used to attach the bars in point 4 of the instructions where we clearly state: Use the M8 bolts (8) to hold the bar in place at bottem mounting points and bolt (9) at the mid mounting point. Replace the original Triumph 17mm nut at the rear of [5]... <<>> <<<Attached is a photo of engine mount nut that came off the Triumph, and the nut I had to purchase to fit your bolt.>>> 4 and 5. We are always looking for feedback from customers and are really happy to modify our instructions or our processes to make any part of the process of buying and fitting our products easier. We usually look for a few examples of silimar comments to alert us to the fact that there is an issue before we make changes. At this time we haven't heard these comments before, but we are certainly aware of them now and will act upon them immediately if we get further comment. 6. Sorry about that, I'm not sure why you haven't received your free stickers it must have been an ommission by our packing staff. If you'd like some sending let me know and I'll get some in the post to you tomorrow. <<>> <<<Well, I already asked for the stickers in the first email.....you can keep 'em. I'm wasting my time here.>>> Edited May 9, 2015 by werx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Eric Hall Posted May 9, 2015 Administrators My Rides (3) Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 It seems as though they are responsive and are making an effort to make it right. The only thing that bugged me was this sense that it was your fault for not double checking the list and pictures prior to starting. #1 rule of customer service is the customer's always right. Hope they get you set up soon. Once it's on and we've beaten around a bit, it would be awesome if you were to write a review of that plate in the review section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werx Posted May 11, 2015 Author My Ride Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 (edited) Yep, the product looks great. Fast response. My frustration is that I spent a lot of time trying to help them get their instructions sorted out...and I basically got....no one else is complaining, so they must be fine... Also....I think I would have overnighted the correct bolt kit and requested that the product be installed with AS bolts. I would have stopped after looking over the bolt kit, but when you looked over the whole bolt kit....the spacers worked?? I thought i was only missing a few bolts....until I got in the middle of the install. Also Triumph isn't talking to them....really? I rode right up the SoCal Truimph and their certified tech explained what was needed to pull the charcoal canister off and avoid a vacuum leak. SoCal Triumph was very helpful. Adventure Spec was just excuses excuses. Edited May 11, 2015 by werx 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Bryan Bosch Posted May 11, 2015 Administrators My Ride Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Also Triumph isn't talking to them....really? I rode right up the SoCal Truimph and their certified tech explained what was needed to pull the charcoal canister off and avoid a vacuum I have all the parts to drop my charcoal can. Just need to find the time. I'm going to kill all the hoses & purge valve, using vaccuum nipple caps on the intake manifold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Eric Hall Posted May 12, 2015 Administrators My Rides (3) Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 did you just say "nipple caps?" I didn't think we were that kind of site... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Bryan Bosch Posted May 12, 2015 Administrators My Ride Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 I bet we'd have more traffic if so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werx Posted May 12, 2015 Author My Ride Report Share Posted May 12, 2015 Uh....did you pull your manifold off?....to play with the nipples? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Bryan Bosch Posted May 13, 2015 Administrators My Ride Report Share Posted May 13, 2015 Sometimes you just need to remove stuff to get good access to the nipples. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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