Cautionary Tales about Seth Laam!

[fsubetcha]

No worries about doing business with Seth. I got my seat last week and it looks great. All along through the ordering and build process, I was getting quick and accurate responses to all of my communications.

Seth even suggested a more attractive color, pattern and stitching combination that I originally envisioned. I'm glad I took his advice.

Now all I need is a little saddle time for the final evaluation. Spring takes a long time to come in Minnie-sota.

 

[ionbeam]

Well, ionbeam steps up and touches the third rail, time to dance with the devil. Mid summer I called Russell to schedule seats in well in advance of EOM. Laughter on the other end of the phone, you want them done WHEN? Listen (stupid) this is the summer, our busy season, how about October or November? Umm, how about no?

So much for that, now what to do. Hmm, Seth seems to be doing better, the complaints have only been about his customer service, not his seats. Hello, Seth? Seth says there is plenty of time to get my seats done by EOM. Seth, not done, done and delivered before EOM. Sure, no problem. I write ask for written conformation that the seats will be done and delivered by a certain date and Kaarin writes back within a business day and confirms the delivery and indicates she will make sure it happens on time. Four weeks early I send them my spare set of Gen III seats.

It's now past time when Seth said he would call and work out the details of the build. I have written and got no response. Seth says he needs 72 hrs to do the seat and shipping will take ~7 days, Redding CA is just about as far as you can get from NH. We are down to it. I'll call on Tuesday (holiday weekend) and see what they say.

My posterior HATES the OEM seat and both of us are dreading the thought of 1k miles down, 1k of riding in the area of EOM and visiting my mom and another 1k miles home. Riding two up takes away the ability to move around to different positions or standing on the pegs to relieve pain. I've even been hearing about trailer........ trail........ tttt down to EOM

There isn't a problem *yet* but

Hopefully I'll have some good news next week.

In the spirit of oreana, has anyone taken a Gen I Russell seat off the pans and grafted it onto a Gen II/III seat pan? Just kidding ---- so far.

 

[Bill Lumberg]

Mine is in shipment back from LAAM. Took a super long time, but comms and everything have been great. I'll have a LAAM but no bike to put it on. Yet. If yours isn't ready, let me know and I'll ship my Yamaha comfort seat to you for your to use until your LAAM is ready. It's 100 times better than the stock seat, but I don't think it's in LAAM territory. After using the comfort seat, I can't take the stock even for a commute.

 

[Bounce]

Yeah. 4 weeks is very short lead time for just about any kind of custom anything. Some custom knives and pistols can take a year or more.

 

[ionbeam]

In my opening post I was casual when I said 'mid summer. I called Russell 4 months in advance of EOM. I called Seth >3 months in advance and he has had my seat pans since July.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Alan, I have that Laam seat at my house that I'll never use again anyway. I could send it to you to borrow. I think it was made for a lighter guy than me anyway. If you want it, let me know. I'll ship it Tuesday, and that will force me to send my OEM seats to Spencer.

 

[ionbeam]

Thanks for the offer AJ! Someone just emailed me Seth's cell phone number too. I will give Seth an honest chance on Tuesday, if that turns out shitty shaky then it's on to plan B. You may have mail. Pillion asks, front and back seat reworked?

 

[HotRodZilla]

Just the front. I'm sorry. Your pretty wife is hosed! Maybe an Airhawk??

 

[ionbeam]

Just the front. I'm sorry....Maybe an Airhawk??

Bummer! Thanks for the offer though, I may still take you up on it.

A couple of weeks ago while on a NERDS ride we stopped at a gas station/convenience store in the middle of farm country. We went in and scored some water and came right back out to our bike. In that length of time some dung heap stole Helen's Airhawk off the bike. Left my GPS, radar detector and riding gear but took the Airhawk. Who the heck knows what an Airhawk is and what it's used for? I guess some farmer now has something for the metal seat on his tractor. Either that or it was someone that was just vandalizing things for fun.

 

[HotRodZilla]

GAWD...People are such assholes! Sorry Alan. Either way, if you end up needing it I'll send you the rider's seat I have.

 

[kampod]

It takes a special kind of an ass to rob a traveler. Hope justice will finally catch up with him, one way or another.

 

[ionbeam]

Sweet words sent to me TODAY, on Labor Day Holiday:

Hi Alan,
Yes, we are on schedule and you should receive your seat by the 16th or 17th.

Thanks,

Kaarin

I will sleep better tonight and look forward to taking an extra day to enjoy the ride down to EOM.

So far, so good. What could go wrong?

 

[HotRodZilla]

The mail truck could catch fire. I've seen it before.

You asked!! Lol

 

[ionbeam]

The mail truck could catch fire. I've seen it before. You asked!! Lol

I had a critical tire order coming from CA, UPS acknowledged it was late being delivered to me. It took a week to find out that the truck was broken down and in a UPS repair center. It took >2 weeks to fix the truck and leave CA to start the cross country trip. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't have moved the shipping contents to another truck.

 

[airboss]

The mail truck could catch fire. I've seen it before. You asked!! Lol

I had a critical tire order coming from CA, UPS acknowledged it was late being delivered to me. It took a week to find out that the truck was broken down and in a UPS repair center. It took >2 weeks to fix the truck and leave CA to start the cross country trip. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't have moved the shipping contents to another truck.

After 40 years in transportation. (not UPS)

You've got me sitting here trying two understand what is so hard about unhooking a trailer and hooking another tractor to it.

 

[ionbeam]

...You've got me sitting here trying two understand what is so hard about unhooking a trailer and hooking another tractor to it.

All I can think is the rear wheel carrier or brake system fell off the trailer (or something like that disabled the trailer). In these days of ITAR which UPS follows they may not be able to move cargo from one trailer to another.

 

[Bounce]

I've seen recent delays because of flooding in some areas the trucks would normally pass through.

 

[ionbeam]

Seat update:

BBZZZTTT BBZZZTTT BBZZZTTT BBZZZTTT BBZZZTTT

What the heck is that noise? Oh, wait, it's my cell phone. Swipe. View call number. California? Damn spammers. But wait, we know people there so maybe it's actually a real call.

Swipe.

hello?

Hello? ?Alan?

Umm, ya...

This is mumble, mumble, mumble.

Please say again.....

This is Kaarin from Laam seats.

OH SHIT!

Kaarin say there has been some problems at the shop, Seth has to deal with a couple of unexpected emergencies.

(immediate foul thoughts, battle preparations commencing)

We won't be able to ship you seat until next Monday, what day is a drop dead day for you to receive the seats?

Some discussion ensues, lots of calendar reading takes place. Laam volunteers to ship next Monday, 3 day delivery and they will pick up the shipping difference, due Wed or Thur next week, several days in advance of the drop dead date.

Road test/break-in coming up since the seats will arrive with enough time for a reasonable road test. I need to arrange for good weather.

So far, so good and the experience has been good.

Also, found a good price for a replacement Air Hawk, it arrived Wednesday, 2 days early.

 

[El Toro]

The mail truck could catch fire. I've seen it before. You asked!! Lol

I had a critical tire order coming from CA, UPS acknowledged it was late being delivered to me. It took a week to find out that the truck was broken down and in a UPS repair center. It took >2 weeks to fix the truck and leave CA to start the cross country trip. It never occurred to me that they wouldn't have moved the shipping contents to another truck.

I've found with UPS that once your shipment is screwed up, they figure everyone who's got stuff in that trailer is going to be unhappy anyway, and so rather than make other people unhappy too by diverting resources to solve the initial problem, they just hang you out to dry. They don't seem to have enough slack in their system to assure rapid response when something goes wrong. Worse is that their tracking often isn't updated after they've identified the problem situation. "Transportation Accident. Shipment Delayed." That should be enough for you to know you're not going to see your stuff any time soon. So they don't follow up with updates until slack has been found to solve your problem. And then tracking goes back to normal.

 

[ionbeam]

Our Laam seats were supposed to have shipped yesterday.

No notification from Laam that the seats were completed. No notification from Laam that the seats have shipped. No shipping information.

Trust. Faith. Confidence. You silly boy.