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-   -   My BionX Experience (https://www.bikeforums.net/electric-bikes/860778-my-bionx-experience.html)

Crispus 12-03-12 04:10 PM

My BionX Experience
 
Wow. I'm under-enthused with customer service. Battery related issues..

I sensed that the communication between their phone person, their technician, and the supervisor making decisions, was lame.

Early on, the contact person at BionX told me I was recharging the battery correctly. But later, he told the bicycle shop I wasn't. The same person told us to deplete the battery using the red throttle button, so as to save time in our effort to fix the problem, then the technician talked as if that was damaging to the system.

I spent $1200.00 dollars on that system and bought a $400 dollar bicycle to put it on.

Anyone hear have similar experiences?

Crispus

Crispus 12-03-12 04:23 PM

My electric bike is a dud.
 
Anyone here have experience with what they call customer service?

Crispus

windhchaser 12-03-12 04:30 PM

I thought about buying one with a bad battery and make my own out of old laptops batt

350htrr 12-03-12 04:32 PM

WOW, that sucks, I would ask the dealer how much they would charge for the $200 refurbished battery and go from there...

Crispus 12-03-12 04:36 PM

Oh, the dealer told me he'd just give it to me at cost.

Crispus 12-03-12 04:41 PM

Before all this happened to me, I searched online for other people's experiences. Someone posted that the battery on a BionX actually has electronic components inside that are hard to duplicate. This prevents, they thought, other companies from making batteries one can put on a BionX.

350htrr 12-03-12 05:03 PM

Yea, but now if you want to sell it without a battery it will be that much harder, and you would make back the extra you spend on the battery, in theory... JMO

ThermionicScott 12-03-12 05:05 PM

So why the thread here?

PhotoJoe 12-03-12 05:28 PM

Moved from General to Electric Bikes and merged the two together.

powell 12-03-12 06:54 PM

tell me what your Bionx battery warranty states in document which you got with kit?
my guess is battery electronics /inside battery/ need resetting, .
there must be processor microcontroller most probably PIC type
disconnecting 5V supply to it will reset it.
those 30 charges you mentioned were normal or any abnormallity??
SOC meter showed full charge when battery was full?
of course every BIONX will not power up on just any 36V battery.
battery electronics need to make "handshake" with motor and display on every power up.
Bionx is not analog system. It is similar to Eplus.

FMB42 12-04-12 11:04 AM

You may want to consider Powell's advice. I know that spending another $80 is probably pretty difficult for you to accept right now, but it might still be worth the risk. You might even, if worse comes to worse, get a much better offer for the system "as is" if it includes the original battery.

I just don't think you'll get much for a battery-less Bionx system on the used market (due to their "proprietary" battery design). This may give you reason to consider paying the $200 (@ dealer cost) so that you might sell it as a working system. You should first, of course, determine how much money you might get for your used Bx system (both working and non-working).


Below are some links that you might want to look through (you probably have already seen these, but I figured I'd post them just in case):

http://www.nycewheels.com/bionx-diagnostic-mode.html

http://www.nycewheels.com/bionx-diag...ery-gauge.html

http://www.nycewheels.com/bionx-batt...-charging.html

CaliforniaEbike 12-11-12 08:47 PM

Crispus, you have a fairly classic problem. Anybody trying to promote ebikes has to go the extra mile and reach out to help the customer as much as they can. The batteries are the Achilles's heal of the ebike business in many ways. If you abused the battery it should be rather obvious.
I believe that this industry needs much more documentation and much better dealer training because most problems should be handled on the local level. Shipping batteries back to the factory nowadays is a very costly problem and I'm sure stories like yours will discourage others from venturing into the wonderful world of ebiking. I do hope you will find a solution and wish you the best because ebiking is so much fun and beats the hell out of drive a gas guzzler.

Crispus 12-19-12 04:55 PM

When I purchased my BionX system, I thought it odd there was no registration card, as is standard with every purchase nowadays. As in warranty registration. Which also serves as a way for them to contact customers about recalls, issues, etc. There just was none!

350htrr 12-31-12 11:32 AM

I just had a thought, When i was charging my battery in my house it worked perfectly then I decided to start charging the battery in my shed on the bike and just happened to notice when walking by, that the system was turning off and on, not like in my house where it started to charge and finished the charge never turning off until fully charged... I decided to check the outlet with a tester and it showed an open neutral if I remember right, (could have been open ground) for that outlet... I think that maybe the charging system is fairly sophisticated and it didn't like the open neutral circuit (or open ground) thus, didn't charge the battery properly. I re-did the wiring to that outlet and now, everything works as it's supposed to... You should check your outlet you used, just to be sure that wasn't the problem, as everything that I used in that outlet before, worked just fine except for the BionX charger... ;)

EDIT; As for that battery you sent them did they say it checked out and was OK but you just need to send them 80$ for shipping to get it back because they found nothing wrong thus no warranty? Or was the battery totally F'd and it was 80$ to get it back if you wanted it? If so I would have just went with the 200$ offer of the reconditioned battery...

powell 12-31-12 03:09 PM

Crispus
Are you sure
Why do you pay not making sure you don't have written info on warranty, namely warranty card?
Every BIONX dealer should follow some procedure, your dealer kind off messed up?

Crispus 01-07-13 05:55 PM

350htrr: thanks for the good theory. I'll try to get my electrician friend to check the outlet.

Powell: the absence of a warranty card wasn't the dealer's fault as far as I can tell. Such cards are usually included with the paperwork for a product. I seemed to have that paperwork; manual, etc. But, you could be on to something. Kinda moot now, though.

Crispus 01-07-13 06:01 PM

BTW everyone, BionX may finally be addressing the issue and communication may have improved. I'll let ya know as time goes on.

Crispus 01-14-13 04:47 PM

They finally got their act together. Personally, I wouldn't buy stock in the company until they revamp their customer service dept; redo the manual, etc.

Burton 02-19-13 07:46 PM

Intetesting - I sell those bikes and they have the most sophisticated computer driven diognostics system on the market - aside from having battery packs provided by some of the top Japanese companies and assembled in Canada. Don't know what the issue is but have never heard a story quite like that before.

Considering that they were bought out by one of the largest auto parts manufacturers a few years back and currenty have contracts to supply e-bikes to Mercedes Benz dealers - you might wanna reconsider your stand on stock options.

Crispus 02-25-13 05:22 PM

mmm, maybe
yes, the electronics are cutting edge, but the lithium battery seems to need some babying, and I think the manual should give more info and tips on keeping the battery in good shape. I may just keep the system, now that I've cooled off. However, I can't see myself riding it in the heat of the summer, nor the cold of the winter. I'm avoiding the red throttle button, also. And, if I go 1-3 months without riding, I'm charging the battery every 4-6 weeks, just to keep it from self-depleting.


Again, the manual should, in my opinion, have lots more info on the strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics of these lithium batteries. Even if a few prospective buyers were frightened off by the info, other folks would appreciate the company's honesty and become confident in buying a system.

350htrr 02-25-13 06:29 PM

I agree that they should have a bit more info on how to keep the battery safe. I probably would have just kept it in the shed all winter on the bike, if I wouldn't have been on here and read about some of the problems with the battery running down ALL BY IT'S SELF, because of it's self testing and computer still on when the bike is not on... I had to re-charge the battery 2X so far this winter and I haven't ridden the bike since November... :eek:

EDIT; OK, I re-read the owners manual, and it does say, re-charge the battery at a minimum of every 3 months when storing for the winter... It's in BOLD LETTERS but, I think it should be in BIG BOLD LETTERS as it's very important... JMO $ 900 per battery is a big ouch if you F' up and treat it as a "normal" battery... :twitchy:

Burton 02-26-13 02:13 AM

Guys - not to be difficult - but if you left a CAR with a standard lead acid battery parked and unused for 30 days or more the chances of it ending up with a dead battery are also almost 100%. An alarm system and even just the clock will simply drain the battery. And there's a natural loss in charge anyway. An e-bike isn't much different and you NEED TO READ THE MANUALS!

On the chance that your dealer wasn't as through as possible in his familiarization explanations, check out the available pdf downloads on the Bionx site, contact them directly, (http://www.bionxinternational.com/na...ice/downloads/) or feel free to drop me an email. Can't promise to solve all your problems, and you should already have a service source, but I'm a certified Bionx tech and will do my best to point you to the right people or get you the right info.

350htrr 02-26-13 06:46 PM


Originally Posted by Burton (Post 15317818)
Guys - not to be difficult - but if you left a CAR with a standard lead acid battery parked and unused for 30 days or more the chances of it ending up with a dead battery are also almost 100%. An alarm system and even just the clock will simply drain the battery. And there's a natural loss in charge anyway. An e-bike isn't much different and you NEED TO READ THE MANUALS!

On the chance that your dealer wasn't as through as possible in his familiarization explanations, check out the available pdf downloads on the Bionx site, contact them directly, (http://www.bionxinternational.com/na...ice/downloads/) or feel free to drop me an email. Can't promise to solve all your problems, and you should already have a service source, but I'm a certified Bionx tech and will do my best to point you to the right people or get you the right info.

OH, I Don't think so... While I agree with reading the manual statement, I can assure you that car/truck batteries are much different, and usually no power drain when key is turned off, basically NO maintenance as long as the alternator is doing it's job... I have parked my truck for the winter for 40+ years, it can sit there for 5+ months never going anywhere, never starting it, then in the spring I walk up to it and turn the key and wroom off it goes, usually starts like it did the day I left it... Now sometimes I do have to crank it 2X before it actually keeps running, but that's it... 5 +months of as cold as -20 to -35*C and no problem... :thumb:

EDIT; And oh yea,they are about $200 for a real good one (battery)... WTF with this $900 or so for a BionX battery? :twitchy:

Burton 02-27-13 12:13 AM


Originally Posted by 350htrr (Post 15320732)
OH, I Don't think so... While I agree with reading the manual statement, I can assure you that car/truck batteries are much different, and usually no power drain when key is turned off, basically NO maintenance as long as the alternator is doing it's job... I have parked my truck for the winter for 40+ years, it can sit there for 5+ months never going anywhere, never starting it, then in the spring I walk up to it and turn the key and wroom off it goes, usually starts like it did the day I left it... Now sometimes I do have to crank it 2X before it actually keeps running, but that's it... 5 +months of as cold as -20 to -35*C and no problem... :thumb:

EDIT; And oh yea,they are about $200 for a real good one (battery)... WTF with this $900 or so for a BionX battery? :twitchy:

I think you should log your story with Guinniss World Records -seriously! They may laugh at you but its worth a shot!


If you are going to have a battery in storage for months at a time in a car, disconnect it from the car, it will reduce the discharge. Or, periodically charge the battery, maybe once every 2 to 4 weeks. If you have it in storage disconnected from the car, a charge every month or two will help keep the self discharge from draining the battery. You may also look for regulated trickle chargers that are designed for this type of application. Thanks to a former auto company engineer for this tip.
http://www.autotips.com/battstor.htm

350htrr 02-27-13 09:47 AM


Originally Posted by Burton (Post 15321879)
I think you should log your story with Guinniss World Records -seriously! They may laugh at you but its worth a shot!

There has to be some people who left a tractor or some piece of equipment out in a field somewhere maybe a whole year... Went out there one day and it started, that would make my 5 months seem pretty sorry as a Guinness record applicant. :innocent:

EDIT; I just went and tested my 4 boat batteries I have for my electric motor on my boat... they all were charged up to the same level before I put them away for the winter 4+ months ago 12.8v to 12.9v. Two of them are 4 years old and the other two are 1 year old, they showed 12.8v, 12.7v, 12.6v, 12.6v. I believe that 12.6v is considered fully charged and would bet that any one of them would start my truck if I hooked it up... ;)


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