Ordered my seat through them, no problem. I knew the seat was on backorder, and wasn't exactly in a hurry anyway. To me, even a smarmy response to a question is better than no response as far as customer service goes. That means they at least have someone taking care of issues.

 

I ordered my Le Pera seat from them just a couple of days ago. I have no problem waiting a couple of weeks to get it (I'll just ride my Sporty) and am not anticipating any fitment problems. After reading the OP's post though, perhaps I better start crossing my fingers.

 

Vonivo- What seat did you get?

 

there's a link right at the bottom of the page called "warranty/returns" - it's stated pretty clearly what their policy is...

 

Had the exact same problem with them...same reply...I won't deal with them again. Unfortunately, this attitude is almost the norm dealing with motorcycle parts...I run a side business doing mostly bolt on type stuff. I have had good and bad experiences with lots if vendors. Some are well regarded forum sponsors...I now pay ONLY with American Express and if I don't get what I order and have any issue with the sellers response, I file a dispute. AMEX gives my money back.

 

If you have a fitment problem it's lepara's fault, not phat's. I just bought some flanders drag bars from phat's and the measurement's on the website and the ones on the package were a little different and they offered to take it back with no problems if it wasn't going to work. (they were also marked differently on flander's website) I never had a problem with anything I've ordered from them and will continue to do business with them.

 

I know it sucks having a new item delivered to your door that has a problem. Something similar just happened to me a few weeks ago.

But I'll defend PhatPerformanceParts a bit on this. Their policies are clearly listed on their website. I just found them with 3 clicks - Help, How do I return a product?, click here.
http://www.phatperformanceparts.com/returns.asp

• Manufacturer defects will be confirmed once we receive the part back and tested and then the exchanged for the same item.
• Defective returns are only exchangeable for like items. Swapping to different items or cancelling entirely is not permitted.
• There will be a 20% restocking fee for all non-defective returns. Please note, in many instances, the original shipping charge will be deducted even if free shipping applied.

There are internet stores with more liberal return policies, but their prices are almost all higher to reflect that. And we all know about the high prices in brick-and-mortar stores to cover convenience and them sitting on inventory.

Phat, as a low-price internet reseller, has small per-item profit margins. In order to sustain that model, they can't offer the same policies as higher-priced stores. Again, their policies are clearly stated on their website.

Please don't take this as an attack on you, as it's not meant that way. But in my opinion, Phat shouldn't have to pay for charges around a LePera manufacturing defect when an exchange was clearly offered.

And for the record, I also purchased a seat through Phat, which was drop-shipped from the manufacturer (C&C) and had a defect. It was all taken care of, at no charge to me, per their policy.

 

Scott,
I’ll start by apologizing if I came of as “smug” to you, that was never my intention. I hope you and anyone else reading this thread can see from the several other members who posted in this thread, customer service is something that we take very seriously. We process hundreds of orders per day, surely there are always going to be some that don't go smoothly and we always do our best to work with our customers.

It's surprising to see this post as the charge back you did was even found to be in our favor and reversed back to us. As they say there is two sides to every story. Since you decided to air the dirty laundry here, I'm obligated to post our side.

Our website states that this item ship in 2-3 weeks. Soon after your order, I even sent you a personal follow up email as a reminder that this item ships in 2-3 weeks and the seat shipped in 2-1/2 weeks. This is because Le Pera does not prebuild this seat and why many vendors don't even sell it. It's strictly built to order by LePera.

I would like to share some more information about this situation though. You contacted us stating there was a defect with the seat, that it may stretch and crack and that you didn’t like the shape of the seat. We then offered to have it sent back to Le Pera for repair and to possibly make the seat more comfortable for you by reshaping the foam to your specification. Our policy states that any defective items are repaired or replaced by the same item. http://www.phatperformanceparts.com/terms.asp

I also gave you the option to return the seat for a refund, but there would be a 15% restock fee and the original shipping costs would be deducted from the return as free shipping only applies if you keep the order and shipping large boxed seats is not cheap so we must recoup those costs. Our policy does state that returns are subject to 20% restock fee which I minimized to 15%.

Your next reply stated, “This is too much to loose for a seat that is in perfect condition.”, based on this new response of yours it seems there was nothing wrong with the seat and, you simply do not like it. There is nothing wrong with that, but as the policy states, all non-defective returns are subject to 20% restocking fee. After several days of back and forth, we had given you a couple of different options here, we were trying to work with you. I’ve even made an exception and let you return this seat, which very few of our competitors would have done. We made many exceptions to try and work with you.

You did a credit card charge back that was reversed to our favor when they reviewed all the information. They are a non-biased third party. Clearly, we didn't do anything wrong or they would've sided with you.

Again, I’m sorry that we weren't about to meet your expectations. We sincerely wish it turned out differently and wish you the best of luck on your future purchases.

I want to thank all of the members who are customers that shared their honest experience with us. We truly appreciate it and can't thank you enough!

 

P.S. I'll be out for the remainder of the day. I will be back on Monday to reply to any posts, PM's, or emails. Have a good weekend, ride safe.

 

I have had good luck with them. They're local, so I can pick it up. Pretty good prices too.