donmillerx
XS650 Addict
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Congratulations, 22 months for me and still waiting...
Hey everyone, my 1st post here
Previous to joining the board i have been in contact with some of the other board members who have posted on this thread...
they directed me to this thread and i figured that i should chime in to give my experience with Rich and G&L Choppers
In a word, i has been an absolute NIGHTMARE.
I will try and keep things short here as some of you may or may not want to read my entire diatribe/sad story. But for those of you who do i will be putting up a blog/website shorty detailing the entire process that i went through with Rich (to serve as a warning to those doing research prior to getting a bike built by him).
I dropped my donor bike off to Rich approx 20 months ago.
Rich as super helpful and returned emails/calls within 24-48 hours in the planning stages of my bike (this was prior to him getting my money). Then he got my deposit (1/2 the build cost) and my donor bike and everything went to hell.
Initially, i went weeks without hearing from him. Then my build/finish date came and went and weeks changed to months. Despite daily calls, voicemails and emails Rich did not get in contact with me. Rich gave me absolutely no indication of what the hell was going on during this time.
Every few months or so i would finally get a response that would include some sort of excuse (ranging from personal health issues, family health issues, issues at the shop, issues with employees, issues with his shop truck, etc.) and the promise that my bike would be done "soon". Then he would drop off the face of the earth and i would not hear back from him for months on end.
I asked for progress pics of my bike multiple time and got nothing. I even went as far to get in contact with a former employee (who is still in contact with him from time to time) to attempt to get a message to Rich for me...still nothing. Assuming that my bike was not going to get built i attempted to give Rich an out, i told him to just keep my bike (i would send him the title) and to refund me my money. Once he finally responded, he assured me that i would get my bike and that it was almost done. Then he dropped off the face of the earth again.
At about the 16 month mark (yeah it took that long) i began talking with my insurance company. Given that i had given him the bike and had a contract/build agreement and Rich had not honoured (with a build time of over 16 months) and we was no longer responding to my emails/calls i could report the bike stolen (file a claim and report it stolen to the police), as well...it seemed that Rich had stolen my bike and my money at that point. I called and emailed him and let me know that i was done with the situation and that i was reporting the bike stolen and that he could deal with the police and the insurance company.
Magically he returned my call that night.
My bike was done 2 months later.
After dealing with a nightmare of a shipping situation (that Rich was partly responsible for) i got the bike home. I will give credit where credit is due. The bike is beautiful. Rich is an amazing builder/fabricator.
However....
The bike is missing parts (that i paid for). Additionally, the bike shipped with the wrong seat and handlebars. I paid a large sum of money for a custom bike and Rich could not be bothered to build it with the correct handlebars and seat.
And to top it all off the bike does not run! Yep, you heard me right...I got it started once. Got it out for one ride. On the second ride the engine died and i have not been able to get it started again (it is waiting to head over to my local yamaha shop).
So after 18 long months i thought the saga was over...
Oh how wrong i was. I have a bike that is missing parts, has incorrect parts (form what i ordered) on it, and (most importantly) that does not RUN!
Over the last 2 months i have been fighting with Rich to ship me the missing parts as well as replacement parts (for the incorrect parts he put on the bike). But since informing him (via email) that the bike is not running, he has gone silent once more...
I will say this...
Again, the bike itself is beautiful. Rich is an amazing builder/fabricator.
But he is a horrible business man and is simply not honest/up front with his customers.
i would NOT recommend that anyone get ANY work/projects done by him.
He was telling me he was building a bike for someone in Manitoba. I had mine sent down to have hardtailed and I seriously thought the man had ripped me off. He's a sweet talker for sure and soon as he got my money, POOF he was gone!! All the excuses got friggen sickining I must say. He finally called and said it was done and shipped it and was stuck at the F*&^ing border cause he shipped it wrong and try to get him to get the paper work straightened out ws unfriggen real!! What part of Man r u , i'm over here in sask.
Congratulations, 22 months for me and still waiting...
After 22 months i think i would invest (at a minimum) another $99.00 for a bus ticket and iron this crap out in person. But thats just me.
I dont understand how people can function with a clear consience after doing peps raw like that.
Where is this douche nozzle located ? I thankfully have not heard of him outside of this thread.
He is in Colorado somewhere. I did some research on the G&L before I deciding to go with them for a hardtail and didn't actually find much negative feedback (that was before this thread). I remember a specific convo with my buddy after not hearing back from Rich and i said something like 'im not worried yet, if he screwed someone out of his money, the guys on the internet would have warning threads everywhere. I guess this is now that thread...
The final thorn in my side, is my Fiance who keeps saying to me every time I cant start the bike, "I can't believe you paid that much money for a motorcycle that doesn't even run". Words don't describe how pissed I get when I hear that.