Anyone having problems buying parts or maintenance services from Segway?
 

We run a Segway Tours company in Riviera Maya, México. We already have 33 machines, al X2 model, including three of the very last model.

Since we bought our first 7 units it has been really difficult to have a proper maintenance service provided by the dealer in México. We have had issues like new machines not working that had to be sent back to the US and for even more than 6 months we couldn’t have them back. It is true that most of the times we have borrowed machines from them but it doesn’t sound very logical that so frequently this machines don’t work when you recive them.

None of these last three new machines worked so, in the middle of the high season, and when we wanted to start another tour, we have had to delay it.

The dealer has told us that it’s not easy for them to get the parts from Segway in the US.

What’s your experience in the US when you need parts or when one of your machines do not work? Do you have any official maintenance service? To be honest it is quite surprising that Segway doesn’t have solved this in México, a country with a tremendous potential to buy their machines.

Thanks for your comments.

Here we have a Segway customer with 33 machines, who can't seem to get the time of day from INC. Service has always been sub-par, but if production quality control has become this bad, it will be the kiss of death for Segway.

However, the times I have visited the production facility, every Transporter is driven directly off the line and into a short drive test. If this is still the case, one has to wonder how these machines are going from "functional" to "not working", somewhere between the factory and delivery in Mexico.

It's not unusual for repairs in the US to take 3 months or so. I think six months is a lot, but honestly if Mexico doesn't have its own service center, it doesn't really surprise me.


Repairs here take so long that at one point, I half-jokingly stated that I would be better off shipping it to Germany.

I do not doubt that some have had long waits and problems with segway service. I believe people when they say they have.

And I have had my machines in the factory for service only twice, once to repair some FOD damage I caused, and the other to upgrade the software at the time of the recall in 2006.

I also have an advantage of being 40 miles from the factory, so I drove them in, and transportation was not an issue.

But, I had great and timely service. The repair was quick (A week from drop off to pick up, I believe, maybe less) and the recall upgrades were timely as well.

Other software upgrades I did at dealers, and were as simple as make an appointment, show up, have it done, and glide away.

So, while I know slow service is annoying, and venting on this site is common, I felt that I did not hear enough of the ones that went right. I believe it is human nature to fixate on the fault, and the one that went wrong, but my experience is that most often when life goes well, we tend to forget the effort taken to make that so.

So, while I believe there surely could and should be improvements in their service organization, I also believe that there is also much that is right with it, and they have served me well.