Stark Drive Reviews 

Am letzten Donnerstag (18.1.2018) ist das Bike bei mir angekommen. Bestellt wurde es im April 2017!! Das Bike macht insgesamt einen guten Eindruck. Die Installation des Vorderrades, Lenkers usw. war mit Hilfe eines Videos recht einfach zu machen. Eine Probefahrt erfolgte am Samstag und es kann gesagt werden: Es macht Spaß damit zu fahren. Wenn nur das reine EBike zu bewerten wäre, hätte ich aktuell 5 Sterne vergeben, wobei natürlich genaueres ein Langzeittest ergeben wird.
Für sehr Schlecht erachte ich die Logistik rund um das Fahrrad. Crowdfunding hin oder her, aber 10 Monate von der Bestellung bis zur Auslieferung sind einfach zu lange. Die Blog-Informationen waren nach meiner Auffassung teilweise "sehr merkwürdig" und ließen mich oft daran Zweifeln, ob ich das Bike jemals erhalten würde. Für die lange Wartezeit und die Informationspolitik somit nur 1 Stern, so dass mir insgesamt 3 Sterne angemessen erscheinen.

Nachdem ich am Donnerstag StarkDrive nur mit einem Stern bewertet habe, weil das Bike nach 10 Monaten und ständigen Vertröstungen nicht bei mir angekommen war, habe ich es am Freitag endlich bekommen! Ich habe es heute zusammengebaut - leider war keinerlei Bauanleitung dabei. Zum Glück hatte ich mir ein Video auf YouTube angeschaut, sonst wär's echt nicht so leicht gewesen. Also: Bedienungsanleitung fehlt völlig! Bike sieht gut aus. Fahren konnte ich noch nicht. Muss erstmal die Batterie laden.
Beim Festmachen des Gepäckträgers bleiben auf der einen Seite einige Millimeter Spiel, sodass der Träger klappert. Muss mir da was überlegen.
Was mich nach wie vor ärgert, ist die Geschäftspolitik der Firma: während ich in den 10 Wochen Wartezeit kaum klare Antworten und viele Hin- und Hers hatte (SD fand eine Zeit lang meine Einzahlungen der Zollgebühr nicht....), hab' ich jetzt schon gestern und heute eine Mail bekommen, ich solle meine schlechte Bewertung revidieren, weil das Rad ja jetzt da ist. Diese direkte Kommunikation hätte ich mir während der 10 Monate gewünscht.
Ob das Bike gut, bewerte ich später, wenn ich's ausprobiert habe. Da müsst ihr jetzt ein bisschen drauf warten.

Today I got my e-bike!
All parts seems to be of high quality.
Easy to assemble.

Good quality, well built and easy to assemble bike. Delays are expected with many Kickstarter and crowd funded projects but I appreciated Oscar keeping us updated and being honest. Great value!

Received an email to pick up my bike from their showroom in central stockholm. Agreed on a day and time, oscar showed up on time and then showered me a very nice looking box that contained my clbike. He was super friendly and gave me some insider info about all the stuff that has happened to get these bikes made. After I got it home assembly was really easy. Thank you for delivering oscar. A bike that was half the cost of the next nearest electric bike for sale here in stockholm. I waited 4.5 months to get it which seems to not be so long compared to some competitors.

I love my new bike!
I had the chance to meet the company and test a pre-production bike last spring, I liked it, and I backed it as soon as I could. the company was always fast in replying to my inquiries and in providing updates, so I was able to follow the whole birthing process of my (heavily customised) bike. sure, it was a long wait, but this is a crowdfunding campaign, not a shop. and the final price (including delivery) is that of an ordinary, non-electric, bike of the same class.
this week I got my bike and today I took it for a ride around the nearby lake and the town. the bike performs very well, it's agile and stable (even on icy ground, to my surprise!), and it is comfortable. the motor is generous and reactive, and makes cycling easy and sweat-free.

TL-DR; highly recommended, both the bike and the company; totally worth the wait; excellent quality/price ratio

Edit 5: We have contacted SD to AT LEAST return the money paid for a shipping they never made. They answered that they "have no record of you ordering a bike with us" Well, we DO. Also, there's credir card statements, and Paypal records! They added that they "have a record of a donation for crowdfunding made for a bike that you did not pay the shipping costs for" ANOTHER LIE. They "decided" that we had "donated" the money even after we complained (and keep on complaining).

That's two bikes we paid for. They send one (changing the agreed method). They never sent the second and decided we have "donated" the money. I'll make sure the world knows what kind of business they run.

Edit 4: Stark Drive claims that my review is dishonest because "shipped your bikes to your local port as per our agreement" and that I refuse to pick it.

However, I can PROVE that THEY unilaterally CHANGED the agreement. The "ship to anywhere in the world" is a LIE. They wanted to charge me EXTRA for shipping, handling, and importing. They sent it to a different city (on purpose). They say they sent me all the documentation? Right, with no explanation prior, during, or after.

Let me ask any potential buyer (if you're still here). Are you IMPORTERS? If you buy something and they promise to deliver home, do you expect that contract to change, you having to become an IMPORTER overnight, and have to pay 150% more in order to claim your product? Do you expect the respectful company to ignore you and just keep your money? Then Stark Drive IS your place.

I can present a dozen emails they simply ignored - and keep on ignoring.

Also, they make no reference to the SECOND bike, which I cancelled (because they cannot deliver), and they simply KEPT THE MONEY.

Edit3: They never contacted me again and simply ignore my requests for a refund. They never refunded my father for his order, even when it was cancelled.

Oh, but they keep trying to take this review down!

Edit2: They keep on ignoring complaints. I've contacted many people in other countries with similar problems regarding delays, lack of response from Stark Drive, problems with the deliveries, etc.

Other backers from my country had the same problem. They were offered a discount on the NEXT purchase if they paid for this one (three times what initially paid for). We all had to abandon cargo.

Edit1: Add to my list of complaints: they don't like being criticised.

"Unfortunately Fernando,
By leaving a very negative review on Trustpilot although we are trying to help you [not true!!!], you have decided that you want to proceed on your own with no more support from our side.
Enjoy Stark Drive
Goodbye 👋"

This is the kind of support you get after dozens of emails with little to no reply.

DON'T BUY FROM THEM. Horrible customer support (if you can call it support). After 7 months, they've changed the terms of purchase by NOT sending it to my city and having me pay huge extras (and I still don't have the bike). All they say is "sorry".

---Original Review --- So far, they have been communicative about the status of the manufacturing/delivery of their first batch of e-bikes. They hit a few snags, but communicated the status of them and are sharing tracking status of boats & containers.
---Updated Review --- Received my bike, the box was damaged by UPS in local delivery, but the bike came out in decent condition. Very impressed with the build and quality of the bike. Customer service has been very responsive in handling the few minor items damaged in delivery. Would definitely buy from them again!!!

Jan 19, 2018: When I first wrote my review here, there were only 3 in total. After my review, suddenly pops so many positive reviews out of nowhere. Why? You probably can figure that out yourself. Instead of having you read my long rambling below, I thought I’d point you to consider the following before making a decision to buy an ebike with them:
1- Read their crowdfunding definition. Your « purchase » is considered a donation. They can fulfil or not the deliverance of your order.
2 - a crowdfunding campaign has an ending period. They don’t as their so call countdown keep resetting.
3 - no comment section by backers. Even if they had one, how reliable is it as there’s no impartiality from a third party platform like Indiegogo or Kickstarter.
4- I find it funny how suddenly so many positive reviews came out after my review was posted on this site.

Aight, that’s all I can help your guns so far for making your decision. I understand $399 is very enticing. I fall for it (times 2 as I ordered two ebikes). Let’s say losing $1,700 CAD for absolutely no reason keeps me coming back to make sure no other makes the same bad decision as I did. Be smart. I wasn’t.

Last update: Dec 29, 2017. I think the chance of getting my refund is quite slim. Their crowdfunding definition as I said in my previous update is how they will get away from not having to fulfil the order after a cancellation request. It's a costly mistake but lesson learned.

Hope my story here will guide and help you make a wise decision to invest in this company. I took the time to write all this mainly to avoid other to make the same mistake. If somehow you think it helped you, let me know by clicking on "useful". Happy holidays despite all. The end.

Update 4: Dec 8, 2017. You wont believe what they've done. They called me today (a courtesey call as they say) not to apologise for their inexistent customer service or explain me what's going but to threaten me they will sue me for diffamation by using some wording on Trustpilot. Wow. What more proof do you want from this then they are really in it for the money. I am undergoing another step which I cannot share with you for now but once completed, I'd gladly share with you all.

For those who didnt click on the word Crowdfunding on their webpage, this is what they wrote: "Any contributions or donations made during our launch campaign are for the purposes of helping launch our company and are therefore not purchases of physical product. Contributions and donations are non-refundable and we endeavor to fulfill any backers’ rewards at the earliest opportunity."...

So that's how they will get away from any responsibilities. Just a reminder there is absolutely no way you can verify anything they post on their blogs. They dont even have a comment section for customers so you get the picture.

Update 3: December 12, 2017 and still haven't seen the credit on my credit card despite proof they've cancelled my order. Will call Visa this week to open a dispute but last time I spoke with a Visa Rep, it appears I'm covered as long as I have proof I haven't receive the product and order beein cancelled.

They try to discredit my review here by saying I'm not even a customer but I sent proof of my order to TrustPilot so I'm looking forward to see what other tricks they'll come up with...

I went back to their website and their so call crowdfunding period is not true as it never expires. I also managed to find online reviews saying the product received is as cheap as cheap can be but it was only limited reviews which for me is not enough to condemn them yet... transparency definitively not something they are strong as they don't have any comment sections allowing customer to write feeebacks which is quite a big warning sign to be careful!

I downgraded my review to 1 star (initially 2 stars) as my experience with them so far been horrible. They keep challenging my review by contesting few wording I use to express how unhappy I am with them but It will not stop me from coming back!

Update 2: looks like posting a review here paid off. They just cancelled my order. Let's see if it will be processed on my c/c. I really don't understand them. All they had to do is answer my inquiries but they rather go with silence treatment. What an experience I will remember for good!

Update 1: it's official, I called my credit card to cancel the transaction. They haven't reply to any of my messages despite the fact I've warn them I'm posting a bad review about them. Silence to me is an admission of guilt. I had so much hope for this company. All their blogs, pictures, stories about how they got screw over by a competitor is highly questionable. I mean I even read articles and YouTube video about it which tells me people don't do any background check on what they are talking about. I just experience what they call fake news! I'm taking the time to write all this as I honestly don't want to see someone else go through what I went though as the amount invested is quite significant!

Original review:
I ordered two bikes (Nov. 16, 2017) two days ago. Couldn't find any bad reviews on the web except for one in TrustPilot but it was in German (didn't think to use Google Translate at the time). They reply to my questions really fast (within 12 hrs) but only to pleasant questions like whether they would give a discount if I purchased more. Once I noticed (the next day) their crowdfunding extension period resetting to 5 days, I got worried. So I ask how come but they never replied to my message. I also didn't get a reply as to the estimate delivery date of my two bikes. I asked for some transparency in my email, no reply again.

For those who didnt take the time to translate the other review (in German), he got his order but said the following:
- It's coming from China with VAT 19% and custom fee of 6%. To this point, they did mention about the fact it was direct shipping from China and taxes were a possibility. They did warn us about it! I'm Canadian so I should expect something similar but to their defense, they were pretty clear about it.
- quality is very cheap. I didn't receive mine but hope it isn't.
- you can't cancel your order. I'm not surprise, it's crowdfunding so you take a risk by doing so.
- they don't reply to unpleasant questions. I agree. It's frustrating. I totally hear you on this one! The German guy also mentioned they delete negative comment on Facebook on the spot. That's how they control their negative comments which is a very bad sign of doing business.
- PayPal can't help. I order using my credit card. Called them up to open an investigation by Visa International. Looks like it won't be necessary anymore (see my update 2)...

I'm hoping for the best (on my two bikes order) but my confidence with them is definivetly shaken. Hope this review will help your decision in investing $500-600 USD per ebike when you add all the fees up. I say wait and see as they seem to reset the period of crowdfunding (it keeps extending indefinitely).

Vincent