Cook1e
Registered user
OK, I kind of hope it's just me having a bit of bad luck and everyone else is absolutely delighted with their £305 quid seats...
After much searching of this and other GS forums, I decided I needed a Sargent seat for my 1150GS. I realised it may not suit me, but I was prepared to drop a few quid and sell it on here second hand if I didn't get on with it.
I ordered from Calamander, the importers on 9th April. On 26th April, I got an email from Calamander advising that my seat had been shipped. It didn't arrive, but I received another email on 30th April informing me that the seat had been shipped to the wrong address.
On 1st May (almost a month after my order), I finally received the seat and fitted it to the bike. I found that 2 of the 4 rivnuts that take the subframe bolts were loose and rotated when I tried to tighten them. A couple of drops of superglue sorted that and I fitted the subframe and mounted the seat.
The fit of the seat to the bike was lousy. At the front, one side fitted snugly to the tank, but the other side had a half inch (1cm) gap. At the back, the seat moved about half an inch each way in the clamp. I also found that I could put my hand between the front of the seat base and the tank and lift the seat by a good couple of inches, because the base was so thin & flexible.
I decided to persevere, as if it was as comfortable as folks on here claim, I may be able to forgive (or more likely fix) the poor fit. So I rode the bike with it on for a couple of days (probably about 50-60 miles. It doesn't fit my arse and I found it less comfortable than the original seat, so it had to go back, as owing to the quality problems I was not prepared to offload it to anyone else.
So I contacted Calamander, with photos showing the problems. The first response was "very surprised, we've sold thousands (!) and no-one's ever complained, it's a proven product blah blah, but we'll contact Sargent and see what they say". I never heard back after this, so I asked for a returns number and sent the seat back on 16th May (delay due to me being away with work).
I insured and tracked the package, as it was made very clear in the returns advice that the seat was my liability until Calamander had signed for the package. They received and signed for it on 17th May. Several emails and 2 phone calls later, I received an email informing me that a refund for the purchase price had been issued yesterday, 28th May (not in my bank yet though!). I emailed and phoned Calamander regarding refund of the return shipping and got a very poor attitude from Sean Williams.
Essentially, he told me that I must have overtightened the frame bolts (I couldn't even tighten them, let alone overtighten!) and that the poor fit must be due to my bike being the wrong shape, with the tank wrongly installed somehow, and no-one else had ever complained and thousands had been sold and I was a very awkward customer and he'd refunded in full despite the seat now being ruined and unsaleable because of 2 drops of glue on the rivnuts and I should be grateful that he had been as lenient as he had and I was completely unreasonable to expect postage refund as it was clear in the T&Cs that it was my liability (and breathe...)
So, crap seat, crap quality, crap service, crap attitude.
Tony Archer here I come. (/end rant)
Just me, or has anyone else had similar?
After much searching of this and other GS forums, I decided I needed a Sargent seat for my 1150GS. I realised it may not suit me, but I was prepared to drop a few quid and sell it on here second hand if I didn't get on with it.
I ordered from Calamander, the importers on 9th April. On 26th April, I got an email from Calamander advising that my seat had been shipped. It didn't arrive, but I received another email on 30th April informing me that the seat had been shipped to the wrong address.
On 1st May (almost a month after my order), I finally received the seat and fitted it to the bike. I found that 2 of the 4 rivnuts that take the subframe bolts were loose and rotated when I tried to tighten them. A couple of drops of superglue sorted that and I fitted the subframe and mounted the seat.
The fit of the seat to the bike was lousy. At the front, one side fitted snugly to the tank, but the other side had a half inch (1cm) gap. At the back, the seat moved about half an inch each way in the clamp. I also found that I could put my hand between the front of the seat base and the tank and lift the seat by a good couple of inches, because the base was so thin & flexible.
I decided to persevere, as if it was as comfortable as folks on here claim, I may be able to forgive (or more likely fix) the poor fit. So I rode the bike with it on for a couple of days (probably about 50-60 miles. It doesn't fit my arse and I found it less comfortable than the original seat, so it had to go back, as owing to the quality problems I was not prepared to offload it to anyone else.
So I contacted Calamander, with photos showing the problems. The first response was "very surprised, we've sold thousands (!) and no-one's ever complained, it's a proven product blah blah, but we'll contact Sargent and see what they say". I never heard back after this, so I asked for a returns number and sent the seat back on 16th May (delay due to me being away with work).
I insured and tracked the package, as it was made very clear in the returns advice that the seat was my liability until Calamander had signed for the package. They received and signed for it on 17th May. Several emails and 2 phone calls later, I received an email informing me that a refund for the purchase price had been issued yesterday, 28th May (not in my bank yet though!). I emailed and phoned Calamander regarding refund of the return shipping and got a very poor attitude from Sean Williams.
Essentially, he told me that I must have overtightened the frame bolts (I couldn't even tighten them, let alone overtighten!) and that the poor fit must be due to my bike being the wrong shape, with the tank wrongly installed somehow, and no-one else had ever complained and thousands had been sold and I was a very awkward customer and he'd refunded in full despite the seat now being ruined and unsaleable because of 2 drops of glue on the rivnuts and I should be grateful that he had been as lenient as he had and I was completely unreasonable to expect postage refund as it was clear in the T&Cs that it was my liability (and breathe...)
So, crap seat, crap quality, crap service, crap attitude.
Tony Archer here I come. (/end rant)Just me, or has anyone else had similar?
, get your Sargent from Nippy's or somewhere else who respect their customers and want repeat business and recommendations.
