Cautionary Tales about Seth Laam!

[kampod]

Everyone, I want to share something very unpleasant, but I feel I have to warn everyone. Do not trust Seth Laam!

Seth Laam had my seat for remake since September 2015 (sent 9/21/2015) and I've been unable to get any attention from him. Today is January 20, 2016 - that's four full months without a word. I've spoke to Kaarin (who btw has a very pleasant voice) and she responded few times to the messages that I left on his site. All answers were "Seth will call you today, or tomorrow" or "latest on Monday" but I never got the call. Not in October, not in November, not in December and not in January. Today I sent Seth a message saying that I ran out patience and I'm going to make this story public. My damage is a complete loss of the two FJR 2103 seats (both front and rear), all the money I paid for the original job, and shipping. I got nothing back, not a penny. Don't have even as much as the original seat. NOTHING! I have no words to describe my anger. Just hope you guys will understand. And hopefully will let other seat makers to earn your business. This is just wrong. Below is the copy of some of my correspondence with Kaarin, I just replaced my real name with Kampod, but I'll gladly provide the unredacted version to anyone who would ask.

Kaarin,

This is my second message today, and I left you a voice mail. I’m getting a feeling that this is going nowhere. You have both of my seats and at bare minimum I want my seats to be sent back to me if you can’t work on it. If by the end of the day I’m not hearing from someone I’m going to spread the news about this service to every motorcycle forum out there. I’ll be coping and pasting until I’ll destroy your business. Bikers are social crowd, we live by the word of the mouth and I’ll make sure this word will be as nasty as I’m angry right now. I paid tons of money for the seat to be done, plus the shipping to you, and now I got nothing. Not even the original seat. This crosses all lines. This is my final message.

Kampod

From: Kampod
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 12:58 PM
To: 'Seth Laam' <[email protected]>
Subject: Today?

Kaarin,

I didn’t get the call yesterday, can you please make sure that he calls me today?

Thank you,

Kampod


From: Seth Laam [mailto:[email protected]]
To: Kampod
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2016 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: Form submission from: Contact

Hi Kampod,
I absolutely understand where you are coming from. I just spoke to Seth, if he doesn't call you this afternoon, it will be first thing in the morning.
Thanks,
Kaarin

On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 6:15 AM, Kampod wrote:
Kaarin,

I sent the seat on September 21st, it’s been almost 4 months by now, and almost 4 weeks since the last time you promised that Seth will call.

I totally understand that Seth is very busy and my job is not going to bring any money, but you need to see my side.

Thank you,

Kampod


From: Seth Laam [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2015 2:31 PM
To: Kampod
Subject: Re: Form submission from: Contact

Hi Kampod,

I talked to Seth, he will call you early next week. I apologize for the delay.

Thanks,
Kaarin

On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 6:24 AM, Kampod <[email protected]> wrote:
Submitted on Wednesday, December 23, 2015 - 06:24
Submitted by anonymous user:
Submitted values are:

Your Name: Kampod
Email:
Phone:
You would prefer to receive your reply...: via Phone
Subject: my seat?
Message:
Hi, it's been months since I sent you my seat, and despite promises to
contact me nobody called me yet. I left few voice mails and none got
answered. Please call me.

Kampod

 

[Hudson]

2 posts and you want us to believe you? Lots of folks have dealt with Seth and been pleased. Something's smells fishy.

 

[HotRodZilla]

2 posts and you want us to believe you? Lots of folks have dealt with Seth and been pleased. Something's smells fishy.

IF the only reason you joined this forum is to bitch about Seth Laam, you're probably not going to like the response. He has served a bunch of people here pretty well. Although a couple have had some issues with Seth taking longer than they had hoped, no one has yet had their seat disappear. You would be the first.

I truly hope you get your seat back completed and are happy with it, but until I know both sides of the story, you are simply some guy on the Internet.

 

[JamesK]

When I was shopping for a replacement for my worn out Bill Mayer seat, I did speak with Seth about getting a seat made, he was nice on the original call where he wanted me to just send in my BM seats and he would contact me later with an ETA for a build date and other specifics. Given that I'm located in Japan now and the added costs and delays of shipping and any returns for alteration I tried to follow up with him before sending off the seats but got no responses. This didn't give me a very reassuring feeling about proceeding with Seth so I went with Russell instead. Since I had lost nothing but some time and change on the international call I left it at that.

My post is not meant to either support or declaim Kampod's post or experience but simply to point out that there are likely others out there who have been disappointed with LAAM for one reason or another. I have a friend here in Japan, a fellow biker who's got a LAAM seat made for his Tenere, and whilst he did get his seat it had to go back for alteration and came back after a rather long delay and was still not done to his specs.

@Kampod, sounds like a good reason for a 50CC ride to me, than you can collect your seats in person, I'm sure one of the folks on the forum could lend you a seat for the ride, especially if they live in an area that's snowed in with white crap for the next few months.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

I am going to agree with my friend HotRodZilla on this one. I have personally had Seth Laam build 3 separate seats for me. The first was for my ST1300, the second have been on two FJRs. He has built a seat for a friend/coworker with a BMW R1200RT that is the most comfortable motorcycle seat I ever sat upon. I have recommended him to other friends, some of them on this forum.

The man has become swamped under due to the high praises he received on this forum as well as the ST forums. I know he used to be well regarded on the Connie 14 forums as well.

If you are truly having issues with Mr. Laam, I am sincerely sorry. However, if you joined this forum to simply post negativity about someone, you probably need to go elsewhere. You are not among friends yet, we do not know you. Try posting something positive first.

 

[SkooterG]

Seems odd that the OP would finally join the forum just to bitch. Yet on face value, seems to be a legitimate complaint. And if true, does not bode well for Mr. Laam.

Unfortunate all ways around.

 

[El Toro Joe]

I guess I'm glad I got mine when I did...I had no issues at all, when he did my seats. I sent them out, he got them, and by the end of the next day he had them done, packed up and shipped. He had them for a total of one and a half days.

 

[Kaelaria]

He's a legit user that's been around a while elsewhere. He's also not the first such person to have major issues in the past several months unfortunately. I got in with Seth fairly early, had no issues and love the seat. But the similar reports since then have been very common, which is too bad.

 

[garyahouse]

Thanks Kaelaria. That's worth something.

Anybody on this forum KNOW Seth? Anybody hear from him lately? Anybody able to talk to him about this? I've talked personally with several vendors who've served our forum members well. And on one occasion, I talked about a similar post (not on this forum) only to find out there were indeed two sides to the story. The vendor was not at fault. Not that this applies here, but it is worth considering. It would seem to me that if I were selling a product (in part) through a forum like this one, I'd be VERY interested in this post and being able to explain or at least to "right a wrong."

Kampod, I hope you get this matter rectified.

 

[Tiger_993]

I have also had an experience with Laam seats in the past several months and it was the polar opposite from what is being described here. I shipped him my seats the week of November 9th and received the completed set back on December 10th. They were in his shop for 3 weeks total. I exchanged two emails with Kaarin at the outset to discuss the timing and shipping, followed by one phone call with Seth for the "consultation" before he did the work. It was a smooth process start to finish.

If Seth Laam screwed up and lost the seat, he needs to own up and replace it in short order. My own favorable experience with Laam is sandwiched right in the middle of the dates the OP is claiming and I had no issues whatsoever.

 

[BkerChuck]

Wow! This is just the polar opposite of my dealings with the man. I'm sorry to hear that you're having such headaches with him this is truly a disappointment. I've had my Laam seat for almost 2 years now and have to say that I would deal with him again in a heartbeat. I hope this is able to be resolved.

 

[0Face]

You may have a legitimate complaint, but there are adult ways to handle it.

There are plenty of reviews out there both good and bad about the timeliness of Laam. You had to of known that before you engaged them, and if you didn't, you have no one to blame but yourself.

 

[Biquer]

My experience was perfect. He got my seat done and returned across the Atlantic on time and he did a fantastic job.

One thing with him, he does not embrace electronic messaging, in any form. He is a phone guy. I'm sure there's an explanation for this.

 

[erixun]

"I want my seats to be sent back to me if you can’t work on it. If by the end of the day I’m not hearing from someone I’m going to spread the news about this service to every motorcycle forum out there. I’ll be coping and pasting until I’ll destroy your business."

Hope your coping skills improve.

Yes, if what you say is true, you got the shaft. Not sure if this is the best way to handle it. Kinda sound like a spoiled child not getting his way. On the the other hand, I would be frustrated to no end if this happened to me

 

[erixun]

So what if your seat shows up in the mail tomorrow and it is the best thing since sliced bread? Are you going to go back through all the negative posts and amend that you finally got your seat and you like it? Just Curious...

 

[Kelvininin]

Seth is a one man show, and he desperately need to expand to accommodate his growing business, this unfortunately leads to some ridiculously slow turn around times on his seats.

I had my Super Tenere seat done by Seth back in 2014. At the time I was living in Seattle so I rode the 600 miles from Seattle to Redding CA. He worked my seats while I waited, then rode back (in 600 miles of rain, not seattle rain, real rain). Hands down the highest quality seat I have had done at the lowest possible price. I have owned seats by Saddle man, Mustang, and Corbin. I was extremely happy with the quality and the price.

He is a difficult guy to lock down, but he is a honorable person, he will make good, it just may not be in a timely fashion.

I would not hesitate to have my FJR seat done by him, I would prefer a ride in, because it makes the seat an experience, but living in MN now, its not very practical. So maybe next winter I will send my FJR seat in to be done by the master seat builder Seth is.

 

[Kaelaria]

He's had an employee for quite a while now, to handle all the scheduling and communication. She is who he has been corresponding with. The one man band is no longer any excuse.

 

[Madmudder]

My experience was I called and emailed, Seth called back and left a message we finally were able to converse. After discussing what I wanted done I was given a date to send it in allowing me to further enjoy my riding season and not stockpile his working space. The time frame was roughly a month, I shipped it in so it would arrive on the date given he had it 2 days and returned to me with my specified shipper.

In all I was without my seat for almost 2 weeks, it could have been a shorter time frame but one or two day shipping was not worth the added expense to me. I am thrilled with the seat , the quality & workmanship is excellent. Aside from the length of time it takes to get it done I am very happy, the fact that I am on the east coast and Seth is on the west does not help

. However I think it is worth mentioning that everything is done by hand and not on an assembly line, so to get quality it was worth the wait in my opinion. I also appreciated the courtesy of being given a date to send it in for and not just asked to send it in and not have any idea when the work would be completed.

 

[Madmudder]

He's had an employee for quite a while now, to handle all the scheduling and communication. She is who he has been corresponding with. The one man band is no longer any excuse.

I think it is, Seth is still the only one touching the seats. Kaarin is only dealing with the administration portion of the business as I understand it.