Russell Day Long Group Buy - Fall 2010

[08FJR4ME]

The Procrastinator has placed his online order. :yahoo:

Yeh! looks like $50.00 for section D which includes Ohio.

 

[yamafitter]

I have a production date of Nov 8th which is perfect. I will ship the seat from Buffalo on my way down to Copper Canyon and if their two week turnaround is accurate I will be able to pick it up on the way back. :yahoo:

 

[Bungie]

My seat is going to be shipped today. I removed the cover and foam off the rider portion and will ship just the seat pan down (the passenger portion is intact as I'm doing a solo). It'll get shipped out today. I'm sure I won't be able to try it out though till next spring. The weather up here has gone for a hell... then again last year October was nasty and I rode well into November before putting the bike away..

 

[08FJR4ME]

I talked to Russell today. I asked about removing the foam and cover and just sending in the seat pans. What they told me was to ship the seats as is and if I want the cover back they will return it with the new seat. He also said they start with the existing foam as part of the build. Just wanted to let you folks know. I have a build date of 11/12 and will be sending the stock seats as is.

Dave

 

[Bungie]

I talked to Russell today. I asked about removing the foam and cover and just sending in the seat pans. What they told me was to ship the seats as is and if I want the cover back they will return it with the new seat. He also said they start with the existing foam as part of the build. Just wanted to let you folks know. I have a build date of 11/12 and will be sending the stock seats as is.

Holy crap did I luck out then!

I have a build date of 10/25 and time was getting short to ship. I had emailed Heather about this and hadn't got a reply. Long story short, I pulled the cover off the rider portion and removed the foam. I needed a box to ship it in and closest one I could get was actually pretty big. So I shipped it all away (this evening actually - $96 for expidited 3 day shipping (#&$@*^#&@#%^&*) using the foam I removed as packing material (it's intact). So I didn't save anything, and in fact, it cost me more because I delayed the shipping because I thought for sure the money I'd save on a smaller box would offset the cost for expedited.

Step over a $20 bill to pick up a nickle. Yup. Thats me.

 

[Tree Doc]

Holy crap did I luck out then!

I have a build date of 10/25 and time was getting short to ship. I had emailed Heather about this and hadn't got a reply. Long story short, I pulled the cover off the rider portion and removed the foam. I needed a box to ship it in and closest one I could get was actually pretty big. So I shipped it all away (this evening actually - $96 for expidited 3 day shipping (#&$@*^#&@#%^&*) using the foam I removed as packing material (it's intact). So I didn't save anything, and in fact, it cost me more because I delayed the shipping because I thought for sure the money I'd save on a smaller box would offset the cost for expedited.

Step over a $20 bill to pick up a nickle. Yup. Thats me.

OMG!! That sorta puts a hurt on that 20% savings! Beats NO discount, though. How's it work when you get it back up there? Do you have to pay any fees/taxes?

I just placed my order today on the Online Order Form. It was working a week or two ago but it stated that on the site when I checked. When I got to it today, it was fully functional and accepted my order and my attached photos. I'll be calling them Wednesday and trying to get through. I have made several attempts and have only reached the voice mail system.

 

[Bungie]

Woohoo! I just got a call from Russell. My seat is completed and being shipped out! I guess they didn't charge me anymore to glue the foam back on the seat LOL! Great turnaround time as my seat was due on the 25th, and it didn't arrive until near noon on the 25th. I thought for sure they'd bump the production date back a bit. Must be some good management going on there!

Now if the weather holds I'll be able to at least try it out before they bike gets put away (I should've sprung for the heat option!)

As for additional fees and taxes. Yes, and I think its a big scam! When shipping packages USPS, they charge you a fee that is SUPPOSED to be to your door (and sometimes it is), but usually, CanadaPost gets their claws into it and charges you seperately from the border to your door. Net result, you pay 2 shipping charges, and the second is due at your door!

 

[Tree Doc]

Woohoo! I just got a call from Russell. My seat is completed and being shipped out! I guess they didn't charge me anymore to glue the foam back on the seat LOL! Great turnaround time as my seat was due on the 25th, and it didn't arrive until near noon on the 25th. I thought for sure they'd bump the production date back a bit. Must be some good management going on there!

Now if the weather holds I'll be able to at least try it out before they bike gets put away (I should've sprung for the heat option!)

As for additional fees and taxes. Yes, and I think its a big scam! When shipping packages USPS, they charge you a fee that is SUPPOSED to be to your door (and sometimes it is), but usually, CanadaPost gets their claws into it and charges you seperately from the border to your door. Net result, you pay 2 shipping charges, and the second is due at your door!

Curious to know...what was the estimated amount of time till shipping after your 10/25 production date? My build date is 11/25 and Heather said it would be ready about 2 weeks after that date. Wondering if that's just a fudge-factor they give. I'd think that once they start, they'd knock a seat out pretty quick.

 

[Bungie]

Curious to know...what was the estimated amount of time till shipping after your 10/25 production date? My build date is 11/25 and Heather said it would be ready about 2 weeks after that date. Wondering if that's just a fudge-factor they give. I'd think that once they start, they'd knock a seat out pretty quick.

Well I don't want to raise or lower anyone's expectations or cause grief for Russell with those same expectations. I was told the exact same thing. 2 weeks from production date. Maybe because I was early on in the group buy schedule, or, maybe the seats after mine hadn't shown up. But if their policy is 2 weeks after your build date, that should be when you can reasonably expect it.

 

[Tree Doc]

Understood. I wouldn't count on that being the case all the time, I was just curious if you were told the same as I was told. If it happens, that's a perk. I'm not expecting to see mine till after the first couple weeks of December. Thanks for the info

 

[ionbeam]

...Heather said it would be ready about 2 weeks after that date. Wondering if that's just a fudge-factor they give. I'd think that once they start, they'd knock a seat out pretty quick.

It is easy to think of seat building as a serial process. You ride in, the sun circles your seat as they perform all the steps, one after another with no queue time. At the end of the day you ride out with your new seat. It took them roughly one day to do one seat.

Enter the group buy. The seat company now knows that they have xxx number of seats coming in. They stage the operations to run in batches. For instance, 20 seats come in as part of a group buy. The assigned work force focuses on skinning 20 seats all at once and then cutting down the foam. Next day 20 seats get the seat frame and suspension work done. Next day 20 seats get... There is economy of scale in doing the same operation in parallel on (for instance) 20 seats at a time. Instead of pushing out one seat a day they can get out twice as many seats or more in 10 working days. This saves the seat maker significant time which he passes on to the members of the group buy as a significant discount. There may be one operation like stitching the seat cover on for which there is only one skilled worker, in this case this becomes the bottleneck that causes the orders to have a two week process time.

When you send in your seat, and then get your seat shipped back two weeks later, all you can see is the two weeks to do just one seat. I'm betting that a successful seat maker ships out a large number of boxes every day. A group buy makes it much easier for him to structure his work flow.

 

[Tree Doc]

When you send in your seat, and then get your seat shipped back two weeks later, all you can see is the two weeks to do just one seat. I'm betting that a successful seat maker ships out a large number of boxes every day. A group buy makes it much easier for him to structure his work flow.

Actually, that thought never crossed my mind. I fully expect things to be done on a grand scale, not piecemeal. That's how they make bank. My curiosity was solely based on whether Bungie was told the same as thing that I was told.

 

[bigtallguy]

Woohoo! I just got a call from Russell. My seat is completed and being shipped out! I guess they didn't charge me anymore to glue the foam back on the seat LOL! Great turnaround time as my seat was due on the 25th, and it didn't arrive until near noon on the 25th. I thought for sure they'd bump the production date back a bit. Must be some good management going on there!

Now if the weather holds I'll be able to at least try it out before they bike gets put away (I should've sprung for the heat option!)

As for additional fees and taxes. Yes, and I think its a big scam! When shipping packages USPS, they charge you a fee that is SUPPOSED to be to your door (and sometimes it is), but usually, CanadaPost gets their claws into it and charges you seperately from the border to your door. Net result, you pay 2 shipping charges, and the second is due at your door!

That makes me happy, I had the same production date as you so maybe mine will be back sooner rather than later too!

As far as the shipping, it cost me about $55 for UPS ground. Would have been much cheaper if the dimensions of the box were smaller. It reminds me of when I sold a c-14 seat online for like $80 shipped and it cost me something like $60 to ship it :angry2:

 

[Bungie]

It reminds me of when I sold a c-14 seat online for like $80 shipped and it cost me something like $60 to ship it :angry2:

Not to go off topic here, (who? us?).

One of the very first things I ever bought online was a pair of shocks, cheap ones. $75 cheap. The exchange rate at the time was right around $1.65, so that brought the price up around $100, throw in shipping, which if I recall was $40, so $140, plus the exchange on the shipping, so $154. They package was shipped UPS. I had to pay a $40 brokerage fee, with the exchange rate naturally. Were over $200 now. Then customs dinged me for tax on it...

Long story short, that $75 pair of cheap shocks ended up costing close to $250!

Nowadays, when I buy 'cross border', if they don't ship USPS, I don't buy it. Good thing the dollar is close to par now!

 

[SnowAviation]

My seat is on it's way, somewhere near Sacramento according

to FedEx, for a November 1st production date.

 

[Dr. Bones]

i just got a production date of 11/30/10 FYI

 

[El Toro]

I was too late to get in on the deal on this forum, but I did get in on the group buy over at the Adventure Rider forum.

I'm doing the stock seat on my Rocket III, and I got a call today with a production date of 12/1. I am going to make a custom box to minimize the size and then send it early enough to go by fed ex ground. You guys sending FJR seats are lucky to be sending a more or less normal seat. The Rocket III Touring dual seat is gigantic. Its not heavy, but dimensionally, its designed for big pretty big guys.

 

[Bungie]

Well isn't that just a kick the applebag!

The day after I put my bike away for the winter theirs a knock on my door. Cutie postal worker has a big box. This is whats in it:

:/

On the plus side, they marked the box as a Motorcycle Seat, Warranty Repair. So I didn't have to pay any brokerage/taxes. Yeah Russell!

Amazing shipping speed too.. what was it, 5 days to here. I've never got anything that fast before.

Is it April yet?

 

[huron52]

Yes to the delivery service and the warranty repaired. :yahoo:

 

[RaYzerman19]

Most excellent..... I picked mine up yesterday too.... was a nice day to try it out but I had other commitments. Warming up next week, so I'll give it a workout then.