UK_Paul's - Slingshot Build & Other Adventures -

Quote from mondanai

Hi EU guys (Philip and Paul) and folks in the US,
it was a pleasure to read your report and I feel like Tom Hanks in Cast away when he found "Wilson". I'm not longer alone with my beautiful, but "trouble causing" baby.
I'm from Germany and also got a few of the same experiences, Paul talked about...strange dealerships, no support from Polaris Germany / from the dealer, no proper working radio, 2 weeks with a brake failure lamp and no help from the dealer...(it makes me p... off, sorry for that), but I think that here in Europe is nobody really interested to sell this vehicle and to solve the problems for their customers...it's a pitty.

Hi @mondanai
Great to see another European on the site. We now have to get all three SS owners together.

I must say that 3 of all 4 distributors are great. We just have one that does not know how to conduct business. The Rocket Centre, Krazy Horse (and All spaires, (now no longer a dealer)) have all been great! You can work out which dealer does not do the company justice, from the above. It is a shame that they did not perform as well as they may have, but as previously mentioned in my postings; there are some things that you just, do not do... and they did it.

I trust that Polaris will sort things, in an acceptable form, with the radio, very soon, or it looks like I will have to make a claim against them. Let's just continue to hope for a good responce.

Another day goes by and still no coments from Polaris Britain with regards to solving my radio problem.

It's looking like they don't know or don't care. My patience is now running thin.

Quote from UK_Paul

Another day goes by and still no coments from Polaris Britain...

So, today I notified them that I now wish to claim against them, as the radio is "not fit for purpose."

Polaris Britain have sat back and done nothing and I belive that they have now had plenty of time to sort things out, but have not even responded.

It looks my only option now is to take them to court. This will probably cost them more than settling a claim against them. Perhaps they will now act.

Polaris do not do themselves any favors by not responding. Business works by giving a good service not ignoring problems. All that I wanted was a working radio

I am so disappointed to have reached this point. I know that sometimes Polaris monitor these sites. Hopefully this will end up on someone's desk that can do things. I love the SlingShot but the company is letting itself down, when it just does not need to.

Today's mod:

A simple modification for today.
I have added a couple of simple helmet locks to the role bars. They are not the highest quality that you can find but I have ridden all over Europe, using very similar locks on my, Victory, motorcycle for many years now, with great success.

All that was needed was to drill and tap a 6mm hole, along with a small 4.5 mm hole to stop the lock rotating, one installed. These are easily available from e-bay or direct from china, for $15-20 USD.

It works for me and cost next to nothing to secure your helmet, if it won't fit inside the SlingShot's storage compartments.

- Classic Bubble Chopper Bike Motorcycle Universal Hanger Helmet Lock 2 Key B | eBay -

Oh well...

At long last I have informed Polaris Britain that I'll pursue them through the courts, if they don't do something about my radio.
I'd not wanted to do this, but they appear to be doing nothing and my patience is all used up.

A very, very sad day, but if they can't or won't help resolve this problem, with my radio, then the courts can ask (or tell) them to reimburse the cost of the faulty product.

I'm extremely disappointed with Polaris' performance, in the UK and anticipate that I may well send feedback to head office, as it does not do the reputation of what I have, previously, only found to be a most excellent company.

That's my rant over with, for now.
The claim goes in next week.
All I wanted from them, was a radio that worked. Not too big an ask.

The latest addition to my SlingShot, was once again, a very simple fit.

After swapping the standard horn for an air powered, two tone, unit, I decided that an additional horn would work well, if wired in parallel, with the air horn. So what did I chose?

Sound is a strange beast and I knew that if I was to add a second horn, of the same type, then it would not have the perceived affect that I was after. (It's all to do with logarithmic addition of frequencies and although increasing to decible (dB) output by an additional 3 dB (double the volume) it would not appear to be as effective as adding sounds of slightly different frequencies. Therefore I chose to do this:

The air horn, that I fitted to the left of the air intake.

An additional horn, of completely different construction, wired in parallel to the air horn.

The additional horn hits a different tone and therefore, now, produces a much fuller sound. It looks pretty cool too.

Quote from WOLF

I like the thought and execution @UK_Paul. If you could do a video with sound clip, that would be cool. I understand that can be a hassle sometimes also though.

I'll see if I can produce something for you some time next week @WOLF
I should be able to isolate the horns and show the difference. However be aware that this may not be produced as clearly as I'd hope, as the recording will be, somewhat, degraded, in the posting.

Let's see what I can do...

Radio update:

At last, after an indication to Polaris Britain that I will now persue them directly. I now get a responce telling me to deal with my dealer, not Polaris...

I then responded, letting them know that I was awre my dealer had been pursuing them for a remedy and Polaris had not responded as nessaary. Therfore it was Polaris that I recognised as culpable, for my problem. (The dealer regulay let me know - without me having to ask - that he was still awaiting help from Polaris).

Looks like it will, most likely, go leagal and no one will come out happy, but Polaris will still have to finaly sort out the problem or compensate.

I have now started tracking down the other UK owner's and find that the same problem exists elsewhere. At this rate Polaris may soon hit the press (hey will have to start putting in a lot of advertising to keep all the journals in line) and may still end up with a very big bill. Just because they don't respond to a customer that just wants his radio to work correctly.

Someone may well need disciplining or retraining. Problems like this Do Not need to reach this stage, when managed with diplomacy.
__________________
Further update:

With just a very little resurch (regular readers will know just what I'm like) I have found that this may be a much bigger problem, throughout Europe.

Oh dear... Looks like, bad management from Polaris Britain...
It now appears that they may just have upset the wrong guy this time. We may have a very expensive can of worms, slowly, opening, because someone didn't give the help required, when asked.

__________________
Still further updates:

At last it appears that the problem has now reached people that may be able to make things happen, in the US.

I hope that things can at last move forward in a constructive way. After reviewing the lack of action from the UK end, I am now reasonably confident that the problem manifest itself with poor management of the situation at Polaris Britain. If this is the case then I would hope that US management act in an appropriate way to stop further problems being caused, when all that is required is a good service

I am once again hopeful that an amicable result can be reached, so let's all hope for the best. As situations like this help no one.

Further radio updates:

I hope that this part of the thread is not becoming too tedious, but I think that you may all be interested to see how things pan out and how Polaris supports our product.

The latest request, of myself, is for information covering the warranty information. Polaris Britain know the full providence, in full detail, of this and every single SlingShot (all 7) on the roads in the British Isles (yes one is owned by a lady in the Isle of Man, a very separate part of the kingdom). It would appear that they may be trying to remove my warranty rights now, because I am now becoming too vocal in my requests for action. (I can and will continue to be more vocal, untill satisfied).

In my latest correspondence, between the dealer and myself (copied to Polaris Britain and Polaris Tech US) I have suggested that my dealer, or perhaps more appropriately, Polaris Britain test out the SlingShot radio, in the local that it is to be used.

To do this, I have suggested that we use a 10 year old Jeep OEM radio, as per standard fitting into a standard production Jeep, as a datum.

I have also suggested that I would only expect the more moden Slingshot Radio to achive reception, 2/3 of the FM stations that the 10 year old, unmodofied, radio can achive.

Tomorrow I will be taking leagal advice to descover if the UK courts would feel this to be a reasonable comparison, to assess the product's performance and suitability.

I will also be checking out with a UK government, trading department, (referred to as "Trading Standards") to assess, if the product fails a test allong these lines, or those prescribed by themselves, if I will then be be in a position to persue withdrawal of the product (radio) from both the British and probhably the European market place, through, Trading Standards' offices.

This may encourage Polaris to act, to assist me, before I proceed to take any further action... well I did sugest that they have upset me, just a little bit too much now. British management may find themselves having to explain themselves, to the US leaders, as it should never have reached this position. It's only a dam radio!

Let's all still hope that Polaris come good...
I'll keep you informed of the progression.

Checked out the legal position, regards the radio, in the UK and it looks like I'm on solid ground, should I need or want to take things further.
I sure hope it doesn't come to that but only time will tell.

Polaris - Please just fix my radio! -

I'm not looking to allow this thread to evolve into a continual rant about the lack of support for the poor radio, in this wonderful vheical, so I'll soon be posting some much more interesting information covering my home location, horn mods & results, future tours and shows and many other nice developments.

That will be much better reading.

However I'll not be letting the radio problem drop, untill I'm satisfied.