Buying a Multicharger

Previously we've written about our desire to buy an alternative family bike to complement our cargo bike. We have now ordered and received our new bike. This post will explain what it is like for someone to buy a Riese & Müller (R&M) bike. It will help others set their expectations, and may even be used as feedback for R&M.

On 8 August 2023, we placed an order for a R&M Multicharger and started the waiting game. We paid our deposit to our retailer (for the record: not Electric Bike Team, as written about earlier in our test ride post), and were given an expected production date of Calendar Week (CW) 35. By the end of August (or, CW 35), we didn't hear a peep. We had no tracking information, zilch. We emailed the retailer, and received a response stating the bike production date was delayed until CW 46. This was an extreme delay, and we were beyond disappointed.

We were disappointed so much, that, we had actually advised the retailer we were wanted to cancel– which we thought was fair because no bike had been built. Our trust was shattered, and the decision matrix shifted in favour of other options. Our retailer asked for an opportunity to remedy the issue, and they (jointly with R&M), split the costs on expediting our sea-freight to air-freight. This drastically changed the shipment time from 12-weeks, to two weeks. We really appreciated this as this change effectively eliminated the impact of the production delays.

Around about the time we were expecting the bike to be produced, we followed up again with the retailer regarding its status, and finally managed to get a tracking number. This was around about mid-November. Unfortunately, this little win also hit us with more bad news: there was a further 3-week delay, pushing production dates to early December. We sucked it up, because the airfreight had already been sorted, the bike could still be delivered for summer in-line with our original expectations.

Finally we reached December, the bike was delayed a further week which we learned via the production status checker. At the end of this delayed week, the production status tracker remained unchanged. Our bike just entered limbo. It was coming up to Christmas shut-downs, we didn't know if the bike had boarded a plane or was accidentally delegated to a ship. Neither did our NZ-based retailer, who I think was also becoming extremely nervous, and feeling a bit stuck in the middle.

Just three days out from the NZ Christmas holiday shut-down, our retailer received an invoice from customs. The bike was in Auckland and the freight forwarder needed a duties invoice paid by the retailer, which we were lead to believe was done. We thought the bike was extremely close, so enquired regularly with the retailer. Unfortunately, we still had no tracking information.

Early in January, after some back and forth, Sam managed to get the tracking number from the retailer. It was also revealed that there had been some delay in paying the customs invoice. This new information confirmed our bike was being held in customs. Sam managed to, via phone, get a hold of the shipping company herself on January 8th where they identified our bike and shipped it out almost straight away.

We received the bike on January 10, 2024. We waited almost 5 months to the day from placing the order.

We plan to do another post reviewing the bike after we have ridden it for some time and how it compares to the Load75 for family use.