Is Laam seat still in business?

[Gurock]

Mike, I have a RDL on the bike, but I have a Yamaha stock saddle in my garage. I'd agree to send you my Yamaha stock saddle if you pay the shipping, and promise to send it back when you're done with it, or you can buy it for $100.00 and my cost to ship it from Chicago.

 

[erixun]

Update: 2 minutes after I sent him the text asking him not to pick it up, he text me and said "will get it done and shipped back to you before May". Ha! we'll see! Check's in the mail, right?
Thank you all for your support. This shouldn't be this hard...

I will buy everyone who posted in this thread a beer when I meet you guys (to thank for your moral support. I was so upset before I posted it up here and now I feel so much better with your support)! I appreciate it all!

PS: however, just checked usps and it's still sitting there and they are closed for today... We'll see.

Question, if you are in contact with the post office and know its sitting there can you tell them you want someone else to pick it up? The reason I ask is this- I have a ride in appointment for a seat with RDL- which is about 15 minutes up the road in Shasta Lake from Redding CA.

I would be willing to drop down to Redding, pick up your seat and then drop it off at RDL while they are making my seat. I would be looking for something to do anyway. The catch? My appointment isnt until mid May. Not sure if you want to wait that long, but it would save some double shipping costs. Just a thought.

 

[mikerider]

MikeI feel for you. I went through your spot a couple months ago. He does good work but he needs to get someone to handle the admin side of the business. he told he was not good at the business side and I agree. but if he wants to come though this he needs to let people know just how long it will take and needs to have someone man the phones and email. he needs to just build seats and let someone else send, receive, pack, answer, call ect.

he does great work but dealing with the problems might not make it worth the trouble.

anyway I hope you get it all figured out.

Thanks and I appreciate that. If I knew I have these headache I wouldn't go to him. It shouldn't be this hard As you said, he does great work but it's not worth the trouble of having to deal with it.

I went to him only because he finally got back to me and gave me his words that "send it in and I'll take care of it now" (yes, his words were on text so I do have a record), while Russell has a build date of Mid July.

We'll see how it comes out...

 

[mikerider]

I feel for you too Mike and I ALSO like beer. Ha! This might have been a bad place to post that. You're going to have a LOT of new friends!!
We'll see how well he takes care of his ride-in customers in a month. I'm scheduled in on the 27th. Hopefully he gets a little caught up by then and stops accepting new orders until he does.

Thanks! I love to have friends like you guys. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Thank you all!

I wish you luck on the ride-in. Let us know how yours turns out. Make sure at least you confirm with him a day or 2 before your schedule day.

 

[mikerider]

Mike, I have a RDL on the bike, but I have a Yamaha stock saddle in my garage. I'd agree to send you my Yamaha stock saddle if you pay the shipping, and promise to send it back when you're done with it, or you can buy it for $100.00 and my cost to ship it from Chicago.

Thank you so much Gurock!!! I may take you up on your offer. You are so nice. I appreciate it.

I'll wait for a few more days and see how things go. If the seat is not picked up (it's still in the Redding post office as of Tue 4/28/2015 @ 7:45am PST)

in a few days, I will call the post office and see how to have it sent back. I tried USPS' 'intercept' feature but it said my package is not eligible.

I don't know why. I sent it using "3-day priority".

Will update.

Thanks again Gurock!!! Now you will get 2 beers when we meet!

 

[rbentnail]

I'm going against the grain here, flame on I don't care, but I've learned over the past 30 yrs that you never, ever, ever attempt to have anyone else do anything to your bike, or any component thereof, anytime between January and May of any year. There are way too many people screwing the pooch, putting off what they want done until the spring.

IMHO having a seat modified:

- in the spring, the ultra-busiest time of the bike maintenance/modification year;

- without a replacement, extra or loaner in-hand to ride on,

WTH are you thinking? All you're gonna get when you do this is delays and excuses, you should know this by now. Do a ride-in? Yeah, great, push back everyone else on the waiting list at least another day. Inconsiderate bass turds for being in your way, ain't they? And then you wanna come here and whine and ***** about it? Sorry. No sympathy from here. You brought it on yourself. Throw a pillow on the damn thing and ride it, you wouldn't be the first one!

ETA: you still owe me a beer

.

 

[wheatonFJR]

^^^

He doesn't owe anyone a beer. He doesn't need to "know better". You expect people to be honest when they make a promise...if they are honorable.

Stuff happens sometime...but if you as a businessman are booked for the next month and can't get to it...you don't fook someone over and say "I'm on it today".

That's just ******. JSNS

 

[HotRodZilla]

Based on Seth's immediate reply that he'd have the seat done by May says a couple things. He's obviously a nice guy who wants to do right. If he didn't care, he'd have just said, "Ok," and mark one less seat to be behind on. Being a nice guy is getting him in trouble. He obviously does good work, but he's swamping himself. Others have said it, and they're correct. He needs someone to answer his phone, schedule his ride-ins and keep his mail-in seat schedule to a manageable level. Hell, if I call the guy for a seat and he tells me he can't get to it until July, I can wait until the end of June to send it in. Being nice is going to get him in trouble.

 

[Twigg]

^^^He doesn't owe anyone a beer. He doesn't need to "know better". You expect people to be honest when they make a promise...if they are honorable.

Stuff happens sometime...but if you as a businessman are booked for the next month and can't get to it...you don't fook someone over and say "I'm on it today".

That's just ******. JSNS

Agreed ... well apart from the bit about the beer

 

[mikerider]

Question, if you are in contact with the post office and know its sitting there can you tell them you want someone else to pick it up? The reason I ask is this- I have a ride in appointment for a seat with RDL- which is about 15 minutes up the road in Shasta Lake from Redding CA.
I would be willing to drop down to Redding, pick up your seat and then drop it off at RDL while they are making my seat. I would be looking for something to do anyway. The catch? My appointment isnt until mid May. Not sure if you want to wait that long, but it would save some double shipping costs. Just a thought.

Thank you so much for the offer! Appreciate it. I'm waiting for a few days to see what I want/need to do...

I'm not sure if the post office wants to hold the package for that long though

 

[mikerider]

Thanks Twigg, you got one

The only reason I went to Laam was I thought I could have it done this week, instead of waiting until mid July for Russell.

I will definitely go to Russell if this doesn't work out.

-mike-

I'm posting for beer too

On the substance though ... I am on record as being a firm adherent to Russell seats. What is not lost on me however is that everyone who has a Laam seat seems very happy with it, and they do look good.

Part of me thinks it is simple about the kind of riding folk do. For the guys who do multiple 1000 mile days most swear by the Russell. The picture is not quite the same for shorter distances, even if those distances would be considered a long way by many.

I just completed 550 miles on Wednesday, 1070 on Thursday, 1250 on Friday, 300 on Saturday and 550 on Sunday. The only parts that didn't at least ache a bit were my butt (Russell) and hips (lowered foot pegs).

So I hope you get your seat resolved, and I also hope Seth is able to make his obviously valued service just a little more efficient.

 

[mikerider]

I did not expect to be in front of anybody when building a seat. My request was very simple. I asked him, "when do you want me to send you the seat?", I explicitly told him, "let me know whenever you are ready, because I don't want to not having a seat for too long".

He said: "Send it in now. I'll take care of it right away"

I admit I'm too stupid to take his words and thought he meant it . Mea culpa. My fault.

Yes, you can still have a beer!

I'm going against the grain here, flame on I don't care, but I've learned over the past 30 yrs that you never, ever, ever attempt to have anyone else do anything to your bike, or any component thereof, anytime between January and May of any year. There are way too many people screwing the pooch, putting off what they want done until the spring.
IMHO having a seat modified:

- in the spring, the ultra-busiest time of the bike maintenance/modification year;

- without a replacement, extra or loaner in-hand to ride on,

WTH are you thinking? All you're gonna get when you do this is delays and excuses, you should know this by now. Do a ride-in? Yeah, great, push back everyone else on the waiting list at least another day. Inconsiderate bass turds for being in your way, ain't they? And then you wanna come here and whine and ***** about it? Sorry. No sympathy from here. You brought it on yourself. Throw a pillow on the damn thing and ride it, you wouldn't be the first one!

ETA: you still owe me a beer

.

 

[mikerider]

As of now (Tue 4/28/2015 @ 11am PST), the seat is still sitting in the post office. I hope he will pick it up soon and follow it through.

Based on Seth's immediate reply that he'd have the seat done by May says a couple things. He's obviously a nice guy who wants to do right. If he didn't care, he'd have just said, "Ok," and mark one less seat to be behind on. Being a nice guy is getting him in trouble. He obviously does good work, but he's swamping himself. Others have said it, and they're correct. He needs someone to answer his phone, schedule his ride-ins and keep his mail-in seat schedule to a manageable level. Hell, if I call the guy for a seat and he tells me he can't get to it until July, I can wait until the end of June to send it in. Being nice is going to get him in trouble.

 

[mavrik]

uggg.....wow...really making me question sending my seat in...I shouldn't have waited till now but he should not make promises of 5 day turn arounds but then it actually is not touched for weeks or it is gone for a month.

 

[gclarkx]

I had a great experience working with Seth because I bought my bike for Christmas (a 2014 left over) and sent my seat to him in January. I had it back in a week or so as I remember. Of course, I didn't care because there was snow on the ground and it was -16 degrees. He took the time to understand my requirements and I got the exact seat that I hoped for - no adjustments needed. I have a Russell on my VStrom and I like my Laam much better - just me. I'd have your seat shipped back to you and try Seth again this Fall after the Rush season is over. We are talking about a one-off, custom seat maker who is working from his garage. This is a cottage industry unless you are willing to live with Sargent's and other production seats. I will continue to work with Seth with full understanding of his situation because I want him and need him to be there the next time I need a seat. I also want there to be options for us available and not just the one maker who happens to have good customer service now. That maker may not be there next year either.

 

[airboss]

Sad to see this, decent product at a decent price, but poor admin skills can sink a small business fast.

 

[Harald]

Sorry to hear about the problems with Seth and especially since I'm the one that snagged that seat that was for sale on the forum. Seats seem to go quickly and I've missed a couple already because I didn't act quickly enough. Sounds like you've got a good seat offer, but there's another possibility available for anyone looking for a stock seat on ebay under eBay item number: 261865182887 (no, I'm not the seller).

Reading all this has got me rethinking my plans for the seat I bought. It may be fall before anyone will get a Laam seat at this point.

 

[mikerider]

Update: Tue 4/28/2015 @ 5:10pm PST. The Redding post office is now closed for the day and my seat is still sitting in the post office, waiting, unclaimed, since Fri last week. Yes, I did confirm with Seth yesterday that he already got the USPS notice last Fri...

The waiting continues...

 

[08FJR4ME]

Are you sure it's there? Have you actually spoken with someone at the post office where it is? Sometimes there tracking isn't always correct.

Dave

 

[mikerider]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="08FJR4ME" data-cid="1226355" data-time="1430271573"><p>

Are you sure it's there? Have you actually spoken with someone at the post office where it is? Sometimes there tracking isn't always correct.<br />

<br />

Dave</p></blockquote>

Yes, I did. Beside, I sent it with the extra options of signature confirmation and return receipt. I didn't get anything.