Rub Goldberg solution to mounting the seat post on their Scout scooter
I purchased a Spitfire Scout for my wife because of its portability and the 95 approval rating I saw on the website at the time I purchased it. Before I speak about the problems I had with the assemble of the scooter let me say my wife just returned from a trip to AC with our daughter and she said with exception of having a larger turning radius then her Pride Revo scooter she was very happy with it performance. My daughter was able to load the Scout scooter fully assembled into her Town and Country van by simple placing the front wheel lock in the lock position, then placing the freewheel lever in the neutral position, and then lifting the front of the scooter onto the rear of the van. Then she picked up the rear of the scooter and rolled it into the van with the vans rear seats in the down position, she then put the freewheel level in the drive position which prevents the scooter from rolling around in the van while your driving. See pictures of Rub Goldberg design below
Unfortunately it toke a week and a number of phone calls and emails to Technical Support to solve the assemble problems with the scooter. First let me say I have many years of experience assembling just about anything imaginable with out having to contact the technical support department of the company that manufactured the item I am assembling more then once.
My first contact with technical support was on the day I received my scooter to report the battery lock was missing from the box containing the scooter. The technical support representative was very helpful and made arrangements for me to receive the missing battery lock the next day. At that point I commented to my wife about how quickly they responded to my problem.
So when I ran into a problem with mounting the seat post to the base unit I was confident that a call to technical support would solve my problem. Well that was not what happened, the documentation that came with the scooter simple says Insert the seat post into the base of the scooter with the battery lock around the post. Secure tightly with the provided nut and bolt at the desired height. Sounds easy doesnt it, the picture provided shows the head of the bolt on the left side of the base when facing the front of the scooter, that is the only clue you are given as to how to secure the seat post to the base. Well I wont boor you with the details but the bottom line the post is to small for the base or the base is to large for the post so the designers came up with a Rub Goldberg solution to the problem. Unfortunately the technical support representative did not have a clue on how to solve my problem even after I sent him pictures and videos via email of the problem. The technical support rep did not have a scooter to look at to see what the problem was nor did he have any better documentation then I did to see what was causing the problem. Finally after almost a week later he was able to get a scooter out of the warehouse and inform me the picture in the manual was incorrect as how to install the bolt.
I am sure you are saying, if the bolt doesnt go in one way simply turn it around. Unfortunately its not that easy to see what the problem is and if it was why didnt s trained technical support rep tell me to do to solve the problem. Well remember I told you about the seat post mounting mechanism being a Rub Goldberg solution to the problem of trying to put to small a post into too large base without it rattling. Oh thats right why didnt the assembly facility in Vietnam use the correct size post or base. I suspect they made thousands of units this way and had to come out with a cheap fix, fine then tell me how to use your Rub Goldberg fix, or a least let your technical support people know about the problem so if someone calls with the problem they can tell the customer what to do.
Rub Goldberg solution to mounting the seat post on their Scout scooter
I purchased a Spitfire Scout for my wife because of its portability and the 95 approval rating I saw on the website at the time I purchased it. Before I speak about the problems I had with the assemble of the scooter let me say my wife just returned from a trip to AC with our daughter and she said with exception of having a larger turning radius then her Pride Revo scooter she was very happy with it performance. My daughter was able to load the Scout scooter fully assembled into her Town and Country van by simple placing the front wheel lock in the lock position, then placing the freewheel lever in the neutral position, and then lifting the front of the scooter onto the rear of the van. Then she picked up the rear of the scooter and rolled it into the van with the vans rear seats in the down position, she then put the freewheel level in the drive position which prevents the scooter from rolling around in the van while your driving. See pictures of Rub Goldberg design below Unfortunately it toke a week and a number of phone calls and emails to Technical Support to solve the assemble problems with the scooter. First let me say I have many years of experience assembling just about anything imaginable with out having to contact the technical support department of the company that manufactured the item I am assembling more then once. My first contact with technical support was on the day I received my scooter to report the battery lock was missing from the box containing the scooter. The technical support representative was very helpful and made arrangements for me to receive the missing battery lock the next day. At that point I commented to my wife about how quickly they responded to my problem. So when I ran into a problem with mounting the seat post to the base unit I was confident that a call to technical support would solve my problem. Well that was not what happened, the documentation that came with the scooter simple says Insert the seat post into the base of the scooter with the battery lock around the post. Secure tightly with the provided nut and bolt at the desired height. Sounds easy doesnt it, the picture provided shows the head of the bolt on the left side of the base when facing the front of the scooter, that is the only clue you are given as to how to secure the seat post to the base. Well I wont boor you with the details but the bottom line the post is to small for the base or the base is to large for the post so the designers came up with a Rub Goldberg solution to the problem. Unfortunately the technical support representative did not have a clue on how to solve my problem even after I sent him pictures and videos via email of the problem. The technical support rep did not have a scooter to look at to see what the problem was nor did he have any better documentation then I did to see what was causing the problem. Finally after almost a week later he was able to get a scooter out of the warehouse and inform me the picture in the manual was incorrect as how to install the bolt. I am sure you are saying, if the bolt doesnt go in one way simply turn it around. Unfortunately its not that easy to see what the problem is and if it was why didnt s trained technical support rep tell me to do to solve the problem. Well remember I told you about the seat post mounting mechanism being a Rub Goldberg solution to the problem of trying to put to small a post into too large base without it rattling. Oh thats right why didnt the assembly facility in Vietnam use the correct size post or base. I suspect they made thousands of units this way and had to come out with a cheap fix, fine then tell me how to use your Rub Goldberg fix, or a least let your technical support people know about the problem so if someone calls with the problem they can tell the customer what to do.